23rd of November 2038
New York
Broadway districts
1100 hrs
Fighting in an open infected city to me is much easier than zone services. Being even close to the zone means a lot of work. When I and my squad were working near zone 6, we were responsible for the main convoys of important research items or documents coming out of our people inside the zone itself. That meant we’d enter the zone to rescue someone or retrieve a vital item then get outside again. To me, being inside a zone is fun. You get some better practice on shooting, you always find good spots to snipe, and you get to make your name among your colleagues in Phoenix. The worst part is…when you get outside of the zone. They keep you inside a field clinic and run several blood tests on you. You also have to do a lot of paperwork at the field command center in order to assign for the next operation. Tenpenny and Daniel always beg me to do their own paperwork. “You saw what we saw anyways.” That was what they always said after every zone operation. But I don’t mind…As long as I get more zone assignments.
In case you don’t know what a zone is, here’s the meaning. Some sections of the world are too dangerous to infiltrate by force. They’re also too dangerous to be left open to civilians. So the United Nations quarantined those sections. They build a huge wall around the place and lock it down. Nobody goes in or out unless there is something very interesting inside a zone. Are there survivors inside the zones? Yes, actually so many survivors live within the walls of zones. The authorities leave the destiny of the survivors to their will because it’s too risky to enter the zone and rescue them. So…the ugly truth behind the zones is…either survivors make it to clean the zone from zombies, or zombies take over the city completely.
Zones are being monitored by satellites for survivor activity though. But the monitoring is just made to investigate the situation inside. They report about the situation inside each zone every week. And according to the zone protocols, there are three codes…three operations marked by three colors. Each operation takes place in a different situation. The zone security protocols are followed by every army and every PMC (private military contractor) around the globe. So when one of the codes is a go, each official carrying a weapon follows the protocols of the code.
The first code, which is the common one, is code black. Code black notes that there is still a survivor resistance in the zone which means we abandon the zones and never interfere with the fight between survivors and the zombies unless there is a reconnaissance mission inside. The regular things we do, the paperwork, the procedures of rescuing someone or something, how we deal with zone inhabitants, are basically code black protocols.
The second code is code Green, which means that the zombie activity has been reduced in the zone to less than 10% of the total life activity. In this case, the protocols note immediate and organized invasion of the whole zone. The infected are to be shot on sight and survivors are to be evacuated immediately from the zone. The zone would be no longer a zone and it re-joins the open cities. But no civilians are allowed to enter the zone as long as code green is a go until the military takes complete control of the zone and lifts off the lockdown.
Last but not least, Code red. You’d rather kiss a zombie than being in a zone with code red applied. Code red means that the zone has been overwhelmed by zombies and that the survivor activity is less than 1%. And in this case, the protocols authorize a nuclear strike on the zone; destroying it completely. That would avenge the survivors and get rid of the zombies once and for all.
How many zones are there in the world? The number varies with time. At first, there were 86 zones around the world. Only nine of them got under code green. And twenty seven of them got under code red and were wiped off the face of the earth. That leaves fifty zones left under code black. And who knows? One of the open cities might experience a heavy infection rate that would force the authorities to get that city under code black and turn it into a new zone. Numbers are important for the public but for us, Phoenix and other PMCs, are just numbers. What matters to the authorities is to secure the outskirts of every zone so as not to unleash their zombies in the open.
Some other zones are about to decide their own fate. Zone 22 which is Las Vegas is about to join the code green group. Survivors there are well-equipped with weapons and ammunition. That’s in addition to the forts they built inside the city Casinos. Lots of organized attacks take place to wipe out the infection; building after building. The situation there doesn’t need help from PMCs or any US army divisions.
On the other hand, in another place of the world, Zone 4 is a nightmare. Zone 4 is actually the city of Mumbai in India. Due to the very high population in the city before the rising, the infection spread real fast. There, you can test your marksmanship. But in the end you’ll turn anyway because the number of zombies is much bigger than the number of your bullets. And the hordes are larger. So if you’re there and you hear a horde, kill as many as you can from a safe distance then turn tail and run. A regular horde attack usually includes about 200 to 300 zombies. But in zone 4, hordes are estimated to include from 4000 to 5000 zombies at a time. That large number pushes zone 4 to the region of code red. Every day, the zone loses a lot of survivors. PMCs, in cooperation with the Russian army, try to do their best to save the situation in zone 4. But all goes in vain. Nobody risks launching a full-scale invasion on the zone. That’s in addition to the lack of military strength of the PMCs there.
Post-rising PMCs have different objectives. Some of them are concerned with providing supplies for survivors inside and outside the zones like “Charlie Davidson Corporation”. Others are just concerned with bombing runs on infected areas like “Drake”. Others are only responsible for securing hospitals that are within the infected areas like “Guardians Corporation”. As for us, Phoenix, we are mostly concerned about securing zombie territories. But David Phoenix, the owner of Phoenix PMC Corporation, is putting some of his company’s efforts in research about the Kessler Virus that caused the infection from the very beginning. He sends out reporters, researchers, and genetics scientists to infected areas to gather as much information as possible about the virus. The reconnaissance sector of the company is the original sector I work in. I am supposed to be sent on missions to recover tech or chemical formulas that may help with fighting the Kessler virus.
I was inside the office of the base’s commander; waiting for him to show up. He is actually the chief of staff of the New York campaign. Lewis Davids was his name.
“Where the hell is that guy?” Tenpenny said.
“Patience!! He’s on his way. He’s in charge of all this mess so give him his time.” Daniel said.
“God be with him. The situation is not going very well. I mean, the daily casualty rate is not making anyone optimistic. Phoenix is losing a lot of men here.” I said.
“Yeah, take our last mission for example. We lost seven men for a single subway station. That’s in addition to Dennis whose services are not needed anymore.” Daniel added.
I heard the sound of the door opening. Then came Commander Lewis; with a worrying look on his face. He looked at me and gave me a fake smile then went to sit on his chair.
“Good morning, Lieutenant Corbin. Congratulations on the success of your mission.” Lewis said.
“I don’t call that a success, sir.” I replied.
“I agree with you completely. But to the public, re-taking this subway station specifically will give them a lot of hope. It’s important for us to show the people that we have thousands of people like Harvey Davis.” Lewis said.
“With all due respect, sir, Phoenix has a lot of things to do rather than retake a subway station for the sake of restoring the morale of the people. That’s the role of the press and the media.” Tenpenny said.
“Sergeant Tenpenny, I’m glad you said that. Because I’m about to tell you something that will really serve Phoenix’s cause. Are you ready to hear it?” Lewis said.
Daniel, Tenpenny, and I looked at each other in worries but we kept silent; allowing Commander Lewis to go on.He opened his desk and got out some documents then looked silently at them for a while.
“Gentlemen, what I am about to tell you is top secret information. The United Nations doesn’t know about this nor the US army does…Phoenix has been contacting some undercover Phoenix agents operating in Zone 15. Lately, they’ve been sending some weird reports about some kind of ‘Evolution’ happening to the infected there. They suspect that the people who launched the virus from the very beginning are also behind this evolution. Anyways, those agents have been compromised by some unknown force and got cut off from the rest of Phoenix network. You are to be sent there for a ‘Search and Rescue’ mission. Rescue them, and all the documents they have, then get them out of Zone 15 ASAP.” Lewis said.
“Cool!! A zone mission after all. I’m impressed…Phoenix is making a progress in this world.” Tenpenny said.
“So you’re saying we’re transferred out of this section?” Daniel asked.
“That’s right, Sergeant Daniel. You’re not going alone though. There’s another person who’s going to join you in your mission. And I prefer you meet him in person rather than telling you who he is.” Lewis said.
“You’re surprising us, I presume?” I said.
“You can say that.” Lewis replied.
“One more question, sir. Where exactly is zone 15?” Tenpenny said.
“Cairo.” Daniel replied.
“OOOOO!! That’s one nasty Zone according to what I hear.” Tenpenny said.
“Exactly, I’m not saying that your mission is going to be easy. Cairo’s environment is really tough; most streets are narrow and serve the cause of the zombies. If you get caught in one of those narrow streets, you’re dead. In addition to that, there’s a high probability that you may encounter armed men. That’s why Phoenix has chosen you, guys, regarding that you saw action before the rising.” Lewis said.
Yes, I used to kill people before. So did Tenpenny and Daniel. I was a field logistics officer in the US marine corpsmen. And I fought a couple of battles in the Caribbean war. It was a war against a rebel movement in Cuba and Trinidad that was a pain in Uncle Sam’s ass. So I did my part and retired a couple of years before the rising. I didn’t intend to fight any more wars. But what happened during the rising changed my plans for my peaceful future.
I was living in Florida when the rising took place. It all happened too fast. But I could never forget that day. A missile came from the sky and hit Downtown. Firemen and cops started rolling there to control the situation but all of a sudden, people started cramping on the ground and screaming; the voices of a million men screaming the aches out, welcoming the darkest of futures,Foreseeing the true holocaust of humanity. It was that damn biochemical weapon that was driving them crazy. There’s only one word to describe what I saw back there in Florida…Cannibalism.
That day, I lost my wife and son. My wife got her torso torn to pieces by her own son. I could remember myself; standing there…looking at the most horrible scene a family man could ever see. What could a father do? Avenge the death of his wife from his own son? Or leave himself to the virus; hoping that it’d make him forget everything? Again, life provides too few choices. Shit happens because it’s life – Not the rising. I chose to smash my son’s head with a sledgehammer…Don’t ask me how it felt…I was already numb.
Tenpenny was in the NATO forces. And he was still working with them when the rising took place. Then he retired from the NATO and enlisted in Phoenix for the sake of more fun and more money. “The NATO, in comparison with Phoenix, Is a cake walk.” That’s what he always said about his history with the NATO. He witnessed a lot of peace keeping in Eastern Europe; Croatia, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, and even Russia. Tenpenny shows his strength day by day.
As for Daniel, he was the one who saw the least fights. He was in the SWAT forces of the NYPD before the rising. And he witnessed the first resistance of zombies in New York. He told me once that he fought side by side with Harvey Davis and his survivors. But when it gets to shooting a man with a gun, he’s not as skilled as Tenpenny and Me.
“That’s all what I have for you, gentlemen. You can have this folder. It contains all the basic information that you’ll need for the mission. You should meet your companion in an hour. So pack your stuff and get ready to meet the guy. After that, a chopper will take you to the airport. You’ll fly in a C-130 that belongs to the US air force. So I recommend you don’t speak about the mission on your way. Keep a low profile until you reach our Phoenix base in Matrouh.” Lewis said.
“We have a base in Egypt? I didn’t know that.” I said.
“That base was recently established after the new contract we had with several clients. They want us there to regain some zombie territories. So if anyone asks you there about your mission, it’s logistics for the base. And don’t speak much until you reach zone 15.” Lewis said.
“Consider it done, sir.” Tenpenny said.
“You’re dismissed.” Lewis said.
As soon as I got out of the office, I opened the folder and took a look in it. Here was what’s in it:
----------------------------------------CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION-------------------------------------------
Phoenix military contractor company
Reconnaissance sector
47th division
Lieutenant Corbin Doe,
Due to your remarkable reputation of your work in Phoenix, we are trusting that you would not fail us in this mission.
We are going to send you to zone 15 to rescue another reconnaissance team along with several scientists who were on an information retrieval mission. The situation in zone 15 is developing in a strange way which means that zone 15 is taking a very high priority to our interest. There might be some valuable information inside that would help us – and therefore humanity- to pass through the days of the rising.
Along with this letter, you’ll find some satellite photos of the zone, a copy of the last report we received from Delta five (the lost squad), and a paper containing the names of the squad members and their ranks. And to show our signs of gratitude for your efforts in the New York campaign, Phoenix has decided to give you a promotion from Lieutenant to Captain. You should as well find the strips within the folder of the mission.
God speed, Captain!!
David Phoenix
CEO of Phoenix PMC Inc.
Wow, so I have finally become a captain. Whatever!! That doesn’t end my pain nor change the cannibalistic world we live in. What was making me satisfied is finally getting a job inside a zone. And it looks like my mission is going to change a lot of things.
Back at the barracks, I started to pack my gear; my rifle, my shotgun, my pistol, my Remington final bullet, my Bayonet, and my bullet-proof vest. It’s funny when you get to think of yourself as a savior of the people when you carry things that kill people. Regarding that thought, the public opinion is divided when it gets to talking about zombies. Some people consider them just wild animals that should be treated with bullets. But others just consider them as animals that should be kept away from the uninfected society. There is a charity that’s called “Zombie rights” which puts all its efforts in protecting the zombies from dying out. Most of the members of the zombie rights charity are high class people who didn’t even experience a single zombie horde. So they talk from their empty point of view. The truth is…we, humans, are the ones dying out in this age. And it’s all because of our own loose technology.
Chapter Six
Matrouh, Egypt
Phoenix troop deployment base
2200 hrs
I could see the shores of Egypt from the window of the plane as we approached our destination. Zombie activity didn't seem so high but the shores were abandoned for some reason. Maybe there was no time or interest for the governments to claim it back. Tenpenny and Daniel woke up like five minutes ago. They started having booze to get back into fully functioning. I turned back from the window and gathered them at the table in the middle of the plane.
"Alright, Tenpenny, Daniel, and Marcus, I have orders from command to lead this mission. And I don't know why they chose me rather than choosing Marcus. But rules are rules. We're going to face new things down there. We'll face regular zombies and strange ones…Some kind of creatures that are called super-zombies. According to the documents I had, too, I reckon we might encounter armed humans. So be careful, remember the old warfare rules, and don't wander alone anywhere. I don't want casualties in this mission. We cannot afford any because we're only four people.
"This is a search and rescue mission. We're looking for a captured Phoenix squad who were sent for reconnaissance inside the zone. Somehow they got captured by some armed party whom I think are behind the whole rising issue or at least involved with it. The mission will take long. I guess we're going to stay in there for a week or more. Are there any questions?" I said.
"What exactly are super-zombies?" Daniel asked.
"We don't know, yet. But I'm expecting freaks of nature…people who look like they're walking out of an old Frankenstein movie. We still don't know how they behave or how to kill them. We even don't know what changes them from zombies to super zombies. We'll know enough as soon as we reach the zone. One of the lost squad members is safe. He's holing up in one of the survivor settlements. We're gonna be dropped there, first." I replied.
I showed them the map and the photos. Everyone was focused. Tenpenny and Daniel knew when to focus and when to hibernate. "As long as that squad member is secured, why in the world would we drop ourselves there and away from our main target?" Tenpenny asked.
"He's not just a regular soldier. He's a phoenix doctor who studies zombie behavior. He's continuing his research on the behavior of the super-zombies over there. Besides, if you look at the date of the last report, it's not updated. We have to go there first to update command with the news and secure whatever documents and files he has. We also need to confirm that he's alive... That's Standard Phoenix protocols." I replied.
"Fuck protocols, dude. That's a fucking long way ahead of us to talk. And I reckon it's not going to be a cake walk at all. We're dead meat if we reach our main destination on foot from there." Tenpenny argued.
"He's right, Captain Corbin. They can send another team to extract that doctor while we focus on that office building in Downtown." Daniel explained.
"Maybe command doesn't trust as many soldier. They only trusted us with such information. I mean they searched us for bugs, remember?" I said.
"Yeah,Right. And they sent one hell of a celebrity to go with us on a top secret mission. Isn't that funny?" Tenpenny said.
"The world doesn't know I even left Mumbai. Some magazines claimed I'm already dead on my way to New York. Phoenix political officers are working on keeping my departure from zone 4 a secret." Marcus answered Ten penny's riddle.
"Why would they do that?" I asked.
"For two reasons, I think. The first is to keep their ascending stock records from falling down because a lot of people invested their money in our PMC since we evacuated Liverpool. The news of me leaving zone 4 would hurt our share in the stock market. Secondand this is the bad thing to know, this mission is worth leaving Mumbai for. I guess this one's too risky. What happens over here with us is gonna matter everywhere else." Marcus answered.
"That's reasonable enough for me." Daniel said.
"Let's not just get too carried away with information. I needed to get you briefed before we hit our destination. Last thing to say…we'll always walk in diamond formation unless we're having somebody else with us. Tenpenny, you'll be the point. Marcus, you're left. Daniel, back. I'll be on the right. And if we're escorting anybody else, he's going to be in the middle. Deal?" I said.
They all nodded and started to get their stuff ready. The plane was landing already. I looked out of the window and saw nothing but sand and fences. But when the plane drew closer to the ground, I saw a very long wire fence taking the whole length of the runway. A few zombies we're holding on to the fence. And that was regular. The noise of the plane must have attracted them. I could tell from their faces that they were infected for years. Freshly infected ones look a little bit different. I wondered why Phoenix would do some good and clear those zombies from the area. That would have made the place a little safer.
The plane stopped finally and the back of it started opening as we carried our gear on our backs. There were a couple of soldiers waiting for us outside to escort us all the way to the barracks. "Welcome to Matrouh, Gentlemen. Follow me to the Humvee, please." The soldier said. I could see from his tone and his attitude that he was another logistics guy. But he was only a private. He was probably a desk jockey. I hated those guys despite their effort in providing us with information. But they never saw action in the field. And they're the one who panic whenever there's an outbreak. So I tried not to get into conversation with such people because apart from being desk jockeys, they're boring.
We got into the Humvee and made ourselves as comfortable as possible while that private turned his face towards us from the front seat; looking at us with concern and at Marcus with impression. "Command was expecting you to arrive two hours later from now. Didn't you rest in Madrid?" he asked.
"We went out of the ass of a plane and into the ass of another." Tenpenny replied with indifference.
"That's cruel." And he looked out the window and continued: "You should have rested a couple of hours over there." His tone wasn't making me comfortable.
"We argued with Phoenix command there but they insisted on putting me to the plane right away. Lieutenant Martinez was in charge." I replied.
"Oh! Lieutenant Martinez…He sure knows what he's doing." He replied in a very awkward tone. I preferred not to go deeper into conversation with him and stay silent. He either hated Martinez or he was the one double-crossing Phoenix. Maybe it'd be right if I reported his attitude to the command.
The Humvee stopped right in front of an operation military tent. That seemed to be the head quarters. Modern tents now are made of Brushed metal that can be cleaned and disinfected easily. Lots of old tents were the reason behind somebody trapped inside during outbreaks. So, military researchers decided that tents should be metal and looking like plane hangars. That way, they would be strong enough to withstand an outbreak and protect the people inside it. They would also be disinfected easily with water and regular disinfectants.
Someone was standing outside the tent and was, for sure, waiting for us. I don't take pride in what we do but I reckoned someone would be waiting for Marcus to be the first one filling his eyes with joy. Marcus looked exactly like soldiers from old shooter games. "Ahh… The famous Marcus Alex is now standing before me. I consider myself lucky to be working here during your mission." The officer's accent was purely British. His strips showed that he was a Colonel. "I'm Colonel Robertson, commander of Bravo, Echo, and Zulu companies. Phoenix HQ ordered me to support you throughout your mission with intelligence and supplies. Please, come in so we can speak in private." He said.
He seemed harmless to me. Since the moment I got off that airplane and I was looking at the faces of every single soldier in the camp. A shut mouth may conceal most of the truth, but not all of it. I know how to pinpoint trouble through the carvings of man's face. And as a reconnaissance officer, I was taught some psychology to deal with liars and criminals. Add that to the experience I had before the rising when Cubans and Mexicans used to be our enemies, and you'd know that I'm capable of smelling a liar from a mile away. That desk jockey was a rat. Colonel Robertson wasn't…I just knew it.
The tent from inside was fully prepared against the climate of the desert and the cruelty of the rising. The walls had small holes to shoot from, the AC system was making the air cool enough to breath, and there were racks that were full of assault rifles on the other side of the tent's entrance. Down the middle, there was a wooden meeting table where Colonel Robertson who made himself comfortable and pointed to the chairs; signaling us to sit down…We did.
"I must admit that Phoenix is putting a lot of faith in you. The situation is getting worse every single week." He said then pressed a button on the table. A moment later, a soldier came in.
"Bring us some breakfast and some cool drinks." He ordered the soldier who immediately nodded and went back out. "Arabs have taught me how to provide proper hospitality for travelers. They're really good at that." He said to us with a gentle smile.
"You were saying..." I wanted to focus on the mission.
"Oh! Right! So those 'super-zombies' are making a lot of trouble inside zone 15 for more than two weeks. The whole infrastructure of the city is full of them which make them tougher adversaries. Till now, we don't know how to overrun them because they seem to hunt is different ways if you compare them with regular zombies. And their behavior is not permanent. They change it to match their current situations. All we could do from here was scanning the areas with our satellites and send a research squad inside the zone to provide us with better information. Unfortunately, we lost contact with them and the files you received included the last report they sent to us.
All what we know is that we lost contact with them near Tahrir square. We assume they're captured rather than K.I.A. That's why you are here. Phoenix demands that you locate them and restore communications with us. If you can't maintain communication with us, then you are to withdraw to the extraction zone marked on your map.
You may have……"
Nobody was concentrating with him as he spoke the final words. There was something more important to focus on…something that a soldier's ear never misses. There was that lousy alarm siren screaming danger into the air; signaling no rest for me and my team, the non-stop trouble coming our way. The siren kept screaming and screaming as we sat still; giving time to our minds to foresee what we would eventually see outside the windows. If the siren had a mouth, if would have said: "There's a damn zombie breach in the area!!!!"
I was the one who first stood up and looked through one of the small hatches in the wall of the tent. The sun was blinding my eyes that got used to the lighting conditions of the interior. As soon as my sight recovered, I started to realize the threat that was around. There were two zombies in phoenix outfit chasing one of the soldiers as he was running backwards and shooting them with a pistol, while there was another pack of zombies pinning another soldier to the ground and evacuating his internal organs until he's empty. I could see chaos all over the damn place. Only little did I see resistance regrouping and firing in every damn direction. A couple of bullets actually hit the exterior of our tent. But I didn't bother backing away. I only bothered when my vision was blocked suddenly. I kept focusing trying to see what's blocking my vision until I realized it was a bloody dark zombie eyes watching me back.
The scream of the zombie pushed me back suddenly. And when I looked around, I started seeing my squad picking up rifles from the racks and loading them. Their faces were dull and surprised. "Get on your feet, boss!!" Daniel said with a "sir, yes, sir" look on his face. I picked up my pistol from its holster and shot through the hole I was looking through. I could see some blood splatter coming in from the hole as I realized that I shot the zombie outside in the eye. I tried to see again what's outside. And it seemed that the situation was getting much worse. The zombies were growing more and more. So I started shooting in the empty directions trying not to shoot any friendlies. So did my squad and Colonel Robertson. I wasn't hearing anything but the beautiful sound of the magazine being clicked into place in the rifle and the sound of gunfire. The smell of gunpowder filled the air.
"Colonel, contact your company outside. Tell them to retreat and hole up in here." Marcus shouted. The colonel nodded and turned back to the radio he had on his desk. "Attention to all units, this is Colonel Robertson. Regroup immediately inside around the HQ offices. I repeat, regroup immediately around the HQ offices. There's plenty of ammo and equipment inside. Hole up inside and stay there until the horde attack's over." He said.
"This is not a horde attack, sir. This is a freaking outbreak." I said.
"An outbreak?? This is a very secure camp. Outbreaks can't happen here." The colonel replied.
"Maybe, unless you have a rat in your own backyard." Tenpenny said.
"I thought so. I think I know who the rat is. It's that guy who drove us to your office…the logistics private, I mean." I said.
"Damn straight, boss. I wasn't comfortable with him too." Daniel added.
“Who?? Gordon??! You’ve got to be shitting me.” The colonel protested.
“We have no reason to mess with you, Colonel, and especially right now. He may seem a little neat and away from the dirty work. But the looks on his face weren’t very pleasing.” Daniel explained.
The shooting kept on going. All I could see through the hole was just blood being splattered everywhere in all directions and from both sides. The soldiers were already retreating to the HQ tents while shooting. And despite the gore that was happening outside the tent, the situation was not yet rated as total catastrophe. The men were already getting their grip on the situation. And reason for that was that the infection started in just one single place. So the source of zombies came from one place.
Phoenix is ranked number 2 according to the ability to deal with any zombie situation thanks to the field training that phoenix provides to their men and the tactics research department which spends almost 20 million dollars a year on developing fighting tactics against zombies. Marcus has a lot to do with that department. They sent him secondary objectives constantly every single week during his campaign in zone 4. He was reporting back constant behaviors of zombies, weapons that do more damage, moves that could save someone from a bite. What the department does is triangulate all those reports together to devise a new or a better technique in fighting zombies. Then, they send a report to every Phoenix base on the planet in order to develop new field training for the soldiers. That’s how Phoenix keeps its men up to date.
In time, people learned the means to contain normal zombie threats. We all know the basic rules; kill close zombies first, kill fresh ones first, and always mark the target that looks the most dangerous. For example, the zombie that’s about to bite a survivor is considered the biggest threat because it would be about to be two zombies instead of one. Body built zombies are dangerous too because they’re so tough and they don’t die with one bullet. The list goes on and on.
The sound of the shooting was getting less paced. The groups of zombies were getting thinner and thinner as the survivors regrouped into one large ball of firepower. The zombies were about to fall and the fighting was about to come to an end.
Fifteen minutes later, reinforcements have arrived from the nearby Aircraft carrier. The soldiers started to count their casualties, double check security, and sending out scouts for 5 miles outside the base in each four directions; Standard post outbreak protocols. As for us, we went back to the HQ as we didn’t have the chance to finish our conversation. He was already shouting through the radio to his men.
“I want you to find Gordon ASAP. And if he’s alive, I want you to restrain him and bring him to my office immediately. If he’s dead…well, if he’s dead….” He was thinking.
I whispered: “Put him in a body bag and send it to the Clinic.”
“Put him in a body bag and send it to the clinic.” He repeated. “Listen!! Gordon’s body is our main priority in the mop up. Find him or find yourself another job out of Phoenix. I think I made myself clear.” The colonel said. His face looked bloodless as the outbreak was a total surprise for him. He tried collecting himself again before talking to us.
“I suppose the outbreak was not a coincidence. Someone meant to kill you guys.” The colonel said.
“Wow!! Sir, we wouldn’t know what to do if you hadn’t told us.” Tenpenny said with sarcasm.
“Hold your sense of humor, Tenpenny. We’re sorry, Colonel. We should leave the place as soon as possible. Being here is not safe for us or you.” Daniel said.
“I guess he’s right. I should have noticed something, anything unusual. Anyways, it looks like that whoever is behind the zone 15 incident is after you, guys. They don’t want anyone to interrupt their work. Do you have any idea who they are?” the Colonel said.
“Not exactly, sir. But they’re definitely the people responsible for the rising from the very beginning, or at least they would have something to do with them.” I replied.
“That explains the capture of the squad…It looks like they don’t want any interference with whatever’s happening in zone 15.” The Colonel said.
“That’s why we should move right now. There’s no time for rest.” Daniel said.
“I’ve already arranged your transportation before your arrival. The same C-130 you came aboard is going to be the one that will drop you inside the zone. I presume you’ve taken a look at your drop zone in the map.” The Colonel said.
“Yes, we’ll be dropped in a place called Kattameyya. But we need some obvious landmarks to confirm that we’ve been dropped on the right place.” I replied.
“Your target landmark is a large golf ball in the middle of an eight-lane street. It’s near the city ring road. I suggest you stay close to the ring road when you move. The wide terrain and emptiness of the road will favor in your position. So, anyways, you’ll meet with the delta-five doctor. He’ll fill you in with the latest reports you need. There’s a Phoenix officer that will be in contact with you all the time through the radio. We’ll provide you with a long range radio transmitter to keep in touch with us. Our camp near zone 15 is also capable of providing you with all the supplies you need through your mission.” The Colonel continued.
“What the name of the officer, sir?”Daniel asked.
“Lieutenant Ramirez…and don’t worry about him. He’s clean and you can trust him. He’s been the one in touch with Delta-five. You’ll find him helpful.” The colonel answered Daniel’s worries.
“Where exactly is the delta-five doctor?” Tenpenny asked.
“He’s safe in a survivor settlement. We don’t know for sure if he’s been taken as a hostage. Maybe the survivors welcomed him and offered him protection. We don’t know for sure.” The Colonel answered then he moved towards the rifle rack behind him and kept moving his fingers on one of the assault rifles.
“The settlement is adjacent to the large golf ball. It’s a pre-rising residential compound that has been transformed into a survivor citadel. It’s considered the strongest settlement in the area. And according to the satellite scans we do every week, that settlement appears to be very important to the whole area for some reason. If you have time, we need you to report the type of activity and the lifestyle of the survivors there. You know Phoenix. They need such information for their archives and publicity….so, that’s all I know about your mission. Delta-five is a very fine squad, gentlemen. Bring them back home.” The colonel finished.
None of us had any more questions. Tenpenny and Daniel didn’t seem any concerned when we first received our mission in New York. But now, they really understand the gravity of the situation. Nobody talked much on our way out. I remember Daniel’s eyes searching through the faces of the soldiers in the base. He was dying to catch another rat and shoot him in the face. But clearly, there wasn’t. One rat was enough. One single rat caused the death of 73 fine Phoenix Soldiers.
If you get to think of it, you wouldn’t be able to tolerate the heartlessness of those terrorists. In order to kill four people, they’d have to take out a whole base full of people. And look at their losses…just one man. That’s if you count the rat as a loss for them. I doubt that they would even give a shit. And when you finally pin the picture of the 73 dead people to the whole rising issue, you finally notice that those terrorist have killed billions of people in just fifteen years…..what a record!!!
There was no time for me to mourn. It was to be later after I catch the bastards who did all of this and enjoy seeing them die slowly. Or maybe I’ll enjoy it more if I could see a horde of zombies feeding on them…I took one last look on the base before I boarded on the C-130. I wanted the image of the dead fellows to be printed in the back of my mind because I needed that image later. I had the feeling that the turning point would start when I finish that mission of mine. I’d warmly welcome that image back to my mind when I meet the big bastard face to face…. He’s going to die.
Chapter Seven
Tenpenny
Minsk, Belarus
Kilometer 20 on the Highway.
15th of April, 2023
1200 hrs
“This is Bravo five. Road block 22 is in position. We’re all ready.” I said through the radio. I heard confirm through from whoever is fuck is on the other end of the radio. The whole city was under a curfew and I was dispatched out to secure a stupid road block on the outskirts of Minsk. The higher ranks of officers got all the fun of shooting inside the city. And I was just protecting a stupid bridge. Screw the NATO. Screw it again. I was not born for that crap. I was born to shoot people, not to stand and look into driving licenses and ID cards. Screw the NATO….Screw it.
“Did you see one of those crazy guys in hazmat suits?” Willy asked me.
“Unfortunately, yes. But I didn’t have the pleasure to shoot them.” I replied in cold blood.
“Too bad, mate. We’re missing all the fun.” He said.
“Come on, lad. This is the last conversation in the world that I want to make. Find me one of those maniacs to kill him, or just shut the fuck up.” I Replied.
Willy rolled his eyes and started looking again on the other side of the bridge. He was the most annoying person you’d ever go on a mission with. He never shuts up when he’s excited. Since that strange missile hit the city and he didn’t stop filling my ears with bullshit. I was busy in the primary evacuation process. I was sent to hospitals, schools, nurseries, and high class residential compounds for evacuation missions. I’ve been doing this for four days while most of the NATO forces in the area along with the Russian army have been containing the blast area. They’ve been locking down a lot of buildings which were confirmed as “Infected”. I wish I had the chance to shoot a couple of infected. But what do you say to the NATO officials? “Higher ranks and more trust-worthy in dangerous situations.” That’s what they always say. I say screw NATO officials. They’re a bunch of ignorant desk jockeys……Screw the NATO.
“Bravo five, Bravo five, this is command. We have a perimeter breach and our units are Oscar Mike (On.The.Move.) to the outskirts of town. Minsk is lost, I repeat, Minsk is lost. We’re on our way to your position.” The other end of the radio said.
Willy looked at me with impress and said: “Now we’re talking. Finally, some fun after all.”
“Indeed, Willy. That’s what happens when inexperienced high ranks take control. Things go out of hands. But you know what? If that means when pop off a few rounds in someone’s head, I agree. Let them screw up and let us shoot.” I replied.
The radio message alerted all the lads who were guarding the stupid bridge. They all took up their defensive positions and started double checking their ammunition status. It was noon; the best time for a nice and clean shot from the farthest of distances. It was the finest of times for a fight like that. But it was in the wrong place. The bridge was surrounded by forests which would make a good cover for the newly born monsters. But we can take all that. We’re the lads that do the dirtiest jobs for the NATO. Nothing can stand a chance against us even if it was Godzilla himself.
There was a fog of smoke rising from the horizon. It was our boys making their retreat. It looks like there were marching at full speed. The terror of the cannibalistic infected was closing in on us. It was my job to keep them off the outside world or the infection would spread to all of Belarus and then the whole world. I never imagined that the nonsense we watched on YouTube when we were kids would actually come to life. Some crazy fucking person actually made it to realize one of the things that terrorize all humanity. And that man was human…It riddles me.
“Can you hear that, mate?” Willy asked. It was the moaning of the zombies. If sounds had mouths to talk with, that mouth would say “I’m extremely hungry that I have no problem eating your flesh.”
“It’s them, the zombies. They’re coming.” I barely replied as moaning made my blood stop in its tracks.
Willy braced his rifle tightly and said: “Oh! Yes. They’re coming alright.”
“Brace yourselves, Lads. We’re about to play a big role in saving humanity.” I shouted to my squad.
Now I knew the actual reason behind me babysitting a bridge. The authorities knew that the zombies would eventually take Minsk. So they scattered some of us, the NATO, on the outskirts of the city to cover the retreat of their main force. In these times, the currency that survival accepts Is force, force, and nothing but force. We needed those men alive and able to carry guns, not moaning and hungry. I finally understood that the NATO was putting us in good use…Still….Screw the NATO.
“Give our boys some space to pass. Check your ammo and mark your targets. As soon as our forces pass, I want you to open fire on every moaning human you see. Leave nobody alive. Good luck, lads. I hope I can see you alive after this.” I shouted to my squad.
Our force started to show up. The tanks were moving at the front followed by our infantry. But their speed was unimaginable. They were as if injected with adrenaline. They were fucking scared to death. They were throwing everything that made them heavy; grenades, water bottles, helmets, everything. And the sooner they did that, the faster they became. I could see a couple of men being pinned to the ground by some of those howling people. So I ordered the squad sniper to help them out and try to shoot them off their asses. I, myself, helped out shooting a couple of zombies with accuracy to at least slow the horde down and buy our boys some time.
The forces were about to be across the bridge when I authorized my squad to open fire in every direction where there’s zombies. We were shooting while moving forward to almost half of the bridge; trying to push back the hordes. But there was just too many. And they were running like crazy. I’ll never forget that scene. Willy kept throwing everything he had at them and when he ran out of ammo, he didn’t go back to re-arm. Instead, he pulled the pins off two of the grenades on his vest and ran towards the zombies. I could see two other boys sliding off their bayonets and running towards the zombies. Seconds later, Willy was like a small rabbit in the highway; torn to a number of pieces you can’t count. He made enough distraction to the zombies for us. The other two boys kept stabbing everything around them. They didn’t care that they were already overwhelmed with zombies. I tried to shoot the zombies off their backs but my rifle had only a limited number of bullets. And it’s not Call of Duty...I wish it was; at least I could cheat and have infinite ammo. The first boy had his left foot torn off his body which made him fall to the ground. My eyes saw his insides…all of them. I never realized that there were so many detachable things in the human body. The maniacs took off his eyes, fingers, lower lip. Hell!! One of the zombies even took off his nose. The other boy was screaming while the zombies were pulling off his intestines and Colon from his belly. I felt nothing back then. All I could remember after seeing this scene was shooting without realizing I had to aim and screaming like a beast.
I never go somewhere without my machete. I took it off then started chopping off heads, arms, and legs in every direction. I believed that my death was certain. So I had nothing to lose. Maybe they’d remember me for this and the NATO would put a medal on my coffin….screw the NATO!!
I was just not feeling anything but blood splattering on my face. The surroundings seemed quiet. My focusing rose up to one hundred percent and my adrenaline pushed my killing faster. I don’t remember for how long I stayed like that. I only remember someone pulling me off and another squad shooting the zombies of my ass. It was the last squad on the run. They were the extra cover intended to cover our own retreat.
“B……th……idge.” The squad leader said. I couldn’t get what he was saying. Either his voice was too low or my hearing got weaker. He said it again and again several times till I got what he said by reading his lips. “Blow the bridge.” He said.
We were ready with C4 explosives on the columns of the bridge in case of eminent danger. That was the perfect time to blow the bridge and buy ourselves some time to regroup and take our breaths before we go into battle again with those freaks. I ran towards the detonator which was inside the control room of the bridge. The rest of my squad and the other one was retreating to the edge of the bridge and shooting like crazy to prevent the zombies from crossing. The zombies had already overwhelmed the bridge but they hadn’t crossed yet. That was the perfect time for detonation. I pushed the button and everything went wild. The fireworks started and the ground started to shake. A second later, the bridge started dancing then falling off with the zombies on top of it. The strange thing I remember was the faces of those zombies. They didn’t act like there was a bridge falling under their feet. They eyes were still fixed on their target…Us. They were falling and still striving to reach for us. A couple of them even managed to hold their grip of the remaining parts of the bridge but my squad shot them.
My hearing began to heal bit by bit as I got into the rescue truck and watched the blown bridge. For sure, I went to war before. But that wasn’t called war. That was something else far from war. At least, in war, you can throw your weapon and surrender. You can take your chances with the enemy capturing you. Your enemy would trade you for ammo, food, or even an enemy prisoner. But here, in my first battle against zombies, it was totally different. The moment you throw your weapon is the moment you realize that there’s no chance for you to live. It’s about survival. From the monstrosity of the scene I witnessed, I realized something. We had the chance to live in peace before 2023. But we preferred killing each other to that. Even after killing each other, we created monsters out of innocent people. We created something that would never stop. Say all you want about your heroic stories in fighting the zombies and surviving the hordes. But in the end you have to realize that…no-matter how hard you fight, you’ll die eventually.
The scene kept going farther and farther as I kept staring at it. What now? That was the question that battled everyone in their minds. We knew nothing except that we were getting out of Belarus. What would happen next was a mystery. I stopped looking at the scene and turned my attention to the lads on the truck with me.
“Is everybody alright?” I asked.
Nobody answered. Only one guy answered with puke on the floor of the truck. He didn’t seem very well. I approached him. “What the fuck’s wrong with you?” I asked him. He just couldn’t talk he kept throwing up like a water pump. Then he started shaking and trembling as if he was naked in the arctic. I didn’t know what to do with him. “Is there a medic in the truck? We’ve got a sick bastard here.” I turned to the rest of the squad.
“Our medic must be looking for his lost leg somewhere back there.” One of the boys answered as he pointed outside the truck towards the bridge. So, the medic was a zombie by then and eating off someone’s brains somewhere back there….Screw the NATO….I don’t know why…it was the first thing that came to my mind back then.
All I could do was giving him some water to drink and tell him to hang on till we get out of Belarus. He just took it and held it in his hand. And here it came, the low moans that would give everybody the creeps. Back then, we didn’t know it was a side effect of someone becoming a zombie. Suddenly, he just stood up and hell came to our house.
He started scratching everybody, especially me. I don’t know why he was so fucking angry with me. I didn’t bite him. I kept fighting him back until I managed to put his hands behind him and gave the chance to one of the soldiers to shoot him in the head. He just fell down like a stone. I didn’t notice that the truck stopped when the fighting started. We missed the convoy…Great. We got cut off from the rest of the force. The driver and the squad leader got out of the truck and took their weapons from their Holsters. “Nobody moves. We have orders to execute you for the sake of the safety of all the force.” The squad leader said while reloading his weapon. The boys kept shouting stuff that I couldn’t make something out of. I, myself, was shouting. Everybody was scared to death. We encountered an infected person and some of us got scratched. And guess what? The NATO ordered to shoot any wounded on sight…Screw the fucking NATO!!!
“I’m clean. I’m fucking clean, Sergeant. I was not bitten or even scratched. Well, I don’t know about the others but I’m sure about myself.” I shouted. The two of the aimers stood still; hesitant.They just didn’t know what to do.At least, they didn’t until one of them started moaning again…..Crap!!!
The driver and squad leader backed away while holding their pistols in our direction. “What’s wrong with that guy? He’s turning. Isn’t he?” the driver asked. “I think so. Shoot him, mate. Shoot him” one of the boys shouted. And here we go again. The group shouting started again…but not for long. The shouting muted with a shot from the driver into the head of the moaner. Strange…the moaning didn’t stop. We could hear it from every direction.
“This is the NATO chief of staff of the eastern European operations. The infection has reached the Belarus task force. I repeat, the infection has reached the Belarus task force. If there’s anyone alive in the Belarus task force, you are to stay within the Belarusian borders and fend for yourself until the reinforcements arrive to retake this sector. May god help us all.” The radio in the truck announced.
“Shit!! Shit!! Shit!! We’re isolated. What are we going to do?” the driver said. The squad leader looked at me. “Are you sure that you’re clean?” he asked me. I nodded. “Fine, ready your rifle. We’re off with this truck. And if any of those lads start moaning, you shoot them. You’ll watch the back of the truck. Don’t let anyone touch It.” The squad leader said. “Roger that, Boss.” I answered.
There was no other way to survive this crisis but to shoot everyone who’s hurt. In just five minutes, I killed five people who used to be my friends one day. In another fifteen minutes, I started shooting more people I don’t know, NATO and civilians. This madness never stops. You really never choose whom to keep alive. The more you kill, the more you get tied to the monstrosity of the post-rising world. And in the end…I just know it. No-matter how long I shoot zombies, I’ll die eventually on their hands.
Screw the NATO!!!!
Chapter Eight
Somewhere over Cairo
Inside the Phoenix C-130
0015 hrs
“What reminded me of that story is the fast turning of those zombies during the outbreak back there. Aren’t they supposed to turn in sixty seven minutes?” Tenpenny asked.
Marcus was busy looking through the file but he could hear us clearly. He looked up at Tenpenny when he heard his question. He had the same answer that Daniel and I knew.
“There’s more than one type of infection. Regular infections take place due to the normal Kessler virus. Most of the outbreaks that happened in the world failed but they happened for normal reasons. You know, a bitten man holed up in a barn or a safe house, some prick who thinks he’s a hero and hid his wound, those kinds of shitty stories. Those outbreaks have an average turning time of sixty seven minutes. But outbreaks that were made on purpose such as that one we had in Matrouh have a very fast turning time. That’s because the syringes that hold the virus are mixed with a solution that makes the virus hyperactive. Hyperactive Kessler virus has a turning time of approximately one minute. That explains the fast infection rate that happens. That private was a rat for sure. You guessed it right, Captain Corbin.” Marcus explained.
“And I guess the old Kessler missiles that hit us during the rising were filled with that solution. That’s why people turned too fast back in Minsk.” Tenpenny answered his own question.
“Yes. And in time, the solution lost its effect because of the weather conditions. Therefore, the turning time goes back to normal after a couple of weeks.” Daniel continued.
“What’s the name of that solution?” Tenpenny asked.
“Vinegar-Formalin mixture is the solution. That’s why nobody’s allowed to have vinegar into hospitals, morgues, and ambulances. All chemical burns are treated outside medical areas with vinegar then they transfer the wounded into the hospital after they clean the burn.” I continued.
“Would a bottle of vinegar do a lot of damage?” Tenpenny asked again.
“One bottle can make five syringes of Hyperactive Kessler Virus solution.” Daniel answered this time.
I didn’t know that one. Daniel had once participated in providing security for one of Phoenix’s chemical war labs. So he had the chance to know a lot of information about the zombie chemicals and some of the zombie biology. As for me, I never had the chance to get much of that information. Daniel was helpful in a lot of stuff; electronics, communication, computer programming, hacking, and finally, little information about biology, chemistry, and psychology. He’s a moving Google.
“We’ve got a signal from the base.” The co-pilot said.
“Start the signal.” I said.
“This is Colonel Robertson. I thought I’d confirm your doubts by contacting you. That private you told me about. We did an anatomical report on his body. It seems that he injected himself with the virus. The bastard injected himself in the neck. He turned in no time and started biting everyone around. We also searched his belongings. We found a cell phone he used to receive messages from his employers. They sent him messages under the name of ‘Elephant monk’. We tried to track the source of the senders but something’s blocking the way for our hackers.
I’m not giving you a direct order. But this is a personal request. Try to find those bastards who employed him and kill them for the sake of our martyrs. May god be with you, boys.” The Colonel said through the radio.
We all looked at each other for a while. Nobody talked. All I remember that moment was me thinking of trusting my senses from then on. I went to look through the window. We were already over zone 15. “We’re almost over the drop zone” the pilot informed us.
“That means we should grab and gear and get ready, Gentlemen.” Marcus said.
“Remember to turn on the beacons on your vests if you’re miss-dropped so we can track you and give you a new rally point. Our Original rally point is the large Golf ball. Keep it always in front of you.” I said.
Nobody argued. They used to argue before but I don’t think they’d do after being in the middle of an “On-purpose-outbreak” Tenpenny started packing his tools he used to clean his rifle, Daniel Turned off his laptop and started stuffing his gear into his backpack. And I packed my stuff and went to the door of the plane in order to organize the dropping. The order of the drop would start with Tenpenny then Marcus, then Daniel then finally me. We all stood with our backpacks ready waiting for the signal to start the drop. We were all looking at each other worriedly in the eyes. This might be the last time we board a plane. Hell, this might be the last time we see each other. There was something deadly down there that we don’t know a thing about. And we were supposed to bring it down for the good of all. I just hope I make no choices of the few ones we have left in this world.
“We’re over the drop zone. You’re clear for the jump.” The pilot said.
The back of the plane opened slowly to show the night and the clouds. It wasn’t cold. And that was not a good thing. People get better chances in fighting zombies in cold areas. The virus activity drains in the cold weather which lessens the movement and the intelligence of the zombie and therefore, giving us, humans, a chance to win the day.
The hatch had opened completely. Tenpenny stepped forward and jumped with no hesitation, nothing new about a former NATO soldier. Marcus then followed in the tracks of Tenpenny, then Daniel, then me at the tail of the squad. Our ear cuffs were working. And I could hear Tenpenny’s screams of joy while falling to the ground with maximum speed. “Don’t race us down there. There’s no rush, dude. We’re all gonna die anyways.” Daniel said in laughs. And I could say I was laughing as well. Maybe the situation was not that good but that didn’t stop the boys from having some fun. Some fun before death really matters.
“Remember our rally point, gentlemen. It’s the giant golf ball.” I said
“What if one of us got captured? OH! Yes, I remembered. Turn on the beacons so we can track them. “Tenpenny said.
“Our ear cuffs can contact each other for a range of five kilometers. These are Samsung military ear cuffs. They’re pretty decent. Let’s stay in contact with it and report every little thing that happens.” Marcus added to my instructions.
“Roger that, Marcus.” I said.
The blowing sound of the air was very nice as I was racing gravity to the ground. We were supposed to release the parachutes after we jump with approximately 45 seconds to guarantee the fastest landing. There were a few seconds left so I warned the squad. Then came the silence before the storm. BANG!!
We released our parachutes. I could feel it pulling me back up so hard I thought I was going to get back to the plane. Our falling speed started to lower rapidly until we reached the normal speed we should land with. I took my time in looking at the terrain. There were a few lights coming from the buildings. I could see settlements rounding their walls with torch lights. Everything was so calm. There wasn’t so much zombie noise which was good. We wouldn’t engage too many zombies right after we land. To my right, I could see that giant golf ball in the middle of the road. It looked as if it has fallen off its column. I could see Marcus not so far from my position. He had already landed. And he was the closest one to the golf ball. I was being drafted by the wind away from the rally point. By then, I was sure of my landing area. It was a large abandoned school. Shit!!! I was landing right into a zombie territory. I could see them. There was a pack of them gathering around something that seemed like food. And there was one hell of a large zombie running towards them. He wasn’t normal. No, he wasn’t normal at all. He was as if being injected with two or more zombies inside his body. His muscles were really big; larger than the normal human muscle. Guess what? Zone 15 was welcoming my arrival with a super zombie. Smile for zone 15, where zombies are too cute to kill.
For my good luck, I landed on the roof of an electricity control building. And for my bad luck, it was surrounded with zombies. The sound of my feet engaging the roof was loud that it alerted the nearby zombies. They looked up to see a big piece of cloth falling on top of them. I grabbed my bayonet fast and cut the ropes of the parachute. It was favoring my side as it fell on a group of zombies and made them busy getting out of it as I was checking my surroundings and marking the most dangerous targets around me.
“This is Corbin, I’m down safely but I’ve drafted not far away from the rally point. I’m inside zombie territory now. I need a SITREP. Over.” I radioed. For a moment, there was no answer but then I started hearing some discrete static then the voice of Daniel coming through.
“This is Daniel. I’m in position and scanning the area. Do you need help over there?” Daniel said.
“I don’t know yet. Guess what?? I’ve got a super zombie in my line of sight.” I replied.
“This is Marcus. I’m about 100 meters away from the rally point. I can see Daniel and I’m heading there now.” Marcus said.
“Well, that makes me Tenpenny. I’m fucking too far away from the rally point and I think I’m near the city hall…or what’s left of it.” Tenpenny radioed.
“Check your surroundings for hostiles.” Marcus answered.
“Nothing’s there…there’s only some rubble and…wait…” Tenpenny said.
“What?? What’s wrong?” I whispered through the radio so as not to alert the zombies around me anymore.
All I heard was some static…
“Tenpenny, report the situation. Report, God damn it.” Marcus shouted.
There was something wrong. Not around Tenpenny only, but around us all. It was night and there was supposed to be a lot of zombie activity. The silence was unwelcoming when we arrived. I could hear each one of us loading his rifle and preparing for a one of a kind horde attack; a horde attack that included surprise every time…Super fucking zombies.
“Which way do I go??? Which way??” Tenpenny shouted.
“Put the long walls on your left and run until you find the golf ball.” Marcus was handling the situation pretty well. Zone 4 teaches a lot.
“Marcus, Handle the situation with Tenpenny and Daniel until I find a way out of my current location.” I said.
“Roger that. Marcus out.” He replied.
I aimed at the head of the big guy and shot him…then shot him again…Shit!! His head was like a built-in steel helmet. He took the first bullet then started charging towards me. Not only that. He unleashed a loud scream that alerted almost everyone; even the ones who were already busy eating their prey. I must admit. That was a good move.
I don’t remember the moment when I started shooting. But all I remember was me taking a giant jump from the roof of that electricity control room and heading towards the main gate of the school. It was open so I didn’t have to stop. I remember also that I was shooting whatever moved in front of me. The big horde hasn’t regrouped yet to make its move. I don’t know how four separate people would start such a horde. But what I was certain of was that we did something wrong. What is it? Don’t ask me.
I could hear the shooting from the direction of the golf ball. It was too loud to be one of ours. In the pre-rising world, hearing strange gunfire would give you the creeps. But in the post-rising world, Hearing gunfire would certainly mean you might be saved to live another day. So much has changed.
“I’m getting close, lads. I can see the golf ball from the distance.” Tenpenny radioed.
“How are you hanging there?” Marcus replied.
“Not very well; I’m being tailed by a group of zombies and they’re damn well fast.” Tenpenny replied.
“This is Marcus Alex, Phoenix zone affairs officer. Do not shoot at us. I repeat, do not shoot at us. We’re alive and we’re not bitten. We can drop our weapons as soon as the attack stops.” Marcus radioed to whoever was shooting over there.
There was, for sure, someone who was watching the road with a sniper rifle. I heard a shot behind me. And when I looked back, I saw that ugly big guy exhaling his final breaths as he falls to the ground. That sniper shot him in the heart. He knew about those monsters. Nevertheless, that bought me some time and space around me to run to the golf ball. I could see it. It was so close to the school. Marcus had already arrived and he was backing Daniel up while Daniel was firing with his grenade launcher on the zombie packs. You might say that was atrocious. But we usually use grenades to tear the groups away. Zombies are tougher when they’re in groups because they use each other as human shields.
“What’s the status?” I asked Marcus when I finally arrived.
“It’s not so bad. We’ve got company here. It looks like they’ve been watching the road. Now, you take command now.” He said while firing.
I pressed my ear cuff…
“This is Captain Corbin Doe, Phoenix logistics officer. If there’s anyone out there on this frequency, we need backup ASAP. Corbin out.” I radioed.
The static was the reply…for a couple of seconds.
“Do you see that narrow alley opposite to the golf ball? It’s next to the large villa with bird cages on its roof. Do you see it?” well someone talked…and in English.
“Roger that. I can see the alley” I replied.
“Move with your men through there slowly. You should find a narrower road splitting the residential compound from the villas. Retreat to that position and wait for backup in order to get your lost man.” The man said. His voice was calm as if he was saying some sort of routine.
“Roger that. Did you hear that, Tenpenny? We’ll meet you there.” I replied.
“I hear you, boss. I’m almost there. Just keep those hungry ladies off my ass.” Tenpenny replied.
I tapped on Marcus’s shoulder; signaling the beginning of our retreat to the narrow road. It was about time to get away from that attack because if we had stayed any longer, we’d have been overwhelmed. As for Tenpenny, all I could do was to wish him good luck. Marcus moved slowly with Daniel behind him. We moved in a triangular formation with each one of us aiming outwards. We were shooting the fast ones while the sniper was taking out more of those giant zombies. It appeared that there were some other guys on the roof of that villa we came by. They were shooting the far zombies with machine guns. And I could tell from their fire that they were accurate and concerned about their ammo status. No shots were missed. One bullet was fired for one zombie or even more if they stood behind each other. I started to think they were Phoenix guys because they looked well trained like us. But I pushed away that thought after a moment. The shooting was routine to them. They never missed. That means they’ve been through hell.
The numbers of the zombies were getting larger. And the more they became, the heavier the shooting from the roofs became. Suddenly, I just couldn’t hear properly because of the loudness of the guns around me. I started to hear with my eyes. I saw Tenpenny racing death to our position, Marcus talking to the ear cuff, and Daniel shooting the zombies that came through the alley allowing the other strangers to take up defensive positions. When you hear something with your eyes and your brain, the sounds become clearer and the whole situation can be read so obviously. It’s like those ancient soundless films in the early twentieth century. Nobody talked, but you still get the big picture. I got the big picture. The situation was rough…But we were going to be alright.
Chapter Nine
Kattameyya, zone 15 (formerly known as Cairo)
The golf ball survivor settlement
0100 hrs
The horde attack had ended with a God-knows-how remarkable victory. It wasn’t for our wonderful and heroic action like in the reports you read after fights back in any Phoenix base. It was for the great marksmanship of the survivors in the area. Now, I knew why Marcus hated to get all the credit of the media for himself because some survivors had to die for it. If I was a chief of staff in Phoenix, I’d reward the survivors after every zone operation. Hell, I’d even give them endless supplies…Heroes in my book.
Me and my squad were standing there in the middle of the narrow street; still gripping our rifles tight to the shoulders. We didn’t realize the fight was over so damn fast. The other strangers stood there looking at us with laughs on their faces. I’m sure we looked like dumb rookies to them. Then from the far end of the street, I saw a man with night vision goggles strapped to his head and a sexy-looking M-110 sniper rifle dangling on his back. That must have been the sniper who saved my life. He was young, short –but stiff looking- and miserable. His clothes were so torn that I could read the history of the number of fights he had through the tears. His hair was kept short and I could tell that was for a reason and not for the sake of looking cool. The one thing that caught my eye was that large piece of cloth he tied around his torso. He used it as a cape. Now that was the looking of a true fighter…just like in the old video games.
I warmly welcomed him with a slight smile and so did my squad.
“Thanks for saving our asses, Mister….” I said.
“Don’t mention it. I’m Ismail Shawareb, just a survivor.” He said with cold blood.
“That’s one pretty rifle you got there, Ismail.” Tenpenny pointed with impression.
“She sure is. I lost count of the zombies I killed with it. She never fails me.” He replied.
“That was a tough fight back there.” Marcus said just to test the situation.
“No, it’s just routine, the tougher type of it. The hordes have been heavier since those tough zombies showed up. And hey, that big guy that was chasing you, we call them sirens.” Ismail said.
“And I deduce from the way you shot it that the only way to kill it is to shoot it in the heart.” I replied.
“Yes.” He said also in cold blood. “Come, you must be tired from your flight. The doctor is expecting you.” He continued.
Now what do we have here? The delta-five doctor is still alive and he’s been expecting us. Hospitality is something that a man wishes for in such a wild terrain.
“Dr. Harry McGregor is here? Is he okay?” I asked.
“Yes, he’s safe and sound. Actually he’s completing his research on the newly developed behavior of those new zombies. Come on, he’s going to be very pleased when he knows that you’ve come to his rescue.” Ismail turned his back on me and walked towards the settlement walls.
It was like playing Fallout. The walls were made out of junk; all kinds of junk, steel sheets, car parts, cardboard, and even plastic. Zombies wouldn’t distinguish plastic from metal anyways as long as they see a dead end. The wall surrounded a group of white residential buildings with flat roofs. I could spot several survivors holding arms up there and scanning the surrounding areas. I was so impressed that I couldn’t resist walking into the settlement to see how they were organized .
As soon as we entered, Ismail started speaking again.
“This settlement is called ‘Evo-set’ which stands for ‘Evolution settlement’. We’ve been building this citadel for more than twelve years. And since the rising, we’ve been fending for ourselves along with a few military units that were dispatched to rescue some VIPs living here. Unfortunately, the army found them either dead or Zombified. By then, the whole Egyptian army got scattered all over the country and no more orders were given. There was only one order through the national radio. It was to survive as long as we can; civilians and military. Many people started building forts around their homes. In time, forts grew and became Settlements. Evo-set is the largest stronghold around here. We’ve built it to last forever, until the new zombies came. And everything was at stake.” He said while we were looking around.
“Where are you taking us?” Daniel asked.
“I’m taking you to the HQ. you can see it from here; building 58. We call it the HQ.” Ismail said.
“Who’s in charge here?” I asked.
“My father, Shady Shawareb is in charge. He’s the one who designed this fort. I’m taking you to meet him in person.” He replied.
We were close the building when we crossed another junk wall. It was dark but we could see some details around the area. The compound seemed to be a really peaceful place in the pre-rising world. Now it’s a stronghold. The gardens were used as corn and wheat fields, TV dishes became pieces of the survivors’ armor on their clothes, and some of the street lights became electricity sources. The bastards even carved a way for the water to flow and irrigate the crops they grew. And with the help of a couple of generators, they were able to pump the water up ramps. That was a pretty cool settlement.
We reached the entrance of the building so we stopped to get stripped from our arms. But the guys just stood there. Nobody came to search us or take our weapons. Ismail actually stepped forward and started talking to the intercom. As he talked, I looked around. White square buildings were everywhere. The bottom floors were sealed shut with wooden plates so as to prevent the zombies from infiltrating the interior. The doors of the buildings were made of steel so no zombie could bring them down. What caught my eye was a short rock wall on my left and on the right of the building. It overlooked a steep ramp that zombies would climb easily. I noticed that they made spikes out of trees and places them on the top of the ramp. That was another way closed for the enemy. In addition to that, there were three survivors patrolling the ramp from the top so as to shoot any zombie on sight. They weren’t dumb…they were well prepared for anything. They’d beat back the US army if it attacked them.
“Are they Okay?” A man talked through the intercom to Ismail.
“Yes, but we haven’t known yet if they were bitten or not. I’m going to commence the test right away.” Ismail replied then turned to us.
“I don’t think you can blood test us in the dark.” Tenpenny said.
“Who said so? I’m gonna ask you simple questions and all you have to do is to answer them three times in a row. “ Ismail replied with the first smile he showed to us since we met him.
“Are you kidding?” Daniel asked in mock.
“No, he’s not. That’s a simple way of knowing if you’re turning or not. Short term memory loss is one of the side effects that hits the human brain after the bite with 10 minutes.” Marcus explained.
“So if you say the answer correctly three times in a row, that means you’re clean unless you’re being bitten right now. “ Ismail continued.
“That sounds fair. Let’s start then.” I said.
Ismail asked us for our names just to know how to call us when he needs then he stopped for a moment thinking of a question.
“Tenpenny, When did the second world war end?” he asked.
“1945……1954…..1945.” Tenpenny answered.
“Pass, now, Marcus, Who was the president of the United States by then?” he asked again.
“Roosevelt….Roosevelt….Roosevelt.” Marcus answered.
“You may pass, Daniel, where did you use to live before the rising?” Ismail answered again.
“New York….New York ….New York.” He answered.
“Another pass, Corbin, What’s the name of your assault rifle?” he asked.
“HK-416…HK-416…HK-416.” I answered.
“Good, You’re all clean. Now, please follow me. My dad’s on the fourth floor. You may spend the night there.” Ismail said with cold blood.
“Can I ask you a question, Ismail?” Daniel asked.
“Sure, hit me.” Ismail answered while walking up the stairs.
“Where did you learn to speak such fluent English?” he asked.
Ismail just looked at Daniel with his eyes half open. Ismail was mocking his ignorance with just a look. I liked the attitude of that guy.
“You Americans will always be as dumb as you look.” Ismail answered.
“No, I insist to know.” Daniel fought back.
“What stops anyone from learning English?” he asked.
Daniel just thought and kept thinking for all the way to the fourth floor. He couldn’t find an answer. Just learn that…Dumb questions meet dumb answers. OH! And there’s another thing. That’ guy’s attitude was fierce.
Ismail stepped inside as we followed in his shadows. The man who seemed to be his father, Shady Shawareb, was sitting on a big red arm chair staring at an array of screens. Cool!! He had a security system that covered almost all the settlement. He looked back at us then smiled and stood up to greet us.
“Well!! Well!! Well!! Phoenix never forgets its unwanted children. Four fine men have come to rescue only one doctor.” Shady said.
“They’re six to be more precise.” Marcus corrected.
“I consider them dead anyways. I say you’re alive when I see you alive. If you’re not there before me, you’re dead.” Shady protested then continued. “I’m sorry for the harsh greeting. Welcome to Evo-sat, gentlemen. You may sleep peacefully because you’re within the walls of the strongest settlement in Kattameyya.” Shady said then offered his hand. He seemed to have lost a part of the skin of his hand. Daniel was disgusted from the look of his hand for a moment then realized that the man’s hand was still extended to greet him. so he shook his hand without looking.
“I lost some of my skin in a fight with a fat zombie…She used to live next door and I didn’t like her so I killed her with my bare hands.” He said with humor.
“That’s one good thing about the rising, you kill whom you hate as long as they’re zombies.” Ismail continued with a laugh. And actually they were right. I returned their laughs with a lighter one.
“Let me show you something, gentlemen. As you can see here, I have a surveillance system to keep track of the current situation of all the settlement. This screen over there toggles between our labs; the chemical lab in which your doctor works and lives, The medical clinic, and the arms lab. Now we’re looking at the arms lab. It should toggle in a sec to show the chemical lab. You’ll see that your doctor is alive and well.” Shady explained the array of screens he had.
“That’s a good thing…for a start.” Daniel said.
“I’ll dispatch one of my men to fetch him here so you can talk with him.” Shady said.
“Now that’s more like it.” I said. and Shady answered me with a grin.
“If you’re thinking that we may trap you I’d simply kill your worries away. I wouldn’t let you in here with those rifles you carry.” He said in cold blood.
Now he was right. Why would he make it harder for himself to trap us with letting us in with all our gear? That’s a good point. Ismail and his father talked with the same way…Logic.
“Father, may I leave back to my post?” Ismail asked.
“Of course, you may. But before you go, send one of the guards to fetch Dr. Harry.” Shady answered his son.
“Consider it done, father.” He bowed then left is double speed.
“So are you the one who designed this place?” I asked in curiosity.
“Yes. And you’re not going to believe it. I had the plans of that settlement in my head since my childhood which means before the rising with many years.” He answered.
“Why would you think of such plans for no need?” Tenpenny asked.
“I don’t know….I just don’t know….maybe I felt the danger coming. I was just messing around back then.” Shady answered.
“Twelve years is such a long time to build such settlements, considering you didn’t build the buildings themselves.” Marcus exclaimed as he knew more than us about zone settlements.
“I know. But a lot of people here don’t like to co-operate. It took me five long years to unify the whole area under one survivor flag. Everyone wants to be in charge. And I was not in charge until recently when the zombies became tougher. We lost a lot of people in the inner conflict between ourselves. But since the settlement became one, my designs were carried out to be realized on the ground. And here we are. We’re finished from total building a year ago.” Shady answered.
“Is that why you have walls within walls?” Tenpenny asked.
“No, that’s my actual design. I’ve divided the settlement into sectors with security level. And I’ve distributed our facilities based on the security level of the settlement. If you over there on the map on the wall, you’ll see three sectors. There’s sector A where we are right now. You’ll find in this sector many essential buildings such as the HQ, the children house, the provisions depot, and the armory. And there, you’ll find a small circle called sector B. it’s south of here not too far away. It holds the main garage, the chemical lab where Dr. McGregor works, the barracks of the guards, and several more buildings. Now that large circle that defines the borders of Evo-set is called sector C which holds regular residential buildings, scout posts, junk depots, trading posts. You guys are of the few who entered Sector A. I usually don’t allow any strangers into sector A but since you’ve come for the rescue of someone I know, I don’t consider you strangers.” Shady answered again.
Wow!! That guy is a security freak. He built a whole city of a pre-rising residential compound. But to be honest, I like his work.
I heard a knock on the door then the sound of the main door opening. It was the guy we’ve come for, Dr. Harry McGregor. He was still wearing his uniform but somehow changed. He rolled up the sleeves and wore some kind of leather on his arms. Maybe he did this to keep his uniform from being contaminated with the virus he deals with. This settlement sure is cool but I bet they didn’t have hazmat suits in here. He also wore a doctor’s coat on top of the uniform and tied his long hair backwards. He had a large moustache that reunited with the sides of his hair…The old British style.
“It’s really good to finally see reinforcements. I wouldn’t carry on the mission alone.” The doctor said.
“Dr. Harry, it’s good to see you alive and well. We’re not here as reinforcements though. We’re here to extract you from the zone along with the rest of your unit, Delta five.” I replied.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. This is a not a mission to abort. This is a mission to be accomplished at all costs.” He replied with anger.
“Whooah!! Slow down, buddy. These are our orders. It’s not like we’re making that up for ourselves.” Daniel tried to ease the conversation a little bit.
“Well, I’m not leaving without two things. I will leave with the rest of my unit and with my complete research. And I do assure you that you heard the word complete.” Harry replied.
“I think that the doctor is right.” Shady Shawareb interrupted.
We all looked back at him. he was calm and keeping his eyes on those monitors. It seemed like he never took his eyes of the surveillance system of his. He had an anxious look on his face.
“Since the new crisis, and everything changed. We thought for once that we can beat back those zombies and liberate our city. But with the coming of those super zombies, the equation became complicated. There are people behind this as the doctor proved to us. They want us dead. And they for sure want all mankind dead. That’s a cult I’ve been carrying in my mind for years. But after the rising, I realized how evil I was back there. I’ve helped your doctor and provided him with almost all of what he needed to carry on his research. I dedicated a large force of mine to scavenge whatever necessary to help Dr. Harry carry on. It’s not that I care for Phoenix or any of those idiots outside this zone. You’ve put us in this misery anyway. I helped him because his research will contribute in saving all of mankind from a new threat. The regular zombies are already enough. And you’ve sacrificed a portion of the people living in this world to deal with them for you.” Shady continued.
“Why do you think that the people have sacrificed the zone inhabitants to solve the zombie issue?” Daniel asked.
Shady for a moment took off his eyes off the monitors and looked at Daniel with pity. Then he realized he was not worth even the look and decided to look back at the monitors.
“Look at life around you and you’ll figure out why. Look at how people message their relatives who live outside the zone. Do you know how? They tie a piece of paper with their message to a brick and they throw it across the walls you’ve built. Try to walk the streets of Cairo and count the number of people who went insane because of the monstrosities they’ve seen. There are a lot of reasons to think so.” He replied.
“You’re right Mr. Shady. I’ve been in zone 4 in Mumbai and I’ve seen worse than that. Zone survivors deserve life more than normal citizens.”
We all stood for a while, silent, thinking of what to do next. The Doc. Refused to leave without his research. And the truth is…he was right. That research would actually do humanity a lot of good. I decided that I’d break the rules for once. And think of the whole matter from the point of humanity, not Phoenix. Phoenix wasn’t so bad. It’s the zombies that are. And leaving without any positive results wouldn’t change anything.
“Gentlemen…Here’s what we’re gonna do next. We’re going to stay and help the doctor. Not only that. We’re going to find the people behind this and eliminate them and their researches.” I said.
Chapter Ten
Kattameyya, zone 15
Evo-set
0900 hrs
The morning light wasn’t bothering me as much as the battle of thoughts inside my head. I couldn’t sleep. And if I did, I’d call myself bloodless. I spent all night resting on the bed they gave me but my eyes refused to close. Did the settlers of Evo-set feel that every day? I don’t know. But maybe they’d be suffering insomnia which is a lot worse, especially when you have to fight some never-sleeping creatures called zombies. I have been inside a zone before but I never got to come in contact with any zone inhabitants. Protocols prohibited dealing with them without a proper blood test. But the funny thing here is that survivors are the ones doing the blood tests on you.
Remember how it feels when you’re high on drugs back in teenage and you’re supposed to go through urine sampling? It feels exactly like being asked to go through a blood test. Hell, it feels even worse. At least when they discover that you’re high, they put you in a rehab clinic or some shit. But when the result of your blood test indicates positive as “infected”, the only thing they do is let you choose between living handicapped for the rest of your life or getting shot in the head. Blood tests have caused a lot of anxiety to the people living in this world since those missiles fell from the sky. I witnessed a lot of fights in some more civilized parts of the world because of the precautions that facilities carry on. You’re not allowed to transfer blood or have sex without a proper blood test that flags you clean for a whole week. Can you imagine that? Sex could zombify you. That’s why there are medical sex centers now. Those are facilities in which you can have sex in a clean and safe environment. It’s prohibited to have sex in normal homes or anywhere in the open because there’s a possibility of being infected and starting an outbreak. So why risk being horrified by zombies for a guy who can’t hold his sperms? It makes sense.
My squad were deep into sleep except for Marcus who was only half asleep. He knew that I was awake too.
“Morning.” I whispered.
“Morning.” He returned.
“Can’t sleep?” I asked
“Can’t allow it.” He answered.
“Me too…what do you say we take a tour around the place and see if we can find something useful to do?” I demanded.
“Like there’s something to do.” He said with half a laugh.
The view outside the building was very different from how we saw it last night. The rays of the sun exposed every little detail in the place. Man!! That place was a fortress. Every building had its own security measures, number of guards, and even survivors. There were unarmed people living peacefully In the place. And that ramp on my right was overlooking a part of what they called “Sector C”. I went along with Marcus to take a look. The guards weren’t hostile at all. On the contrary, they were very friendly and silent at the same time. One of them who spoke little English stood beside us and started telling us about every building we saw ahead of us. The front building was used as a C4 factory, the building on the right was a big diner which explained the large number of tables in front of it. And the one on the left was the archive building in which they stored diaries of their dead, surveillance recordings, trading reports, and so on.
“I’ve never seen an archive building that big for such a small town. Those guys are much more organized than the people back in zone 4.” Marcus said.
“necessity is the mother of invention indeed.” I replied while looking back towards the building that was behind me. That soldier looked where I looked and started talking.
“this building is the children’s house.” He said.
“Are we allowed to go in there?” Marcus asked.
“it’s a children’s house. Why would we go there?” I asked.
“Yes, sir. You are allowed.” The soldier said.
Marcus looked at me with shining eyes and started walking without any warnings. I had nothing better to do but to follow in his tracks. We were, indeed, heading for the children’s house. It was the only colorful building in the area. The settlement even cared about the children’s mental health by coloring their place with bright colors. Every floor on the building was colored with a different shiny color. There was green, blue, yellow, orange, white. That was not even the original white color of the building. It was whiter that the other buildings.
“Looks like they have a nice big capital to spend on such small stuff.” I said
“think of it as they have a lot of stuff they don’t need any more. So they decided to use them in stuff that are small…to you. A child’s mental health is so important in zones.” Marcus replied.
“And why is that?” I asked.
“Those children someday are going to grow up and take control of the whole place. If they grow up hating the place, they’ll simple leave and let others vulnerable to zombies. And also, there are lots of possibilities that those children would grow up with mental illnesses due to the atrocities they’ve seen in their childhood. So if you don’t take care of a child’s mental health now, he’d gonna turn his back on you in the future. That’s good zone stuff I learned back in India.” Marcus explained.
I was amazed that the department of zone affairs would teach a lot of good things like what Marcus said. it may have sounded strange to me at the beginning. It may sound hilarious to Tenpenny. But it’s true. Children are the future itself. You don’t want them abandoning you later.
The parking next to the children’s house was full of motorcycles and more soldiers. That must have been the garage of the scouts’ vehicles. I could see also bikes that had trunks in the back like pickup trucks. Those bikes may have been used for supply transport. I didn’t play attention for too long as Marcus grabbed my arm and pulled me into the children’s house. And wow!! The building was even more colorful on the inside. It was actually a pre-rising residential house but the doors of the apartments were left open. Some doors are not even there anymore. And the rest of the door got colored with cartoon characters. I could recognize some of them. That one was Ben 10, and that was Dexter, and that was the pink panther. Pre-rising childhood culture everywhere.
“I wonder if Shady designed that building as well.” I said.
“That, my friend, is no work of muscularity. Who designed this place is definitely a woman.” Marcus replied.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Look at the colors around you, man. Look over there at that door. There’s like five degrees of green. no man would be excellent with colors this way.” Marcus answered.
He was right. He was definitely right.
As we entered one of the apartments; looking around like lost kids in a carnival, a young woman came to us who had a happy look on her face. She had curly brown hair, wide brown eyes. And there was a mask on the top of her head that looked like Donatello from the Ninja turtles.
“Commanders, is there something I can help you with?” the woman said politely.
“We’re just visitors and we thought of spending some time looking around. Are you in charge of this place?” Marcus did the talking right before I was able to.
“No, the one’s in charge is Mrs. Safaa, Commander Shady’s wife. I’m Dima, Commander Shady’s niece and Mrs. Safaa’s assistant in the children’s house.”
“I’m starting to like your family, Dima. You’re doing a lot of good here, especially to the children.” Marcus tried to flirt.
Marcus was a good guy and all, but his attitude and the looks on his face didn’t make me comfortable dealing with him. I don’t have anything against him. and I admire his heroics and all but he was just trying to play boss. And I didn’t like that. Now he was flirting with someone close to the commander of Evo-set. And I always like to keep things casual. So I thought I’d give him a good lesson without making enemies with him. I was going to interrupt the flirting. Dima wasn’t enjoying it anyways.
“Miss. Dima, can you show us around?” I asked fast; cutting through their conversation.
She looked at me and gave a welcome smile then turned around walking around the apartment. She waved with her hand to us telling us to come and see. She rested her movements on a low round table where five children were sitting and drawing. One of them was drawing a view of Evo-set, but only more colorful and beautiful which actually attracted me.
“That’s one pretty picture you’re drawing there.” I said to the kid.
The kid didn’t look at me but I can tell for sure that he heard me. He was so busy beautifying the picture as he answered me.
“This is Evo-set when I grow up.” The kid said.
“Is that true? Evo-set is going to be that beautiful?” I teased the kid with that question.
“Yes. Evo-set is going to be very beautiful like it was once before. And the sick people are going to be well again. We’re going to help them recover.” He answered while putting the final touched on his drawing.
“Well, I’m glad to tell you that we are here for that purpose.” I said.
The kid stopped moving his pencil and looked at me. He was checking out the features of my face, triangulating some thoughts deep inside his head that I couldn’t read through his eyes. To be honest, the kid was freaking me out. I never got used to those kinds of looks. The last time I had a look like that was from a dying man back in Canada. He wasn’t turning or even bitten. He tore his arteries apart to follow the death of his daughter. That was one of the accidents I came through since I enlisted in Phoenix.
“You’re not here to help us. You’re here to take uncle Harry away from us do he cannot save us.” The kid said in cold blood.
“Why are you saying that? No, we’re here to help you. And we’re here especially to help Uncle Harry.” I replied trying to prove my squad’s loyalty. Suddenly I felt like I, too, was another kid on the drawing table.
“Well, why haven’t you come to Evo-set earlier?” he asked the right question at the right time.
“Well, I was busy helping other people in New York while Uncle Marcus there was helping other survivors in India…you do know there are other places like Evo-set in the world, right?” I replied.
The kid just looked at me as if he didn’t understand or realize what I just said. and his look made me feel like an asshole. Meanwhile, Dima sat on her knees right before the kid and pulled him gently close to her.
“Omar, uncle….” And she looked at me.
“Corbin…Captain Corbin Doe.” I continued.
“Uncle Corbin is here to help us, Omar. But he was really busy helping people like us outside Evo-set.” She said.
“Dima, are there other places like Evo-set?” he asked as his face was looking puzzled.
“…Yes, Omar. There are other places like Evo-set. But there are much more dangerous that here. And when Evo-set becomes beautiful again, we can help the people living there too…wouldn’t that be great?” she answered.
He nodded after some quick and deep thinking.
“Yalla, go finish your beautiful picture. I’ll put it on the wall when you finish it.”
“Okay, Dima.” And he went back to the table.
Dima stood back up and took me by the arm to one of the corners.
“Captain Corbin, you do realize these are kids, right?” she said with a very harsh, but low, tone in her voice.
“What? Did I say something wrong to the kid?” I replied.
“Well, yes. You’re rapidly exposing his mind to the outside shitty world. That’s what’s wrong.” She replied with words made of bullets. But soon, she came back to her senses and realized that she was talking to an ignorant visitor who thinks that Evo-set is a total strange society.
“I’m sorry. But please, Captain Corbin, if you are to be of good use here, stick to the rules.” Dima continued.
“Excuse me, Miss, but I’ve only come here last night and you’re talking to me about rules? How the hell should I know them?” I answered.
“If you’re only here for five minutes, you’d stick to the rules or the guards will deal with you. It’s not my problem, sir. Nevertheless, if you are concerned about this matter, I’d recommend you meet Mrs. Safaa. She runs the Children’s house. You can speak to her freely because there’s no kid allowed to her office. She’s on the fifth floor.” She replied.
“Why aren’t kids allowed to her office?” he asked.
“Go find out yourself.” She harshly replied and left me to continue her work with the kids.
I could see that Marcus was busy looking at the bookshelves. I didn’t bother telling him where I was heading and started walking my way to the fifth floor. The was a door the separated the fifth floor from the rest of the building. And the strange thing was that the door was only brown…dark brown. That was merely the only not-colorful door I saw in the building. And it kind of gave the reason why kids wouldn’t be allowed to come up here. But I wasn’t a kid. So I was allowed to open the door…and I did. I’m sorry that I did.
The fifth floor was no place for children. It was more of a place for ghosts.
All I could see was hundreds of paintings on the walls. They were all paintings of zombies and half-eaten people. What was driving me even more crazy was that some of the gigantic drawings on the wall were featuring real human bones. Whoever drew this stuck the bones in place on the walls and preserved it well so it wouldn’t rot. It was nothing like down there. Down there was children’s heaven. And up here, it’s hell, a sight that no child could ever endure.
I kept wandering as my eyes traveled through the paintings until I reached the farthest room where I found a woman sitting on the floor cross-legged and looking towards a wall. That was the only different wall there. It didn’t have any paintings. The wall was just full of photos….photos of people who died in the rising and all what’s beyond as I expected. The woman didn’t look young. And I knew who she was. Mrs. Safaa was mourning the dead in silence.
“Come closer, my son.” She said without looking at me.
“You knew I was going to come up here?” I asked.
“Visitors always do…Come..sit beside me.” She answered.
I walked silently next to her and sat on my knees then started surfing through photos. Every photo had a name underneath it. They were their names. It was like a memorial of martyrs.
“I assume you know who those people are.” She started talking.
“I can tell.” I answered.
“And the regular question I get is why would a place like this would be above the children’s house?” she continued.
“That’s exactly what I had in mind. This place is scarier than graveyards.” I answered.
“This place keeps the settlers alive. It keeps them focused. Because of this place, they will never forget what we have to do. I do remember your doctor coming up here several times for inspiration.” She replied.
“What kind of inspiration is this?” I asked mockingly.
She slowly looked at me then stood up and walked towards a table on the right side of the room. I felt happily safe when I realized that she was making tea for both of us. To be honest. That woman gave me the creeps. Not only her, but the whole place did.
“Can I ask you a question, son?” she talked while waiting for the water to boil.
“Knock yourself out.” I replied.
“You lost people in the rising, didn’t you?” she asked.
“My wife, and my son…Yes. But I don’t like to remember that.” I answered.
“And why would you not remember that?” she asked again.
“Listen, Mrs. Safaa, I’m trying to get over it so can we just….” I didn’t get the chance to finish.
“Why are you trying to get over it?” she interrupted.
“….Argh…My zombie son killed my wife and I killed my own son for that.” I answered.
“Poor you.” Then she turned to pour the boiling water into the cups.
“Yes, you’re right. And ever since, I’ve been trying to get over it in order to go on with my life with a sane mind.” I continued.
I wasn’t paying attention when I looked back at her to find her holding my cup and handing it to me. I took it slowly as she sat back in her place and kept her eyes focused on the wall.
“Would you call my husband a blood thirsty freak if I told you that he killed half of the friends he lost to the zombies?” she asked kindly.
“I wouldn’t think of it that way.” I answered.
“Then why do you think that way towards yourself? You’re much more important to yourself than my husband.” She answered some of the lost questions in my mind.
“Well…I…you know…life has to go on.” I couldn’t find a better reply.
“And one day you’ll discover that life had already ended fifteen years ago then decide to throw yourself onto a group of zombie….isn’t that the sad cliché end of every heroic story?” she kept pushing.
“I know I won’t survive to see a cure to all this.” I answered.
“My son, you are only giving up. Life doesn’t go on when you forget about what you’ve lost. I’ll answer the routine question I get. This atrocity around you is the first place that a child visits when he or she grows up. This is only a small simulation of what’s outside our boundaries. They never get nightmares, they never fear coming up here again. Do you know why? Because every time they come up here. They remember what they have to do. They remember that innocent people got sick and killed their loved ones. They’ll always remember that they are the one who have to end this. With a cure that revives all the zombies from their darkness, or with a long-term cure; one bullet at a time. Those photos around you aren’t all dead. Some of them have turned and went missing. But the dead have to honored and avenged. Not from the zombies, but from whoever put us into this mess.” She replied.
“I get your point. Is that why I was not allowed to expose children to certain information too soon?” I asked.
“You’re starting to understand the way we live, now.” She answered.
“I get it….I get it.” I spoke while looking at my cup.
“We will survive this nightmare, my son. Your doctor is doing well. You just keep on doing whatever you’re doing and we’re all going to walk through this safe and sound.” She said.
“You think so?” I asked.
“Look at history, and you’ll find that we’re invincible.” She answered with a very simple sentence.
All I could do was smile and just look at the photos on the wall. She just fell back silent, looking at the wall with hope. We just sat there silent until we heard the door open. It was Shady and his son. Ismail bowed and kissed his mother’s hand.
“Mother.” He said.
“Son” she replied.
“So had he got the idea behind this?” Shady asked Safaa.
“I think so. But I understand that he would never fully get the big picture until he goes to war again.” She answered with a smile.
“Very well, and I guess it’s time for us to work together to do some good. Isn’t that right, captain?” Shady said.
“Yes, sir. I’m here to help. Where can we start?” I answered.
“Come on. I’ll take you to the chemical lab. Harry needs to brief us with what he got to.” Ismail said.
“Alright then. Excuse me Mrs. Safaa and Mr. Shady. And thank you for the tea.” I said.
“That was not tea.” Her face was flat...which gave me Goosebumps.
The room was all silent until suddenly Shady and Safaa burst into laughing.
“Oh, my god, Shady, you should have seen the look on his face…sorry, captain, I was just kidding.” She said while trying to hold he laughs.
“No, It’s okay. I like some sense of humor every now and again.” I said while smiling like a dumbass.
So as I walked, I watched Shady and Safaa sitting together on the floor. They were old. But they still had life within them. That was the last thing I had ever expected to find in a zone that holds the biggest zombie threat in the whole world. Is that normal? I don’t know. I really don’t know.
But I knew one thing. Life does stop when you lose your loved ones. But they fought to move it on. Time was draining their lives so they put their time into good use and made good memories out of them. And they well honored their dead. Evo-set is the biggest proof of honor.
Chapter Eleven
Kattameyya, zone 15
Evo-set survivor settlement
1000 hrs
There was another parking lot on the other side of the children’s house which seemed like a shooting range. I knew it from the big pile of sand that were put behind some wooden sheets. I could notice, too, that Daniel and Tenpenny woke up and went to that shooting range to show off some Phoenix skills to the survivors. As I walked next to Ismail, I noticed him giving a look of pity at Tenpenny who was appearing from the distance that he was talking too much…probably about his skills and experience in the NATO and into Phoenix. So we approached.
“So next time you shoot a zombie, don’t mess up. Marksmanship means one thing; one bullet for each target.” Tenpenny was bragging.
“Tenpenny, dude, they’re survivors. They don’t get training like us. They can barely stay safe for the night.” Daniel said.
“What makes you so sure?” Ismail asked while rubbing his nose.
“Well, it’s obvious.” Daniel answered.
It looked like Ismail didn’t like what he heard. So he went towards one of the big rocks on which they put empty cans and arranged two of them then went back.
“Tenpenny, you’re a good marksman. Right?” Ismail asked.
Now here comes an interesting contest.
“Born for the kill, I’d say.” Tenpenny replied with pride.
“Okay, let’s see what you can do. Shoot one of the two cans twice in a row which means you’re gonna have to shoot it the second time while it’s in the air.” Ismail said.
“I thought you’d never ask.” Tenpenny said with excitement.
So he went to a spot where he could have perfect vision then held his Walther pistol with both of his hands then stood there, aiming slowly…..focusing on his target then BANG!!
The can flew in the air for merely a second then BANG again. Tenpenny shot the can twice just as Ismail told him to do. Then, the can flew way behind the pile of sand.
“Impressive!!” Ismail said, but still with cold blood.
“Now let’s see what you can do.” Tenpenny was waiting for his victory.
Now, it was Ismail’s turn. So Tenpenny moved away; giving him room to move to the exact same spot where he shot the first can. Ismail just stood there, looking at the can with his eyes. he kneeled to pick up a small rock from under his feet. He just held it. He didn’t throw it away.
“What are you doing?” Tenpenny asked as Ismail ignored him.
Ismail kept standing for a couple of seconds..with his pistol in one hand, and the small rock in the other hand. He didn’t aim. And he was going to shoot the target with one hand. And there he went…BANG!!
The can darted its way up towards the sky as Ismail threw the rock in his hand to perfectly meet the can in the air. What a real Marksman!!! Tenpenny must have thought that in his mind. The can also flew way behind the pile of sand. Tenpenny was going to be the joke of the day.
The two survivors whom Tenpenny was picking on started laughing their asses off while Ismail looked at him with pity. Daniel was just looking at the spot where Ismail shot…just amazed.
“Survival is the best marksmanship training, Tenpenny. You should try it.” Ismail said with cold blood.
“Are we done, boys?” I asked…no I mocked.
Everybody was not willing to wait for a moment. Tenpenny was way too bested by Ismail and he for sure felt defeated. Daniel always acts a fool when somebody proves the opposite of his point, and I don’t feel much interested in the subject because I was focusing more on what we should do instead of challenging each other. And Marcus was already not here but I looked behind me to see him panting towards us. Dima must have got his attention. As for Ismail, what just happened proved the point- which I think- he always had to prove every time there’s a new guy around.
“Yeah, I think Tenpenny is convinced. Now maybe it’s time to see Dr. Harry’s progress on his research.” Ismail said.
“Oh yeah, I have a question. What exactly is Dr. Harry researching?” Daniel asked trying to keep the subject going in order to forget the contest.
“Well, let’s talk on the way there.” Ismail said while moving…and we followed.
“Well, I’m sure you had information that Dr. Harry is specialized in zombie behavior. But since he came here, and he’s been doing his best to understand more on other fields like…and I mean like more anatomical fields that give clues to more than just behavior. And the reason he’s been doing that is the new evolution in the enemy’s lines…the super zombies. So technically, what he’s researching nowadays is Super zombie physiology and behavior.” He explained.
“Since when did that evolution show up?” I asked.
“Three months ago. At first, those super zombies were very rare to encounter and their types also were really few. But now they’re everywhere in the zone and their types can’t be counted by your fingers.” He answered.
“So, there’s not just those ‘Sirens’?” Marcus asked.
“Sirens are the first type we encountered. And they’re not that difficult to defeat. They weren’t that much of a trouble to us. As for the other types, some of them are sitting ducks and the rest are as dangerous as commandos to rookies.” Ismail answered.
“Such rapid evolution is never close to natural.” Marcus added.
“Exactly. And that is why Dr. Harry is doubling his efforts trying to get one step ahead of whoever is doing the mutation on the Kessler Virus.” Ismail explained.
“He’ll never get ahead of them.” Tenpenny said.
“Come on, Dude. Be optimistic.” Daniel said.
“Unfortunately, he’s right, Daniel. We’ll never get ahead of them as long as we don’t have any of their source specimens. We’re only looking into the copy number one thousand of the original mutated virus.” I replied.
“you got that right, Captain Corbin. But that’s not what I meant by getting ahead of them.” Ismail said.
“…Go on.” Marcus waited for an explanation.
“What I meant was to develop a way to kill those damn things as soon as they mutate. That way, we’d be able to minimize their damage and our casualties.” Ismail explained.
“Can I ask a bad question?” Tenpenny said.
“Will it help?” Ismail asked back.
“Sort of…it’d give me a picture of what we’re going through here.” Tenpenny answered.
“Okay then. Hit me.” Ismail said.
“How many have you lost since the first mutation? And give me a percentage of your population.” Tenpenny asked.
Ismail’s face blackened as if the light of the sun refused to fall on his face.
“about 450 survivors. That’s about 30% of our population.” He answered with an aching voice.
“Any loved ones included?” Marcus tried to touch the softest place in his stone heart.
“My uncle, Islam Shawareb…and my fiancée, Sarah.” His voice was aching even more.
Marcus felt so stupid to ask. I tried to interfere and ease a little bit on the kid.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Ismail. You know what? I killed my zombie son when he was eating my wife. “ I tried to make him feel better…and I always suck in that.
“I’m sorry to hear that as well. Reminds me of my father’s miserable era.” He answered.
“What? Did Mr. Shady kill his brother?” Daniel asked.
“No, He killed both his parents. He burned them alive. And two months ago….he killed my Sarah.” He answered.
“Oh my god, I’m sorry again.” I said.
“It wasn’t his fault, alright?” he said with an angered voice. Surely, we have struck a nerve.
“One of those stupid super zombies breached our fence near her position, and thirty minutes later, I found her drowning in blood. She was bitten in the neck…That’s when my father didn’t hesitate to shoot her. Because I did.” He continued.
“Well, I guess he did the right thing. Don’t you think?” Marcus tried to fix what he screwed.
But again he keeps screwing up. No wonder Phoenix magazine call him “the sharp tongued badass” .
We nearly reached the chemical war lab- as Ismail called it- but when you look at it, you can barely name it a workshop. And the smell was shaking the very core of our cells and driving all of them to explode at once. I could see a pile of bones thrown outside the main door. And I could tell they belonged to zombies because most of them seemed complete in shape. Broken bones mean dead survivors…Basics of modern fossil science. And you never get to learn that in Phoenix. If you ask me from where I got the knowledge. I’d give you one answer…Youtube.
And guess what? The exterior was refreshing compared to the interior of the chemical war lab. It’s like hell…no it IS hell.
Dr. Harry was standing in one of the corners in front of a dead body that didn’t look close to human. I kind of recognized the body from the distance. It was that ugly Siren that was chasing me last night when we landed. I moved close to take a better look at him. Dr. Harry could tell we were there but he seemed too busy to turn and salute us.
“Make yourselves comfortable, gentlemen.” The doctor said.
“If my guess is right, this is last night’s Siren. Isn’t he?” I asked Ismail.
“Yes, he is, Captain. Your guess is right. We brought him in for research.” Ismail answered.
“Sirens are one of the rare super types that develop on their own.” Dr. Harry said.
“how is that possible?” Marcus asked.
Dr. Harry paid his attention to us and leaned on the table on which the siren’s body rested then started explaining.
“I have found a mutated version of the virus that sort of accelerates almost all the biological processes in the body including the work of natural selection. I have made a list of the mutated versions I’ve found. You may read all of them on the manifest over there near the fridge.” Dr. harry pointed at the other side of the lab.
Marcus and I went to take a look as the doctor continued talking.
“Whoever made the mutations was just so smart that he accidently created a version that could adapt rapidly with the environment. There’s no need for natural selection to do its magic anymore. Those guys evolve whenever they need to. And since the last three weeks, I’ve detection about 12 evolutions for the siren alone.” the doctor continued.
“…..Damn!!!” Daniel whispered.
“Not just that, gentlemen. The news just gets better and better. Their permanent changes are remarkable. I consider the mutation of the Kessler virus is the greatest evolution in the history of the planet. This virus is…intelligent enough to doom us all.” The doctor kept talking.
“You were saying something about permanent changes.” Marcus interrupted.
“Oh! Yes. I was able to determine the changes through several biopsies I’ve taken from a living body of a siren. The blood test showed a really rapid production of blood platelets.” The doctor said.
“Which means in English that their wounds heal in no time…they barely bleed.” I explained to my squad.
“Exactly, Captain. And if you look at this portion of siren skin you’ll notice a really thick layer of Epidermis. Thick skin means armored body to be clear.” He added.
“That’s just great isn’t it?” Tenpenny said.
“But…I’m not finished yet. There’s a proverb that says ‘looks may be deceiving’. That large body isn’t mostly made of muscles…it’s just thick skin. They might be large but they’re heavier than us and you can say they’re as strong as we are. And the greatest thing I’ve found out in the sirens body is his chest.” The doctor said.
“Tell me he can shoot energy out of his chest like Iron Man.” Daniel said.
“Actually, I found a very good weakness. Sirens were actually made to alert the surrounding zombies in order to form larger horde attacks. Which means he has to scream as loud as a real siren. Well, screaming needs good breath and good breath needs large lungs. So when the sirens evolved to meet their standards, they lost their sternum bone. It kind of transformed into a soft tissue that only holds the rib cage closed. And that explained how the sirens get the chests inflated with air before they scream. Their rib cages are so elastic that It can inflate like balloons.” Dr. Harry said with an “I am a genius” smile on his face.
“So you bring a large sniper rifle that can break through his thick skin and you kill him.” Tenpenny continued.
“Much better than that, Sergeant. Their skin epidermis is not thick at that particular part of his body in order not to form weight on the rib cage so it can inflate freely. So you can literally stab him with a fork in his heart and kill him.” the doctor solved the problem of my day…and last night.
“How about his intelligence?” I asked.
“Well, you know the basic side effects of the virus. The IQ level drops by 50 points. And this guy over there needed more armor than intelligence. So he’s slightly more stupid than other zombies.” Doc. Genius answered.
I had no more questions about the siren so I wanted to move on with another subject. I noticed another dead body over there that just seemed like a normal zombie. He just tempted me to ask.
“And what are you doing with that guy over there?” I asked.
Dr. harry looked at the body and tried to hold his laughs. He might have found something funny in that body…a joke or maybe a John Stewart episode.
“That?...hahaha….that, my friend, is the joke of evolution. One of the worthless mutations of the Kessler beast. One of the guards found that guy eating grass just two days ago. One of the mutations created that poor guy. This zombie is a vegetarian. Can you believe that?” the doctor said in laughs and made Tenpenny laugh with him. I just couldn’t find it so funny.
“A herbivore zombie? How is that possible?” I asked again.
“my explanation is just that one of the guys tried something and went wrong and produced that little bastard. Science screws up sometimes.” Doc. Answered.
I kept looking at him along with Marcus who shared the same wrong feeling with me. But I had nothing to prove in my mind….he had.
“You said it was eating grass?” he asked.
“yes, why?” doc. Answered.
“did you try feeding him corn or wheat or even vegetables?” he asked again.
“yeah and he was a cutie when he was eating. I did it for the sake of fun actually. And I even thought of keeping him as a pet. But you know, you can’t risk a whole settlement for a guy like this one.” He replied.
“How much did he eat in one meal?” Marcus kept asking.
Doc. Tried to remember…”I don’t know for sure…but all I can remember was that he ate quite a lot of carrots and corn. He must have had two bellies or something.” He replied while joking.
“The bastards are just well planning everything.” Marcus said that and then the whole room fell silent.
“Put that guy in a group of his same type and you’ll get a whole farm turned into a desert land.” Marcus continued and turned towards the body of that vegetarian.
“He’s no joke at all.” He said again.
“but he was caught on his own, Major…” Doc. Knew his rank from the stripes on his upper part of his sleeves.
“Major Marcus Alex.” He replied without taking any pleasure.
“Oh my god…Oh my god...’m standing before a international hero.” Doc. Seemed so impressed.
“No time for cheers and autographs, please. Major, continue what you were saying.” I interrupted.
“You said he was caught two days ago. Was he the first subject of that kind?” Marcus asked the Doc.
“yeah. That’s probably the first of his generation. The reason why we captured him was his strange behavior and the reason we killed him is that we can’t afford to feed zombies in addition to survivors.” Doc. Answered.
“That means he’s still a test subject for now. Or to be more accurate, that’s a beta version of a super zombie. Otherwise, he’d be moving in packs like any herbivore.” Marcus replied.
His theory was convincing us all. Why would our enemy waste money and time in such a hazardous territory to develop a worthless individual zombie? The wrong thing about what I said is…That dead guy over there is a problem…only if he was a group. And he hasn’t been…yet.
“Okay, so let’s just imagine the size of his problem. If that guy was a whole zombie horde, can you estimate how much food are we gonna lose in one attack?” I asked to make the conversation clearer.
“Well, if my calculations are accurate, a whole horde of that guy can eat about….500 square meters of crop field. And I guess that’s enough to feed like twenty people for almost a week.” Doc. Answered.
“Which means that if there’s more than one horde of that guy, we’d rapidly lose our green lands. And our planet would turn into a really big desert.” I added.
“This is too much knowledge to handle.” Tenpenny commented.
“That’s because you’re stupid.” Daniel explained the comment.
“Come on, people. Don’t be pessimistic. It’s too early for that. We only caught one guy. And I’ve been following reports from the neighboring settlements. They haven’t seen a similar case. Our enemy had just released that guy. And it’s gonna take them a lot of time to produce a vegetarian army. The good thing about our conversation here is that we caught a string that might just lead us ahead of them. Through this we can stop their researches or at least slow them down. We already have time.” Ismail was even more reasonable than Marcus.
The room fell silent again trying to make use out of the info we just deduced from the vegetarian zombie. It took us like three minutes until someone spoke.
“Ismail, did that guy have any identity with him? anything that could lead us to where he came from? Or at least where he got turned?” Daniel asked.
Identity…it showed another use to the world since the rising. When you kill a zombie then look into his past world’s ID card, you may find out where he used to work or where he used to live. Those are the two most possible places of infection. Statistical analysis since the past 15 years showed some studies that proved there’s a 75% possibility that the infection area would be at work places and homes. That includes schools, colleges, universities, convenient stores, mega stores, hospitals, and majorly public areas with a lot of clients and a lot of employees. And that study changed the course of viral investigation and then architecture then business distribution across the globe. The 25% that’s left includes outbreaks, unique accidents, and infections from low populated areas…mainly highways, forests, deserts…places of that sort….don’t ask me more….YouTube it.
“Yes, he had an ID card and another card that used to go into a name tag. That guy used to work as a security guard at the GUC…German university in Cairo.” Ismail answered.
“He used to live near here?” Daniel asked again.
“No, he used to live near downtown. And there’s no way a slow zombie like that would come all the way from downtown to here just to eat some plants.” Ismail answered again.
“Where’s that GUC?” I asked.
“Not far from here.” Ismail replied.
“So he got infected there. And guess what? He got injected with a substance that stimulated his new behavior at the same place. To be more reasonable, he was probably injected with the new mutated virus solution. Which means he didn’t turn from a bite. Is that right, Doc.?” I asked.
“I didn’t check his body for bites but let me take a look.” Doc. Turned to the body and started checking every part of his body. Meanwhile I turned to Ismail again and started asking more questions.
“Did he have any ammo or something that showed he was a survivor?” I asked.
“Yes, he had a couple of 9mm magazine clips and his uniform was so torn apart. That’s in addition to a couple of knee protectors he had on his pants. Don’t worry he was holed up at the GUC and there’s no way he had made it out of the GUC or at least he would have found a way back to his home in downtown which seems already too difficult.” Ismail answered so many questions in one answer.
“Captain Corbin, he was injected. And the injection made a small wound in his back here. He must have struggled somehow with whoever injected him so he’d get that nasty injection mark.” Doc. Answered more questions.
Things were getting a little more clear to me. And it was good that we could estimate how our enemy was working. It was clear…so damn clear. They’d never send one of their guys all the way from Tahrir square to here. the only possible explanation of an injection in this territory was trading…or maybe dirty work contracts. The injector might have been a mercenary who was paid to do this far away. And hiring mercenaries means they don’t risk losing their own people and also means that they have plenty of resources to spend on their research. So they’re wealthy and few..here at least.
If you ask “What now?” , I’d tell you to read the phoenix field manual which we all follow. You’ll find the answer in the logistics section, chapter 1. And if you don’t have a field manual, I’d gladly tell you myself. In the logistics department of Phoenix, we have standard procedure protocols that we follow even when we are not doing our exact job at the current time. Agree or disagree but I think I am doing the job I’ve enlisted to do.
Back to protocols…before we make any new move, we document the information we reached, the current situation, our plans, our diaries, and finally, any update you’d like to add to your will. You type that into the your military laptop which automatically uploads any new files or updates to the nearest Phoenix server to your position. Our nearest server would be in Madrid’s airport where we landed with the plane that took us from New York.
Logistics in Phoenix also advises to work in squads just to accelerate the speed of work we do. A normal logistics squad would be of three people. And each of the three has a particular job. My normal logistics squad consisted of me, Daniel, and Tenpenny. I was the Investigator whose job is to investigate, solve clues, triangulate the information and interrogate any person if necessary. Daniel was the communicator who was supposed to be carrying all communication gadgets with him. His main job is to keep uploading the updates, keep us in continuous contact with the nearest phoenix base, and help the investigator in the triangulation using advanced military software on the laptop. His additional job was to know how to operate on any tech in the field…surveillance systems, jammers, trigger cell phones, radars….etc. As for Tenpenny, he is the squad’s marksman whose job is to protect the other two and keep the flow of work smooth and easy. Tenpenny doesn’t know much about the virus nor the tech that Daniel and I use. He only knows what’s enough to make him shoot zombies better.
So with that protocol in our heads, we move without orders. Daniel opened the military laptop and started documenting everything that has happened since last night, Tenpenny went to re-supply our weaponry, and I kept looking around the lab for any more info that I can understand. This time, the squad’s a little bit bigger. Doc. Started to make more tests on the vegetarian zombie, and Marcus started following his own protocols since he came from another department of Phoenix. I read his part two in the field manual. He had another laptop among his gear…only smaller. It was more of a log than a computer. What he was doing was record the cultural behavior of survivors in the zone, estimate the daily losses and gains of the area, and describe their overall situation. That kind of information might participate in sending supplies or reinforcements to the zone. Daily loss and gain reports (DLGRs) add more accuracy to the weekly Loss-gain reports (WLGR) that come from the Phoenix satellite analysis. And in turn, the WLGR adds accuracy to the Monthly LGR, the MLGR adds to the yearly LGR. Which at the end of the year could save millions of people from turning or friendly fire. Phoenix is just a large bee’s nest.
We spent like half an hour busy with what we were doing. Ismail was the one who wasn’t but he was trying to explain whatever I asked about during that time. I didn’t ask much though. There was not much of useful information I could add to the strings we’ve pulled from the body. By the end of that time, everyone was just waiting for our next move. They all looked at me. And I usually don’t like people staring at me for long. Being in charge sucks.
“Okay…whoever the injector was, he’s a mercenary. We’re gonna find out who he is and beat the information out of him. Ismail, take us to your father.” I said.
Chapter Twelve
Evo-set HQ building
Kattameyya, zone 15
1200 hrs
Shady Shawareb was, by then, back at his headquarters. He was sitting in his red armchair but this time he wasn’t paying much attention to the surveillance monitors in front of him. it was day anyway and there couldn’t be much danger at that time. Most of the horde attacks took place at night or in dark areas. Instead of watching the surveillance, he was oiling his own assault rifle. He had AK-107 which seemed to have been modified with optics and an M-203 grenade launcher.
“Is there anything new, gentlemen?” he asked while his eyes were fixed on the AK.
“unfortunately, yes. Do you know about that vegetarian zombie?” I asked.
“Yes, what about him?” he replied.
“He’s a new weapon in the testing phase. And it turns out he hadn’t been bitten but injected with live mutated Kessler solution.” I replied.
Shady stopped what he was doing for a while; thinking out the news…then he functioned again.
“And you’re here to ask me who did it?” he shortened the talk way too well.
“Close enough, sir. I need to know the dwellings of the mercenaries around here. the injector is definitely one of them.” I clarified my request.
“Well, there’s Ramadan. He used to live here in Evo-set but since he recruited a bunch of former-builders, he took up the junk trading business and settled his own HQ at the Shell gas station not very far from here. I advised him several times that it’s safer if he’d ally his men with us for the safety of all. But he wouldn’t listen.” He answered.
“What does he have to do with mercenaries?” Tenpenny asked.
“Mercenaries around here are known for the best scrap armor. And they get their scrap from junk dealers like Ramadan. So, for sure, he’s got a clue on where they stay. Who knows? Maybe he hired a couple of them for some heavy scavenging.” Ismail answered while his father nodded.
“So he’s our lead to the mercenaries? And will he know something about the injection?” Daniel asked.
“Where do you think that mercenary got the loaded syringe?...think about it.” Shady replied.
“Alright, thank you, Mr. Shady. We’ll head to his place and talk with him. Does he speak English?” I asked.
“No, you’ll need an interpreter. Take one of my men.” Shady replied.
“I’ll go with you.” Ismail Interrupted.
“Ismail, you have nothing to do with their job.” Shady argued.
“Actually, Mr. Shady, I was planning to tell you that I need Ismail with us on the coming moves. He’s a good interpreter and also he knows about super zombies more than we do.” I confessed.
“Captain Corbin, you realize that my son is considered the best sniper in Evo-set. He needs to stay and cover the borders with the men.” Shady’s tone was sharp.
“Father, I told you before about uncle Wolf. You know he’s been a cop and he’s a good sniper. He can lead the border patrol.” Ismail tried to solve Shady’s problem.
“Maybe he’s skilled, but I don’t trust his ability to improvise. You’re way better than him.” Shady answered.
Ismail got closer to his father and then sat close to his knees and started to speak in a calm tone.
“Father, you always told me to do the right thing no-matter how much difficulty I face. Shooting Sarah was the right thing. And I’m telling you that from the bottom of my heart. I’m through with this issue. Now the right thing to do now is to go with them on their mission. The right thing to do is to stop those bastards from kicking the evolution forward. You do know how many people will be saved if we succeed in this. Father…please let me do the right thing.” He said.
The loving part of the father was touched but the careful part was trying to pull up the walls of rejection around Shady. He stood up, took some steps towards the map on the wall, then spoke.
“Captain, my son is your responsibility. There’s a slight chance of you coming back from the whole big trip in one piece. So keeping him alive is going to be out of your hands. All I’m going to ask for is….don’t waste his life for nothing.” Shady said.
“I promise you with that, sir. Thank you.” I said.
“I’m not doing that for free, you know.” He replied with a devilish smile.
“….Name your terms.” I replied.
“Convince Ramadan to ally his men with Evo-set. And promise him that he will continue his junk trading without our interference.” He replied.
“Consider those men yours, sir.” Marcus said.
“One more thing, you’re going to need constant communication with Dr. Harry. He will not be able to continue his research with you on the road.” He said that to test our solidity.
“Sir…be reasonable. We won’t leave him disappear out of our sight.” Tenpenny replied with the solidity that shady wanted.
“Now I know that you’ll be able to negotiate with Ramadan. He’s a tough bastard, I’m telling you. Okay, there’s a green armored van in Sector C to the North. It’s equipped with a machine gun turret and medical supplies. Your only problem with it is going to be the fuel. You’ll have to stop by gas stations to refuel the van. That’s going to draw the horde’s attention. So be Careful.” Shady gifted us.
We all bowed to the man. He was understanding with the situation in our hands….the situation in everybody’s hands. Ismail had a big smile on his face as he stood up from the bow and left to be on point. We followed in his tracks.
“Thank you, sir. You’ve been of great assistance. And I promise you, every man who had died in this mess will be avenged.” I said.
“Just do your job and don’t take any pride in the kill. You may come across a cure then wish you’ve never killed your loved ones.” He said with a sad smile. He envied me for my mission.
“I get that feeling every mission, sir. I understand.” I replied to ease on him.
“Now, go.” He said then turned back to his assault rifle.
Outside the building, the air wasn’t still. The wind was blowing gently and the sun was still in the middle of the sky. We had plenty of time before sunset. And it was enough to negotiate with that “Ramadan” and go on with our mission. The five of us stood outside the building taking a slight share of the breeze outside.
“Okay, dudes. Looks like we’re off. I’ll go help Dr. Harry pack his stuff and head to the van.” Daniel said.
“And I’ll grab some ammo and supplies, then say goodbye to my mother and cousin.” Ismail added.
“That leaves the three of us to head for the van and get it ready to move.” Tenpenny concluded.
“I guess you’re right. Okay, we’ll meet near the van in ten.” I said then moved with Tenpenny and Marcus in my tail.
What a mess we were about to go into!! I was sure that everything was going to get bloody from this point. No more flights, no more rest, no more waiting. We’re gonna head to the mouth of the lion with our own will. And we were happy... Dumb us!!
I saw that van last night when we first came into Evo-set. It was on the road back out of the settlement so I recognized the road back and walked.
“hey, Corbin. Do we have access to any fire support of any sort?” Tenpenny asked.
“Please, read the manual, Tenpenny. Please.” I said while laughing.
“What the fuck!!! Why do you people always mock my questions?” Tenpenny argued.
“Because you never asked a single proper question since you came into the squad.” I replied.
“You can’t order fire support inside zones, Tenpenny. You can only order supplies and ammunition. Sometimes you can order transportation but it barely happens. They only pick you up for exfiltration.” Marcus answered.
“But I do remember a couple of artillery cannons firing near Quebec back in Canada.” Tenpenny tried to understand more.
“That situation was different. Quebec was nearly going to join the code red family. So they were authorized to minimize the danger for the survivors.” I replied.
“Is that real? Wow, I missed a lot of things when I was in zone 4.” Marcus said.
“Yeah, I wonder what else we’ll miss while we’re here.” I said.
“Probably the end of the world.” Tenpenny was cheerful when he said that.
“I hope not…it’s not something to miss.” Marcus replied.
The van was right there ahead of us. We moved in circle around the car to take a good look at it. Then we opened the back door to find out it was fairly equipped with supplies, seats and some space for some of us to sleep. That was good.
“Tenpenny, you’re a good mechanic, aren’t you?” I asked.
“Do you want me to check the van before we go?” he asked back.
“That’s not an option, Tenpenny.” I replied with a silly smile.
“Screw the fucking ranking protocol that could make a man like you so damn pushy.” I considered that agreement because all I could hear was scotch gibberish language.
Five minutes later, everyone was gathered around the van; waiting for my signal to move.
“Alright, guys. Is there anyone who can’t drive?” I asked and nobody replied.
“Okay, good. We’ll split the day into four-hour shifts of driving. Each one of us will have a shift of driving in the day. And there’s only room for three in there for sleep, so that means three will sleep while others are taking specific positions; one driving, one watching the road with a map, and one manning the machine gun turret. The three awake ones will shift positions when the driver’s nap time comes. For now, Tenpenny will drive, I’ll be next to him, Ismail will be on the turret and the rest…well, just sit back, smoke, play cards..do whatever you want. “ I explained our trip plan. Nobody argued. Even Tenpenny didn’t argue. He loved driving.
“Okay we’re off. Let’s go.” I said.
We all got in. and then moved slowly. There goes the time of rest and waiting.
“Ismail, how do we get out of here?” I asked.
“take the next left and keep going until I tell you to go right.” He said.
Tenpenny did exactly as he said. The people of Evo-set were watching from the balconies and windows as we moved. And their face bared the feelings of gratitude to what we were about to go through. They still hated Phoenix because it did only little to save them. But they were feeling safe since we came to their territory. The looks of the survivors showed a lot of relief.
So, as soon as we took the next right, we saw a big steel gate that was being opened by the guards; allowing us to pass. The road outside seemed safe. Only a few zombies hiding their faces against the walls of the opposite residential compound.
“Don’t waste your ammo on those, Ismail. We have a long road. Let the guards take care of them.” I told Ismail.
“Okay.”
Ismail kept directing us to the right way to that Shell gas station. I opened the map and started to look for it. It was on the ring road outside. And it was separated with a small deserted land from the rest of the residential compounds. So we moved through a tunnel that led us directly to the ring road and started driving through the emptiness of the road until we saw the gas station on the left of our horizon. As it drew closer and closer, I could see a couple of men standing on the roof of the fueling area with guns. Ramadan must have chosen that place wisely. It was surrounded by empty land and the only thing that was connected to it was the ring road which was already blocked by roadblocks and more men baring machine guns. It was just a small fortress.
One of the guards stepped outside of the station market and started waving at us; telling us to pull over for a talk. And that was just what we wanted so we did as we were told.
“Ismail, you do the talking.” I said.
“Okay.” He replied.
The guards stood next to our van after we pulled over so close to the gas station then he approached the driver’s window and started talking in some sort of Arabic language. My cultural background told me that was of rural origins. But let’s not just pass ahead of the events.
Ismail started talking with the man. And from his body language, he showed that he was in charge…which was good. Because Ismail and his father at least have some influence on those people so it’d be better if they handle the diplomacy.
After the small chit-chat, the guards stepped aside; allowing us to step out of our van. And we did then made sure that the van was locked. You can’t trust dealers, right?
“So, what was the chit-chat about?” Tenpenny asked Ismail.
“zone routine…you see that road block? They didn’t make it just to fend off the zombies. They make passers-by pay a fee to go on. Ramadan is an asshole.” Ismail said.
“I like his attitude…was he a businessman or something?” he asked.
Ismail looked at him then laughed lightly.
“My dad bought cigarettes from him before the rising. That was his job.” Ismail said.
“Small time trader, eh? They’re assholes indeed.” Tenpenny exclaimed.
The guards on the door asked us to hand over our weapons. I’ve never seen such a badass attitude since the rising. Shady Shawareb didn’t do this with us. That attitude made them hostile enough to me. But anyway, we handed over our weapons and passed inside. He was sitting there behind what was a cashier counter one day. If you have the sharp eye, you’d tell who’s in charge and who’s not. So we started approaching him until he lifted his hand to stop us.
“What?” Daniel asked.
Ramadan started to talk in his fast language as Ismail translated.
“He says that’s as far as we go in here.”
“Man, What the fuck? I’m sure he treats zombies nicer.” Daniel said.
“He says what brings us here? Captain, it’s your turn to talk. I’ll translate.” Ismail said.
I took another step forward which slightly angered Ramadan but I didn’t bother caring. I looked around his place for a moment then started talking.
“I hear you sell scrap and equipment to mercenaries.” I said as Ismail converted the words into Arabic. And I waited for the backfire.
“He says that’s none of your business.” Ismail said.
“Tell him that one of the mercenaries he deals with has contact with the ones behind the super zombies.” I said.
Ramadan thought the words a little bit then looked at me.
“He says that he didn’t know anything about that. But he knows the mercenaries around.” Ismail translated.
“ask him if one of them visited this place to buy equipment.” I said.
Arabic….Arabic…Arabic.
“He says that a mercenary who calls himself the rooster came here the day before yesterday. But he didn’t buy anything. He asked for a package that someone left here. he said something about a delivery.” Ismail said.
“The package was here? and if it was, what was it?” I asked.
“He says the package was in a small black brief case. He didn’t know what it was.” Ismail replied.
“Ask him where that rooster stays.” I said.
“he lives inside the Kattameyya heights compound. That area is zombie territory. And we didn’t bother taking it back. Just some villas and golf playgrounds.” Ismail replied.
“do you know his exact location in there?” I asked.
“No, mercenaries here are mobile. They don’t stay at one place for longer than three days.” Ismail answered without asking any questions to Ramadan.
“Alright, now we have a lead on the rooster. If we can find where he is we’re gonna know who contacted him for the injection job. Now let’s move on to the next subject..your father’s request. Ask him if he needs supplies.” I said.
“He’s a trader for god’s sake. He doesn’t need anything.” Ismail said.
“Just ask him.” I insisted.
Ismail took a long sigh then started asking in Arabic.
“He’s asking about the kind of supplies that you’re offering.” Ismail returned.
“Gas bombs….CHI mark 2.” I replied.
Ramadan seemed pleased. I understood that he agreed on the trade without making Ismail translate his Arabic.
“tell him that I can also give him schematics of the CHI mark 1 so he can make home-made versions.” I added.
“Captain, are you serious? This is some dangerous knowledge you’re trading. And he seems like a redneck. He’d kill people with that.” Marcus objected.
“He may be an asshole and all but he doesn’t have the guts nor the big need to make such bombs. Just watch my next move.” I replied.
“He’s asking about what you want in return.” Ismail asked me.
“I want his co-operation with Evo-set without restricting the freedom of trading. If Evo-set had a place like this in its frontline, it’d be safer. You won’t have to worry about the ring road entrance.” I said.
Ramadan heard my offer and then nodded. He’d be stronger with those chloroform bombs but still on the side of Evo-set which makes Evo-set even stronger. Plus, Ramadan and his men would die before the people of Evo-set in case of an attack. Ramadan had to agree. He had nothing to lose or risk.
“He’s saying that he’ll send a couple of men to complete the negotiation with my father.” Ismail said.
That’s good. Now it was time to go. We had a “rooster” to interrogate. So, there was no need to stay any longer.
“Alright then, do as you wish. And thank you for the information.” I said to Ramadan.
We had to find that rooster before sunset. It’d be better to search in daylight. We got into the van quickly then turned around; heading back to the Kattameyya heights compound. It was a big one as Ismail described to me on the way out of the gas station. I understood that we had to rush the search.
“Do you think he’s gonna be hostile?” I asked Ismail.
“I think so. But I don’t think he’s gonna hit an armored van with an assault rifle.” Ismail replied.
“Unless he’s badass enough to own a grenade launcher.” Tenpenny said.
“You’re right, Tenpenny. We can’t risk crashing into his party with all we’ve got. We’ll have to split into groups so we can at least minimize the possible damage.” I replied.
“Will we find some zombies inside?” Doc. Asked.
“It’s crawling with zombies. But the land is vast so we’ve got an upper hand. Don’t worry too much about them.” Ismail replied.
“alright, we’re gonna split into three groups; two for each group. Me and the doc will search to the right of the entrance, Marcus and Ismail will go middle, Daniel and Tenpenny will go left. We’re almost there. Ready your weapons. Once you hear gunfire, you run towards the source of the sound. Got it?” I said.
Everybody nodded….good…now we just had to wait for our arrival which took no more than a minute. I didn’t realize the place was so close.
“We’ll have to do this quick and spontaneous. We’ll move on the count of three…one…two…three.” I signaled.
All of us just stepped out of the van and split into the groups. We moved in double speed but careful and stable enough to shoot any zombie on sight. We found a number of zombies indeed but they couldn’t pile together enough to form a serious attack. Our rifles were modified with sound suppressors so we could mark the sound of the rooster’s rifle…the only loud gun in the area.
“Hey, Captain, do you realize we’re actually back to pre-rising wars? We’re fighting healthy humans again.” Doc said while on the move.
“It’s just beginning, Doc. There’s a lot of people that will die in this war.” I replied.
“I hope not.” Doc said to himself.
Suddenly, I could hear some static coming out of my ear cuff. Daniel turned on his radio transmitter. How could I be stupid enough to forget that we had radio connection?
“Boss, we have our guy in our sight. He’s wearing a black beret and holding an Uzi in one hand. He’s as dumb as he looks. Request permission to pop a round in his leg, sir.” Daniel said through the ear cuff. Everyone heard that.
“No, Danny. Don’t shoot him. we just need to get as close as possible to him then force him to lay down his weapon. Where’s his location?” I replied.
“He’s sitting on a rocking chair on the roof of an orange villa. And he’s half asleep. This is going to be easy.” Daniel replied.
“I suggest we take positions around the villa, and let two of us get up to the roof and restrain him” Marcus said.
“Good idea, you and Ismail will restrain him. we’ll surround the place. Let’s go.” I accepted the suggestion.
It was simple. Mercenaries didn’t have to focus too much. They don’t pay too much attention to zombies because they choose places with old infected zombies. So staying safe wouldn’t be a problem to them as long as they barricade their hideouts. Rooster didn’t have to stay awake for too long. The thing that made it easier and easier was that we were six and he was just one. I love this kind of situations. But this kind doesn’t come by very often.
I was amazed by how Ismail was capable of moving without a sound. He could throw his rifle on his shoulder and move slowly behind the mercenary and finally grab a tight hold of his weapon and wrap his other arm around the guy’s neck. Marcus used the situation to take his weapon away and get his hands behind and restrain him.
“Bring him inside, Marcus.” I said through the ear cuff.
We slowly moved inside the villa and checked the rest of the house for any hostiles. The house was clear. So I readied a chair as Marcus made the rooster sit on it. He seemed angry enough to spit blood on our faces…redneck mercenaries!!!
“What the fuck do you want?” the rooster said.
“wait a minute….you’re not Egyptian. You’re English.” Tenpenny said.
“Well, well, we have a foreign mercenary.” Ismail exclaimed.
“What are you doing here in zone 15?” I asked.
“I was a pre-risingEnglish teacher…happy?” he answered.
“Say the truth.” Daniel grabbed his hair tightly.
“Ouch!! What the fuck, man? You treat a zombie better.” The rooster replied.
“We’re here for information. And we’re authorized to shoot uninfected people. That’s probably the kind of news that would save your life if you take it into consideration.” I put down his plans.
“Oh… well, ease it on me a little bit. I need my hair.” He said to Daniel.
“You were assigned lately for a strange mission…injection.” Doc. Said.
“what are you talking about?” the rooster tried to hide the truth behind his face.
“I was not joking about killing uninfected, you know.” I menaced again.
“Alright, god damn it. Yes, alright? I was assigned to inject a healthy looking person with some kind of solution.” He replied.
“with a specialized injector? Or with a normal syringe?” Doc. Asked.
“Does it make a difference?” Tenpenny stupidly asked.
Doc. Looked at him and he was certainly angry with his question. Not because of its stupidity, but because of the wrong timing and place of the question.
The answer is yes, it makes a difference. And the answer whether it’s a syringe or a specialized injector is going to define how well equipped the infectors are. A specialized injector will tell us they’re very well equipped.
“They didn’t give me anything to inject with. They only gave me the solution in an ampoule and left me to choose my own equipment.” The rooster clarified which I wish he didn’t. Now we won’t have a clue about their readiness.
“Do you still have that ampoule?” Doc. Asked.
“Yes, it’s right over there on that bar. It’s empty though.” He answered.
Doc. Went over to the bar and picked up the ampoule then started looking at it for a little while. Moments later, he looked at us then finally spoke.
“I’m gonna make a small experiment with my tool kit. I need to know if the solution was for sure the V-1 type.” The doctor said.
“What’s a V-1 type?” Daniel asked.
“remember the manifest you read, Captain Corbin? It had all the types of virus mutations I’ve discovered. Luckily, I recorded a sample of every mutation I came across in the manifest. And I have a soft copy of it on my terminal. So, V-1 is the mutation type that causes the infected to be hungry vegetarians.” The doctor answered.
“How are you going to know? The ampoule is empty.” Tenpenny said.
“Any liquid on earth leaves a couple of micro-drops behind…especially complex solutions like the Kessler solution. It leaves a trail in the ampoule unless you disinfect it. This Ampoule definitely didn’t go through desinfection.” The answer came out loud to brighten our minds…even Rooster’s.
“That’s good. Do it and give us a result…how much time do you need?” I asked.
“Just give me five minutes.” He answered.
I turned back to the rooster. “Ramadan said you received a small briefcase. What was in it?” I asked.
“If I tell you, will you promise not to take what was in it?” he asked begging.
“No promises, don't answer and you'll get hurt.” Marcus answered him stiffly.
“Argh….God damn it…okay, it was a valuable artifact that was stolen from the Egyptian museum during the rising. And I demanded that artifact from the client.” The rooster answered.
“Thieves!!” Ismail mumbled.
“Who is the client?” Tenpenny asked the direct shortcut question.
“I wish I knew. But let me tell you that people who would give such an artifact for a simple mission like that must be too careless in spending their fortunes.” The rooster answered.
“Or, you could say the mission is so valuable to them that they offered such an artifact to the one who’d execute the injection.” Marcus flipped the answer.
“Right, Marcus.” I said. “So, Rooster…give us a lead to the client and we’ll let you keep the artifact. Because guess what? The client- to us- is so valuable that we’d let that artifact pass by our eyes in order to know who he is.” I continued.
Rooster seemed relieved. “Alright, that’s a fine deal, I guess. I don’t know who or where exactly he is. But I can give you a lead to someone who may know him. There’s a guy…a sick religious young man…he works as a delivery boy. And he almost delivers anything you can possibly imagine; data, weaponry, medical supplies, hardware…anything. He’s a member of the Sanctuary which is located not far away from Carrefour mega store...or should I say..the Arena.” Rooster gave us a clue.
“what’s that ‘sanctuary’?” Tenpenny asked another good question..he’s getting the hang of this.
“Oh, that’s some interesting place for a zone visitor. The sanctuary is a fraternity that actually believes that God punished us with the rising. So they isolated themselves from the whole world in a tower which was formerly called Sama tower. And guess what? That area is zombie territory. A real zombie territory, unlike here. their chants get loud from time to time which attracts the zombies to their tower. People rarely visit their tower because of the danger in the area. You must have the guts to pass through all that pile of zombies around the tower in order to get inside. They call the man with a guts a ‘saint’.” Rooster answered.
“Yeah I met something like that before back in zone 4. The rising powers the cultural extremity all over the world. You’d find a lot of fraternities of the same kind anywhere that’s a war zone.” Marcus added.
“So, our lead is inside that tower?” I asked; getting back into the main subject.
“Yes, he’s there most of the time. And he knows his way out of the tower somehow that none of us know.” Rooster said.
“Does he have a name?” Daniel asked.
“A nickname…he calls himself the medium.” Rooster answered.
“A medium that stands for connecting agents with transfers.” Tenpenny explained more.
“Exactly, sir. He’s the one who connects people together. He’s the substitute of the cell phone.” Rooster explained even more.
“And you’re saying he’s hard to reach because of the hordes that surround the sanctuary?” I asked for assurance.
“Oh, yes, sir. He’s too hard to reach. You must have some influence in order to meet him.” Rooster assured me.
“We don’t need influence…we’ve got guns.” Tenpenny turned stupid again.
“The number of your bullets is way too less than the number of zombies over there. It’s a damn Armageddon over there. And I’m estimating the numbers to be about 2000…including the new ones.” Rooster replied to put down Tenpenny’s enthusiasm.
I turned towards the windows outside…there was a noise that wasn’t making me so comfortable. And yes, my suspicious self is accurate. it was the sound of the beginning of a horde…Great.
Now let me pause to describe the beautiful situation we were in. We’re supposed to pass through this coming horde and hold up in the house until it ends. And when it ends, we’re supposed to get back to the van we parked outside which –God knows-what had damaged it God-Knows-How. And after all that, we were supposed to take the van to the outside world again and drive till we reach what was once called Sama tower which is now called the sanctuary. The sanctuary is like really big piece of meat which attracts zombies around it. We were supposed to get through the massive horde and get in the sanctuary in order to meet one man who just MAY know something about the suppliers of the injection mission that the rooster had executed. But you know what?...I’m optimistic.
“Ladies, we’ve got a horde coming up. Take up defensive positions inside the villa and stay alive until it ends. Rooster, we’re gonna give you your gun back but you know who to shoot or we’ll shoot you. After the fight, you’re free to go. Ismail, I need you up there on the roof to provide sniper support on the super zombies. Doc. , you’re gonna be in the middle of the house finishing your work. We’ll buy you more time till you finish. Once you’re done, you’ll join the fight. The rest of you…shoot to kill.” I said.
Did I ever mention that 66% of the total horde events all over the planet end with a zombie victory? But like I said…I’m optimistic….shit, this just keeps getting better and better.
Chapter Thirteen
Inside the Orange villa, center of Kattameyya heights compound,
Kattameyya, zone 15,
1500 hrs.
Everything piled up really fast. The zombies were gathering as if we were a really big lunch meal to them. It wasn’t normal. Me and the squad focused on the targets that seemed fresh and angry. Shooting the fresh ones first gives you an advantage in the attack. The old zombies are slower and weaker because of the lack of food. But that’s just due to the low survivor casualty.
It’s simple…no food, no energy for zombies. In places like zone 4, zombie food is scattered everywhere, and a normal sized human being is enough to feed eight zombies for six days. That’s an average statistical study of course. The normal zombie doesn’t eat more than the human being. In fact, they eat less or you can say they eat what’s just enough for them to move fast.
But in places like here, zone 15, the casualty rate is low which means that zombies rarely find someone to feed on. So they’re slower and weaker. Fresh ones are the only fast zombies…besides the super zombies because that’s a whole other case.
Zombies can adapt, though. They can eat beef, lamb, pork or any type of meat on land. They even feed on cats, mice, dogs, horses and every living creature that pumps blood. But they turn their attention to those creatures when there’s no human being around. The good news is….an average sized cat can feed two zombies for four days. Which means that animal flesh gives out more energy than human flesh. The question is….why do zombies like human flesh? ….seriously…we still don’t know.
The roars of the zombies were approaching as everyone was tightening his grip on the rifles. Then the shooting began. Zombies started to fall on the outskirts of the villa’s fence. There was still no sign of super zombies around. That would make it easier for us.
“Why do we lock ourselves in here while our van is outside? We might just skip this whole attack and focus on the mission.” Daniel yelled the question.
“We can’t risk getting to the van in the middle of the horde. I don’t want to risk any casualties….for now.” I said while shooting.
“Do we have any access to ammo supplies?” Tenpenny asked.
“I think so, we’re gonna need more ammo for our guns. Most of the rounds I’ve seen here are AK rounds. Those won’t fit for our guns.” Daniel answered.
“Daniel, use your radio and see if you can get Phoenix to drop us ammo supplies. I’ll cover you.” I yelled as Daniel nodded and moved to the middle of the house with his rifle still tightened to his shoulder.
“Command, this echo one. We’re requesting ammo drop, over.” Daniel radioed and waited for the response.
The only thing that was focusing with Daniel was my ear. The rest of my organs were just too busy shooting zombies.
“Command, do you copy? Over.” Daniel radioed again..but with no response.
“Shit…nothing but static, Captain.” Daniel shouted.
“Keep trying.” I shouted back.
The numbers of the zombies were getting bigger around us. And the strange heads in the distance started to show up. Guess what? Some super zombies have arrived. I saw another siren in the distance but I didn’t have time to worry about him as Ismail had shot him from above.
“Doc. Are you finished?” Marcus shouted.
“Just give me ten seconds…I know you need my help in identification.” Doc. Answered patiently.
“Alright, boys. Once the doc finishes his job, we’ll make two waves of fire; three shooting, and three watching our backs and reloading. Me, Daniel and Rooster will be the first wave. Tenpenny, you lead the second wave.” I shouted.
“Aye, Aye, Captain.” He said with an evil smile.
Man, if Tenpenny had a wife, she’d be jealous of his job because he loves it more than anything. “Zombies gave me the excuse to shoot people. What’s more beautiful than that?” he always told me. I chose him to lead the firing wave because I know he’s the best marksman around here…despite he had been beaten in the contest with Ismail. But Ismail works best as a sniper.
1…2…3..and fire. The first wave started shooting in every direction as the doctor started packing his things and readying his rifle. He carried an M4-A2 rifle…which wasn’t so bad. It does its purpose. Daniel was still trying with the signal.
“What’s wrong with the radio?” Dr. Harry asked.
“There’s no response…just static.” Daniel answered.
“wait for the horde to finish…trust me.” He gave him the solution then turned towards me.
“Hey, Captain, we need to get to the roof….all of us.” He said in confidence.
“That’s a negative, Doc. We can’t lost the first floor now.” I replied.
“Trust me, Captain, if you want to get through this alive, you have to do as I say.” He talked again.
I gave him a suspicious look. He knew something that we didn’t know. But we had no choice but to follow him. I signaled the move then we followed in the doctor’s tracks up to the roof. We were still shooting everywhere. The two wave formation bought us some time to move freely without any close dangers.
Up there, Ismail was just focusing on shooting the super zombies and the closest fresh ones. He knew how to mark his targets.
“There’s a bat around.” The doctor told Ismail.
“Wait a second, do you mean a zombie bat? And under sunlight?” Tenpenny asked a stupid question.
“No, dummy. A bat…another super zombie. That one acts as a radio jammer. He’s the one jamming our signal to command.” The doctor answered.
“How is that possible?” I asked while shooting.
“No time to explain…just find a zombie with a really big skull full of blue veins.” He shouted though the shots we fired.
Yes, there was no time to understand the anatomy behind this…bat. All what we needed to do was to find that bat and shoot him so we get our radio back online again.
“Roger that, I found him.” Tenpenny shouted.
“Shoot him in the middle of his head.” The doctor ordered Tenpenny.
Tenpenny just did that before the doctor managed to finish his line. I could see where Tenpenny was shooting. He was just far away. And he wasn’t moving with the horde. He was just standing away from the attack. And he looked as ugly as a fat guy’s ass. Remember the old videos on Youtube talking about Roswell aliens? That bat just looked like them.
“Topped him.” Tenpenny said.
“Now, Daniel, try out the radio again.” Doc spoke to Daniel.
“Command, this is Echo one. Request ammunition drop, over.” Daniel radioed again.
There was only a small period of static then came the reply.
“Copy that, Echo one. Send us your co-ordinates…Are you guys alright?” Command replied.
“We’re surrounded by a horde but we’re holding them off efficiently. Have you been receiving my messages? Over.” Daniel radioed back.
“We’ve been receiving noise for several times, but now we hear you loud and clear, Daniel.” Command replied.
“Good. I’ll activate my beacon to show you our current location. We can’t deploy any green smoke…there’s too much heat around.” Daniel replied.
“We’ll send you the supplies right away, Daniel.” Command replied.
“Roger that, Command. Echo one out.” Daniel closed the connection then focused on the shooting.
the zombies enumerated continuously around our position. And I wish there was something we could do….until my eyes met with Ismail’s.
“Yes, captain. They can see us from here. I’ll just have to fire a flare. I’ve got a flare gun.” Ismail replied as soon as he understood my thoughts.
“Good, do it. The flare should distract the zombies a little bit.” I said while shooting.
Ismail shot his flare in the sky and in the direction of Evo-set. And as soon as the flare was sky high, we received a radio message through the ear cuff.
“This is the commander of Evo-set. Do you need assistance?” It was Shady Shawareb.
“Father, we’re surrounded by a large horde. I don’t really understand how the hell they’re so many before sunset.” Ismail replied.
“Hold on, boys. I’ll send you a strike team to your position. Where exactly are you?” Shady replied.
“center of Kattameyya heights, Orange villa. It’s easy to distinguish from the other houses.” Ismail said.
“Hey, Cap, I’ve got some incendiary grenades downstairs. They should hold them off till those people arrive.” Rooster said.
“Marcus, escort him downstairs to bring the grenades. Don’t let him get away.” I ordered.
Marcus didn’t reply. He only acted. We just had to deal with two for a wave plus a sniper for now until the incendiaries come. It wasn’t too long for the strike team to come to our position. We were in the compound opposite to Evo-set. The strike team will just have to cross the street of the large golf ball to reach us. It’s only a matter of minutes.
Rooster came upstairs with Marcus in his tail right away. And he didn’t request any permission. He just started throwing the grenades in every direction. In a matter of fifteen seconds, there was a ring of fire around the villa; incinerating anyone who crosses over the fence. And from this point, the tide has turned in our favor. The zombies scrambled rather than staying in packs; trying to avoid the flames. And a minute later, we heard gunfire not far from our place; signaling the arrival of the strike team from Evo-set. The horde was about to fail. And we were finally saved and able to carry on our mission.
“Move, boys. We’ll distract the zombies for you. Get to your van now.” It was someone else’s voice..it wasn’t Shady’s.
“Wolf, my hero, I’m gonna remember this. Thanks for saving our asses.” Ismail replied. That..wolf must have been one of the survivors….probably, the strike team commander.
“You can thank me later, Ismail. Now lead your group and move on to the van ASAP. Sunset is coming soon and you don’t want to be here at night.” Wolf replied.
There was another radio message coming. But this time, it was command. I could see their Chinook chopper hovering in the sky not far away from us. The supplies have arrived.
“Echo one, this is Merchant.” That was the codename for the Chinook supply chopper. “We read your flashing beacon on the radar but you’re on the move. Request a specific position to drop your supply crate, over.” Merchant radioed.
“Captain, where can we have our supplies?” Daniel asked me.
“Tell them to drop the crate near the van. We don’t have much time for transporting stuff to the van.” I replied.
“Merchant, this is Echo one. Your drop zone is near a large armored green van on the outskirts of a residential compound. Do you see it?” Daniel replied.
“A green van, hold on….is it at an entrance near a tunnel leading to the ring road?” Merchant asked for confirmation.
“Affirmative, Merchant. That’s your drop zone.” Daniel replied.
“Roger that, your drop will be there in a sec. Merchant out.” Merchant closed.
Rooster was following us for a reason. He didn’t want to be caught by the Evo-set strike team. A mercenary never likes company around. They always work alone….and I mean stand-alone mercenaries not PMC soldiers like us.
“Rooster, your job here is done. Thanks for the info. And you can keep the artifact…once the survivors leave the area. You’re free to go.” I said.
“I never thought you’d keep your promises. But thanks. Adios, brothers.” Rooster saluted us and vanished into the corners of the compound.
Ismail was angry because we left Rooster get away. He was definitely a bad guy. He injected an innocent man with a Kessler solution and also stole a valuable artifact.
“You shouldn’t have let him get away. If we had time, I’d have escorted him back to Evo-set.” Ismail said in anger.
“Who said we let him?” Marcus asked in laughs.
I smiled as well because I understood what Marcus meant by the laugh. It was my turn to act..but I decided to wait until we’re safe inside the van.
I could see the Chinook flying away from the area which meant that the crate was there. I sprinted along with the squad towards the van. The crate was right there waiting for us…just as I expected. Nothing too smart about my expectations.
“Alright, open the crate, grab the ammo and into the van quick…Ismail, Marcus, Tenpenny. Cover us while we unload.” I said.
The famous triangular diamond formation…it was there around the van. Three unloading the crate while the other three were checking the area for hostiles. The crate was small and didn’t take time to unload. We were ready to move on…we all hopped into the van with everyone is his position according to the shift plan we agreed on before moving. And then we were off.
On the road, Ismail was still feeling angry.
“Marcus, why did you laugh back there?” Ismail asked.
Marcus and I laughed again…then I pressed my ear cuff and started radioing command.
“Command, this is echo one. We have a dangerous fugitive on the move in Kattameyya area.” I hid the microphone with my fingers then leaned towards Marcus.
“Oh, it’s FB-1637” Marcus said while reading a label on his gear vest.
“Suspect is labeled with flashing beacon number 1637. He’s not too far from the previous drop zone. Recommend you catch him alive. Over.” I continued talking through the ear cuff.
“Echo one, this is command. We’re picking up the signal from FB-1637 and we have it on our radar. Suspect will be in custody soon. Command out.” The message was confirmed.
Ismail laughed his ass off when he hear our radio chatter with command.
“Now, that’s one of the fun things you do when you work with Phoenix, Ismail. Treating fools like mice.” Tenpenny said in laughs.
“Oh, my god, that was rich. I can imagine the look on his face when he gets caught.” Ismail was laughing the words out. After that, he turned to his radio to inform the strike team of the position of the artifact. He needed it secured so it wouldn’t get lost again among the ruins.
While we were moving on the road, I turned to McGregor who had some information I needed to know. Maybe what he had was not so vital to the mission but they were as bonus in order to get a bigger picture of the whole super zombie project. I wanted to know what the hell a “Bat” was.
“So, aren’t you going to explain how that egg-headed zombie blocked our radio signal?” I asked the doc.
“Oh, yes, I forgot. Well you’ve seen how he looks, haven’t you?” the doc answered.
“That was something I don’t see every day. And if there were no rising, I’d think I saw Roswell.” Tenpenny commented.
“That large head contains a very special organ that’s much more advanced than the ones in our heads. They have brains. But that doesn’t make them as smart as we are.” McGregor started explaining.
“Then what’s that whole brain size for?” I asked.
“In biology, the size of the brain matters but not in all situations. Some bigger brains are used for special tasks. Some tasks that do not require intelligence. Bats have brains so they can be more sensitive.” Doc explained more.
“You mean if I break up with a bat zombie, they cry more than regular girls? Or what?” Daniel laughed.
“Of course not. I mean sensitive…like stronger senses. Or you can say…more senses to be more specific.” Doc said.
“…..Go on.” I said.
“Bats have developed some kind of sixth sense. Yet it’s not a sixth sense. If you get the meaning of what I’m saying….well…you don’t so I’ll have to use scientific language. Ordinary human beings can detect a range of wavelengths . And a wave includes sound, light, EM waves, any wave on earth. For example, our eyes can only light wavelengths that range from 400 to 700 nanometers. Same thing for our ears and even our brains. In some unique moments, you can actually pick up a brain signal from another guy and read his mind. It’s possible….so maximize that ability and you’ll get a bat. Bat zombies can detect a very wide range of wavelengths from any type of wave around. Which will make it able to detect radio signals, be alerted earlier by EMPs, and even hear sounds you can never hear with your normal ears. Their senses are much more advanced than ours. And in fact, that big brain they have can do more than sensing. When I did some anatomical research on the bat, I found portions of the brain that can even send out signals that are similar to the ones detected. Interference is the scientific word. Which means They can send out blocking signals that silence almost any type of wave.” The doctor tried as hard to explain.
“So if you conclude that whole topic in English…” Tenpenny wanted a short answer.
“I’d say that the bat is the equivalent weapon of the signal jammer…a zombie version. If you want to make a phone call of send out a radio message with a bat around. You’d better think again.” The doctor concluded.
“You did all that research in Evo-set?” I asked after a long hiss.
“Actually, not all of it. I did some primary research on my way to zone 15 based on some satellite photos and biopsies recovered from reconnaissance missions that took place before my squad’s mission.” McGregor answered.
“What exactly was Delta Five doing here?” Marcus asked.
“Well, the basic data that Phoenix recovered from the reconnaissance missions weren’t good news, so command decided to push in a specialized team to gather more intelligence about the developing situation. And they sent us. We were ordered to investigate whether those super zombies were a natural phenomenon or a product of on-purpose research. It turns out it was on purpose. After that, we were ordered to track down the source of the experiments and shut it down for good.” McGregor answered.
“And let me guess…you screwed up.” Daniel tried to finish his words.
“Who knows? Maybe Delta five is still working on the subject. Or at least, they might have reached a point in the investigation where they got captured…or killed…or even Zombified. “ McGregor replied.
“I hope they’re still alive…that’d just shorten our way out of here.” Marcus said.
“Come on, Lad. Zone 15 turned out to be more fun than Disney Land.” Tenpenny joked.
Daniel was Driving while Tenpenny was on the turret and Ismail was next to Daniel. Everyone was just waiting for our destination to show up in the horizon. I opened a hatch behind the turret to take a look at the road. The ring road was a really good material for Armageddon artwork. There were hundreds of wrecked and abandoned cars stretching miles and miles away in the distance. And Only a few helpless zombies finding their way through the wreckage. Tenpenny was shooting them one by one along the way but with a slow pitch between every shot so as not to alert any hordes.
“Quite a view, eh?” Tenpenny said.
“Typical in every place we visit…I’m starting to forget how the world was like before the rising.” I replied.
“So…any idea how we’re gonna catch that medium?” he asked.
“My mind is full of information that I can barely handle…I can’t think straight.” I replied.
“You need to focus on what to do and let somebody else do the thinking.” He advised.
“You’re right….hey, Tenpenny, have you ever thought why wouldn’t Phoenix send people from the CDC to places like here?” I asked.
“oh, the center for disease control…I never thought of that. And I’m astonished they’re not so effective since the rising.” He replied.
“Do you think they’re involved in the rising itself?” I asked.
“Maybe…Maybe not.” He replied.
“Maybe I’m way too ahead of the present….keep your eyes on the road.” I said then went back in and closed the hatch behind me.
Everybody was calm, determined, and patiently waiting for the next disaster we were about to come across. Minds were just too busy absorbing the information and piecing them together. We were acting fast…which was good. But that was boosting our insanity. We had to cope…we didn’t want to waste any time though we had plenty of it.
Section 4 of the post-rising field manual talks about sustaining mental health. They say if somebody goes insane, you get him to rest and get his mind busy with something else. The post-rising world has excited too many psychopaths around the globe from the military and from outside the military. The views and the gore just can’t be tolerated by all of us. Some of us had to go coo-coo for the sake of humanity. Seeing psychopaths around is the only indication that proves we still have hearts and feelings. Most of us lost hope in humanity even before the rising took place. But the rising changed that. Mankind reconsidered itself…only so late after we lost nearly two thirds of our population. But you know what?..I’ve learned that there’s always hope….Don’t panic when you’re surrounded by zombies. Some people out there might just put a bullet in every zombie’s head and save your ass at the right time.
“We’re getting close, gentlemen.” Ismail said.
“Ready your weapons, boys. A large horde stands between us and the medium. We’re gonna go through the horde and beat the information out of him.” I said.
“Shit…shit…it never ends.” Daniel said.
“What never ends?” Marcus.
“The bullshit that comes out of the captain’s mouth.” Daniel said.
I could hear Tenpenny laughing up there on the turret.
“Well….Shit always happens.” I replied.
Chapter Fourteen
Near Sama Tower, the ring road.
Zone 15
1600 hrs
Remember when rock stars used to gather their fans around the stage and play some music? That’s the scene I was seeing before me when Sama tower neared. The horde wasn’t moaning..they were fucking roaring.
“Tenpenny, don’t you shoot at them.” I commanded.
“You always mess up the fun part.” Tenpenny replied.
“Everybody, I’ve got a plan. Let’s pull over on the side of the road. Daniel, get out your tools and take out your tools and start taking off the speakers and the radio from the van.” I said.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Marcus asked.
“Oh, yeah. I am. And I want you to start readying a c-4 bomb. We’ll plant it behind the speakers.” I replied.
“So we can attract the zombies away from the tower and sneak in easily.” Daniel explained.
“Exactly. Does this van have a flashing beacon?” I asked Ismail
“No, there’s no point in tracing the van cause we don’t have the proper radars.” He replied.
“Good. That means we’ll be untraceable along our journey. If there was a flashing beacon, I’d take it off the van.” I explained the reason behind my question.
By the time I finished talking, the van was already pulling over. Then everybody went to work. Marcus readied the explosives, Tenpenny watched the road for near zombies, but this time with his rifle after attaching a sound suppressor, Daniel started taking off the speakers, and the rest were outside the van keeping our eyes on the road.
“I heard about those sanctuary monks from my father. He used to see them on the streets before the rising. Not all of them back then became members of the sanctuary, but only a small portion of them. Back then, those kind of guys were called “Salafies”. They had the same attitudes, beliefs, and principles. Father told me that most of them hated an easier life for a human being. They forbad almost a million things…some types of clothes, intimate relationships, political views that opposed theirs, Statues, Drawing…hell, they even forbad music. They thought that almost every modern thing had pushed us far away from God. Father told me that they were maniacs.” Ismail said.
“I saw similar people in person.” Harry said.
“Now, the members of the sanctuary had gone even madder. They forbad dealing with the zombies for any reason. They even forbad killing them. Those guys held parties in their own culture once the rising took place. They were happy that the “infidel” society got finally punished by God. Their eldest members took shelter in Sama tower in 2024 after announcing the fall of the Egyptian government on TV. They broke into the building, kicked out all the survivors inside and invaded the whole building for their own cause…then, they used some of the tech they found inside to gather the zombies around them for a lot of reasons. They didn’t want their members to get out once again to the outside world, and they also didn’t want anyone from out there come to their sanctuary.” Ismail continued.
“But Rooster said that the medium stays in there. And he gets out at night to finish his transactions.” I said.
“Rooster said he knows his way around the place. Plus, maybe the members of the sanctuary allowed him to get out…for a reason.” Ismail replied.
“Or for a price.” Harry commented.
“Yeah, those guys don’t have strong ethics.” Ismail agreed.
“Today, we’re gonna break into their sanctuary and beat the medium till he talks.” I said.
“I prefer blowing up the whole building after we’re done with him.” Tenpenny was following our conversation.
“We’re here to kill zombies and terrorists, Tenpenny. Not some jerk civilians.” I replied.
“But…” he tried to argue but I stopped him.
“Focus on the road.” I said in a sharp tone.
Daniel got out with the radio wired to four speakers. Then Marcus followed him outside with the C4 explosives ready. Daniel’s head was busy with something.
“We might be in a little bit of problem here, guys. Those speakers might not just be loud enough to attract the zombies.” Daniel said.
“Can’t we turn on the radios inside those wrecked cars on the road?” Tenpenny asked.
“Good call, Tenpenny. That’ll maximize the number of speakers we have. Put them all on the same frequency, and you should have a large noise bomb over here.” Marcus said.
“But this way, we’re gonna need more explosives…right?” Harry asked.
“No, we’re not. We’ll just put the explosives we have in a vital area somewhere around here. then all the fuel tanks filled to almost the half will explode in cascade. You’ll get a really chaotic explosion that’d kill even more zombies rather than killing them with one C4 bomb.” I replied.
“Nice idea, let’s do it then.” Ismail said and clapped his hands.
And there we go. We started working our asses off around the wrecked cars along the road. The squad thought it was my idea. But actually there’s a lot of tricks to learn about on Youtube only if you know the words to search with. This is a worldwide technique that was used more than a thousand times. And it worked every time except for a few situations. They call it “the mouse trap”.
Speaking of techniques in fighting zombies. Every PMC trains you on a set of techniques that they commonly use. Then they teach you how to develop new ones. And once you do, you report what you did so they can study this technique and add it to the training set.
The mouse trap was not a technique that Phoenix had developed. It was originally developed by one of Harvey Davis’s survivors. And Harvey Davis was the first one to experiment the technique. His first try killed 150 zombies at the same time. Then, when the United States government decided to retake New York, the National Guard learned the technique from the survivors that inherited Harvey’s settlement. And the spreading started from the National Guard through military conferences, Official Youtube channels, the press.
I have to mention also that Marcus Alex was the mastermind behind over 30 techniques that Phoenix teaches to its soldiers till this day. Yes..Marcus is a very effective soldier in the field.
“Everyone, set the radios to frequency 104.2, I repeat, 104.2” Daniel radioed while we were scrambling among the sea of abandoned cars. We were moving so fast; tuning all the radios that worked to that specific signal while Daniel was setting his own radio bomb to act as a transmitter to the rest of the radios. So when he starts playing music, all radios would work at the same second; making a mega-sound wave that would rock the ears of every zombie. After all the tuning, Daniel picked up the right spot where he’d place his bomb. Then he activated the remote control option so he’d trigger the bomb from a distance. Everything was set.
“now let’s get ready and silent inside the van. Let’s make the zombies feel that our van is abandoned like the others.” Marcus said.
We all got in place and hid behind the steel of the van. No organs appearing out in the open. Daniel was only the last one on the ground because his remote control had a specific maximum distance to work within. He seemed to be about to shit in his own pants.
“Okay, Daniel, we’re all set.” I radioed.
“Alright, here goes nothing.” He replied then triggered the bomb.
The good thing about the mouse trap is that you get to choose the song you play to attract the zombies. Daniel chose “Bad to the bone” which was scientifically good for the situation. It starts with pulses of electric guitar that would just hit the zombies frequently. That’s enough to alert all of the zombies around the tower. Then the song starts playing loudly and continuously which will allow the zombies to keep tracing the source of the sound. I enjoyed the song but only in my head. And to be honest. The view outside had to be amazing….thousands of zombies running in one direction on a rock and roll song…it had to be amazing.
Daniel Ran fast towards the van and hid inside. It didn’t take him time to do so. Now our van is completely stealthy with the zombies under the influence of the loud music. And we had plenty of time to wait in order to blow up the c4 from our distance. And that would be some firework. We waited for two minutes. That was well enough.
“Blow it!!” I yelled.
BAAM!!
“Whoa, that’s too loud for a c4.” Tenpenny said.
“extra explosive material…that’s the answer you’re looking for.” Marcus answered.
“Nice, I’m starting to think that explosives are way better than firearms.” Tenpenny exclaimed.
“Prepare for impact…we’re gonna crash into the entrance” I said.
“God damn it..who made you in charge?” Daniel panicked as Tenpenny was laughing out of excitement.
The van was driving as fast as possible towards the entrance. And from the far distance, I could see that the surroundings of the building are not as dangerous as before. The infiltration became easier after using the mouse trap.
And another BAAM!!
The world slowed down for just a couple of moments. Bits of glass were flying around us like they were lost in space. Scared shitless faces with long beards were scattered ahead of me as the van was swimming in the air towards them. Once they started moving, the world started to get back to its original time speed.
“Estanna…Estanna!!!” those were the first two words I heard from the monks. I didn’t bother understanding. They weren’t saying what I came for anyways. But only Ismail bothered translating what they were saying…not to us but to himself…he aimed his rifle towards them and did the talking.
“khallik makanak…mahaddesh yet-harrak.” He screamed in Arabic.
They all lifted their hands up in the air and got down to their knees. Good thing they were co-operative.
“Ask them where the medium is.” I told Ismail.
“Feen el waseet?” he asked them.
“Fi akher door…fi akher door.” One of them replied in terror. It seems like they hadn’t encountered armed men for years.
“They say he’s in the top floor.” Ismail explained.
“Let’s go then.” Marcus said.
“I’ll keep my eyes on those guys. You go get that medium.” Daniel said.
“It’s better if we just stick together. They’re scared anyways. Let them run.” Tenpenny suggested.
“Good…emsho men hena…mesh ayez ashofkom hena tani….Yalla!!” Ismail shouted at the monks. They immediately flew into the sun’s rays which hadn’t touched their pale skins for years.
We moved towards the elevator and entered. Top floor it is. Nobody talked because we were so focused on the mission yet so mind-taken by the chants that surrounded us from the upper floors. Since the elevator started rising, the chants grew clearer. They were definitely in Arabic. And they were so strange. Unlike any Arabic chant I’ve ever heard.
“That’s not the Quran…” Ismail commented.
“really? Because I thought it was.” Tenpenny replied.
Ismail put his hand on Tenpenny’s vest to shut him up in order to focus on the chants. He was trying to make words of them. Then his eyes turned to us and his mouth was ready to translate.
“oh mighty God…free the people…from the hypnosis…amen….kill the sinners…amen…bring back the land of fortune…amen..” that’s what he tried to make out of the chants.
“they’re praying.” Marcus explained. “Praying to God in order to spare them.” He continued.
The chants grew louder and louder in a crazy way. As if they were using those prayers as a weapon against the infiltrators….Us.
“Kill the sinners….amen….kill the sinners…amen.” Ismail continued translating.
“We’re the men with guns….so we’re the sinners.” Marcus explained more.
“Thanks for clearing that to us. We already got it.” Tenpenny said.
“As soon as the elevator door opens, you shoot whoever’s trying to use violence. Even if we have to kill all the monks in here.” I said.
“That’s crazy.” Ismail protested.
“No time for discussions…do as I say or we’re all not gonna get out of here.” I insisted on my decision.
There were only three floors left until the top floor. Our hearts were beating like crazy, terrified by the loud chants. It was a weapon indeed. It was a weapon to attack the hearts…not the flesh.
Two floors left….
Religious cultures of the post-rising world follow the idea of isolationism. Thinking that God has punished us-humans- with the rising would eventually turn your attitude into an isolationist one. The thing that differs from one religious culture to another is the devil. Who’s the devil? That’s the question. Some of them say Satan is still the devil. Some say that terrorists are the devil. Some say Zombies are the devil…Me? I think it’s us…humans.
One floor left…
Whether you’re on the good side or the bad, it doesn’t matter. Because you have to survive. It’s a nature within our blood. We all have to struggle for survival…I was thinking why Ismail protested on my decision though he saw me as a wise guy. Is it homesickness? Is it the sense of humanity?..i just don’t know. And I made the decision based on my instinct…the stupid instinct that drove me to kill my own sun with that sledgehammer. Am I about to do it again?...I hope not.
The elevator door opened….
Chapter Fifteen
Sama tower, Top floor
The ring road, Zone 15
1630 hrs
I thought how people normally react when they see a door open then muzzles of rifles appear first thing. Maybe the brain is not too fast enough to realize it’s actually a rifle which will be pointed at you in a few moments. But let’s assume it’s fast. What will be the reaction?
It’s just a very funny thought that traveled through my head while I was walking out the elevator with my rifle pointed forward…oh…I forgot they already knew we were coming. They were prepared. They all carried sticks in their hands and waited for us to shoot first. That must have been a rule in their creed.
“Balash nebtediha bel darb.” Ismail spoke in Arabic.
“Ask them where the Medium is.” I told him.
“el waseet fen?” he asked them.
“Gowwa beyetkallem ma’a el imam.” One of their leaders spoke.
“He says he’s in there; talking to the Imam.” Ismail translated.
“Imam? Is that a person or a thing or what?” Daniel asked.
“Imam is like the priest…he’s talking to their priest…let’s go.” I said.
What’s more funny is that they stepped away. Good thing they were not willing to fight because- to them- it’s a lost battle. Sticks versus rifles…result is always known.
Tenpenny was the one who reached the door first. He pushed it gently with one hand while holding his rifle steady with the other. But the door wouldn’t open. We could hear chatter inside. And parts of the conversation were high toned. They were arguing about something. Ismail couldn’t make any sense out of the gibberish noise we heard.
“They broke the door handle…it’s only gonna open from the inside.” Tenpenny noted.
“What are we waiting for then? Let’s just break the door.” Marcus suggested.
Tenpenny and Daniel didn’t argue. They loved rough jobs; breaking doors, blowing up buildings, cars…NATO and SWAT routine. They both took their positions. Daniel got out a det-cord from his backpack..which is basically designed to blow up doors. Tenpenny took his position with his shotgun to fire at any surprise coming out.
“Fire in the hole.” Daniel said for us to take cover from the blast.
The door exploded in three seconds and became like corn flakes. Nothing was left of it holding on that can indicate there was actually a door.
“Don’t shoot…don’t you fucking shoot!!” it was the medium….and finally, some English after all.
“You freeze, we don’t shoot.” Tenpenny offered.
The medium started lifting his hands up slowly..”Okay…okay..easy now.” He said.
“Why are you, dickheads, gathering so many zombies around your building?” Marcus asked.
“So as not to have to provide hospitality for dickheads like you, gentlemen.” The Imam answered in English too. And he was funny. Funny means fluent.
“Thanks, we don’t like it here. we’re just here for this guy…the medium.” I said to stop any coming arguments between Marcus and the Imam. And that fortunately silenced the Imam for good.
The two were almost identical in shape. Extremely identical that you can think they’re clones. But the way they dressed showed who’s the Imam and who’s the medium. The Imam wore a white and round hat on his head. That’s besides the Black Galabeya and the very long Gandalf shaped beard,though he didn’t have a moustache. Which is a basic cultural tradition within the Salafies. As for the medium, he didn’t have a long beard. On the contrary, he had a very short beard and a moustache. He didn’t look as much tied as the others in the sanctuary. In fact, he wore a couple of necklaces, and a series of leather wrist bands. Simply, he was more of a gangster…not a monk at all.
“The medium has done something so terrible, Mr. Imam.” Daniel said in sarcasm.
“Is that right? What did he do?” The Imam seemed so concerned and serious.
“He delivered an injector full of Kessler virus solution to a mercenary who eventually injected an innocent survivor with it. He participated in killing a soul.” While Daniel was talking…I paid attention to the decoration of the place which showed something very interesting and very disgusting at the same time.
“look around the place.” I whispered while nudging Marcus.
“So he finally did what he was told. The medium has brought peace to the sanctuary.” The Imam gave out the most puzzling of answers.
Oh…about the surrounding mood of the room. There were dozens of altars around with dead bodies lying on them. And not a single body was complete. One missed a leg, another missed a head, and another had no internal organs at all…plenty of those views around the place.
“What did you do to those people?” I asked while my veins were pumping too much blood to my heart which made it feel like exploding.
“Oh those? Those are sinners, my friend. They were brought here to face the justice of God…and as you see, they made their inevitable fate.” He answered me.
“What is God to you?” Marcus must have felt the same as I did.
“God? Hmm….what is God? We certainly know nothing of god’s looks. But the world around you would show God’s wrath upon the sinners. Still not all of them met their punishment including us, the sanctuary monks. But we are working on it. Every living man is a sinner, my friend. And when they turn…they get…purified….come…look at how peaceful they are.” The Imam spoke and moved to another door in the back while signing with his hand for us to follow him. and we followed without questions. We were too delirious because of the scene….as if Hypnotized.
The second room we entered was even more miserable. But this time, it was full of zombies. And they were having lunch time. I saw bits and parts of human bodies being shred to pieces by one of the monks and fed to the zombies. The bastards were petting the zombies.
“Holy shit!! That’s a zombie farm.” Tenpenny exclaimed.
“Would you mind be more civilized in your words, please?” the Imam asked gently.
“This is no mere farm, my sinner friend. This is the Salvation room. The peaceful heroes feed on the sinners to declare their end of their miserable lives which were full of sins. Here, people come to see the beautiful end that God has offered us fifteen years ago.” He continued.
“….The Rising.” I explained without noticing.
“What you call the rising. It was the day of Judgment. The day that distinguished between the sincere worshipper from the sinner.” The medium corrected me.
“Every living man now is a sinner. And one day, Every living man will be freed from his sins.” The Imam explained even more.
The more time passed, the more the scene became uglier, the more disgusted I felt. The door from where we came opened again. A child with a Galabeya came in carrying what seemed to be more human flesh. But he didn’t offer it to the zombies. Instead, he offered it to the medium. the feeling of disgust made me numb. I didn’t notice that I was tightening my grip on the rifle.
“Ah, young Ahmed has finally brought the prize to our hero. Finally, the medium is going to be a true Sanctuary monk. Take the prize my friend…release yourself from your sins.” The Imam spoke as the medium took the human flesh from the hand of the child.
And the bastard starting eating!!......BANG!!.....What was that?
The room just fell silent. There was only the ambient sound of zombie digestive systems eating what used to be human organs. None of us knew what was happening. But what we were sure of was that someone had fired a round….someone among us the nine…had fired a round.
A few seconds later, we started looking around…searching the faces of each other. Nobody talked. Ismail and Harry were too busy feeling sick because of what they were seeing. Me, Tenpenny, and Marcus were looking at the faces of everyone around. And the Imam along with the Medium were looking at the child with shock. Did that little guy fire the round?
No…Shit…the kid had the bullet right into his head…it passed through his ear and into his brains. I didn’t notice when he fell on the floor. The poor kid!! He was drowning in a pool of blood.
Suddenly, all the eyes were fixed on me…why? I have no idea.
“No!!.....No!!...The child is dead…the only living pure soul in the sanctuary is dead. The hope of the brotherhood is dead.” The Imam was spitting out the words in pain…he was mourning someone who seemed even closer than his son if he had one.
“Why did you do that?...why?” The Imam had already dropped tears.
“I didn’t shoot him…really, I didn’t.” I defended myself involuntarily.
Nobody answered me…no confirms to what I said nor arguments. Suddenly, I realized I was right. Without looking at anything to prove my point, I knew it was me…I knew I was gonna be put in the same situation once again. The pain that chased me for fifteen years because of killing my own son…has found a companion. The new pain…the child was a victim of my uncontrolled anger.
But everything can be disproved…I detached my magazine from the rifle and looked at the ammo….shit!! twenty nine bullets. Hell yeah, it was me….I killed the young monk…Here we go again.
When a human soul realizes that it has done an unforgivable crime, it immediately starts creating excuses to validate the awful deed that came out of it without reconsidering. The Imam was right about one thing. We are sinners…all of us. We are all evil by nature. And for our bad luck, we don’t know. You have to search your soul to find your nature.
“Why did you do this, Corbin?” Marcus asked me gently while he was approaching me slowly.
“I didn’t do it…on purpose I mean. Believe me.” I replied and I noticed my temper in my tone.
Marcus kept approaching while Tenpenny and Daniel were keeping their rifles pointed at both of the Imam and the Medium. It was as if Marcus was afraid of me or something. They way he stepped towards me was telling me he was dealing with a psychopath. I wasn’t afraid of him at all though my grip on the gun was shaking. It was the situation itself. And to be honest, the way he treated me was giving me the creeps. And tension was increasing every single second.
Suddenly, Marcus pushed me towards the wall and pinned the hand that was holding the gun to the wall. He was yelling at me but I couldn’t hear him over the sound of my heart beat. I tried to read his lips but he was speaking too fast. I couldn’t make anything out of what he was saying…I could see myself in the reflection of his eyes. I was pathetic…afraid of everything…alone in this situation.
Marcus stopped speaking to me and spoke with the doc. And I was sure he was saying the same thing he said to me…but this time to Harry. I understood what he wanted to say when Harry did was I was told and didn’t hear. Harry approached me and snatched the gun from my hand. He didn’t have to struggle because my grip on the gun was loose at the time.
“You’re not gonna need this gun anymore, Corbin. I’ll have to take command because you’re not fucking sane enough to handle this mission.” Marcus yelled at me.
“Marcus, let’s not get too carried away. Maybe it was an accident…shit happens, man.” Daniel tried to defend me. He knew it wasn’t my fault.
Marcus turned to Daniel and grinned at him. And that was a no.
“Tenpenny, restrain the medium. We’re taking him with us. Daniel, you keep your eyes on that sick priest. I don’t want him to get out of your sight.” Marcus ordered the team…my team.
“Marcus…you can’t do this.” I said.
“Shut the fuck up!!” He yelled back before letting me finish.
“You’re going to regret this, sinner. The Sanctuary won’t let this pass by un-settled.” The Imam threatened me.
“Would you just mind your own fucking business?” Daniel yelled at him….still defending me.
“It is my own business…You will not leave here alive. I promise you with that.” The Imam replied.
“Oh yeah? Well, why don’t you bring it on, goat face?” Tenpenny seemed excited.
The Imam didn’t reply…he just kept his eyes fixed on Tenpenny. All what we could hear was people speaking in Arabic in a high tone. Which probably seemed like a message to the rest of the brotherhood in the building.
“Ismail!!” Marcus called.
“They’re aware of the kid’s death…and they’re coming.” Ismail knew what he was asked for.
“The bastards are going to feed us to the zombies.” Tenpenny said.
“These zombies? I don’t think so.” Harry McGregor spoke for the first time in a while.
“And why is that?” Daniel asked.
“These zombies are busy with the meat in their hands. They’re either gonna kill us or throw us in the open without any weapons.” Harry explained.
“Shit, I don’t like punching zombies.” Daniel said.
“Me neither.” Tenpenny followed.
During all this conversation. I didn’t have anything to say. I didn’t have something to defend myself with. All I hoped for was for Marcus to let me go and give me back my gun. I hate going to a fight without a stick to swing. Marcus was thinking about what to do…he just looked at me with anger…he had an idea but he didn’t like it at all. And the way he looked, he was gonna do it because it was the only way.
“Two hostages are too many. And I don’t trust the medium with a gun….not you either Corbin…Here…once this fight is over, you’ll give me all your weapons. From now on, you’re a Phoenix hostage.” Marcus said while handing me back my gun.
“Alright…Alright, Marcus.” I said back.
The noise of the Sanctuary men was getting louder as they were climbing up the floors. The Imam just stood in his place…He was watching us instead of us watching him. That was the funniest thing ever. Six men with guns being watched by an unarmed man.
“Now, you just make one move, punk ass…my finger is already itchy.” Daniel threatened the Imam.
“Take positions, now. Don’t shoot them…at least try not to.” Marcus ordered.
I wasn’t thinking about the current situation at all…Hell, I don’t remember if was even thinking. I only remember the face of my son…my wife’s blood on his mouth…his black eyes focusing its sight on me…his angry look. He never looked like that before. He never gave me a similar look before…even when I upset him so bad…
Now all this combined gave me a feeling that I didn’t want to live anymore. The situation now was too different. There was only one single difference that made this time even harder….
My son was a zombie….
Chapter Sixteen
Sama tower (A.K.A. the sanctuary.)
The ring road, zone 15
1700 hrs
The room door was being knocked too loud. They’re here. Andthey’re angry and willing to rip us all apart. And we had a very long way downwards back to the van in order to get out of this place. The knocks were getting louder every second. We had to act.
“Daniel, Restrain the Imam and keep your rifle on his head.” Marcus ordered.
“What about those angry little bastards outside? They surely don’t have any peaceful intensions. What do we do with them?” Tenpenny asked.
“Shoot them in the legs if they approach.” Marcus added.
The door got broken and everyone of us got busy. I didn’t have the power to talk or give orders. I was stripped of a lot of things I don’t remember. And all I was doing was shooting on the floor to scare off the sanctuary men.
"khatwa kaman we el Imam haymoot." Ismail spoke something loud which seemed to be a threat...and it actually worked..for a while.
The Imam spoke some gibberish which turned out to be orders to make way for us to get out...the guys heistated. But after a few moments, they made way for us. And we started moving towards the elevator again. Daniel and Tenpenny were pointing their rifles at the Imam, Harry was dragging the medium behind him, and the rest of us were picking our targets amongst the angry crowd; moving all the way to the place were everything becomes dynamic...the elevator doors.
Once the elevator door closed on us, everything started to move quickly. The angry mob of monks started to move down the stairs...oh yeah we heard them...the roaring, the gibberishness, the whole fucking Adrenaline atmosphere was upon us. We were just waiting for the door to open then boost our legs to the van. Marcus didn't want to fight with those people.
And there it did...the door i mean. It opened as we burned our muscles out of running that very short distance. I guess it was the adrenaline that was making our muscles burn. We ran into the van. Tenpenny took the driver's seat while the rest mounted on the back. And soon, we were moving backwards out of the building as they raced us to the exit trying to circle around us. I guess they had no reason to be peaceful anymore since that "sacred child" had been killed.
Soon, the Imam showed up with an assault rifle..an AK-47. And he started shooting like crazy towards us.
"You'll never escape the zone!!!" he shouted and we heard somehow inside the van.
"Here comes hell, psychopath monks. Ismail, shoot them." Tenpenney was excited.
"No, Ismail, don't." Marcus interrupted.
"Hey, Marcus, you might be a worldwide hero and everything but screw you. These are motherfucking zombie farmers. I ain't gonna comply with these orders, dude." Daniel shouted at Marcus and gave Ismail the sign to begin shooting.
"Here goes." Ismail said and started pinching the mounted gun in order to scream bullets at the maniacs.
"Now hit the gas away from here, Tenpenny." Daniel gave out more orders. And Tenpenny was happy to comply.
The spontanious speed made us hit the wall of the van inside. Which hurt a little but that was fine compared to facing the raging mob outside. Tenpenny was racing deeper along the Ring road; heading towards the main city...away from Evoset. Marcus was tired...I guess it was his first time to fight non-zombie civilians. But that was just normal to me and my crew.
"Harry, remove the strains from Captain Corbin." Daniel said.
"Whatever you say, boss." Harry replied.
"You're breaking Phoenix rules, Daniel." Marcus tried to warn him.
All Daniel did was take his pitol out of the holster and point it at Marcus. He eyeballed him for a moment.
"Do you know why Phoenix chose the three of us for this mission, mr.superhero?" Daniel asked.
"and how the hell should i know?" Marcus replied.
"Why don't you tell him, boss?" Daniel spoke to me.
"We were one of the few squads that saw action before the rising. We actually were fighting human beings before the zombies came to the scene." I replied while just looking at the floor of the van...tired from what happened earlier.
"That's right. I was NYPD, fool. And that maniac on the steering wheel was NATO, as for the boss , he was with the Marines. Get it? We're facing a human threat here, not the zombies alone." Daniel said.
"Let me ask you a question, daniel. Was that kid really a threat?" Marcus asked with a smile on his face.
"Why don't you fucking get the idea, dude? He didn't kill him on purpose. I mean any of us might be in his situation right now. So chill the fuck out." Daniel said.
"....alright, Daniel. Alright. We'll sort this thing out when we return home. Hey, corbin....no hard feelings...i'm just doing my job." Marcus said.
"Forget it...we've got an important thing to do right now...Tenpenny, try to park the van somewhere safe." I said.
"Aye, aye, Captain." He replied excitedly.
"We're gonna interrogate this sick fuck and find out how he got the ampoule." I said.
"alright...let's do this." Daniel said while looking straight at the medium.
Right after Sama Tower, there was a big former shopping mall that was labeled "Baron Center" and it seemed so wrecked yet so preserved in shape. That only indicated one thing...Survivors.
"Ismail, that shopping mall over there...do you know anything about it?" i asked.
He opened the second hatch slightly and took a short look then went back to me.
"It looks like a looter camp. I'd stay away from there if i want safe spots to interrogate this pig." Ismail replied.
"oh....i got it." I understood what he meant.
Well...if you don't get the idea, looters like Ramadan and the ones at that shopping mall would benefit greatly from people like the medium. He'd probably have supplied them with several things they needed. So if you think they might be of aid to you when you show with this medium captured...think again. They'd kill you to free him. He's a valuable asset.
"Don't worry...I’ll spot a safe place for you. But don't put a lot of hopes up in getting him out of the van." Ismail tried to help.
"Alright." I said.
The irritating thing that was still making my trigger finger itchy was the look on the medium's face. I tried to hold the anger inside but instead of making another mistake, i thought i'd let some of it out...i punched the medium right in the face. And all of us heard it loud.
"Bloody hell, why can't i do this too?" Tenpenny whined.
"So, medium guy, I’m already itching because of the monstrosity I’ve seen from your sacred brothers...and I'm now dying to hurt you with the most painful ways ever for no fucking reason...so you talk, you make it quick and easy...you play hard to get, and you give me the pleasure of torturing you very slowly." I don't remember how i said that. I was just somebody else called Corbin.
"Killing me is gonna put you in big trouble, man." The medium replied in the middle of his laughs.
"Who said I’m gonna kill you?" i replied even tougher...and i remember him giving me a look of nervousness. He couldn't imagine what i was about to do.
"I'm not that person to be easily threatened...I'm a sanctuary monk." He tried to hide his nervousness.
"Oh yeah, I know...I know...you'd probably want me to feed you to the zombies out there so you can have your warrior's death. Oh no, I've got much better plans, dude. And they're gonna make you talk...Marcus...can you take off his coat and shirt?" I replied.
Marcus was just freaked out...even the mighty hero of zone 4 was nervous...the atmosphere was just too intense to let the imagination go wild. But however, he took off the medium's coat and shirt and threw them aside then waited patiently for my next move...I took Tenpenny's backpack which was already crawling with hardware...I first picked up a switchblade. Level 1 starts.
"This, my friend, is an ancient tool of killing....a blade. But you know, mankind is creative...they found out other purposes for the same tool...like sharpening, carving, etc...So...How did you get the ampoule?" I asked...and I only asked once.
"Go fuck yourself." What a cold blooded reply!!
I made him sit on one of the seats in the van and started moving the blade in the back of the seat...and I knew he could feel it.
"There are too many places where I can use this switchblade in your body...and the good thing is...you're not gonna die if I make little noisy stabs." I pushed the switchblade a little deeper into the chair.He felt it alright.
The feeling of something behind you that can stab is scarier than you think...not knowing where exactly it is and all. It would make your adrenaline rush into your blood like a flood. Your body would be hard to control by then.
"Umm...Ah...I won't tell you anything." He was still trying to be tough.
All I did was make him expect the stab from behind...I got out my bayonet and just sliced his right nipple open...and once the blood started to move down his body he started to shout...I kept on attacking his mind with another trick...I started moving both blades...one from behind and one before his eyes around his other nipple.
"Alright stop stop stop...I'll talk." He shouted.
"Give me a lead." I said.
"He didn't give me a name...I know how he looks...a really fat guy...and he…he had a dog...a Germanshepherd. That guy was looking so fucking scary...and his voice… There was something wrong about it...he had a hole in his throat and that's what must have made his voice too scary." He confessed.
"Throat removal because of excess smoking." Dr.Harry explained.
"Did he speak about any purpose of using this against civilians?" Marcus asked.
"He just told me I had to sell this to someone who's fond of killing people. And he gave me the lead…The Rooster." He replied in pain.
"Where did you meet that fat guy?" I asked.
"Come on, Man. Fuck off!! If I tell you, I'm dead." He was honest this time.
There was no need for level 2. I just had to push the blades just a little deeper.
"Well, death is better than living with your skinless self." I replied.
"Come on, man. Please!! You're from a PMC. You can't torture the living. You'd live the rest of your life in prison." He was trying to backfire the psychological warfare I unleashed on him.
"Do you think he gives a fuck by now? He just killed a child." Tenpenny replied.
I looked at him with a poker face that was just about to be angry…But not now.
"You heard the man. Now the question is….Where?" I asked.
"God damn it!! Shit!! Shit!! Shit!!...The arena." He finally spat it out.
"Carrefour Megastore?" Ismail asked.
"Formerly known as Carrefour Megastore." He corrected. "Please, man. I told you everything I know…let me go." He said.
"Ismail, where's that arena?" I asked.
"Not far from here. Just up ahead along the ring road." He replied just as fast.
So I looked back at the poor nipple-less guy…he looked back and he must have been shitting his pants already.
"You're not gonna kill me. Are you?" he asked in tears.
"No, you're not worth the bullet." I replied. "Tenpenny, find me a sheet of paper, a pen, and some rope." I continued.
Letting a criminal like that asshole go is just as wrong as killing a child. And I don't like making mistakes twice in less than five minutes. So I guess it was time to be creative.
Tenpenny didn't suffer finding what I asked for. Everything was ready for the punishment. I took the sheet of paper and the pen and wrote in a big font: "This guy sold Kessler virus to a mercenary." And then tagged it to his chest. Now, all I had to do was tie up that poor guy. I got out with him out of the van into the open air.
"Now, you listen carefully. My friend, Ismail is having a sniper rifle fixed on you. If you don't run towards the Baron Center directly, he's gonna shoot you. Is that clear, Ismail?" I said.
Ismail nodded without words and was already fixing his rifle on the Medium…And off he ran…He ran to the destination where survivors would tear his body apart because of what I wrote on his chest…and he didn't have to run all the way over there. Zombies may just do the job on his way.
"My!! My!! He's just too scared to live for the next minute." Ismail was laughing. So was Tenpenny.
"You're fucking mad, Corbin." Marcus said.
"The rising teaches a lot of things…A lot of mad things. Tell me, Major Marcus Alex. Didn't you learn anything out there in Zone 4?" I asked him with my eyes fixed on his.
He hesitated…he did learn things that a whole pre-rising lifetime wouldn't teach.
"Indeed…Life is difficult. And if you don't learn, you either end up feasting on your brother's flesh or buried under the soil in a survivor cemetery." I answered for him.
"The madness of this world affects you. It shakes the very core of your existence that your heart as already turning zombie. All those gory games you play with your prisoners, all those angry moments you let slip by…They're going to bring about your end." Marcus had the courage to say that in my face.
I just looked him in the eyes. I could see the Indian faces of the survivors of zone 4 in there. They all died. But despite that pain he suffers…he hadn't yet suffered the real thing.
"Do you have a family, Major Marcus?" I asked.
Chapter Seventeen
13th of April, 2023
Miami, Florida
Walmart megastore
1200 hrs.
Corbin Doe
The crowd could be seen from outside of Wal-Mart. I didn't know there was a sale on that day. It must be my lucky and unlucky day. The parking lot was also nearly full. And the sun's heat was just penetrating the glass of my car window that the steering wheel was almost too hot to touch. The sweat was tickling my forehead rather than cooling it down. God damn it!! Summer hadn't come already. Spring had barely begun. But that heat was a little okay if you compare it to the Heat and humidity of the heart of the Mexican Gulf.
I just got a release two days ago from the Marine force. The Caribbean wars have finally ended and I just feel so damn lucky I came out of it alive. Now, I'm having a chance that so many others didn't live to have…Seeing my family…My wife…And my growing intelligent son.
Now let me see what I need to pick up from Wal-Mart in order to get it over with and return home to the sweet air conditioner. I picked up the checklist from my wallet and started reading. Milk, Corn flakes, Beverage collection, veggies….bla bla bla.
I don't remember when I found a spot to park my car but I do remember getting out of it to see two army trucks passing by the main street. That was strange. That street was nowhere near the military base. Those were National Guard trucks too which is even stranger. I never see National Guard troops on the streets unless there's a serious curfew going on. But apart from that, everything seemed to be normal.
So I headed inside Wal-Mart, picked up a shopping cart, then raced into the crowd to get the house needs. I wasn't keen on shopping so much. Neither did my wife, Norah. Otherwise she'd be the one pushing the shopping cart in here. I did most of the outdoor work for her during my releases or vacations while she took great care of my son, Michael.
"That will be forty five Dollars and sixty cents, sir." The cashier said. And she was looking patiently on the monitor in front of her. I also heard voices of news anchors.
"YouTube is allowed during work?" I asked with a smile. And she smiled shyly after looking carefully around her.
"No, but I do find some ways to open it every now and then. Things are going crazy in the news now." She replied.
"What's going on?" I asked while paying.
"They say several cities around the globe have been hit by missiles. Looks like we're in for a global biological warfare." She replied.
"Shit!! Biological warfare?" I said.
"Yeah!! Can you believe that? We barely got out of the Caribbean wars to enter world war three. Life just sucks." She seemed so normal…nothing serious in her tone.
"Do you know what kind of biological weapons has been used?" I asked that question to a civilian which was stupid.
"The missiles themselves had a name with a lot of numbers and letters I don't remember. But they say the warheads are loaded with a biological virus." She said.
Shit!! So is it terrorism? Is it Russia? Or another fucking surprise? I don't know. And from the looks on her face, she doesn't seem to know either…I wasn't feeling safe anymore in this place. Once I remembered the National Guard trucks, I just felt like something's going to happen. And I guess I've named the thing that'll happen…Another missile hitting Miami, Florida. Shit!! I have to go home.
“If I were you, I’d go home now.” I pushed the cart forward outside of the market and raced to the car. I could hear her voice reminding me with the change that I had forgotten to take. No time for money anymore. The currency that rules now is survival.
So, once I entered the car, I turned on the news on the radio. It was a desperate attempt to keep up with the upcoming news. “…. Biological warfare. We have reports of more missiles en route to other destinations. And the number of casualties is racing up an enormous statistical spike. Several cities around the country have been locked down for maximum security isolation. New York, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, New Jersey are among those cities. And we have breaking news from the Pentagon revealing that there is an 85% probability of locking down more cities including Washington, Miami, and Chicago. The minister of defense is declaring this upcoming news live on National TV. And he is saying that the US military force is trying to plot the path of the coming missiles….And it looks like we have an urgent message from the National Guard on. Please, listen carefully.” The news anchor said.
“Citizens of Miami, We have orders to lock down the entire city. And we expect you to co-operate in a civilized manner. Please stick to your homes and lock them down. Do not attempt to contact other citizens for the next 24 hours. Please keep safe inside your homes, lock the doors well and wait for our rescue teams. May god help us all.” That was the urgent message from the National Guard.
There was no more time to think. I was to get back home as fast as possible and see to the security of my family. This was a time for priorities. So I started the engine and stepped on the gas. And it looked like I wasn’t the only one doing that. I could see the people running outside of Wal-Mart and heading for their vehicles. The cashier woman was running too. But she was looking among the cars waiting for one of them to stop and pick her up. She was looking so afraid.
Again it was a time of priorities, but I couldn’t help it. I drove near her and opened the front door. “Get in!!” I shouted.
“Man!! Oh, Man!! This shit is getting serious.” She said.
“Yes, indeed. Things are developing real fucking fast.” I replied while stepping on it.
Anarchy was the maestro of the scene. All I could remember was driving like crazy; evading the crashes of the speeding cars and the scrambling crowd in the streets. It was no more the beautiful Miami we know. Back in the past, you could remember Miami with the smell of beaches and Cuban cigars. Now...and I mean right now…among the chaos. I remember the scene with the smell of gasoline draining from the crashed cars and the smell of speeding tires all over the asphalt.
Moments later, after a session of driving like crazy, I could see it. Falling from the sky like an angel. A missile…boosting down towards the city.
“Do you see it?” she said in a trapped voice.
“Where the hell are our air defenses?” I asked.
“Like I should know…let’s get out of here fast.” She pushed.
There was no time to think. I still had a long way through the wreckage of the cars to get home. I had to get to my family as soon as possible. I kept driving like crazy again until the sky went so bright…the earth shook open. Like hell was going to burst out of the sewers. I couldn’t remember any sound. Everything went silent for a moment…or two. I lost track of time.
All I could remember was so many waves of vibration crawling on the ground from my right, cars being flipped 180 degrees by the shocks, and a sky so bright that you could think the sun was only one mile away. The temperature was barely scorching my skin; the air suddenly became so dry that it felt like I was breathing smoke. Everything got worse rapidly. The city of Cigars and exotic beaches became a wasteland in a matter of a minute.
I don’t remember anything after the brightness of the sky. I didn’t experience the passing of the time and I couldn’t tell how long I was lying underneath my flipped car. I could remember only that cashier from Wal-Mart grabbing my hand and trying to put my plugs back on.
And suddenly I felt it…the pain that was worse than a hundred punches in the face. It was my right leg. It was not broken…it was stabbed by a piece of twisted metal car part. It didn’t matter by then it was from my car or not. My time of owning a car was over.
“Are you okay?” she shouted.
“My leg’s hurt. Are you okay?” I answered.
“A couple of scars…But I’m okay. Let me get you out.” She shouted again.
She didn’t have the time to get in the car when I started hearing the strange moaning. It was the first time I hear it. The zombies of the modern age have arrived. I looked through the broken windows of my car to see howling people racing towards us.
“You’ve got to get out NOW!!” She shouted louder.
“Shit!! Help me raise my leg.” I answered in pain.
She got it and started pulling my leg off the twisted metal…I realized that for my luck, the piece of twisted metal was not too far into my leg…the wound was superficial. It was the view of the wound that made me feel unable to move. But don’t laugh…Flesh wounds still hurt so bad.
The aches and twists of open flesh hurt more than anything. You’d wish by then that you’d have a bullet between your eyes, and especially when you’re running like an athlete away from dorky looking people running towards you like crazy. I wish I had my military gear back then. It would have helped so much.
That didn’t matter a couple of seconds later, because I heard gunshots and saw the howling crowd falling apart. The remnants of the street cops along with National Guard have been putting their efforts to hold back the crazy crowd.
“Keep running!! We got your back!!” One of the cops was shouting.
They were shooting behind a couple of wrecked cars and street cement barriers. And we were running towards them. That made us a distraction to the zombies as they fired. It also made us within the line of fire. We could have been shot any second during this long ten-second-run.
We jumped across one of the street barriers. And from that moment I couldn’t feel anything but enormous pain in my wounded leg. But suddenly, I felt the pain wearing off slowly. And when I snapped out, I saw a National Guard soldier sitting in front of me. He had pierced my leg with Morphine to relieve the pain a little. And it helped.
“Have you encountered any of those guys?” he asked in a loud voice to get his question through the noise of gunfire.
“No, we haven’t.” The cashier answered.
“Good.” He replied. “Don’t let them touch, scratch, nor bite you. Or you’re gonna be one of them.” He added in advice.
The cashier nodded and then sat in front of me. “Are you in pain?” she asked.
“The Morphine did the trick. The pain is deteriorating.” I replied barely with any breath I have.
The view in the sky was frightening. Not every soldier in the world had seen this before. Not every soldier should experience what I was seeing that moment. It was a large flaming cloud of smoke punching the hot air sky high. It was barely looking like a mushroom cloud. We weren’t hit with an atomic bomb though. The question that puzzled me that moment was…why a biological warhead would cause a large mushroom cloud like that.
The view of the cloud made me shiver as if I was in the Siberian desert. Then the flashes came to my head…The images of my family…my wife and son, burning in flames. I had to move. It was only a matter of time before dangers surround them whether from the zombies or from the newly made disastrous terrain.
“We gotta move.” I said in pain.
“Wait, you’re hurt.” The cashier shouted.
“I gotta get to my family.” I insisted.
She gave me a very angry look that I still remember till now. “Fine” she said.
And as if Hurcules himself was pulling me to my feet, she grabbed me and put my arm around her shoulder. We were moving in time because there was another wave of those angry dudes coming. So we started running down the alleys. We didn’t think…whatever empty road was our heading. We just needed to get of there alive. That was our first priority.
We finally got to the clear where my residential block rests silent. The silence was irritating. There was only the ambient sound of the echeos of gunfights and the everlasting echo of the first blast.
“There it is, my residence.” I pointed.
“Let’s move then.” She had some resonance of fear in her voice.
“Okay, we have to be careful though.” I replied.
“Look who’s talking.” She mocked me.
So we had no rest. We moved quickly inside the building before the angry mob spots us. The building from the inside was as silent as it was outside. Never had I experienced such scary wilderness in the middle of a city full of people. You have to be in my place to tell the feeling.
“Stairs? Or elevator?” she asked.
“What do you think a man wounded in the leg would tell you?” I answered; mocking her back.
So we moved towards the elevator, and pressed for the sixth floor. We didn’t have to climb the whole building. And the only comforting sound was the sound of the elevator going up the white elephant…we finally had a moment of rest to catch our breaths….until…
“Do you hear that?” she asked.
“I wish I didn’t.” I answered.
“They’re up there.” She said.
“I know, thanks for the info.” I answered while looking around me for a weapon or anything to defend ourselves with.
And suddenly, it came to me. The ceiling of the elevator…the only hiding place.
The sound of the elevator would cause the mob to gather up around the door. So we’d have no chance getting out of the elevator alive. I saw that same scene in an old movie called “Zombie”. It’s a dorky movie, I know. But that was the closest image that came to my head. I was nervous.
“Quick, the hatch in the ceiling. We have to get up there.” I said.
And she didn’t hesitate, the pushed it upwards and it easily opened. She went up there first, then grabbed my hand and tried so hard to pull me up. I gathered all the strength I had to climb the hatch. And for my luck, I did get up there before the door opened with a couple of seconds.
“Shhhh”. I whispered. “Let them explore the elevator all they want.” I continued in whispers.
I could see them…Their eyes were dropping blood. They were twitching like a man experiencing epilipsy. I saw three of them; looking around the elevator. It took them a whole minute to realize that the elevator was actually empty. That must have been a symptom of what they have….Stupidity, I mean.
So they left the elevator and started romaing the floor. We kept waiting until their voices seemed so far. “Let’s get back down….slowly.” I whispered.
“Okay…I guess we should have taken the stairs.” She joked.
“Yeah, you’re right.” I followed along with the joke.
She went down first quitely; trying not to alert the three dudes again, then she stood there waiting for me to climb down. And I tried so slowly. My leg hurt like hell when she stupidly grabbed me from it. But I don’t blame her. That was the only way she’d stop me from falling down like a stone.
I pointed my head outwards to look around, and there was nobody in the corridors. There were only the remnants of the workshop that the plumbers set up to fix the water pipes in the building. What caught my eye was a sledgehammer leaning on the wall acouple of feet away from me. So I started moving with the Cashier slowly towards that sledgehammer and grabbed it. It was the only visible weapon out here.
“Okay, if we get to my place, we’ll be able to get some guns. I’ve got two pistols in my wardrobe.” I said.
“That’s so sweet of you.” She replied.
“Don’t mention it. Let’s go.” I kept following along.
We moved quietly down the corridor. All we had to do was take the next left and open the third door on the right. There was my apartment. So we kept moving with the same speed until I heard some noise ahead of me. It was a childish roar…a god damn childish, angel-like, roar.
The noise alerted the three dudes. And soon, they howled and started running. I could hear their footsteps. So I started running towards my apartment door. The noise was coming from inside, and my worst fears were confirmed. My family was in danger.
The first of the three dudes showed up while I was getting my keys from my pocket. He looked at us with so much anger I could see on another human face before. Then he started screaming and running towards us. He was one of the plumbers who were fixing the water pipes.
I threw the keys to the cashier. “There open the door, quick. I’m going to take this guy.” I said.
She caught the keys and started surfing through the keys; trying to find the correct one as I was gripping my sledgehammer so tight; waiting for the angry plumber to come close.
“Which key?” she screamed.
“The round one.” I screamed back while hitting the plumber in the head with the sledgehammer.
“Most of them are fucking round. Which one of them?” she screamed back in anger.
“It’s the longest key.” I replied at the moment I saw the second dude...Actually she was not a dude. It was a teenage girl with a lot of piercings in her face and some black makeup. Hell, if she was sane she’d be happy. That was her best Halloween look; the blood from the eyes and the torn part of the arm. Jeez!!!!
The cashier then opened the door and grabbed me inside. “Get in fast.” She screamed.
It was not over yet. We closed the door but we could tell the difference from the angry teenager that was crazily knocking on the door and the childish roar inside the damn apartment. It was slowly cooling down. And that…was not a good sign.
“It’s coming from inside the bathroom.” I whispered.
“Let’s get it done.” She said while getting up from the fall she had when she first entered my apartment.
She grabbed a knife from the kitchen and moved ahead of me. I followed her in an enormous pain. I’ve done too much for a wounded leg. She was faster than me. And she looked like she was going to be fine, taking that threat alone. But she stopped there and didn’t move.
“What?” I asked quietly.
…She didn’t answer.
So I moved and stood next to her. “What’s wrong?” I asked again. And still she didn’t answer…she just looked at me with the I-don’t-know-what-to-say look on her face. So I looked myself….
…..
God!!!
The roaring child was Michael…I could see him with my own eyes. And...He was…eating a piece of flesh off my wife’s chest. She was already dead. No, she wasn’t only dead. She was torn to pieces.
I can’t tell when my eyes started dropping tears. The Cashier’s hand was on my shoulder.
“My god…Is that your family?” she whispered.
I nodded.
“Shit!!! This is worst situation a human being can ever be in.” she commented.
I nodded.
She just stood there; horrified by the scene as I caught a grip on my heart and looked at her directly in the eyes.
“I’m going to get in there…lock the door. Don’t open it until I call your name. And only if I call your name.” I whispered in a really painful voice.
“What the hell are you going to do?” she asked in fear.
“What do I look like I’m going to do?” I answered.
I slowly took the final steps towards my son...And entered the bathroom then looked back at the Cashier.
“You can call me Alice.” She said with a tear dropping down her cheek. Then she slowly closed the door.
“…Michael.” I said in a hurt voice.
And that thing turned its attention towards me. It was another Michael. It was still my son. It gave me the angry look that I saw on the rest of the guys I saw on the same floor.
I was holding up my sledgehammer; ready to kill my son. And I did it…I fucking did it. I smashed his head against the sink. And he fell down without any reaction.
Shit!! Shit!! Shit!!
Those are a couple of moments I will never forget. I was holding both my dead wife and my dead son in my arms…and I was crying so much that my eyes hurt.
“I’m sorry, Norah…Oh! God, I’m sorry…I’m sorry, son...Ohh!! No…Oh!!...Alice!!...Alice!!”
She opened the door. She was crying too.
“I’m so sorry for you loss.” She whispered.
I said nothing…I was only giving my family a final hug…it was the last goodbye…and I didn’t calm down until she grabbed me off them and closed the door of the bathroom. She held my head and looked me in the eyes.
“Listen to me, we have to move on. It’s not safe here. We have to move or else the crazy dudes outside will get us.” She said.
I calmed down a little and wiped my tears from my eyes. I tried to catch my breath and looked around the house to catch a good glimpse of the place I live in…Or used to.
Alice gave me her hand; offering me to stand up. “Let’s go, soldier.”
I caught her hand and stood up. “Corbin…It’s Corbin.” I replied.
“Alright, Corbin, let’s go get those pistols and silence that bitch outside the apartment.” She answered.
“Yes…let’s do that.” I replied without any reactions.
I moved with my sledgehammer to the master bedroom and opened the wardrobe. Then, I took the two pistols off the highest shelf. Norah used to put them up there so Michael wouldn’t be able to reach them. I actually had two of them for both of us…Me and Norah, I mean.
So I gave her gun to Alice…The one who was going to be my new companion of those dark days.
“Alright, Alice, you promise me that you won’t lose that gun. It belongs to my wife.” I said.
She gave me a slight smile.
“Okay, I promise.” She replied.
“Alright, then, Lets go kill that noisy bitch.” I said.
Chapter Eighteen
Inside the green armored van
The ring road, Zone 15
1800 hrs.
“Indeed, life is difficult, Major Marcus. So, cut the crap and focus on the mission.” I said.
The atmosphere was tense.
“Hey, Captain. I'm sorry…I mean…I brought that up to your mind.” He started talking softly.
“Yeah, yeah. That’s all you can say anyways. Are we there yet, Ismail?” I asked.
“I can see the arena from here, Captain. The road is clear. There are no zombies on the road.” He replied.
“Where should we park the van?” Tenpenny asked while fixing his eyes on the road; trying to avoid hitting the wreckage.
“Let’s try parking inside the Arena. I heard there’s a parking lot in front of the megastore.” Ismail replied again.
That was a normal answer. Tenpenny was the dumb one asking this question. Megastores are always safe in this world. They’re the main and first supply depots that get looted during any crisis, not just a rising. During any financial or political crisis around the world, places like Carrefour and Wal-Mart get looted clean by the public. That’s because when people panic, they start thinking about taking shelter at their homes with the biggest amount of supplies they can hold. And that’s what’s happening right now. Don’t blame the public. That’s just natural human behavior.
We were there and Tenpenny was just driving close to the parking lot which still a parking lot for my surprise. I saw a couple of tanks that belonged some time ago to the Egyptian armed forces. They were M1A1 tanks. I also saw vans similar to ours, cars that were enforced with metal sheets for protection. The rest of the parking lot was a junkyard.
The megastore itself looked a lot different than it would be before the rising. It looked like a huge nightclub to me, with all those neon lights on the rims of the building, battling the last rays of the sun to show up and shine the surroundings with their colors. The sign, “Carrefour” was taken off the wall of the building and was put there on the top of the junkyard…it was deocrated with neon lights. The scene was straight out of the old Fallout game. Zone 15 was the cliché picture of a post-apocalyptic world. We could hear some metal music coming out of the building and some roaring. The roaring wasn’t the one zombies do. It was the roaring of a typical audience gathering around an underground fist fight.
“So this is the arena.” Marcus said. “It’s a pretty cool place, actually.” He continued.
“Damn, this place is more fun than Vegas in its time. Imagine spending your time after retiry here; on bets, food, security, and hookers.” Daniel commented.
“I might disappoint you in that point about hookers. You might not find them here.” Ismail said.
“Oh, no. trust me in this, Ismail. We’ll find them anywhere.” Tenpenny said.
“How do you know for sure?” Ismail asked in disbelief.
“Unfortunately, Ismail, Tenpenny is true this time. There is no place on earth now that doesn’t live without hookers. They have to exist orelse the survivors would die out of boredom instead of zombies.” I interrupted.
“I would really like to continue this beautiful conversation, lads. But don’t you think we’ve got a fat guy with a german shepherd dog whom we’re supposed to catch and interrogate?” Harry interrupted.
“Yeah, let’s go.” I said.
We walked to the gate to find it closed. There was only a little hatch opened which had allowed the neon lights of the interior come out. Obviously, There was a lot of noise inside; people cheering, loud punches and so many things breaking apart which I don’t know.
“What do we do now? Knock ?” Tenpenny asked.
“I guess.” Ismail asnwered.
What do you do when you want to bust someone inside a fighting arena that’s probably guarded by tens of heavily armed survivors? That’s a good question….So, we decided to knock.
Someone’s face appeared from the hatch…his eyes were the most obvious to see.
“ento meen?” he said. Or asked, I don’t know. So I looked at Ismail to take over the conversation.
So they spoke little words…and there was no problem for them opening the gate for us.
“What did you say to this guy?” Harry asked.
“he asked who we are and I told him that we’re visitors. Then he asked business or pleasure and I said pleasure.” He asnwered.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Daniel commented.
We didn’t finish a few steps forward when the security guy said something else. And then Ismail looked around to us.
“No weapons inside, guys.” Ismail said.
“Bad idea, man.” Marcus said.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Tenpenny added.
Ismail looked back and spoke some more with the security guy Then looked back at us.
“He says that it’s safe inside. No need for weapons.” Ismail said back to us.
“Oh, that’s obvious. So damn safe inside with all those fighting sounds coming out of the building.” Daniel said.
Some other guard took a step forward and showed up.
“Gentlemen, how can I help you?” he spoke, and in English.
“We’re here for a visit.” I took over the conversation.
“Then why the hell would you need your guns?” he asked.
“Come on, this is a quarantine fucking zone. Anything can happen.” Marcus said.
“Sir, this is the arena. No zombie can approach this place. So you can leave your guns here and take them when you finish your tour around the place.” The guard replied.
Marcus gave me a look.
“Alright, guys. Leave your damn guns.” I declared.
“That’s the dumbest decision you ever made boss, but I’ll play along.” Tenpenny said.
So, squad started surrendering their weapons to the first guard while the second was looking at our weapons with amazement.
“You people seem well equipped. You’re not from the zone, are you?” he said.
“How does it look?” I asked in sarcasm.
“You must be from a PMC or some army regiment from outside the zone…come on, guests. Let me show you around the place.” He said then turned around and started walking. And unfortunately, we followed.
“My name is Amro. I run the security around this place. If you need anything, be sure to tell any of the guards to call me. I’ll be of assistance.” He said while walking inside.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Amro.” Marcus said while looking at me. He needed to speak to me in private.
The place was full of Purple, Green, Pink neon light. There were so many more colors that would certainly bother anyone’s eyes. I never understood why nightclubs and underground fighting clubs used all those kinds of light colors for their places.
The corridor we were walking through was wide. There were traces of what seemed to be kiosks in the past. To the right, the cash registers and beyond, the megastore which is obviously depleted of its resources. But those guys were brilliant. They used the whole space of the store well. I could see sleeping bags everywhere for the guards. There were cages in the background of the scene. And I reckoned they weren’t for human beings…or animals. They were for something else.
“So how do fighters earn their living?” Tenpenny asked.
“Rotten meat…lots of rotten meat.” Amro replied.
“Huh?!!” That was Daniel.
“Don’t they get sick or something?” Harry asked.
Amro stopped walking for a moment; looking back at us.
“The fighters are not human beings, gentlemen.” Amro replied with a laugh.
“What are they, then? Chickens? Dogs?” Harry kept on asking.
“Zombies.” Amro answered as fast as our imagination told us the answer.
“What the fuck??” Tenpenny got excited.
“We have two kinds of fighting. In order to suit both the poor and rich, we have ordinary zombie fights and super zombie fights. Since that whole super zombie story began and we’ve been hunting some of them alive. They’re worth a fortune.” Amro explained more.
“Wow, this place is much better than any casino in Vegas.” Tenpenny said in laughs.
“And people come here; spend their savings in order to see two zombies fight?” I asked.
“They’d spend everything they’ve got to see two zombies fight, gentlemen. We train our zombies to be vicious, unmerciful, and angry all the time.” He said.
Suddenly, we were hearing roars in the end of the corridor…just ahead of us.
“You see, gentlemen? This voice is worth money. Everyone likes the sound of that.” he continued.
“Music to my ears.” Ismail said in sarcasm.
So we stopped near the end of the corridor when we saw a cage made of old fences with two large zombies which didn’t appear normal at all. There were also at least three round rows of people watching the fight between them. The end of the corridor was actually what used to be the food court. I saw old broken signs of restaurant logos; McDonald’s, Pizza Hut…etc.
What really caught my eye were the two atrocities in the cage battling each other to death. Both of them were big. One of them had a mutated face...the left part of its face had enlarged to at least twice the size of the normal head. And the body seemed coated with some solid material that didn’t seem strange. I noticed that zombie getting hurt so many times. And there were no signs of bleeding anywhere on his body nor the floor of the battleground. Its body was not uniform at all; the chest was half large, half small. The arms seemed like two different arms from different body sizes. It was a freak. I could notice that monster moving slowly but it was blowing painful punches and kicks to the other monster. I wouldn’t want to be in that cage with that monster.
The other wasn’t so large. You can say a little larger than a normal human body; a little taller too. What were interesting about it were the fingernails and toenails. They weren’t nails anymore. They were claws. They were razor-sharp and long. The bastard could run on the fence using those claws. And it used them perfectly. I’ve never seen something crawling on the fence as fast as that creature. It could jump higher than us, and the blows were fatal. It had longer legs which had muscles so big I’d envy it on having them.
“It’s a clotter. That big guy over there is called a clotter.” Harry said.
“How come he doesn’t bleed?” I asked.
“His wounds heal so fast and his blood clots so fast which makes a plate of solid blood on his body. The more you hurt him, the tougher he becomes.” Harry explained.
“You mean it’s Invincible?” I asked again.
“Unless you hit it with 50 Caliber or above rounds, yes. Or if you really want to shoot it dead, you could use an RPG.” He answered.
“What about that monkey?” I kept asking.
“Oh, that, my friend, is called a crawler. It’s genetically modified to have stronger limbs for crawling walls and jumping. The claws are also included in the genetic modification.” Harry kept answering as well.
Amro got busy with his fellow guards as we stood there watching the epic battle between two super zombies. The battle ground was in the favor of the crawler in my opinion. The clotter was slow which made it an easy prey for the crawler. And my expectations were right; the crawler jumped on the clotter’s back and kept stabbing it repeatedly with its claws till the clotter fell to the ground. The roaring came this time from the crowd. Happy and sad faces were all over the place, and drinks were pouring off the bottles to celebrate the big win for the lucky ones.
“It’s a good thing they’re both in a cage.” Daniel said.
“Yeah, I bet the same.” Marcus followed. “We need to keep moving.” He continued.
He grabbed me from my arm to somewhere that was relatively quiet and away from the crowd. Daniel and Ismail followed in our tracks while Tenpenny and Harry stayed where they are; watching the crowd.
“I say we split and explore the place. One of us should find that fat guy hanging around.” Marcus said.
“We’re still having our earpieces online. We can split and communicate through them.” I said.
“Ismail, here you go. That’s an extra earpiece. I have it for emergencies. So, I guess you’ll need it here.” Daniel said while getting the earpiece out of his backpack and handing it to Ismail.
“Thanks, man. I’ll try to go to higher floors; maybe I can get up to the roof and monitor the place from above.” Ismail said.
“Good idea. The three of us will split up and scan the area for the fat dude. Tenpenny and Harry should stay where they are to keep Amro busy.” I said.
“Right, I’ll go tell them about the plan and make sure they’re turning on their earpieces, and then I’ll follow you.” Marcus said.
“Alright, let’s go.” I said.
Ismail was the first to move away then Marcus. Daniel looked at me with worries.
“I ain’t used to these kinds of situations, man. I wish I had my rifle right now.” He said in nervousness.
“I'm lucky then. I still have my suicide gun underneath the Kevlar vest.” I exclaimed at Daniel.
“You’re one sneaky motherfucker.” Daniel said in a smile.
“I'm one sneaky motherfucker….” I waited for a correction.
“Alright, alright, you’re one sneaky motherfucker, sir. Happy?” he said.
“Much better.” I punched him in his shoulder gently then moved away.
I decided to head towards what lies beyond the cash registers. I hoped I’d find him asleep which will make the task a lot easier. While I was looking around what’s beyond, I heard chatter over the earpieces.
“I found my way up to the steel rods on the roof. I can clearly spot you, Daniel, and the rest of the crew.” Ismail reported.
“Good.” Marcus replied.
“Hey, Captain, did you see those cages on the other side of the mart?” Daniel asked.
“Yeah, I saw them when we first entered. I’d back away if I were you.” I said.
“Why is that? We might find that B….Oh! Roger that, sir.” He replied.
“What’s in the cages?” Marcus asked.
“It’s the same things we saw back there in the big cage; only lots of them.” Daniel said in a low voice.
“Oh, dear God!!” Marcus exclaimed.
And then, guess who interrupted?
“Captain, my fingers are feeling numb and we don’t have anything to shoot with. If I get caught, I'm screwed.” Tenpenny said.
“Your fingers feel numb because you’re drinking, dumbass.” Harry showed up into the conversation.
“Keep him away from the drinks, Doc. Will you?” I said.
“Aah, Captain?” Ismail seemed a little worried.
“Yes.” I answered.
“Did the medium mention anything else while describing the fat guy?” he asked.
“Like what?” I asked back.
“Umm, that he’s bald, and having a really nasty scar across his head?” he asked again.
“No…do you see him?” I asked.
“I think I do. He’s moving with a group of guards right towards Tenpenny and Harry.” Ismail finally gave me an answer.
“Shit!!” Harry exclaimed.
“Bloody hell!! He’s as ugly as crap.” Tenpenny exclaimed.
“Keep your earpiece working…and act natural.” I said.
“Roger that.” He answered.
I knew that everyone now was waiting for what would happen next…I was.
“Well, hello.” Tenpenny’s voice came back over the earpiece.
“Enjoying the fight?” Shit!! That was the ugliest voice I’ve ever heard in my entire life.