NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC; this is going to be a “zombie horror” RP.
Please do not post out of character post in this thread, If you want to join in then please TG me with your ideas before posting. Thank you.)

Friday 1730 hours,
GeneTech,
Military Research Facility,
Mittleton City centre

David Schwartz had wanted to be a doctor ever since he was a young boy when he had to spend two weeks in hospital for an optical infection. At university he decided that his future lay in genetic engineering after being inspired by a flamboyant professor that left a lasting impression on him.
David joined Genetech from university full of dreams of how he and genetic manipulation would cure the world’s woes.
He had spent years developing formulas and splicing different strains of the flue virus together, altering their basic genetic coding in an effort to rid the world of the common cold. One of these creations displayed an unexpected side effect on the test rodents, that was when the military came and conscripted David in to their ranks.
Now locked inside a classified military research laboratory, in the middle of Mittleton city centre, working on a perverted form of his common cold serum, David Schwartz felt increasingly disillusioned and disgruntled at the way his medical knowledge was being applied and twisted in an effort to provide the government a trump card for future conflicts.
David had been approached by two men in his local watering hole that offered him the chance of escape, a fresh start in a new nation hidden from his own government and enough money to ensure his great grandchildren would be rich, if he could provide them with samples of his research. Though he wasn’t married, or even in a long term relationship, the thought of a new life far away from this one was enough to convince him to act.
Looking around the room for the fifth time to make sure nobody had entered in the thirty seconds since he last checked, now that he was sure he was alone in the laboratory he filled three vials with the serum. The rubber gloves that provide safe access to the sealed bio-hazard unit made his work slow and tested his every nerve. After securing the air tight caps to the vials he placed the three full vials into the access tray, removed his hands from the manipulation gloves and pressed the decontamination button before removing the sealed vials and placing them into his lab coat pocket.
The beads of sweat that were forming on his forehead began to join and run down his face as he left the research laboratory and headed to the locker room to exchange his lab coat for the jacket that completed the dark blue suit he was wearing, looking around the locker room he quickly placed the vials into his jackets inner pocket, then made his way to the security check point at the buildings entrance.
David forced himself to walk out of the military building in the heart of Mittleton city, though he desperately wanted to run passed the guards, he felt sure he would be stopped. The guards looked him up and down with the suspicious scowl they use on all the buildings workers who didn’t wear a light grey uniform and a military identity badge.
Outside the research building, that stretched twenty eight storeys in to the sky, and on the busy pavement of Mittleton city centre David began to relax a little, it was only forty yards to his car, he walked with a determined pace making quick work of the distance to his car. A pair of hands landed on his shoulders grabbing him and pulling him off the main pavement.

“All right boss, what you got there for ole’ Jim then”

A look of horror on his face, David could think of nothing but that on this day of all days he had to be mugged.

“Come on, where’s your money wanker” The filthy homeless man said more to himself than to David as he had already begun to rifle through his pockets, finding the vials in David’s jacket pocket he looked at them for a moment and gave them a shake.

“Dear God stop, you don’t know what your doing”

The homeless man looked David in the face for a second before throwing the vials over his shoulder “Where’s ya fucking money prick?”

David panicked by the destruction of the vials and the release of his serum, he forced the tramp off him and ran back to the main street and to his car. He could feel his lungs beginning to tighten in his chest as he found it harder and harder to breathe. Looking back he could see the filthy homeless man was lay face down in the middle of the side street. David Schwartz collapsed as he reached his car his lungs no longer able to provide oxygen to his body, he could feel his blood burning in his veins as he lost consciousness.

Gary and Fiona where in Koffe Beanz enjoying one of the many varius concoctions that they served when Gary saw a man across the street collapse down the side of a blue salon car.
He jumped from his seat and dodging the rush hour traffic ran across the street to the fallen man. Gary pushed his way through a crowd of people that had gathered around just looking at the person face down on the pavement. Kneeling by the man Gary tried to located a pulse on the mans neck and then his wrist, he couldn’t find one, he rolled the man on to his back the mans face was twisted in pain, Gary began to apply CPR to the man, in between breaths he called out to the crowd to phone an ambulance.
Fiona had joined the crowd around Gary and made her way to the front row of people, digging her mobile phone from her bag she dialled the emergency services number.

“Operator, I need an ambulance to Pine Avenue out side Koffe Beanz someone has collapsed”
“Ok can you give me a description of the injury of the person in need of assistance?”
“Erm Yeah, he collapsed in the street and now my partner is giving him mouth to mouth”
“Ok, I’ve alerted the nearest hospital to you and they are sending and ambulance to your location”

The man receiving CPR from Gary opened his eyes as Gary was performing chest compressions, for the third time, They were a pale blue colour like ice, he looked confused for a moment and then, as Gary tried to check his pulse, gave a low growl and lunged for Gary’s arm sinking his teeth through Gary’s shirt sleeve and into the soft flesh beneath, the bones in Gary’s fore arm where the only thing stopping his hand being completely severed. Screaming in agony and reeling back away from the attacker Gary grabbed the bitten arm and the chunky piece of flesh hanging on by a few strands of skin and muscle pulp, blood rushed from the wound and covered Gary in seconds. The crowd fled in terror at the sight of what had happened all but Fiona who was rooted to the spot trembling with fear, looking at Gary’s mutilated arm.
The man rose to his feet, blood running down his chin and neck his dark blue suite stained with splashes of Gary’s blood. His attention was now on Fiona and she couldn’t move, and even if see could the split second from the man standing to him sinking his teeth into her neck didn’t give her time to.
As Gary lay watching his girlfriend being eaten, to weak to move the blood flowing from his arm had left him pale and in side he could feel his veins burning, his throat wheezing air into his lungs and his lung unable to oxygenate the blood, his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell limp in less than two minutes.
What used to be David stood from over Fiona’s convulsing body, blood spitting from her neck onto the pavement, he looked around and found the street full of people fleeing in all directions, cars had been dumped at junctions with their engines still running, mortified shoppers clung to their shopping bags and watched in terror through shop windows. He had no feeling left now; he had no reasoning, no education, and no pity just the need to spread what was burning in his veins and arteries.

Friday 2000 hours
Mittleton City Centre

Mittleton City centre was in ruins, there were crowds of infected people roaming around the area and hundreds of uninfected people trapped in buildings. The streets were littered with bodies and abandoned cars. The infected surrounded building that people had taken refuge in, anyone that wasn’t infected that dared to venture into the streets didn’t last long.

Police road block
Maple View and Knotts Road intersection
(Outskirts of city centre)

The officers manning the Maple View and Knotts Road intersection road block, some sixteen officers and eight tactical response unit officers, where checking their weapons and scanning the road leading into the centre of Mittleton, the houses lining Maple View ran the length of the road down to the next intersection.

The rumble of police transport buses could be heard before the buses were seen, the blue buses stopped by the Maple/Knotts intersection and its passengers of riot equipped police officers disembarked the seven transports.
Nearly two hundred riot police officers formed up into four single file lines and began to march down Maple View towards Mittleton city centre.

“Ok lads make ready”

The riot police responding to the police sergeants order by forming for lines the width of the road and two men deep.

“Ok then nicely done, lets make a little noise for those wanker’s trashing the place”

The riot officers began to clank their nightsticks against the side of their riot shields creating a loud echoing thud that was designed to terrify the rioters.

“Here they come, prepare yourselves”

The sergeant pointed towards a group of five men running towards the riot police lines. They smashed into the plastic riot shields of the police and nightstick blows rained down onto their bodies from all directions, they fell to the floor screaming still being kicked and beaten by the officers. The five men were dragged off by the rear lines of police and pinned face down on the pavement and road with knees in the back of their necks their hands where cuffed behind their backs, but they still struggled and fought hissing and screaming trying to bite the police officers.
From the direction the five men came from more people could be seen sprinting towards the police lines, the hordes out numbered the police massively and as they charged the police shields the weight of numbers drove them through the first two lines grabbing and biting the officers, the first two lines of police officers where separated into groups no more than five men and they where fighting desperately lashing out as the infected people on the other side of their shields, the infected hordes grabbing the shields and diving on the officers.
The infected surged onto the third line of the riot police officers who where horrified at the sight of the infected savaging their colleagues. The third line of riot police found themselves being forced further and further away from the surrounded men of the first two lines. The men of the first two line knew that they were going to die the groups of fighting men were dwindling till there was just five men fighting in a circle there shoulder touching and their nightsticks raining down blow after blow on the infected attackers. The officers of the third and fourth line were unable to force the infected hordes back and the distance between them and the last group of surrounded officers was increasing by the second, the officers terrified and exhausted fled the lines running as fast as their legs would carry them back to the police check point behind them, the infect chasing them diving on the men that fell behind.
The officers at the Maple View and Knotts road check point saw the four remaining riot police officers running towards them followed by the thousands of infected people.

“Get the tear gas ready”
“Got it”

The grenade launcher popped several times and six tear gas grenades flew towards the infect people chasing the remaining riot policemen towards the check point. The infected mass didn’t slow or even flinch at the tear gas as they ran through the clouds of it gaining on the riot officers and closing in on the check point.

“Fuck, ok go to live ammo”

Several officers grabbed shotguns from their patrol cars and others grabbed and cocked their pistols.

“Prepare to fire”

The patrol officers picked targets down their shotgun or pistol sights while the tactical response unit officers flipped the safety switch on their M4 Carbine assault rifles and started to pick out targets in the crowd.

“Ok, fire, fire, fire”

The patrol officers fired over the top of their patrol cruisers and the tactical officers picked out the people closing in on the remaining riot officers. The riot officers ran between two patrol cars as the barrage of bullets and shot flew towards the rabid hordes chasing them. The infected swarmed around the patrol cruisers falling onto the officers nearest to them sinking their teeth into any part they could find. The eight tactical officers retreated in two groups of four, one group giving covering fire as the other groups retreated and then swapping roles.
The riot police officers ran up five stairs towards a house's front door that was open and ran in, they called to the tactical officers to follow them, one group of four men where firing into the crowd as it closed in, and as the shots from the other team rang out from behind them they turned and ran, as they passed the other tactical team the leader pointed at the riot officer beconing from the doorway and shout to follow them. The infected had closed in, they were mere feet away.

“Go, go, go”

The four men turned from the crowd and fled towards the house door two members of the other tactical team firing into the infected crowd from the top of the stairs to the house entrance, the second team hit the stairs fast and scaled them two at a time and the other two men from the first team retreated into the doorway still firing. The door was slammed into its frame and the latch and bolts locked as the crazed crowd slammed againt the door rocking it on its hinges.

Wayne “Fuck me, Fuck me, that just didn’t fucking happen man that did not fucking happen, did you fucking see those fuckers”
Pratt “Fuck yeah man, my bullets didn’t even slow them down, and they just kept coming, even the ones full of holes”
Daniels “Ok, shut up, is that door secure?”
Mann “Yeah I locked it but I don’t k now how long it will last they're really battering it”
Daniels “Right every one check ammo and reload, you guys” Daniels looks at the riot officers “If that kit is going to slow you down lose it, and check your pistols”

The twelve men checked their weapons and the riot men removed their padding William Jones checked the front door again, it was bouncing on its hinges and latch.
Looking out of the living room window Carl Daniels could see the red and blue lights of the patrol cruisers lighting up the infect horde outside the building, he knew they couldn't get out the front door now the street was full of infected people all trying to find their way into the house, the drumming on the wooden front door was incessant and he thought to himself that they’d be fucked if it had half length glass windows, lucky he figured.

Infected

Estimated – 0 people
Actual – 9,763 people

2000 hours
Cansear City
Global News Channel 24

The camera had the lead anchor man in focus with a large flat screen to the right and behind him showing a picture of a group of angry people and the words riot terror in red across them.

Simon Archer “Good evening ladies and gentlemen in tonight’s show we have exclusive coverage of the riot happening right now in Mittleton City, we can go live to Samantha now”

The view changes to an aerial view of Mittleton with a huge crowd of people running round, beating on windows and chasing people round the streets.

Samantha Goody “Good evening Simon, as you can see from the pictures being transmitted now the city centre of Mittleton is in chaos there are large groups of men and women running round attacking people for no reason, the police have been slow to respond to the situation which now sees Mittleton as a no go area”

Simon “Can you tell us what, if anything, the police are now doing?”

Samantha “We have heard on the police scanner that they are going to send in riot police but we haven’t see any yet, wait the pilot is telling me that the police have clashed with the rioters, we are heading there now”

Simon “Thank you Samantha, keep us informed”

Simon turned to a man now sitting at the other end of his deck and both were shown on screen.

Simon “Mr Heats, you are a leading sociology expert in Alidor, can you tell us anything on the situation in Mittleton?”

Mr Heats “Well Simon, there have been no major sporting events lately and nothing of importance has happened lately so I would say its an expression of pent up aggression and anger that has been manifested in this way”

Simon “But an entire city running amuck?”

Mr Heats “Well Simon I’m sure this has been started by just a small group of people and it has snowballed into the current situation we see, and I think that it will probably be repeated in other large urban areas across Alidor, it’s a symptom of modern day stress and no way of unwinding as it were and pr-”

Simon “I’m sorry Mr Heats I’m going to have to interrupt you there, we have more footage of the riots in Mittleton City coming in live now”

Samantha “Simon, are you seeing this? The police have been over run by the rioters and are being chased down, is it Wood Row no its Maple View, and the rioters are beating the police they have caught, oh my god, oh my god their ripping that policeman to pieces oh, oh erm a police check point has fired tear gas into a large crowd of rioters, its just not having an effect, oh god, are, are you seeing this the police are firing into the crowd, they are firing their weapons into the crowd and I-”

Simon “We seem to have lost the live feed from Samantha, well try and bring you more coverage from Mittleton as soon as we can. Well Mr Heats an unstoppable crowd of frenzied rioters, police shooting into the crowds of people what do you make of this?”

Mr Heats “This is typical over reaction from the Alidorn officials as usual Simon”

Simon “Well I’ve never seen police firing at unarmed people before, have you?”

Mr Heats “Well no but its just an extension of the governments heavy handed treatment of its citizens, that is what has started this situation and it will cause more”

Simon “Thank you Mr Heats, we appear to be unable to give you more footage from Mittleton at this time, and in other story’s today a old ladies cat was rescued from a tree at a cost of nearly fifteen thousand Alidorn tax payers pounds, and an armed siege of a 24/7 store has been successfully defused by police negotiators, more to come at ten. I’m Simon Archer and this has been the news at eight see again at ten, good evening”

First Councillor Lewis of the People's Republic Of Karullia sat and watched the video screen with his staff. The riots seemed to be overwhelming large parts of Mittleton City, and looked to be spreading out of control. Idly he looked across at Defence Minister Sokai Otetsu. "Have you offered Alidor our support in helping sort out this riot if needed?" Otetsu shook his head. "No, Alidor have not asked for any aid...I believe the Alidorian defence forces can sort this out peacefully. However, i will wire them your offer."

The men nodded, and returned to watching the video screens.



Later......


*Message to Alidorian Government Crisis Control Dept.*

To whom it may concern,

We express our sincere regret at the extreme damage caused by rioters in Mittleton City. Given the friendly status between our nations, and our Mutual Aid pact, we wish to offer Alidor any humanitarian aid and support neccessary.

Regards,
Sokai Otetsu
Defence Minister
First Council Of the People's Republic of Karullia

The infection swept out of Mittleton city centre their shear numbers overwhelming police check points as they spread into the residential areas of the massive city. The city was home to nearly forty two million people and now it had had less than one million people who weren’t infected, held up in what ever kind of shelter they could find. The rabid hordes of the Mittleton populace killed and reanimated by the virus roamed every street and began spreading out into nearby towns and villages, the infected masses were hunting.

2200 hours
Avon Dale Police Station
Mittleton City

The Avon Dale police station was swamped by the infected hordes they surged onto the glass doors of the main entrance, the reinforced glass already cracked and splintering into the lobby.

“The doors gonna go everyone in to the back”

The police officers inside were trying to usher the civilians out of the lobby, through doors leading to the main building. The infected surged onto main entrance doors again, shattering the glass sending shards in every direction and charged through towards the officers closing the doors at the rear of the lobby, the frenzied men and women leaping over and running round the reception desk and into the doorway. The police officer closing the door was knocked of balance as the infected people ran through the opening, before he could react they had fallen on him biting and clawing at his flesh. The policemen to the far side of the room, trying to hurry the civilians into the holding cells, opened fire on the horde as they leaped desks and sent chairs flying in all directions, pistols where aimed and emptied in seconds sending clouds of congealing blood into the air, shotguns dug down into the firers shoulders as shot exploded from their barrels tearing arms and shredding the heads of the infected as they closed in on the officers. The police officers where fighting hand to hand with the infected one officer forcing his gun into the mouth of and infected man before blowing his brains across the faces of the fighting men and women, the uninfected being savaged and dragged away by the carnivorous group.

22 Maple View
Mittleton City

The police hiding inside the terraced house gathered in the kitchen as the beating on the front door continued to drum through out the house. Daniels the team leader of the tactical group had been checking the house over looking for a way out of the building.
Carl Daniels stood in the doorway of the kitchen and beckoned his number two officer over, Daniels lead Armstrong to the front door and pointed at the latch and bolts.

Daniels “Those aren’t going to last much longer” With each thud from the infected outside hitting the door the screws of the latch and bolts were being forced further and further out of the door frame.
Carl told Armstrong, who was now looking paler than he was three minutes previous, to follow him up the stairs. At the top of the last flight of stairs Carl pointed his flashlight up through the up attic hatch.

Daniels “I think that the attic runs the full length of the terrace, if we could get to one of the end buildings we might be able to get away from those things outside”

Armstrong “I think we should try it, just to get away from the Tonga drummers down stairs”

Daniels “Ok, I’ll go up you get the men, oh tell them to grab some food from the kitchen; I don’t think the owners will mind”

“Yeah unless their outside trying to get in” Julius Armstrong muttered to himself as he disappeared down the stairs.

Infected

Estimated – 0
Actual – 41,391,008

June Stokes sipped at her diet soda as she watched the small television set in the lounge. The volume was turned down low and the picture was grainy, but it looked like there was some trouble downtown. A tall, blonde woman with a white coat and a clip chart walked into the room and toward the vending machine. She was a striking contrast to June, who was short and dark-haired. "Hey, June," she said, feeding some money into the machine. "Enjoying your internship so far?" "Yeah it's going fine," June said absent-mindedly. "We're out of Coke." Her attention was mostly on the television. "Check this out."
The screen was showing grainy, jerky footage of what looked like a riot. It looked like the cameraman was sprinting through the chaos as blurry, humanlike forms lunged at him. The street ahead was littered with debris, bodies, and wrecked cars. Offscreen, the anchor continued his monologue. "...have escalated with unprecedented speed over the past half hour. Authorities have no estimate as to the current number of casualties, but police and emergency forces are urging everyone to stay indoors and to lock all doors and windows. Do not attempt to leave your homes. Roadways are choked with wreckage--oh, Jesus, turn that off, turn that off!" The cameraman was apparently caught by someone behind him. The camera had flown from his hands and landed on the street. Amazingly, it was still transmitting as it spun to face the cameraman, who was desperately trying to escape the grasp of a very sick-looking man in a business suit who was gnawing at his arm. The cameraman managed to push the other man away, but then a group of people, including a young boy in a football jersey, rushed in from the right side of the screen and knocked the cameraman to the ground, ripping at his throat, his abdomen...the camera caught the black wetness of his viscera pooling out of his body...
The tall woman dropped her clipboard. "Oh, God," she gasped. June could not speak.

"This is Jim Bravura, director of Mittleton Central Hospital. There are reports of rioting in the downtown area, and authorities are telling everyone to stay inside. Just as a precaution, security will be locking all doors until the police resolve the situation. There's no need to worry, but please do not try to leave for the time being. Thank you."
Leroy Washington dropped the heart he was severing back into the chest cavity of the man he was examining. "What did he just say?" he asked through his mask.
"Riots downtown," his assistant said. "They're locking us in. Christ," he added, "that means we'll have to work long shifts for a while."
"That's not funny," Leroy said. "Anyway, nothing to get too worried about. Safest place in the world is a morgue."
An attendant wheeled in a gurney with a fresh body on it. "Fresh" wasn't actually the word; it looked...grody. "What's that?" Leroy asked.
"It seems to be a cadaver," the attendant shrugged. Catching a look from Leroy, he chuckled. "They said some jackass bit him and the bite went septic. Real fast. Spooked some of the guys upstairs." He handed a clipboard over for Leroy to sign. "I'll leave you three to get to know each other."

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck..." Jake Brooks repeated the word like a jackhammer, trying to get a focus as he raced the squad car through the narrow streets. He'd just been at the edge of the riots. When he and his partner had stepped out, the rioters rushed them from the passenger side. They hardly had time to fire warning shots by the time the rioters...bit through his partner's throat. Jake had ducked back into the car, slammed the door, and reversed into a lamppost. He could see more of them, hundreds, rushing toward him, trampling his partner's body--and the passenger door was still open. Jake had reached over and slammed the door, then shifted into first gear and shot out. He ran over a couple of rioters as he spun the car around and slammed the pedal to the floor; he saw the bastards get up in his rear-view mirror. "What the hell..."
And that brought him to where he was now--blazing down city streets at three times the speed limit, barking into his radio. He paused and listened for a response...nothing but static and--screams? "What the hell is going on?" he asked no one. He had to stop for a while, somewhere safe, and take stock of the situation.
He braked hard and swerved into the ambulance parking lot of Mittleton Central Hospital. He threw his door open and climbed out, grabbing his riot shotgun from the passenger seat. It was loaded with riot pellets. "Fuck that," he said, running to the other side of the car and opening the glove compartment through the smashed window. There was a spare Glock in there, plus a box of buckshot shells. He tucked the pistol into his waistband next to his own sidearm and carried the box of shells with him. There was some other equipment in the trunk, but he'd damaged it pretty badly and it wouldn't open. He rushed through the hospital doors just as a security guard was about to lock them. "Hey, what's the story with those riots, officer?" the guard asked as he closed the shutters. "Are we safe here?"
Jake shook his head. "No."

Ricky Hampton cowered in the dumpster, hugging his laptop and skateboard close and doing his best not to breathe. The 17-year-old could hear....them....stomping around outside. He had nowhere to run. He sat in the darkness, the fetid smell of old rubbish permeating the air, trying to goad him into gagging or doing something else to give away his position. He'd not even seen them appear in the park. he'd been there with Wolf and Trig, just practising for next week's Alidor Open Skate-Off, when all of a sudden these three guys had just.....come out of nowhere and started biting Wolf...Then they came after him! Trig had run off somewhere, and Ricky could only hope she was okay...

Unknown to Ricky, Taylor "Trig" Riggers was also cowering, this time in a deserted barber's shop not far down the road. Her skateboard was slicked in blood, where she had caved in the skull of one of the guys who chased after her. Her hair hung unkempt over her face, her ponytail draped over her shoulder as she listened to the sounds of the rioting, and the gunshots....wait...GUNSHOTS? The Police had opened fire now? The sounds of the firing came closer and suddenly the glass at the friont of the shop smashed as a body was pitched through it. The corpse came to rest just in front of the counter she was hiding behind. The top half of it's head was missing.

it was at this point that Taylor Riggers vomited.

"Roger, roll that new one over by the others," Leroy said. He finished excising the heart from the body in front of him and dropped it in the scale tray. "Heart masses in at--"
"Jesus!" Roger shouted, stepping back. "He's still alive!"
Leroy turned to look at the new arrival. He started to chastise his assistant--after all, sometimes bodies moved for various reasons after death--but the man was right. The dead man, the bite victim, was watching them. "Jesus," Leroy said. He ran to a black wall-mounted phone and started dialing. "Roger, rush him up to the ICU, I'm telling them you're coming," he said quickly.
"Right," Roger said, pushing the gurney quickly toward the doors. Then the man on the gurney grabbed his arm and bit him on the hand. "Fuck!" Roger shouted, jerking back hard. The body, still holding onto his arm and gnawing at his hand, came tumbling off the gurney, which fell on its side with a jarring CLAANG!
"What the hell--" Leroy said, dropping the phone and rushing over to help Roger. Before he could reach his assistant, the formerly dead man grabbed Roger by the shoulder and the head and bit deep into his throat. Roger screamed, but his scream was quickly choked by the blood rushing into his lungs. Some of it spattered out through his mouth and nose as he wheezed. Roger frantically pushed away at his attacker, who pulled another strip of muscle and skin free from Roger's neck. The attacker looked up--and Leroy thrusted his scalpel through its eye socket. For good measure, the big black man kicked the monster hard on the jaw, snapping its neck and sending it tumbling onto its back.
"Jesus, man, are you okay?" Leroy said, crouching down next to a suddenly pale Roger. He checked the man's wrist for a pulse, found it weak and growing weaker. Roger gasped a few more times, then expired.
Leroy darted back to the phone, which was still hanging by its cord. He cleared the line and dialed for a trauma team--and heard an unearthly screech from behind him. A sound no living human could make.
"Roger--" he said, turning around. The thing that was Roger rushed at him. Leroy was stunned--his brain could not register this sequence of events--but he instinctively recognized the attack and threw Roger clear. "Hang on, Roger," he said, fleeing through the morgue's double doors. "I'm gonna get help."
The corpse of Roger followed Leroy through the doors, tracked his sound, his scent--and planted its face into a set of closed elevator doors. It screeched, looked around, and darted down a hallway lined with small laboratory offices.

The hospital guard had escorted Jake to the security office. "There's a radio in here you can use," he offered helpfully. Jake thanked him as he set down his shotgun and box of shells. He flipped the radio's power switch and dialed to the police band. The screams were gone now, replaced with static.
Nothing but static.
"Christ," Jake muttered. Could the rioters possibly have destroyed the station? It seemed inconceivable. But here he was, conceiving it.
"Try some other frequencies," the guard suggested. Jake dialed around, catching a couple of automated, repeating emergency broadcasts telling everyone to stay inside and lock their doors.
"There's no one out there," Jake said tonelessly. He glanced around, his face momentarily blank. His eyes fell on the shotgun. He took it and began switching out the riot shells for live ammunition. "Got any other weapons?" he asked.
The guard hesitated. "We all got sidearms. There's six more guys on my shift."
"Get them all here," Jake said. "We need to barricade every possible entrance. We may be here a long time."

Everyone on the hospital staff helped out however they could. For June, that meant operating the phones. When the riot began, so did a flood of calls to the hospital--panicked, frightened people injured while fleeing--but June was amazed by the overwhelming reports of bites. She'd informed dozens, perhaps hundreds, that the riot had all their ambulances occupied. She assisted those she could over the phone, and told others to sit tight and wait for the ambulances to get around to them. But by the time Director Bravura ordered the lock-in, the calls had thinned to a trickle and finally stopped altogether.
One of the elevators opened across the corridor from the help desk. A black man in scrubs, smeared with blood, rushed up to June, giving her a momentary start. "Dr. Jones needs help," he said urgently. "Some--someone attacked him. He's delusional, he's in some kind of panic. Where are the guards?"
June started to page them. Then the calls started coming again. Internal calls. From the basement. A "Dr. Jones" was going psycho and attacking people. Then more calls. People were being attacked by their coworkers. People were being attacked by people who had just called June's desk screaming for help.
June froze. The phone continued to ring. What the hell is going on?
It hit her like an ice-cold slug that numbed her body as it wormed its way into her gut. The screaming calls for help said people were biting each other. The man she saw on the news--he was being bitten too.
"What happened to Dr. Jones?" she asked. Her voice was low as a whisper.
Leroy hesitated. "They brought in a body. I guess it wasn't dead. It attacked him."
"How?" she pressed.
"It tried to bite his throat out," Leroy said. "Can you please call security?" he huffed.
"And the person they brought in?" June asked.
Fear--and understanding--welled in Leroy's eyes. "Someone bit him."
The ringing stopped.

Ricky heard the shots, then the silence. He slowly poked his head over the top of the dumpster and saw the guy....laying there in a pool of blood, a hole straight in the centre of his forehead. He grabbed his backpack, his laptop case, and his skateboard, and climbed out of the dumpster.

No sooner had his feet hit the ground then he heard the wheezing, snuffling sound behind him. he turned, and saw what looked like some kind of dog- a rottweiler, he thought. Except this one was bleeding heavily, and had half the flesh of it's face stripped away. It bared it's teeth, and leapt at Ricky.

THWACK!

The skateboard miraculously stayed whole as Ricky slammed it, full tilt, into the mutt's face. The squelch and crush of bone being pulped echoed down the alley as the dog dropped to the floor. Ricky turned, and ran.

Trig pulled herself to her feet. She tried to ignore the dead body on the floor, it just made her queasy. She stumbled out of the shop, and was amazed at the relative silence. She looked down the street. Cars were trashed and burning, garbage cans had spilt their loads all over the pavements. The sounds of the riot could still be heard in the distance, along with the sirens and occasional gunshots. Several people lay lifeless in the road, all with the vacant,surprised deaths-head expression of those who have shuffled off their mortal coil in a violent, and often unexpected and painful, manner. She wandered in a daze down the street, looking in awe at the carnage around her. A sudden chill ran down her spine as she heard a shuffling behind her. Looking round, she saw one of the corpses starting to get to it's feet. She ducked behind a ruined car and watched as the woman stood, jerkily, almost as if she wasn't in control of her body. She looked around, and snarled, before letting out a screech and loping towards the sound of the riots in the distance.

Suddenly, a hand fell on her shoulder, and she screamed. The woman stopped and turned, her vacant eyes looking over the teenager's hiding place. She saw nothing, though, as Trig had been dragged to the ground, Ricky's hand over her mouth. The woman let out a sound somewhere between a snarl, a moan, and a yawn, and scuttled off down the road. Trig looked up at Ricky, and whispered angrily "You stupid fucking IDIOT! You scared the crap out of me!"
Ricky shrugged "Could hardly shout to get your attention. Look, we need to get the hell out of here. I've no clue what's going on, but I'm sure I played video games like this in the Arcade."
"But where will we go?"
"Look, everyone knows what to do if you find yourself in a Night Of the Living Dead situation. You find a shopping mall. Simple. Mittleton City Mall's a few blocks away. C'mon, let's go!"

2335 hours
Stanton Military Base
Stanton

“Left side, left side”
“You guys fall back, c’mon”
“Jesus, Jesus their everywhere”

Continuous automatic weapons fire echoed around the military installation as did the unnatural wails of the reanimated corpses, exploding grenades tore legs off the infected and sent fragments of metal into others, assault rifles stuttered there lethal contents at the rampaging infected reducing chests and limbs into clouds of clotting blood and flesh and bone fragments.

The infected had emerged from the woods to the west of the base and scaled the perimeter fencing in minutes by the time the soldiers responded the rabid hordes had swarmed through the base isolated groups of soldiers fought on.

“Fall back to the building”

“What about Trooper Brown, Sir”

“Trooper Brown is dead his fucking guts are on the street”

“Sir he’s still moving, sir”

The corporal grabbed the private by his collar and dragged him into building where what was left of the platoon had already entered. As they ran through the door it was slammed and bolted shut with barely a second to spare as the undead slammed against the door.

“Corporal, take a role call, find out who we have left”

“Sir, Ok lads check in who’s here?”

Strategy Room
Government House
Cansear

The Prime Minister sat at the head of the large rectangular wooden table; he was concentrating on lighting his cigarette before he looked at the Colonel that had just delivered the unbelievable disaster unfolding in Mittleton, taking a long hard draw from his cigarette and then in the midst of a cloud of expelled smoke the Prime Minister spoke.

“I’m afraid your going to have to run that by me again Colonel” Prime Minister Willis said in a monotone stunned voice.

“Sir, we believe the Mittleton riots have been caused by the accidental release of an experimental bio-weapon, the Lazarus Strain was designed to kill its victims quickly, usually within ten minutes, and then reanimate the corpses, usually within twenty to thirty minutes, the virus has an airborne life time of approximately three minutes after that time the virus would be spread by the transfer of bodily fluids, i.e. blood or saliva we don’t believe perspiration to be infectious, the infected people once reanimated have the same range of motion and speed as an average human however an infected person is extremely aggressive and very hard to stop, anything short of the destruction of the brain or the severing of the brain stem from the body will only slow them down”

General Adams quite for a moment while he processed the information that the Colonel had just delivered the rest of the room just as silent as the depth of the situation sunk in, he spoke.

“Mr Prime Minister I believe the mobilisation of the military against this threat is the way forward, our closest base to Mittleton is in Stanton approximately four miles east of Mittleton, if we mobilise now we could be in the heart of Mittleton city tomorrow evening sir”

Prime Minister Willis looked around the faces at the table all of them pale with shock.

“Is this our only option?”

Waiting for someone to respond to the Prime Ministers questions, and when no one spoke the Colonel did.

“Sirs, the local police force has been overwhelmed by the infected, our estimated indicates that almost all of Mittleton’s population will be infected by now, I believe that where ever this virus spreads the result will be the same, the only choice may be to deploy military forces”

“I want a strategy for the removal of this virus from our shores, we need to inform people of this disaster, inform news agencies and have them broadcast warnings every half hour, I will speak to the press in the morning, schedule a press conference” The Prime Minister said to the different faces sat at the table “Gentlemen lets not waste any more time”

As the men left the room one of the Prime Ministers secretaries walked in with a slip of paper “Sir a communication from Mr Sokai Otetsu the Peoples Republic of Karullia’s Defence Minister”

“Thank you”

The Prime Minister read the communiqué from Karullia they have offered humanitarian aid and other support, humanitarian aid would be helpful but what did Mr Otetsu mean by other aid and if it was an offer of military aid how would the people of Alidor respond to foreign soldiers, however friendly they where, on sovereign soil, would they see it as a dire omen, regardless a response was demand of the Alidorn government.

“Miss Walters could you come in here please”

“Prime Minister?”

“Take this down please, Mr Otetsu, Thank you for your offer of humanitarian aid in Alidor’s time of crisis your friendship is much appreciated by the people of Alidor I would however ask if you could explain the other “support” you mentioned in your communication. Thank you Miss Walters please see that the message is sent immediately”

With that the secretary left the meeting room and left the Prime Minister alone to light up another cigarette “How on earth are we going to get through this disaster” he thought to himself "this situation is out of control now, a short while ago it was a mere riot now it was a virus that could destroy Alidor turning the nation into nothing more than roaming zombies"

Infected

Estimated – 41,993,561
Actual – 53,805,910

*deep inside the Ministry of Science office under the 16th Street Mall in Denver*
"Sir you need to see this"*says a young scientest named Lisa*
*The older Scientest named Flanders looks over at the screen the dead milling around*"What the hididdly heck? Did some of our research leak out?"

"Mr. Minister, we have a reply from Alidor. They are asking us to clarify what we meant by "Other Support."

Sokai nodded. "Very well. Send this following missive back to the Prime Minister. Tell him the Frigate Lady Of The Plains is already being loaded with food and supplies for the Alidorian people. If he requests the extra support, we can also dispatch 3 64-man platoons of PathFiders to help keep the peace. The offer is wholly his to accept or refuse, and no offence will be taken should he refuse."

Maria left to type up the message. Sokai shook his head, and poured himself a whiskey. "From what I've seen on the news, those lads in Alidor need all the help they can get.. And besides, the lads could use the combat experience...."

*deep under the street the scientes confer the send off this message*


Alidor we are sorry to see that you are under some sort of attack. We could send some off our scientest to figure out a cure. It looks like what ever is going on may have been do to some of our samples being stolen.

"Wait a minute," the guard said. "We gotta talk to Director Bravura before we do anything like that."
"There isn't time," Jake said as he piled the remaining shotgun ammunition into a fanny pack. "Those rioters will be here any minute. I don't know what they're on, but I hit a couple with my squad car and they got right back up. They'll bust through any windows on ground level and when there are a few hundred of them, they'll get through the shutters too."
"I'll still need to clear it with the Director--" the guard said, but he was interrupted when his radio crackled.
"All security personnel, proceed to the basement level. The staff are...they're attacking each other. Be advised, the attackers are carrying an unknown contagious disease..."
There was a banging outside the office. Before Jake could react, the guard opened the office door and peeked outside.
"Get back in here!" Jake rasped as he grabbed his shotgun.
"There's someone in the stairwell," the guard said, stepping outside the office. "Sounds like a lot of people."
Jake crouched to one side of him, aiming the shotgun. "They're here."
"That door doesn't lead to the outside," the guard said.
The door splintered around the lock and crashed open, releasing a horde of diseased-looking doctors and medical technicians. Jake swore and fired a load of buckshot into the center of the group. The roar of the shotgun was overwhelming in the enclosed space. An attacker at the front of the wave lost an arm at the elbow, but he pressed on without noticing.
"They..." the guard seemed too stunned to react. Men and women he'd known for years were rushing at him like maniacs. One had his arm blown off and didn't even react.
"Run!" Jake said, tugging at the guard's arm. The guard would not move. The attackers closed the distance between them frighteningly fast.
"I'm sorry," Jake said as he sprinted away at full speed. He briefly heard screams from behind.

After sending security to the basement, June had tried to call the Mittleton Police Department. She received no answer. Then she tried contacting Director Bravura's office. His secretary informed June that he had been meeting with some doctor or other in the basement.
"This hospital's no longer safe," Leroy said quietly. "We need to warn everyone. Can you access the intercom system from here?"
"What about the patients?" June asked. "Some of them can't even get out of bed."
Leroy hesitated. "We...can't help everyone. But we need to warn the people who can get somewhere safe."
"Where should we tell them to go?" June asked. "Hell, where should we go?"
They both spotted the police officer racing toward them at the same time. "Run, girl!" Leroy ordered, positioning himself to block the cop.
"Wait!" the officer shouted. As he reached them, he panted, "They're here. Must have come in through the basement. We need to get out of here. Stay with me, you'll be safer." He hit the "up" buttons for every elevator.
"I need to warn everyone first," June protested. Then she heard the screeching, coming from the same direction the cop had come from.
"No time," the cop said, yanking June into the first elevator that opened. "Come on!" he shouted. Leroy followed them inside.
The screeches were unnervingly close as the elevator doors slid closed. The survivors heard pounding at the doors as the cop hit the button for the top floor.
"Name's Jake," he said, still panting.
"I'm June."
"Leroy."
"Either of you any good with a handgun?" Jake asked.
Leroy scowled. "I've seen too many people put on my autopsy table by those things," he said. "The world'd be better off without them."
"I used to take shooting lessons with my father," June said.
Jake handed her a Glock and a spare magazine. "I think you'd be better off with one for today, Leroy," he said, handing over his own sidearm and his other spare magazine. "I've bought us a little time. Does this hospital connect to the parking garage from the upper levels?"
Leroy and June nodded.
"Then that's where we need to go. If we're lucky, those rioters won't have wandered all the way to the upper decks. I can hotwire us a car."
"Then what?" June asked.
"Then we get the hell out of Dodge."

Saturday 0700 hours
Press Room
Government House
Cansear

The members of the press anticipating the press release from the government, the half hourly broadcasts of imminent disaster and safe locations had feed the imaginations of the journalists but however excited their imaginations where nothing could compare to the truth that was being released now, with a few omissions in the origins of the virus.

“…and so we advise people to stay indoors and not venture out unless absolutely necessary, military forcers are responding to this threat and relief shall arrive shortly for those in need, that is all we have at this time thank you” The Press Officer finished reading from his carefully scripted autocue and as he turned to leave the pressroom an elderly, smartly dressed man in the crowd of journalists stood and asked “Mr Miller, where has this virus spread so far and what is the level of risk to those with in that area?”

the Press Officer intercepted by the question before he could leave turned and answered “The areas believed to be affected are Mittleton City, Burrows Mews, Stanton Town, Cripton Holly and Middlesworth, the threat level in those areas are high and people are advised to stay indoors, I’m sorry I have nothing further to add at this time, thank you” with that the press officer let the rostrum and walked straight to the side door of the pressroom leading into the corridors of Government House.


48 Maple View
Mittleton City

The four riot officers and the eight tactical unit officers had dropped down into the end house of the terrace, after checking the house for survivors and infected people they discovered the house was empty. Hidden behind the curtains of the living room window Carl Daniels check the front street, he could see the zombies still trying to break into number 22 at the far end of the road near the abandoned check point, suddenly the crowd lurched forward and the screams started again as the door to number 22 collapsed into the house the infected people surging in through the doorway three at time the number of zombies left on the street reduced to a handful of groups no more than five in each.

Turning to the men crouching in the living room and ground floor hallway Carl spoke “Ok lads, I think we should make a move now, those fuckers just stormed the house at the other end and there’s not many of them left on the street, we may be able to find some transport at the police station four streets over but we’ll have to be fast once we open that door because those bastards wont think twice about killing coppers, as we’ve all seen”

Armstrong “Good idea boss, right lads lets get ready to move remember move fast and try not to make to much noise”

Daniels “Christ Julius, for having a girls name you have a lot of balls lad”

The nervous chuckles were quickly silenced as Armstrong turned the latch to unlock and open the front door “Remember, quickly and quietly, go, go, go” he whispered as he opened the door and the men ran out into the street, turning right and away from the zombies. One of the riot officers ran straight into a zombie, ducking to the left and trying to run around him but the infected man lunged at him, Zander Goody stopping dead in his tracks for a split second as he aimed down the optic sight of his M4 assault rifle and fired a single shot through the skull of the infected man, he dropped instantly to his knees before flopping backward thick blood and brain pulp spreading out onto the road. The riot officer looked at Zander in acknowledgement that he had just saved his life. The shot that had echoed down the street caught the attentions of the of zombies that didn’t enter the house and they began running towards the fleeing group their unnatural wails terrifying the police officers, their numbers being swelled as the zombies who had stormed the household followed the wails of their infected brethren. The group of twelve men still ran for the police station as hard and as fast as their lungs and legs would allow, every step brought the chasing zombies closer to them.

Stanton Military base
Stanton town outskirts

The reanimated dead had descended onto the base in seconds and the surviving soldiers have barricaded themselves into the various buildings around the grounds of the base, from the roof of several of the buildings military assault rifles fired short bursts into the crowds of zombies, the soldiers knew they weren’t normal people just by looking a them, and they fired randomly into them.
The communications building had been overrun by the infected hordes before the soldiers inside could react and now former friends were trying to kill the surviving soldiers looking for anyway into the buildings, harbouring those lucky enough to still be human.

Changing his magazine for a fresh one Private Thomson yelled “Last mag, last mag”

Corporal Mendes while firing two shots at the milling zombies from his rooftop perch shouted “Make your shots count Private, we don’t have much ammo left in here”

Private Thomson “Sir, their just not dieing sir, I put three shots into that guy there”

Corporal Mendes looked at the private and then at the other soldiers firing bursts into the crowds of zombies below them “Head shots, for fucks sake shot them in the fucking head”

Walking around the roof of the barracks building Corporal Mendes heard the shattering of glass below him “Fuck” he thought to himself then pointed at two privates “You and you with me” he sprinted towards the access door that lead in to the two storey building, the two privates following him. On the ground floor they found three zombies had smash their way in through a window in one of the four man bedrooms, Mendes threw two grenades into the room and slammed the door shut, the explosion reverberated down the hallway and was immediately followed by the muffled sound of shrapnel digging into the wooden door and walls. When the Corporal opened the door he found the three zombies bodies ripped to shreds he ran in the room, its walls potholes with fragments of metal, and decimated the zombies heads with a few bursts from is rifle, turning to the window he shot two more zombies who where trying to crawl in the smashed window “Trooper Benson go to the maintenance cupboard and get a hammer and some nails, Trooper Garret go and get a table from the rest room and be quick about it”
The two Privates ran off down the hallway to fulfil their tasks, Corporal Mendes continued to fire through the shattered window as more and more zombies gathered at the opening. His rifle clicked as the last casing was ejected from the chamber, throwing his rifle on a bed to his right he grabbed his pistol from its holster and clasping it in both hands he unloaded its contents at the gnawed, moaning people climbing into the room.

Infected

Estimated – 41,993,561
Actual – 68,342,906

Dumais woke-up to the sound of a police siren.He quickly sat up on his bed and checked the little room he was in.The room was empty as usual and the door was locked.

He got up and walked to his suitcase checked that the sensitive documents were still there and then walked to the window.Slowly he lifted a corner of the curtain and peered outside.Surveying the building just in front of his room across the street everything seemed normal but then something caught his attention.Several kilometers behind the appartment building there were several smoke plumes.He then watched the street 5 floors below.

What he saw instantly sent his adrenaline pumping.There were 3 police cars parked in front of his small hotel.Lights still turning and sirens on, doors open.He literally jumped over his bed and opened the drawer in the little office desk by his bed, took his Glock, silencer and the 3 mags he hid there.Then he dressed up took his suitcase and made for the door.

''Fuck, they were fast tracing me back!''

When he got to the door he first looked through the peephole.Nothing so far.He then unlocked the door slowly peering through the space.Nothing was there.

''Maybe they didn't come for me.Must make sure!''

Dumais opened the door slowly and then stepped outside his room.Checking right and left.He forced himself into a casual mood and then walked to the main acces staircase.He got to the 4th floor and found the janitor at the end of the long corridor of rooms.He decided he should ask him what happened.

- Hey, Johnny what's all that racket outside?

Johnny the janitor slowly turned to face Dumais.Something was wrong with how he moved but then from Dumais' experience with the guy he must have been at least 60 if not more.Dumais started towards Johnny but then the man let go a strange hiss almost an animalistic.That's when Dumais stopped dead in his track.He dropped the suitcase and slowly moved his hand towards the Glock hidden in his shirt.

''That can't be!It's impossible, how the heck has this made it through the population.''

- Johnny quit joking around you're giving me the creeps.So what's happening?

The hissing then transformed into a full-on battle cry and Johnny lunged at Dumais.He trained his pistol on Johnny while he was ruhing at him.

- Johnny I'll shoot!!Fuck....

With that last word.Dumais opened fire.Tight groups of 3 bullets each smashed into the janitor's knees pulverising them across the immaculate floor.Johnny smashed hard on the floor screaming his lungs out and thrasing about the place mere feet away from Dumais.

- You sick fuck!!When I say stop you stop that's all.
- Look at me Johnny, the janitor still on the floor with no legs to speak of stared straight at Dumais' throat baring his distorted teeth like the fangs of an animal.

''This can't be.The little nerdy described me how his virus worked and it certainly looks like it.But how the heck is this man infected.It's impossible!''

- Ooh bad breath you got there.You seem hungry Johnny.Don't worry I'll find something you can chew on.

With that Johnny reloaded his Glock and surveyed the room he was in.Then he searched through his suitcase and produced a pair of black leather gloves.He then took his pocket knife and cut a bit off his leather suitcase.Once he did that he made a small cut on his left thumb and let the blood drop on the leather bit he had just cut.As soon as the blood was dripping from his thumb Johnny started to screach and cry thrashing harmlessly at Dumais.

- Looks tasty eh?Here ya' go!!

He threw the blood covered leather at Johnny and the janitor instantly grabbed it with his hands and chewed on it like a starved dog.Dumais levelled his pistol and shot 2 rounds in the man's head.Johnny convulsed a bit and then stopped moving.

- Sorry pal need this bit of evidence.Anyway it's not like you'd be needing your brain.

Dumais then approached the dead body taking care to have his pistol on the man's head at all time.With his gloved hands he removed what was left of the leather bit and then backed away from the corpse.He put the evidence in his suitcase and then moved away from the scene.

''Ok now Phil you need to engage worst-case scenario mode and hope that all your training is not too far in your mind and limbs.First how to exit from here.Emergency staircase.''

Dumais walked to the window at the other end of the corridor opened it and proceeded on the emergency staircase.

''Ok up first to see what's happening.''

(OOC; sorry for the late post Alidor, sorry for the OOC, too :D )

IC

Inside the Department of Defense compound a few Majors, a Colonel, and the Secretary of Defense were holding a conference.

"... Three hours ago a recon flight reported that they were seeing large riots in Alidor. Parts of a city were completly in combat, destruction, and well... chaos. We haven't sent a message yet, but we are considering sending in the 27th Tactical Wing to help in the clearing of the area. That is, if they allow it. It's not for sure if they'll even aknolowge they're having problems, but the recon flight noted that what appeared to be either a military or police squad was crushed by them."

One of the Majors objected. "Why the fuck are we going to help them out? They've never done anything for us, and for all we know they just want to get us over there so they can get us bogged down in this mess!"

"For all we know the people running in the street have been exposed to a chemical agent that was supposed to be used against one of our allies, we should send someone in just to check things out, if for just that."

"Ok, ok..."

A few moments later the President of McKagan's approval of opening communications had been relayed to the DoD Compound, and a communications Officer in the top of the structure sent out a communcation to Alidor, anywhere the government might be.

"We have observed mass destruction and chaos in your country. We are prepared to send a naval task force via sea to transport our 27th Tactical Wing. They can fly into the cities and help in clean sweep operations if you would like. Those 100,000 men could probably aid you alot. However, if you object, we'll understand."

Willow Street and Chestnut Avenue intersection
Mittleton City

The twelve men ran round the corner into Willow Street, the group had spread out over the run down Chestnut Avenue and the infected horde was closing in on the straggling men of the police group. The first two polices officers to reach the police station scaled the stairs leading to the police entrance and turned to cover their colleagues as they ran down Willow Street. The reanimated dead closing in on a straggling police man, the two tactical officers took aim and began to squeeze of shoots into the closest infected people to the trailing policeman, the frenzied dead dropping to the tarmac mid stride as the M4 rounds began to eat into their limbs, chests and heads.
The group of Tactical Unit policemen running between abandoned cars as they fled down Willow Street began firing at a group of zombies that appeared at the far end of the street, the two groups of zombies closing in on the group of policemen.

“C’mon, c’mon, move their at the top of the street as well”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck”

Daniels and Goody stood by an abandoned car taking shots at the new group of zombies, the rest of the group fled into the police station. Daniels and Goody fell back into the police station. The large wooden doors slammed shut and two of the riot officers struggled with a heavy bench as they dragged it towards the main entrance doors.
The twelve men made their way into the wrecked police stations internal rooms with the Tactical Unit men around the lightly armed riot police officers, they entered the corridor leading to the criminal processing rooms, the lights were either out or hanging, blinking from their ceiling mounts. The men advanced slowly down the hallway the floor was littered with spent bullet casings and debris, the walls where scared with bullet holes and dried blood. Sporadic moans echoed around the corridors of the police station.

Stanton Military Base
Stanton town

Corporal Mendes reloaded his pistol and as the two privates nailed the table over the broken window he grabbed his rifle and loaded his last magazine.
The Corporal and the two privates headed back to the roof of the barracks building where what was left of the platoon were still firing into the crowds of zombies milling around the military buildings.
Corporal Mendes ran across the roof top to the platoons Lieutenant.

“Sir, we’ve blocked of a window they where trying to gain entrance through”

“What’s the situation like inside the building?”

“The building is secure sir, but it’s only a matter of time before they get in”

As the Corporal was talking, the noise of shattering glass rode up from below them.

“There in this side sir”
“Same here sir”
“Here too sir”

The zombies where swarming in through the windows on three side of the barracks building, they swamped the ground floor looking for those that were free from the virus, their screams and wails piercing the air through out the barracks.

Lieutenant Green “Secure the access door, quickly”

Office of the Prime Minister
Government House
Cansear

Prime Minister Jonathan Willis walked into his large office and as he did his secretary handed him some papers as she stood by his door.

Prime Minister Willis “Blimey the press are out in force today”

Miss Walters “Yes sir, must be the troubles in Mittleton I think”

Prime Minister “Yes of course must be”

Looking at the papers his secretary had handed him he noticed one of them was an official communication from the McKagan government, glancing over the note the Prime Minister began to formulate his reply.
Jonathan Willis walked round his desk rereading the McKagan message he sat in the extremely comfortable looking chair on the other side.

Prime Minister Willis “Miss Walters could you come in here please, I need you to take a message”

Miss Walters “Sir”

Prime Minister Willis “Take this and make sure it is dispatched to the McKagan government immediately, I have received your offer of military aid in this our time of need and am grateful that you would offer this help to us, however you should understand that the deployment of foreign soldiers on Alidorn soil is a very serious matter and I would like to send one of our diplomats to your nation to discuss your offer, thank you and I think you know how to end the letter miss Walters thank you”

Miss Walters “Very good Prime Minister”

The petite secretary left the Prime Ministers offices and sat at her desk and immediately set about typing her notes into an official response to McKagan.

Sokai Otetsu looked over the message from the Alidorian Ambassador.

"They want to meet? Excellent. Tell them my office is open all day."

Sandra Mettejansen nodded "Right away, Minister."

*********

Ricky and Trig slammed the door of the car shut as the man outside started banging against it. Ricky looked down at the keys in the ignition, and grinned. "Score!" He turned the abandoned automobile's keys, and slammed it into first gear. Putting his foot on the pedal, he sped away from the man, who stumbled and started to give chase.

As they drove further away from the riot, trig let out a sigh of relief. then she heard something.

"Sloffammmmmnnngrrrrunch"

She blinked once, twice, and slowly turned her head to look in the back seat. Sat there, staring right back at her, were the empty, vacant eyes of a young boy, maybe four or five years of age. His neck was caked in blood and a large part of his cheek had been stripped away. Next to him lay the mutilated corpse of an infant, so brutalised Trig could not even determine it's gender. The young boy appeared to be eating the remains of his sibling, both still strapped in to safety belts.

Upon hearing Trig's scream, the head turned, cocked at the neck like a curious puppy, and lunged at the front seats of the car.

The seat belt was all that stopped him reaching them, as the safety mechanism kicked in and stopped with a jerk, throwing the boy back into his seat. Ricky needed all his concentration to keep his eye on the road as they pulled into Mittleton City mall parking lot.

The pair bailed out of the car, the young boy still going livid and fighting against the restraints of the safety belt. They headed for the mall entrance, across the seemingly deserted parking lot....

Sorry about the late, short post Alidor. I need to go do some chores so I'll post more later.

Once Dumais was outside on the emergency staircase he climbed on top of the 6 story building.On the roof he paced the whole place and made sure he was alone.Then he looked at the scenery before his eyes.

There were smoke plumes everywhere some buildings near his hotel were in fire.The constant wail of sirens was all that could be heard.The city was quiet as hell except for the occasional gunshots heard in the distance.From his vantage point it seemed that the entire city had been engulfed in the plague.There was no relief forces visible from where he sat on the side railing of the roof.

In the street right below his eagle's nest there were some ''people" wandering off in the street.Several cars were stopped haphazardly and no police or any kind of security visible.The awful stench of decaying bodies hung in the air all mixed with burning buildings and tear gas from the anti-riot actions that must have been taking place.

Dumais checked his pistol he had 8 rounds left in this mag and another one with 10 rounds.

"So I have 18 rounds left.Quite slim by any measures.2 rounds per guy so I can only drop 9 of them with what I have.So first things first more ammo."

Dumais turned around and proceeded to the emergency staircase he had just come from.Looking down the little alleyway where the stair ended he could see one ''guy'' rummaging in the garbage.He decided to go on and climbed down the staircase taking care not to make a noise.When he was a floor from the ground he took his Glock and fastened the silencer.Then he got the ladder down as slowly as possible.He climbed down and was in the alleyway his pistol trained on the ''guy'' that was feasting on something.The ''guy'' had not seen him or heard him, so he walked carefully to the main street behind his back.Once on the corner of the building he checked the street for any possible threat.There were some other ''guys'' all over the street, quickcounting he saw at least 15 of them all walking mindlessly.For the moment he was hidden from their view but if he sprinted to the police cars one of them ought to see him.

"Damn there's too many of em'.Wish I had a rifle of some sort."

Gathering some courage Dumais walked slowly towards the police cars.What he feared happened.The ''individual'' nearest to him immediately saw him.Dumais popped off 2 rounds in his direction but he missed.Accuracy with the silencer wasn't very good.That's when the ''target" began to scream his lungs out.Instantly all the others in the street turned their attention on Dumais and his target.Once the beast screamed for what seemed like eternity he began to sprint towards Dumais.He dropped to his knees and popped two other rounds into the thing's head.The beast instantly dropped to the ground not moving, hissing or screaming anymore.With that, Dumais got to his feet and sprinted to the nearest police car.He got inside the police car from the passenger side and closed the door shut.He got the window up and then stretched to close the other door the same way.The time it took to do that there were 3 zombies over his car fumbling with the door handles.He immediately searched for the lock toggle and locked himself tight into the patrol car.

Safe behind the bulletproof doors and glasses he took the time to look carefully at his assailants.They were indeed zombies.The one on the driver's side had half his face missing and obviously he'd been ''dead'' for a couple of hours judging by the blueish hue his skin had taken.Dumais seemed hypnotized by all that gory spectacle before his eyes.He couldn't break off the mindless stare his attackers were giving.Instinctively he reached for his pistol and suitcase.He found the pistol craddled between his thighs but his hands blindly searched for the suitcase.That's what snapped him of his trance.He had lost the suitcase.He quickly looked around the car but found nothing.

"Congrats fucker you've lost the evidences and the whole file."

Now the car was beginning to rock from side to side.If Dumais didn't do anything the zombies would roll over his precious mean of transport.He looked at the steering column and found the keys dangling in the starter.He turned them and the car gave off a cough and then stopped.He turned them frantically to no avail.By the 9th time Dumais was sweating profusely and he could feel the car being lifted off its wheels.He tried a 10th time and miraculously the car started.He put the car in reverse and hammered the throttle.From a slow start he barreled straight back into the building opposite his hotel.At least 10 zombies tumbled to the ground in front of his cruiser.He gave full lock right and hammered the throttle again and he was off.Zombie blood all over his windshield and rear window.

Ricky could see the entrance to the Mall. it was, by all accounts, open. This was a Good Thing. What was, however, distinctly Not A Good Thing were the numbers of infected wandering around the entrance to the mall. Keeping low, the two kids checked out the entire circumference of the mall building, but there was only one way in that they could see. A tall oak tree grew next to the mall, and Ricky was sure he could climb it and get onto the roof. The two of them tried scampering up it, unseen by the infected milling around, and soon they were sat on the roof of the mall, peering over at the walking corpses beneath them.
"So...uh...now what, Ricky?"
"Dunno....i really don't know..."

During the trip up, June explained her hypothesis to Jake: that the riot was caused by some unknown agent, transmissible through bites, that reduced anyone infected by it to a vicious, feral psychosis. It explained why the infected had first appeared in the basement without surrounding the building.
The elevator stopped on the fourth floor, the uppermost level of the hospital, dedicated mostly to administration. As the doors opened, Jake darted out and swept his shotgun around, ensuring that the area was clear. So far, so good--until they noticed the diseased multitude pounding away on the other side of a stairwell door.
"We need to warn people on the other floors to get out of the hospital," Leroy said.
"There's no time," Jake said. "They'll be through that door in minutes."
"I won't leave all these people here to die," Leroy said. "We've got to at least warn them."
"We can do that from Director Bravura's office," June said. She and Leroy took off. Jake gritted his teeth as he followed, but he was secretly glad they'd come to that conclusion. He didn't want their deaths on his conscience, either. He already had his partner's death...and his own scared flight from the scene...
As June entered the waiting area of the Director's office, his secretary politely said, "Director Bravura's not in right now--"
"He's dead," Leroy said. "The rioters got into the basement. They're...it's not a normal riot. They're dangerously insane. Right now they're overrunning the first floor. We need you to warn everyone to get out of the hospital."
The secretary stared at him with a mixture of disbelief and opposition. "That's just not possible," she said. "All the patients, all the visitors--we could never get them all out fast enough."
"We can't save all of them, but we can't let them all die either," Leroy said.
"I haven't heard anything from the police department--"
"The department's gone," Jake said. "Put us on the speakers."
"How can they be insane?" the woman protested.
Jake shook his head--it just wasn't getting through to her, and every second they wasted meant more people would be killed. He pointed his shotgun at her face. "Get the hell out of the way. We'll do this ourselves."
The woman, suddenly quite frightened, scurried back into her boss's office and locked the door behind her. "You're out of your minds!" she shouted. "I'm calling the cops!"
"Good luck," Jake muttered. June opened a channel through the building's intercom. Jake leaned in toward the stalk microphone, cleared his throat, and spoke.
"Attention everyone. I am Officer Brooks of the Mittleton Police Department. Rioters have entered the hospital. They are...infected with a disease which can be transmitted through bites. They are already on the first floor and in the basement. If you are able to walk, you need to leave the hospital immediately. I repeat: you must leave the hospital immediately, through the parking deck." He paused. "Some of you will stay to help your loved ones. I can't stop you. But from now on, every minute you spend in this building brings you closer to certain death." He flipped the intercom off. "Jesus Christ." He shivered.
"We need to go," Leroy said.
The panic spread quickly. As Jake opened the door, he saw throngs of running, disheveled people; he nearly panicked and shot at them. Instead, he and the others joined the horde and made for the parking lot.
Behind them, they could hear the sound of splintering wood and shattering glass. The infected had finally made it through the door. Then the screams began.
Leroy, who was in front, turned around and raised his pistol. Jake grabbed him by the arm. "There are dozens," he said. "We can't help here." With an obscenity, Leroy followed Jake.
June realized as they passed through the door into the parking garage that they couldn't lock the infected behind them with all these refugees streaming through the door. They needed a ride, fast.
There was an ambulance haphazardly parked over three spaces; June figured the trauma parking lot was full. The paramedics were nowhere in sight, but the vehicle was still idling. Jake and Leroy climbed into the front while June jumped in the back. Through the rear window, June spotted a group of three people who'd branched off from the other refugees. She shouted for them to come over.
"Don't do that!" Jake growled back toward her. "I know you want to help people, but if you shout, we'll be swamped!"
June was about to retort when the three new escapees piled into the ambulance. They slammed the doors shut behind them just as the shrieks of the infected reached their ears. Jake hit the accellerator.
For a while, no one spoke as Jake simply drove. Eventually, introductions went around. There was Kelly, a tall, blond serologist; she didn't have a weapon, but she'd grabbed some assorted medical supplies from her lab. Then there was Kaitlyn and her boyfriend Luke. Kaitlyn had a backpack full of junk food and bottled water she'd taken from the cafeteria when security locked the doors. Luke brought a crowbar from a janitor's closet and a case of hemophilia--the reason he and Kaitlyn were in the hospital in the first place.
Jake turned on the radio for any news. The hospital bands were silent. Public emergency bands all played the same message:
"Authorities have set up rescue stations with food, water, and medical care; if you are in an affected area, it is important that you proceed to the nearest rescue station. Active stations are located at North Mittleton Hospital, the Mittleton Municipal Building, Stanton Town Police Department Precinct Five..."

"Sir, message from Alidor. Requesting a diplomat before we send any soldiers."

"Sure, ask them if they want us to fly a jet in or they can make it out themselves."

In other news, 4 Advanced Tactical Escorts and 2 amphibious assault ships, along with an aircraft carrier and 2 Weiland Class submarines have been assembled outside McKagan waters to head towards Alidor if an agreement can be reached.

0730 hours
Willow Street Police Station
Mittleton City

The policemen edge down the hallway towards the criminal processing rooms, as the men reached the end of the hallway and the doorway leading into the processing area Carl Daniels, using his hand, silently signalled to Julius Armstrong what he wanted him to do. The Tactical teams silently entered the room, the team one edged left away from the doorway and team two edge right away from the door, as the two teams edged along the wall they picked out three zombies to the far side of the room. Several shots dropped them and the officers swept across the room, checking the motionless bodies for movement.

“Packet secure”
“Same here”
“Terminal here, sir”

The eight Tactical Unit officers moved on to the other rooms followed by the remaining riot officers.

Stanton Military Base
(Stanton town outskirts)

The access door to the barracks building roof top began to crack under the assault by the infected trying to break through. Sergeant Colman glanced around at the men from his unit. His lieutenant, the young inexperienced Lieutenant Todd Green, had the pale look of horror and imminent death in his face.

“Sir, calm yourself, the lads need you to lead them”
“Of course sergeant, my men need me”
“Sir”

The sergeant again looked at the frightened faces of the soldiers in his care most of them in their late teens, and then with his lieutenant contemplating death he took command and issued the platoon his orders.

“Ok, lads listen up those fuckers are going to be through that door in a second, and when they do they be madder than a rapist with crabs so stay back and don’t let them touch you, that goes for you as well Colquhoun” He said while smirking at the seventeen your old private (the rumour in the barracks is that he’s a virgin) “Now we know head shots drop these fuckers but body shots just seems to piss them off a bit more, so everyone aim for their heads and try not to waste shots, ok”

The platoon let out a single “sir” and then took aim at the fractured door preparing for the onslaught of the flesh hungry zombies.

The access door gave a shuddering crack as it gave in to the weight of the reanimated pounding on it and then as if waiting for that one momment as a signal a hot down blast stretched across the barracks roof, the access doorway and its attached bricks and the advancing frenzied mob where reduced to a cloud of blood, brain, flesh, wood and brick fragments as a side mounted Minigun unleashed its devastatingly high rate of fire over the heads of the terrified soldiers. The Puma helicopter hovered above the barracks building as four marines dropped from the cabin to the barracks roof.

Major Hill “Heard the locals were giving you shit, thought you might want a hand”

Lieutenant Green “Sir, thank you sir”

Major Hill “No problem son, now get your men on the choppers” The Major looked at the three other marines that had dropped from the Puma Helicopter with him “Marine West, secure that stair well, Marine Cot go with her, Marine Benson bring in the other coppers” The three marines scurried about the orders they had been given and a few second later the sound of more helicopters could be heard approaching as they appeared just above the tree line.

Marine West threw two packages into the stairwell and could see more of the infected coming up the stairs, she fire several shots at them but it didn’t slow them down. Marine West ran over to the Marine Major Hill “Sir Satchel’s placed ready to blow when we’re gone, sir”

Major Hill “Very good” he stated to Marine West then shouting for the other two Marines to board the second Puma helicopter as it took position where the first one had been hovering just feet above the flat roof. As the Puma helicopter lifted away from the building roof the frenzied dead spilled onto the roof top searching of the fresh meat that had just been there. Major Hill watched them run around the roof top as the helicopter grew further and further away, then he pressed the button on his radio detonator.

Infected

Estimated – 44,500,000
Actual – 70,931,233

"uhh...now what?"

The two teenagers were sat on the roof of the mall, occasionally glancing over the parapet at the rampaging people below them. Occasionally two would blunder into each other and blows and bites would be exchanged, ending in death and normally the devouring of one of the parties. It made Trig sick to her stomach, watching the spectacle below her.

Gah! Halfway through, someything's come up, will post later

"Ricky, we have to get out of here...."

"I'm thinking, Trig. Hush up a moment."

"...and Stanton Military Base. If you are able to travel, make your way to one of these rescue stations. If you cannot, remain in your home. Barricade all doors and windows..."
Jake turned the radio down. "We're closest to the military base," he said. "That's where we're going."

The streets had become an obstacle course of twisted metal and burning wreckage. Jake had to brake frequently to avoid tipping the boxy ambulance over as he maneuvered around cars which had been abandoned in the middle of the road. Occasionally, he rolled over a dead body. Sometimes he saw a mad, blood-streaked figure dart from the shadows and chase after them in a vicious frenzy, slowly falling behind.
The infected were becoming relatively scarce here. Jake realized they were near the place where his partner died. (You'd be dead too if you didn't run, he reminded himself sternly. It didn't help.) It occurred to him that they must be driving through the epicenter of the infection. The infected were settling down now because there was no one left alive.

June became alert as she heard something new on the radio--not a list of rescue stations, affected areas, or precautions. News about the phenomenon itself. "Turn that up," she said.

"...incredible to be true. The country's top pathologists have released a statement claiming that the attackers exhibit no vital signs except a low-level EEG pattern. The attackers are...clinically dead...yet they retain nearly complete motor and sensory function. Something in the blood and saliva--no one knows what yet--is transmitted through bites, killing victims and causing them to--to come back...and attack the living. Jesus." There was a brief pause. "The report also states that these--these living dead can only be killed by damaging the brain or severing the spinal cord. Christ, is killed even the right word? Ah, stay tuned for further updates and the latest info on rescue stations..."

"My God," Kaitlyn said. "Is this real?"
In response, Jake turned to another station. "Let's see."

"...destroying the brain. Again, independent researchers throughout Alidor have confirmed that the attackers are, in fact, reanimated corpses, and that the disease, if it is a disease, appears to be transmitted through bite wounds..."

They tried three other stations--the only other stations broadcasting. Two confirmed the horrifying facts. The third repeated the locations of the rescue stations on an automatic loop.
The dead were rising.

As the ambulance left the city limits, the devastation that had been their constant companion in town suddenly dropped away. Every once in a while, they would still find a corpse in the road or a wrecked and abandoned car. Once, Jake stopped the ambulance by one of the cars, and he and Leroy got out to look for survivors or supplies. They found a toddler with one arm missing past the elbow and a great mass of flesh torn from its neck. It was still strapped to its carseat, but it strained and snapped at them like a hungry animal. They didn't stop again after that.

"...not approach infected family members or friends. The infection destroys all traces of personality and humanity. They will attack, regardless of your relationship in life. They must be destroyed, preferably by a gunshot to the head, followed by burning..."

"Turn that off," Luke said.
"We need to know what's going on," Leroy said.
"They've been saying the same damned thing over and over," Luke fumed. "Turn that shit off."
Jake shrugged and turned the radio off. Leroy reached over and turned it back on.
"Christ, do we have to put up with this?" Luke asked no one.
"Half an hour ago, they told us that these things are dead. They said that anything but a shot to the head wouldn't even slow them down," Leroy grumbled. "Now, I think that's pretty goddamn important, don't you?"
Luke snarled, but kept quiet.
Kelly was leaning against the front seats, peering through the windshield. "What's that smoke?" she asked.
Jake had seen it too--a tall pillar of black smoke in the distance, rising into the dawn--but he had tried instinctively not to think about it. It looked like it was coming from the military base, which was, for the moment, still out of view. "Maybe they're burning bodies," he said. Even he found it a hollow explanation. He switched the radio station.

"...important that you proceed to the nearest rescue station. Active stations are located at North Mittleton Hospital, the Mittleton Municipal Building, Stanton Town Police Department Precinct Five, and Stanton Military Base. If you are able to travel, make your way to one of these..."

"They're saying it's still active," June said hopefully.
"That's the same recording we've been hearing all along," Luke said. "For all we know, everyone's dead--the soldiers and the radio guys."
"Are you gonna quit bitching, or are you gonna get out and walk to the rescue station?" Leroy said. The kid was really getting on his nerves.
"We'll just cruise by and see if it looks good," Jake said. "If not, we move on." And with that, he turned onto the exit which would take him to the base.

0830 hours
Willow St Police Station
Mittleton City

The group of twelve policemen edged their way through the police station, heading towards the Tactical Response armoury. The moans of the undead had quietened with in the police station. The group of survivors reach the armoury room which looked like it had been the stations last stand, as its walls and floor where covered with clotted blood and spent ammunition. The door had been smashed through and the wire service window was mangled and covered in chunks of flesh.

Daniels “Ok guys, see what’s left in the armoury and stock up”

After replenishing their ammunition and the riot officers supplementing their side arms with pump action shotguns the men made their way towards the underground parking bay below the police station. The metal door swung open into the parking bay, the lack of lighting made it a dark voided that the officer’s torch’s cut through in search of a vehicle or vehicles capable of carrying them out of their nightmare. The pounding on the metal shutters echoed around the basement.

Goody “Carl, there’s another TRU vehicle here”
Daniels “Must be the other team’s rides”
Armstrong “What other team”
Daniels “The one we were gonna get next month”
Armstrong “Oh, guess they don’t need then”
Daniels “Wouldn’t have thought so, not now anyway”

Forward Operations Base Charlie
(Stanton outskirts)

The Puma helicopters had been running ferrying flights to and from Stanton military base till there wasn’t anyone left to save. As the last flight from the base gently eased onto the make shift landing zones Captain Adrian Deale surveyed the troops staggering to the hospital tents.

Deale “That’s it, that’s all that got out 137 soldiers out of nearly five thousand”
Friend “Sir, the base was over run in minutes by the infected, the warning didn’t arrive in time for them to react, sir”
Deale “These are trained soldiers Lieutenant, warning or not a soldier knows when his life is at threat; these boys have been caught with their pants down”
Friend “Sir, I think that mayb-“
Deale “Make sure we don’t end up the same way Lieutenant, I’d hate to have to shoot you”
Friend “Sir”

As the surviving soldiers and the few civilians that made it out of Stanton military made their way to the few medical tents for assessment and treatment, a sole survivor continued fighting at Stanton military base.
Private Hughie Reed dragged the bloodied body of Major Clayton in to the radio operations room. The small room had a single door and had only one window that didn’t open, with the door locked Private Hughie fumbled with the setting for the radio.

Reed “Mayday, Mayday Stanton military base is under attack by unknown forces. Mayday, Mayday is anyone receiving this transmis-”
Lieutenant Clark “Confirmed Stanton, we have helo’s in the air at your location can your reach them”
Reed “Negative, I am in the radio room and attacking forces have me surrounded, major Clayton was assaulted and has lost consciousness and bleeding heavily from bite wounds, over”
Clark “Confirmed Stanton, recommend immediate disposal of Major, over”
Reed “What?! I can’t do tha” Private Hughie Reed was interrupted by a blood chilling wail from behind him “Oh fuarrrrrrrrgh” The thing that used to be major Clayton leaped across the room and tore into Privet Reed’s neck and shoulder tearing chunks of flesh from the young soldiers body, unintelligible screams where metallically recreated at Forward Operations Base Charlie.

Infected

Estimated – 50,500,000
Actual – 70,997,038

"God, this place is a war zone," Kelly said. She was still standing in the back of the ambulance, looking past Jake and Leroy. Before them, the base lay largely in ruins. Smoke poured from the shattered windows of squat, concrete buildings. A large central area appeared to be strewn with bodies and vehicles. The tall, strong-looking fences lining the base had collapsed in some areas. Far away, a few shambling dead moved among the wreckage.
"Moving on, then," Jake said grimly. He steered away from the base.
"Wait!" June said sharply. "Listen."
A few of the group became aware of a thrumming noise above. "Helicopters," Leroy said hopefully. He realized that that hope might be destroyed at any moment.
"We've got to ge their attention," June said. "Put on the sirens."
"No!" Leroy said. "There are still too many of those things on the ground. We don't want to attract them."
"There aren't that many," Kelly said. "We've got guns."
"No time to argue," Jake said. He turned on the ambulance's sirens and floored the gas, driving over a section of fence which had come down. And all the tires popped at once.
"Goddamn!" Jake shouted, nearly losing control of the vehicle. Kaitlyn screamed; Kelly fell back onto her. Jake barely prevented the ambulance from rolling over.
June looked through the rear windows. "The barbed wire," she said matter-of-factly. The fences had been topped with it, and it had ripped their tires open.
"That's very helpful now," Jake snapped over the blare of the siren.
The infected were starting to take notice of them. Jake kept his foot on the gas, pulling the ambulance alongside the entrance to one of the buildings and breaking hard. He looked through the side mirror; the infected were pretty far away, but they were closing the distance fast.
"We can't stay in here," Jake said, throwing his door open. "Everyone in there, now." He ran to the entrance--and found it locked, or possibly barricaded from inside. "Shit!" He would have punched it if he hadn't been holding a shotgun.
June realized they could make it through the second-floor windows from the top of the ambulance. She scrambled up the hood and onto the boxlike roof of the vehicle. "We can get in from up here," she shouted, helping Kaitlyn to follow her.
Leroy and Jake helped Kelly and Luke up. Then, firing a few shots at the nearest infected, they clambered up after them. Luke smashed the window out with his crowbar. They made it inside seconds before the dead started pounding at the sides of the ambulance.
"They can get in the same way we did," Kaitlyn observed.
"No shit," Luke said.
They had entered an office belonging to a Major Clayton. It seemed the Major had left in a hurry, but the room seemed undamaged. The group left the room and closed the door behind them. "Let's hope those fuckers can't figure out doorknobs," Jake said.
"We need to get to the roof, signal those helicopters--" Leroy said, but he was interrupted by a blood-freezing shriek. Infected charged at them from the right.
"Run!" Jake said, taking a shooting stance and letting loose a blast from his pump-action. Fifteen meters away, an infected soldier's throat and lower jaw turned to paste. His body collapsed to the floor, tripping another attacker. Two more advanced unharmed. June shot them both in the forehead, making her shots count. Leroy shot the last one, the one that had tripped, five times. He hit its head twice.
The three with guns waited a moment; they heard nothing more. They followed the other survivors, catching up with them near a stairwell. "Can we get to the roof from here?" June asked.
"One way to find out," Jake said, taking the lead.

The group heard a scream as they reached the third floor. It was followed by a series of gunshots.
"Keep going," Jake said. "Maybe he needs help."
Jake poked his head through the stairwell door, looking for the source of the sound. It had ceased. Cautiously, Jake creeped out into the hallway. Soon, his ears caught another sound--sobbing. Jake located the room it was coming from.
"Hey, do you need help?" he said. He tried to make his voice loud enough to be heard through the door, but quiet enough not to attract unwanted attention from the walking dead.
No answer. The sobbing stopped.
Against his better judgement, Jake tried the knob. The door was locked. Jake turned back toward the stairwell when a sickeningly familiar shriek caught him off guard. The person on the other side of the door had...turned.
Jake took off toward the stairwell at a run. The infected soldier pounded at the door, splintering the wood around the lock.
Jake heard the cracking sound and turned as the creature lunged at him. He hit it in the belly with a load of buckshot, punching its intestines out through its back. Another shot caved in its face. The creature still stood, and for a terrifying moment Jake thought it would continue to attack. Then it fell over, hitting the floor with a loud BUMP.

The room from which the attacker had burst contained a body--an officer, by the look of it. It also contained radio equipment.
Jake looked around the room, finally locating what looked like a transmit button. "Six survivors are trapped in Stanton Military Base," he said into the mic. "Repeat, six survivors. Requesting immediate evac. Will try to signal from the roof. Over."

The group waited, standing in the stairwell...until they heard Jake's shotgun.
"Shit," Leroy muttered. The guy probably needs help, he thought. But I'm the biggest person here. If I leave these people, will they be able to defend themselves?
"Leroy, I'm gonna go check on Jake," June said. "The rest of you should head up to the roof."
Leroy was surprised; June hadn't been particularly assertive since they'd met.
"I'm a better shot than you," she added. "I'll be fine." And she took off.
Leroy shrugged. "Let's do what the lady says," he said, leading the way up the stairs.

June saw the dead soldier collapsed outside an open door; its head was a mess and the floor was covered with a pool of blackened blood. She could smell rot and blood and gunpowder in the air. It was not a pleasant smell.
She could hear Jake speaking tensely. She stepped gingerly past the blood puddle and saw the cop speaking into a radio set. "Any luck?" she asked.
Jake almost jumped. "Christ, June, I could have shot you," he said, but the relief in his voice was evident. "No, I'm not getting anything."
As if on cue, a voice responded. "We read you, Stanton base survivors. Proceed to the roof. We're sending a chopper to your position, ETA five minutes. Over and out."

Forward Operations Base Charlie
(Stanton Outskirts)

“Jake, we are sending a helicopter to your location, can you and the other survivors reach a roof top location, over”
The radio operator waved his left hand above his head to grab his lieutenant’s attention. The lieutenant walked over to the radio operator’s location “What’s going on Jones”
“Sir, there are at least six survivors still at Stanton base”
“Ok, redirect Joy-Ride one-one and one-three to recover them”
“Sir” The operator clicked the switch on his microphone “Joy-Ride one-one, FOB Charlie, receive over” The operator relayed the orders to the two Puma helicopters that where already in-flight.

Stanton Military base
(Five minutes later)

“Jake, this is Joy-Ride one-one do you receive, I repeat Jake this is Joy-Ride one-one do you receive over” The two Puma helicopters slowly passed over the buildings of the military base most of which had billows of black smoke spewing from their windows and doorways. Several of the buildings had collapsed in themselves sending huge clouds of dust into the air. The undead roamed the grounds of the military base and its buildings.

The pilot of Joy-Ride one-one looked at his co-pilot and then back out at the destruction below them, shaking his head he spoke into his radio again “FOB Charlie, this is Joy-Ride one-one, I’m not getting any response from th-” a voice cut into the pilots sentence, the tense strains of controlled fear crackled through the air crews headsets.

Willow St Police Station
Mittleton City

The twelve police officers had climbed into the Tactical Response Unit vehicle, a large vehicle that resembled the shape of a fire engine. Will Goody sat at the wheel of the truck, flicking the ignition on the engine roared into life and the whole vehicle vibrated as the engine idled. Julius check the rear door of the vehicle to make sure it had been locked as the TRU vehicle juddered from its position towards the metal shutters that where barring the zombie’s entrance into the underground garage.


Infected

Estimated – 50,500,000
Actual – 71,690,638

Jake slapped his hand down hard on the desk with relief as he got a reply. "Thank Jesus, Buddha and Elvis," he said, half laughing. "I think we can get to the roof from here. I'll stay by the radio as long as I can. Over."
He reloaded the shotgun with shells from his fanny pack and said, "June, take the others to the roof. Take my shotgun in case the door's locked."
June put her Glock on the desk and reached for the shotgun, then hesitated. "What would I do?"
Shit, she doesn't know how to breach a door, Jake thought. There was actually more to it than pointing at the lock and shooting. Part of him wanted to go back to the group; another part didn't want to leave this young girl behind alone. But he wasn't sure he should leave the radio unattended yet.
"Stand about five feet away and blast the place where the deadbolt would enter the doorframe until the door opens," he said. "Reload if you have to. Hopefully it'll already be open."
"Alright," June said, taking the shotgun and fanny pack. She dropped her spare pistol magazine onto the desk. "See you soon." She left quickly.
"If I'm lucky," Jake muttered. He depressed the transmit button again. "What's the ETA on that chopper?" he asked.

June ran up the stairs; near the top floor, she found the rest of the group, descending. "Door's locked," Leroy said. "Luke's crowbar didn't do crap." He noticed June's shotgun. "Where's Jake?" he asked, alarmed. "He alright?"
"Jake's fine," June said. "He found a radio. There's a chopper coming to pick us up off the roof. Stand back."
"That's not gonna work," Leroy said. "It looks like the door's been padlocked from the outside."
June's stomach felt like a bag of broken glass. "Maybe Jake can tell the rescue party to come down and open it."
"How will they know which building we're in?" Kelly asked.
"I'll...think of something," June said, though she sounded less than hopeful. She took off down the stairs again.

As she went, she tried to think of options. We came in through a Major's office, she thought. That might tell them what building we're in. What was his name? Or maybe I can find some explosives in here, some grenades or something strong enough to take the door down...
As she reached the third floor, her thoughts were interrupted by a hellish shriek. Then more of them. Many more.
Oh, God.

Jake heard the shrieks too--right outside his door. He slammed it shut, but the lock was broken. They pressed against the door--too many of them. He couldn't hold out for very long. He struggled against the strength of the dead, looking for a way to brace the door somehow.
A voice came in over the radio. "Jake, this is Joy-Ride One-One, do you receive? I repeat, Jake, this is Joy-Ride One-One, do you receive? Over."
Perfect fucking timing. Just my goddamn luck. Jake braced his shoulder against the door and managed to grab his chair. He propped it under the doorknob and eased up, testing whether it would hold. The splintering sounds he heard said the chair wouldn't last long, but it would give him enough time to respond. "Joy-Ride One-One, I'm pinned down on the third floor! The door to the radio office is damaged, and I can't hold them for much longer!"

June made it back to the stairwell without alerting the infected to her presence. "Leroy, those monsters have Jake trapped! We've got to do something!"
"How many are there?" Leroy asked, pulling out his gun. He switched out his current clip for the spare.
"Wait a minute," Luke said. "You can't just leave us here! You two and that cop have the only guns here! What am I supposed to do, beat them back with this?" He hefted his crowbar.
The little punk's right, Leroy realized. Then he had a sudden inspiration. He grabbed June's shotgun and shot out the hinges on the door. He yanked on the doorknob, causing the door to swing inward, still hanging by the padlock on the other side. He pulled the ruined door open by the hinges. "Get out," he said. Kelly, Kaitlyn and Luke obliged. Then he put the door back in its frame. If the creatures reached this door, they would probably just push at it, keeping it closed.
He tossed the shotgun back to June when they reached the third floor. She could hear the shrieking as she reloaded; it made her so nervous that she nearly dropped a shell. She couldn't see them; she and Leroy were still hiding in the stairwell. She suddenly realized that, while the shotgun might cripple some of the creatures, the Glock would be worthless unless Leroy could shoot the creatures in the head. He had shown himself to be a rather poor shot. "We should switch weapons," she said. As she took the Glock, she realized that the seconds she wasted giving Leroy the fanny pack might end up killing Jake. Not like we would have time to reload anyway after those things realize we're here, she thought. "Ready?"
Leroy nodded. "Ready." They entered the hallway simultaneously. Mother of crap, Leroy thought. There must be fifteen or twenty of them. They couldn't afford many missed shots.

Stanton Military Base

“Jake, glad to hear you’re still with us mate”

Spider the pilot of Joy-Ride One-One spoke with both relief and urgency.

“Jake I need you to stay calm and tell me if you can hear my engines, I know I’m asking a lot right now but you have to do this so I can get you out of here”

The two Puma helicopters edged through the thick smoke and dust, the thrust from the rotors churning the thick black and brown mixture around the helicopters.
The choking billowing cloud thinned and broke for a few seconds; the crew chief noticed something that drew his gaze to the roof top of the base command building. Two people were struggling with a door, a third person now.

Crew Chief Peters “Eyeball, eyeball three civvies, eleven o’clock roof top”

Both the pilot and co-pilot of Joy-Ride One-One snapped their heads to where the crew chief had pointed. Joy-Ride One-One angled towards the command building and descended towards the roof top, the crew chief anticipating an excursion had already cocked his P90.

Spider “Jake I think we have you’re location can you confirm, over”

Joy-Ride One-Three had taken up a covering position to the rear of Spiders Puma the crew chief of One-Three had one of the helicopters mini-guns trained on the damaged roof door. Joy-Ride One-One barely touched the roof top as crew chief Peters jumped from rear cabin and ran towards the three survivors on the roof.

Crew Chief Peters “Are there anymore people here?”

The people seemed shocked to see the crew chief but he didn’t have time to waste on shock if there were uninfected in the building.

Crew Chief Peters “Get on the helicopter, now go now”

Peters ran to the door and smashed the padlock of the bolt and a swift kick sent the door in on itself, he climbed over the fallen door and headed down the stairs. Peters saw a man and woman at the bottom of the stairs their backs to him “You two” he shouted at the pair expecting them to be infected, they weren’t but shrieks from down the hallway meant a lot of infected were on their way.

Crew Chief Peters shout at the pair “Come on, this way” over the cries of the undead heading down the hallway towards them.

Infected

Estimated – 50,500,000
Actual – 71,690,643

Holly-by-Carr
(Twenty miles north of Mittleton City)

A tanned, good looking young man sat at a news desk looking at the autocue below a camera that had focused on him, two brilliant red walls met in a corner to his right and on the right hand wall the large logo of the Alidorn News Channel bordered the top of a large plasma screen displaying several images of the current events happening around Alidor, one of which a young lady adjusting here ear piece.

“So you could say that it won’t be a dog’s dinner to night then, ha-ha, thank you James and don’t try the take-out, ha-ha, and now we go to Jane Wheaton who is in Holly-by-Carr where three men were recently gunned down by local police, Jane...”

“..Yes Dave, you join me here at Holly-by-Carr, a normally quite town where nothing much happens however local police have been accused of shooting dead three men as they walked home from the Queens Head pub last night”

The attractive reporter turned to the smartly dressed police officer standing to her right, her long dark hair flicked by a sudden breeze a she turned.

“Officer Donahue, can you give us any information on this incident, and can you explain how it could possibly happen”

“Well, miss Wheaton, because of the current troubles in and around Mittleton city all law enforcement agencies have been placed on their highest alert and we have been authorised to shoot to kill anyone who we deem a direct threat to the preservation of lives and the peace that we all enjoy”

“Except, Mr Brown, Mr Wilson and Mr Burrows they haven’t benefited from this hard line stance have they”

“Well no, and I don’t want to talk about the situation in detail at the minute as an inquest into the shooting is taking place at the moment, however I feel th”

“What about their families Mr Donahue, what can they expect from this”

“The public inquest will determine fault and a future course of act” Donahue turned around as shrieks echoed up the street “Oh my god their coming for us” Officer Donahue had noticed a group of around thirty people running towards them. He dropped to his right knee and drew his hand gun “Get out of here quickly” he said to the reporter, he took aim at the crowd “Halt or I’ll shoot”
The crowd didn’t slow a bit and the officer fire two warning shoots above the crowd, they still didn’t slow. Donahue turned to the reporter and cameraman “Jesus, are you two you still here, go” he shouted while pointing down the street away from the crowd.
Donahue turned back and took aim at the closest person and fired two rounds into his chest, the man stumbled for a seconded but he didn’t drop.

The reporter shocked at what was happening looked at the crowd and then into the camera, then back at the crowd “Jesus, are you getting this, Dave” As the reporter turned back to the camera, still shocked at the shooting a hand appeared from the right of the camera and grabbed her collar the camera mans voice could be heard slightly “Fuck run, run, fuck, fuck, fuck” The camera pivoted away from miss Wheaton and rocked from side to side as a white Alidor News Channel van grew closer with every sway.

Shortly after Jake stopped transmitting, the gunfire started. Thank God, they're here, he thought. Then he listened: it sounded like a single pistol and a shotgun. There are too many. They'll be torn apart. "June, Leroy, run!" he shouted.
The he heard someone over the radio again--a different voice this time. "Jake, I need you to stay calm and tell me if you can hear my engines," the pilot said. "I know I’m asking a lot right now, but you have to do this so I can get you out of here.”
Between the shrieking and the gunfire, Jake couldn't hear much. He took a chance and let go of the door. The chair continued to hold, probably because most of the creatures' attention was on his would-be rescuers. "Too much noise, I can't hear anything," he said. Releasing the transmit button, he braced his weight against the door again. I'm boned. I just hope those two don't die on my account. "Run!" he repeated.
"Jake, I think we have your position, can you confirm? Over."
Jake let go of the door again. One of the chair's legs cracked slightly. Jake barely registered it. "Can you see people on the roof? There are two more down here with me. Hurry!"

"A helicopter!" Kelly shouted. She jumped up and down, waving her arms as it approached. "I think they see us!"
One of the helicopters descended to the roof; another hovered nearby, keeping its big gun on the door. A soldier jumped out and shouted, "Are there any more people here?"
Kelly's mind fogged up with relief. She found herself unable to speak.
With a shake of the head, the soldier shouted, "Get on the helicopter, now! Go! Now!", gesturing fiercely at the open side door. The three survivors readily obliged.

June had forgotten to count her shots, but she was pretty sure she was near the bottom of the magazine. She'd killed a measly five so far; the gun held twelve rounds. Leroy wasn't having much luck either. He was better with the shotgun than with the Glock, but the shotgun held seven shells and had an abysmal rate of fire. The dead were almost on them.
"You two!"
June spun around and saw a soldier behind them. Leroy continued firing.
"Come on, this way!"
"Come on!" June shouted. His last shell expended, Leroy followed the girl up the stairs.

Stanton Military Base

The two survivors ran past crew chief Peters, as they did the twist bloodied face of an infected soldier appeared at the bottom of the stairs. The walls of the stairwell flickered with yellow light as Peters emptied a burst form his P90 at the infected soldier, his shoulder and neck exploded into a cloud of blood, muscle and bone and as he collapsed Peters fled up the stairs after the short dark haired woman and the large black man. Peters caught up with them at the top of the stairs as they climbed over the fallen door, grabbing the extended hand of the black man Peters pulled himself up over the door and the three of them ran for the helicopter. Peters shouted over the engine noise of the helicopter “Jake, you have saved these people mate” as he help the young woman onto the helicopter. The large frame of the black man lent over Peters but his words were drowned out by a sudden burst of fire from the hovering helicopter. Peters saw the roof around the access doorway explode into a cloud of grey dust and body parts and wood fragments over Leroy’s bulky shoulder as he shouted at him again.

Jake heard the snapping report of a submachine gun and knew that help had finally arrived. When it settled down, he kicked the chair aside and opened the door. A soldier was standing there, over piles of the dead. Jake could see June and Leroy running up the stairs.
He followed the soldier up to the roof; the soldier paused once to ventilate one last infected soldier. They climbed over a broken door and onto the roof, where a helicopter was waiting. As the soldier helped June into the helicopter, he shouted over the engine roar: "Jake, you have saved these people, mate."

So many people had died around Jake that the comment stung at first. My partner...the guard...all those people at the hospital... But there really was nothing he could have done for any of them. And the soldier was right. These five people might have died too, without his help.

Out of the corner of his eye, Leroy spotted movement from the door. He was out of ammo. He leaned in toward the soldier, who was half inside the helicopter, and shouted, "There's more coming!" But his words were lost in the rotor wash.
Fortunately, someone on the other helicopter was watching as well. A burst from the minigun shredded the crowd of infected, as well as a good part of the access doorway itself.
That was quite enough for Leroy. "Now let's get the hell out of here!" he shouted. He climbed in after June. Then Jake entered; the soldier got in last, sliding the door shut.

"It's over," June said. "It's over." And she started to tremble.
Poor kid, Leroy thought. None of us have had much of a chance to cope, even on the way out of the city. He put a hand on her shoulder. "It's over," he agreed.
"Hey," Luke called up from behind them. "Where are we going?"

As the survivors fled the chaos in the safety of their helicopter, another helicopter entered the city's airspace: a single, unescorted, unmarked military transport. It did not land; instead, hovering over a once-lively intersection, it lowered a pair of emergency stretcher harnesses to street level. Two soldiers in gray BDUs and gas masks came down with each, carrying high-caliber submachine guns with huge drum magazines.
The dead attacked almost immediately. The same scenario played out on either side: one soldier expertly destroyed each oncoming attacker with a shot to the head; each but one. As this one came within ten meters, the second soldier destroyed its pelvis, then its shoulders with carefully controlled bursts. As the first soldier kept the street clear, the second applied very solid-looking handcuffs to both arms and legs, and a steel mask to the mouth. He then strapped the bound creature to the stretcher harness.
Their work was done in under thirty seconds. The four soldiers and their prizes were retracted into the helicopter, which then turned tail and left the city.

Joy-Ride One-One
(The sky’s above Stanton)

The six survivors that had made their way to the Stanton Military base were safely inside the cabin of the Puma helicopter as its powerful engines pushed it upwards away from the marauding hordes of zombies, Luke’s high pitched teenage voice pierced the air like a knife “Hey, - Where are we going” the young man visibly shaken by the nightmare he had been living.

“Don’t worry son, were heading to a rescue centre where you’ll be safe” Crew Chief Peters reassured the young man, his radio ear piece picking up transmissions from patrols sent into Stanton town.

Mittleton City centre

“Susan-Four-One to all other call signs, respond over” Carl Daniels tried the radio again, as he had done for the last half hour, and finally someone responded “Mary-Six-Four to Susan-Four-One I copy over, we’re hold up in the football stadium.”
Carl and the police men in the TRU vehicle cheered with relief now knowing that they weren’t the sole survivors in the unfolding nightmare and they made for the stadium.
The large black police vehicle slowly snaked through the abandoned vehicles littering the Mittleton streets, “Jesus, look at those kids” William Goody shouted into the rear of the vehicle, the men in the rear of the vehicle rushed to the windows and saw the two teenagers on the roof of the shopping mall, a crowd of undead beginning to mill around the entrance to the Spring Fountain Mall.

Goody “What are we doing boss?”
Daniels “I’m not sure”

The Black TRU slowed to a near stop as it passed the entrance to the mall car park.

Infected

Estimated – 50,500,000
Actual – 72,001,318

(OOC; sorry for long period’s between post’s, I’m having trouble with the forum)

"What rescue station?" Jake asked. They said the base was a rescue station, too. "Are you sure it's still active?"
"Do they know what caused this?" Leroy asked. "How far has it spread?"
Everyone had a hundred questions--everyone except June, who had one thought on her mind: Soon as we land, I'm finding a phone and calling my parents. I hope to God they're alright.

Forward Operations Base Charlie

The two Puma helicopters swept through the air above Stanton towards FOB Charlie. The hastily built barbwire perimeter fence was already being replaced with thick walls of metal supported by metal pylons to the interior of the walls. The Crew Chief began to explain to Jake “FOB Charlie, is part of our quick response brigades being deployed at locations around infected areas, if you come here and look out the window” Peters began to point at specific areas were construction of the perimeter wall had began “That there is a Titanium wall section, they’re designed for rapid assembly to give us a secure base of operations” Peters pointed at the barbwire fencing that still represented most of FOB Charlie’s perimeter “That is barbwire fencing..” Jake interrupted the Crew Chief “How has this been built so quickly.
Crew Chief Peters “FOB Charlie is being built directly on top of the M5 motorway, if you look there you can see the transporters bringing the wall sections in” Peters pointed towards a long convoy of trucks heading for COB Charlie”
After calming Jake down Peters turned to the rest of the group and not knowing the answers they wanted had to bluff a little “We’ll on the ground in a couple of minutes, someone will then take you for a medical check and to answer your questions”

The two Puma helicopters slowed to a hover above FOB Charlie and the crew chiefs of the two helicopters guided the pilots to soft landings at hastily mark up landing zones. A swarm of medical personnel ran for the helicopter with the survivors in it and as the cabin door was slid open the six rescued people were guided towards a collection of large green tents marked with a big red cross in a white square.

Spring Fountain Mall
Mittleton City

As the large black TRU vehicle slowly rolled towards the mall car park Sloane and Taylor exited the side door and using parked cars and vans for cover made their way towards a large Oak tree that was growing less that three metres from the malls wall.

Sloane “Daniels, there aren’t anymore cars between us and the infected”
Daniels “Can you make it to the tree?”
Sloane “I don’t think so the infected are to close to it”
Daniels “OK Sloane, we’ll get their attention then you make for the tree”
Sloane “Got ya boss”

Taylor and Sloane acknowledged Carl Daniel’s communication when the powerful engine of the TRU vehicle roared with anger as Will Goody gunned the accelerator, Carl was stood at the now wide open side door firing a stream of bullets from his M4 assault rifle at the undead zombies wandering the mall’s car park. The undead as if following Daniels orders made for the TRU vehicle the bloodied bodies covering the car park in next to no time. Sloane and Taylor jumped up from behind a yellow and brown mail delivery van and made for the tree, the weight of their equipment making the muscles in their legs burn after a few steps.

Infected

Estimated – 50,500,000
Actual – 72,006,893

All six survivors were inspected thoroughly and individually. A tall man, balding, checked out Leroy, who had stripped down to his shorts. "You been bitten?" the man asked as he drew blood for a series of tests.
"No, none of us have," Leroy said. "What is this thing--a virus? Do you guys know anything about it?" The ME in him had so many questions. How did it raise the dead? Where did it come from? Is there a cure?

June had similar questions--she had a master's degree in microbiology; it was something of a passion. But right now, as she lay in her underwear on the cold examination bed, there was an even bigger question on her mind. "Do you guys have a working phone?"

Jake finished his examination quickly. He had no questions at all; just a deep, urgent need for sleep.

Forward Operations Base Charlie

The engineer’s work furiously preparing and fixing the metal structures into place, orders were being barked at exhausted soldiers, fork trucks raced around the base at brake neck speeds and soldiers in full battle dress and armed to the teeth mounted HMMWV’s that slowly weaved through barbwire checkpoints as they made their way into Stanton in groups of four. The size of FOB Charlie meant that the perimeter wall wouldn’t be completed for several days.

In the cluster of pressurised tents that represented FOB Charlie’s hospital, the final six survivors were receiving medical tests to ensure that none of them had been bitten or infected in some other way. After drawing blood from Leroy’s arm Dr Chalib began to answer the pathologist’s questions.

Dr Chalib “We believe it is a virus, we’re not entirely sure as to how it is spread or even what its origins are, we believe it may be by the transfer of bodily fluids but that is just an assumption as not may people have been that close to infected people and survived, you and your friends being six people of one hundred and forty three people recovered from Stanton base” Dr Chalib fiddled with the packaging of a plaster before continuing “As for raising the dead I haven’t got a clue how it could possibly do that but that’s what the people up stairs think so that’s what we’re going with and a cure if these people are the walking dead then I don’t think that there’s much hope for them recovering from it” Dr Chalib allowed Leroy to dress before he called the nurse in and handed her the clipboard, on which he had taken notes about Leroy, and the three blood bottles that contained Leroy’s blood “Have these samples tested right away, please” The nurse replied a prompt “yes” and left the tent at a quick pace.

The six survivors were reunited in the D ward tent, after showing them to their respective beds and pointing out the privacy curtain that wraps around each bed the nurse’s left them to their own devices.

Spring Fountain Mall
Mittleton City

The two men of the Tactical Response Unit lunged at the branches of the tall tree and began their ascent to the Mall’s roof were the two teenagers were waiting, they clambered onto the roof top and made their way to the youngsters. As they approached Sloane removed his black Kevlar helmet and spoke to the young lad in front of him “Are you two ok?”

In the car park of the Mall the TRU vehicle had circled round and was now heading back towards Sloane and Taylor. The zombies that had chased the TRU vehicle were closing in as Goody gunned the accelerator again, as he steered through the raging mass the entire body of what used to be a middle aged business man disintegrated across the front of the vehicle sending decomposing organs and partially clotted blood across the windscreen.

Infected

Estimated – 50,500,000
Actual – 72,008,001

"Sorry," a young, female nurse said to June. "Phones are down throughout the affected area."
"Are there any other survivors?" June asked. "Besides us and the soldiers from that base?"
"Some," the nurse said. "We're keeping a list of everyone we bring in. It's cross-referenced every three hours with lists from other rescue centers. It's posted in the central area. Good luck."
"Thanks," June said, putting her shirt and pants back on. She practically darted out of the tent.

Leroy walked into one of the medical tents. "Who's the doctor in charge here?" he asked.
"That's me," a tall doctor said, striding past him with a clipboard. "Need something?"
"I'm a doctor myself--an ME. I thought you guys could use a hand."

Kelly had the same idea, but her area of expertise was rather different. She walked into the command tent. "I'd like to help out," she said. "I'm a serologist--there must be someone around here working on a treatment..."

Dr Adrian Croft looked Leroy up and down and then looked at his clipboard again “You’re one of the Stanton base survivors, one of the lucky ones its seems” he lead Leroy through a passage to another tent where four soldiers were handcuffed to bed’s by their wrists and ankles “these guys here where bitten before they were extracted” Adrian and Leroy walk to the head of one of the beds “As you can see they’re totally oblivious to their surroundings now and appear to have fever like conditions however their body temperature is normal” pulling back the mans sheet to his waist Adrian pointed to several bite marks on his arms and torso “If you look here you can see the skin has started to decompose around this mans wounds and are spreading across his body, the rest of the wounded men in this tent are the same” pausing he turned to Leroy and indicated another passage “Through there are minor injuries lacerations broken bones that kind of thing” then leading Leroy down a separate passage it brought the two men out into the morgue tent “In here there are two soldiers who have turned into what can only be described as living dead” Leroy jumped back as the two infected soldiers lunged at Adrian and Leroy as they entered the tent “Its ok their secured, we’re just keeping them here till the FOB commander decides where to keep them” Adrian picked up another clipboard from the desk in the morgue tent “You can help in here if you want or if you think you can be of better use else where then we could use another pair of hands”

Colonel Rogers shook Kelly’s hand as she was escorted into his tent “I’d like to help” she stated “There must be someone around here working on a treatment….” The Colonel interrupted Kelly as she spoke “I’m sorry miss, we are the front line of this developing threat and our site is still being constructed as I’m sure you noticed on you’re way in” Glancing at the large white board to his right he then continued “There’s a helicopter leaving in one half hour for a rear, more established, base that is where all of our samples are going and you maybe able to assist them there” writing a quick note on an official looking piece of paper he handed it to her “So give this to the base commander and he should give you a more detailed appraisal of what help you can provide, thank you” with that he waved in the private stood at the entrance to his tent, the private entered the room an escorted Kelly through the command tent complex towards the helicopter servicing area.

FOB Charlie
(Stanton outskirts)

The powerful engines of the Chinook transport helicopter spun into life as the load master scanned the servicing area. Flipping down his visor he climbed into the rear of the Chinook and raised the ramp “All set” the load master muttered into his helmets radio. In a cloud of dust and grass the helicopter disappeared towards the western horizon.

Spring Fountain Mall
Mittleton City

The TRU vehicle’s tyres screamed and smoked as Goody stamped on the brake, in the same instant Carl swung the side door open and jumped out quickly followed by Julius their M4 carbine rifles firing wildly into the following zombies.

The two teenagers frozen to the spot, their eyes wide with terror “Jump” shouted Sloane as he took aim with his rifle, they still didn’t move. “Fucking jump” Taylor shouted at the pair, his rifle falling to his side as he turned and grabbed them by the shoulders, dragging them to the roof edge above Carl and Julius.

Infected

Estimated – 50,500,000
Actual – 72,009,006

Stanton

The two land rovers of North Patrol three turned onto the deserted main road of Stanton town centre “North Patrol three, negative contacts continuing down Main street, over” the two land rovers slowly threaded their way though the debris as they moved down main street.

“Contact, contact nine o’clock” the private on the roof mounted support rifle shouted. The driver looked out of the passenger window to see the twisted faces of several infected men and women running at him their screams drifting down through the weapons port. The mounted rifle barked into action as Private Smith fired a volley of hot lead at the crowd. The infected bodies twisting and exploding into pulp as the rounds dug into them. ‘Click, click, click’ “Fuck blockage” Screamed Private Smith his weapon no longer firing. The infected swarmed around the land rovers the rear vehicles mounted weapon still chewing its way into the crowds. The dead jumped onto the stopped land rovers dragging the two men from their weapons and sinking their festering teeth into any part of their bodies they could bite. The dead lunged head first into the weapons ports tearing into the hapless drivers as they screamed their last breaths.

Infected

Estimated – 50,500,000
Actual – 72,009,006

Officer of the Prime Minster
Government House
Cansear

General Alexander Zain was sat with Prime Minister Willis, he flipped through several pages in his file before speaking “Mr Prime Minister, the situation has worsened since our last meeting, the out break in Mittleton city has spread beyond our established perimeter in fact we only have communication with four of our intended seventeen FOB’s, Antwerp, Charlie, Giant and Yule. The rest are unresponsive”

Prime Minister Willis “Four left out of seventeen, how did this happen”

General Zain “Sir, the four FOB’s that remain are in the same quarantine sector, it had a lower population density compared to the other sectors, and though Stanton base was over run the closest FOB, erm, FOB Charlie has yet to meet any large numbers of infected”

Prime Minister Willis “Wait a minute Stanton base has been over run, when did this happen?”

General Zain “Twenty one hours ago sir, nearly all personnel were lost to the infection”

Prime Minister Willis “Dear God, do you have any idea how far the infection has spread now”

General Zain “We believe that the infection may have taken hold up to forty miles in some directions maybe more to the north, we cant be sure because civilian communications have gone down across Alidor, sir, but I believe we should raise the estimate to nearer sixty five million infected sir”

Prime Minister Willis “What are we going to do General”

General Zain “I want you to authorize the air force to make strikes with in the affected areas sir”

Prime Minister Willis “Ok General do it, do what you must to ensure Alidor has a future”

With that the General left the Prime Ministers office and began to phone the top brass of the Air Force.

Infected

Estimated – 64,500,000
Actual – 72,009,006

GeneTech
Military Research Facility
Mittleton City

The black Chinook helicopter came to rest on the heli-pad on the GeneTech buildings roof and with a wine the rear ramp lowered and sixteen Marines spread out across the roof top, their SA80 assault rifles scanning every nook and cranny.

“Roof secured” Lieutenant Gordy shouted into the Chinook.

Two men dressed in black suits emerged from the rear of the helicopter, one of them wrapping his arm around Gordy’s shoulders as they walked towards the access door.

“Lieutenant we need to get to the thirtieth floor as quickly as possible” With a nod of his head the Lieutenant shrugged the man’s arm of his shoulders and began to bark orders at his marines.

“Gimble your fire team will remain here and keep the roof clear, you two” the Lieutenant pointed at two marines “I want that door open, now” Corporal Gimble signalled the three marines of his fire team towards him as the other two marines ran over to the roof access door.

FOB Charlie
(Stanton outskirts)

“Leroy, take a look at this” Dr Croft shouted across the room at the tall black man “Tell me what you think” Dr Croft was stood next to a microscope zeroed in on a blood sample taken from one of the infected soldiers.

Above Stanton

“Joy Ride Two-Four to FOB Charlie, I’m seeing a large concentration of possible infected persons advancing towards your location, over” the pilot of the Puma helicopter radioed to the military base.

Spring Fountain Mall
Mittleton City

“Jump” Taylor shouted as he pushed the two teenagers from the roof. Seconds after the teenagers had dropped to the parking lot Taylor swung down from the roof guttering to the parking lot. As Sloane hung from the guttering, Taylor grabbed the collars of the two teenagers and dragged them running to the TRU vehicle.
“Come on, come on” Carl shouted the infected dangerously close; a well placed burst from his M4 spattered his face with rotten brain pulp. “Back to the truck Julius” he commanded as he noticed Sloane shooting from the vehicles side door.
Julius Armstrong suddenly became aware of an infected woman to his right as the burning pain of her teeth piercing his forearm. He punched her away and grabbed his berretta pistol with his left hand and drove it into the festering woman’s forehead before squeezing three shots of in quick succession. Julius fell against the side of the TRU vehicle as he tried to reach the side door. Carl double tapped his trigger and the two bullets dug into the back and spine of an excessively large infected man. The vicious rabid man fell onto Julius, wrapping his arm around his leg and sinking his teeth into Julius as he fell.
The lifeless body of Julius Armstrong collapsed into the side door of the TRU Vehicle. Carl’s M4 clicked furiously as it reached the end of its clip “reloading” he shouted and with a slap of his hand on the base of the fresh magazine he fired at the closest zombie’s, but they were to close and hands reached out at him pulling him in all directing before their wails were joins by Carls screams of agony.
The TRU truck lurched forward over a pavement ripping a lamp post up by its concrete roots, the side door flapping wildly as Goody threw the lumbering truck around corners, abandoned cars and vans scrapping paint off the sides and front of the TRU vehicle as it struggled through the abandoned vehicles.

“Leroy, take a look at this,” Dr. Croft shouted across the room at the tall black man. “Tell me what you think.” Dr. Croft stood next to a microscope zeroed in on a blood sample taken from one of the infected soldiers.
Leroy looked in at the sample. The blood was partially clotted, with a high concentration of white cells. Dead, infected blood. It was just like every other blood sample he'd seen since he came to the rescue center...
"Good God," he said suddenly. He increased the magnification and focused in on one of the white cells. It was moving--and moreover, it was attacking some of the clotted, decomposing red cells.
"You see it, then?" Croft said.
"The leukocytes are active," Leroy said.
"And consuming the clotted blood," Croft agreed. "Up until now, we've been examining venal blood. Totally dead--inanimate. This sample was taken directly from a subject's hindbrain. This blood was in close proximity to reactivated brain tissue."
"Is this a side-effect of the infection?" Leroy wondered. "Or could it play a functional role in post-dead brains?"
"Good question," Croft said. "I want to run a few tests on this sample--saccharide and ATP levels, in particular. Those vials in that tray came from the same draw. Take them over to Hemo."

FOB Charlie
(Stanton Outskirts)

Doctor Croft was lost in thought for a moment “Leroy, I’m going to take these samples to our testing facility” as he picked the samples up, he paused “Leroy I’d like you to accompany me, can you prepare these for transport?” He handed the tray to Leroy anticipating his reply.

Command Tent
(FOB Charlie)

“What was that” Colonel Rogers barked across the room at the radio operator. The man sat at the radio console turned to face the Colonel “Sir, patrol helicopter Joy Ride Two-Four reports large concentrations possible infected heading our way, sir” the radio operator’s voice trembling with tension.

"Beats waiting to die here."
Leroy dutifully packaged the samples in a portable, insulated container, where they would remain cold until they could be placed in a proper freezer. "Say, there was a woman with us--Kelly, or something. She does a lot of blood work. It might be a good idea to have her along too."
"Ah, Ms....Watson, isn't it?" Dr. Croft said. "The base commander called and said she might be coming this way."
As if on cue, she strode into the patient area of the medical tent. Through the flap separating that section from the diagnostic area, Leroy could hear her asking for the ranking doctor. Someone pointed her through the flap, and she came in. "Kelly Watson," she said, extending her hand. "I'm--I was a serologist at Mittleton Central. I was told to see you."
"Hey, Kelly," Leroy said. "Just the woman I wanted to see." He motioned toward the microscope on the desk, where a slide of undead blood was still mounted. "Take a look at that."

June checked the list a third time. Could she have missed them? Could they be--
"Hey, lady, the rest of us have families too." There was a surly young man behind her. "Sorry," she mumbled, walking away. The crowd pushed in to fill the space she left, all eagerly searching the rows of printed sheets hastily taped to a wall. Her family was not listed, here or at any other rescue station. She sat down at a nearby bench--a wooden one with no back. It looked like it had been taken from a picnic table.
They could still be alive, she thought. Maybe they got out of town. Maybe they just got to a base and they're not on the lists yet. Maybe they're hiding in the basement...
Someone sat down next to her. She didn't look up, but when he said "Hey," she realized it was Luke.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah," June muttered. It was about all she could say without breaking.
"Look, I've been kind of an ass," Luke said. "I haven't been very helpful."
June stared at her knees.
"My parents aren't on the list, either," he said. He put a hand on her shoulder. "They could still be alive," he said. "Maybe they got out of town..."
June couldn't help it--she began to sob. She didn't say anything--she just cried, as the sobs wracked her body. She curled forward and buried her face in her hands.
Luke stayed there for a minute or two, giving her what he hoped were comforting squeezes on the shoulder. Finally, his own eyes getting moist, he stood up. "I'm sorry," he said, and he walked away.

Jake woke up sweating and breathing hard--he couldn't remember much about his dream, except the clawing hands...
He looked around, found himself in an Army-green tent. There were a bunch of other cots, some of them occupied. Where the hell am I? he wondered.
Then it came back. The riots. Losing his partner. The race to the hospital, the guard, and the race back out. June and Leroy and the pretty blonde doctor and the snotty kid and whats-her-name. Stanton Base.
The rescue station.
Stretching, Jake got out of bed. They could probably use a hand somewhere. He'd had some Army experience before...
Jake left the tent, spotted a group of soldiers carrying some equipment, and walked over.

FOB Charlie
(Evacuee Area One)

“Help?” The corporal looked Jake up and down, noticing his dirty and torn uniform “You’re a copper? from Stanton right? Were you in the tactical unit? do you know how to shoot an assault rifle?” the soldier fire off his questions in fast succession, barely stopping for breath never mind a response.

FOB Charlie
(Crisis Medical Area)

Doctor Adrian Croft dashed back into the medical tent were he had left Leroy and Kelly packing the blood samples and the scrawled notes the medical team had taken from observations of the infected soldiers.

“We have to be quick, the Colonel has given us room on a transport helicopter leaving in five minutes, Leroy grab those boxes and Kelly grab these ones, make sure they’re all sealed I don’t want to lose anything in transit”

Adrian was like a man possessed as he ran from desk to desk rummaging for anything that might have been missed.

GeneTech
Military Research Base
Mittleton City

The two Marines took little time in forcing the access door open and jumping through it to the metal stair well leading to the buildings top floors.

“Clear” The two Marines shouted back through the door way.

Lieutenant Hartman was the third man in to the building closely followed by the remaining fire teams and the two suits

“Ok Marines I want each and every floor swept and secured, down to the thirteenth, once there Grayson’s team will secure and hold the stair well till we are ready-

“Lieutenant, we don’t have time for that” said one of the men in the black suits “Priority is to reach the research floor and recover our package” he continued “The helicopter only carries so much fuel”

“Of course sirs” The Lieutenant retorted through his clenched teeth, these assholes were risking not just their own lives but his men’s lives as well by circumventing on-site procedure “You heard the men, I want each stair well access door checked and secured, we’ve all seem the news in the last few days lets not get caught out ok” the Marines responding with the mandatory “Yes sir” before filing down the stairs and lashing door handles to the wall mounted banisters.

When the corporal had finished his questions, Jake began to answer them. "Yeah, I'm a cop--Mittleton. I wasn't in the tac unit, but I served in the Army--I'm trained to use an assault rifle if you've got a spare."
Jake was a bit perplexed by some of those questions. He had no problem assisting in a combat capacity, but he'd noticed that the perimeter was still being constructed, and he thought they would tell him to help with that. They must be having a lot of trouble if they need more gunmen, he thought.

"Jesus," Kelly said, peering into the microscope. "Is this from...?"
"Yeah," Leroy said, grabbing a few manila folders and putting them in a thick briefcase. "Come on and help me pack up these samples. I'll explain what we know on the chopper."
"Where are we going?" Kelly asked, helping Leroy fill another briefcase with files.
"Testing facility," Leroy said. "If I'm right about that sample, it might help them find a cure."
"What about all the infected patients here?" Kelly asked.

June walked around in somewhat of a daze. The raw emotion had subsided, leaving a numb hollowness behind.
They're dead. She tried to convince herself that her family had survived...her parents...her brother...but...
They're all dead.
She knew it. And the irony, the goddamn horrible thing about it was that they were probably still moving around, walking mockeries of the people she loved.
June was struck with a sudden, cold rage. She was filled with the icy desire to pick up a weapon and destroy as many of those things, those walking corpses, as she could--to kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill until she collapsed and died too. It wouldn't really be killing. It wouldn't solve anything.
She just wanted to destroy.
She shook her head. That wasn't realistic at all. June pictured herself, a short, skinny girl with glasses, still wearing the white coat she'd been wearing at the hospital, mowing down an army of the dead with some huge gun, Rambo style. Nonsense. But there was something she could do.
June turned toward the medical tent. She'd just been an intern at Mittleton Central, but she did have a master's degree in biology and she was studying to become a nurse. Maybe they could use a hand.
As she approached, a low, thrumming noise escalated to the roar of helicopter rotors. Men in lab coats were loading biohazard boxes and insulated containers onto fat Army helicopters, guarded by a bunch of soldiers with assault rifles. She noticed Leroy and the tall blonde woman just as they were boarding. "Hey," she called out. "What's going on?"

FOB Charlie
(Evacuee Area One)

“You two take these over to the engineers” The corporal instructed the two privates and then he focused on Jake “Follow me” he instructed in a monotone voice “So, what’s your name and what unit where you in?” the Corporal asked as he lead Jake to the armoury. The corporal stopped abruptly and get real close to Jake’s face “Look the shits about to hit the fan round here, there’s a crap load of face eaters heading this way and they’ll be here soon” he paused to wait for the expression on Jake’s face to change, it didn’t “we’re trying to get the civvies out of the way before they arrive but truth is there’s going to be a lot of them still here and it aint going to be pretty” pausing again for it to sink in but Jake stayed calm taking in the information “No one will blame you if you want to leave with the civvies, mate” The corporal turned towards the armoury again and began walking, talking over his shoulder to Jake “don’t tell anyone what I just told you, ok, we don’t need a mass panic right now”

FOB Charlie
(Crisis Medical Area)

Dr Adrian Croft looked over his shoulder in the direction of the barely audible cries from June, tapping Leroy on the shoulder he thumbed in Junes direction “Another one of your friends?” as Leroy turned to see what he was talking about Adrian had already climbed aboard the helicopter and had reached a hand out to help Kelly climb in the rear ramp.

ANC Five o’clock bulletin

“Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the five o’clock news on Alidorn News Channel.

In a shocking turn of events the Prime Minister announced the construction of a ‘Quarantine Wall’ around the areas affected by the Mittleton Outbreak

The plan requires that a ‘Titanium’ wall be constructed at ranges of up to three hundred miles from Mittleton City and will take around four months to constructed”

The anchor turned to a man dressed in a very neatly pressed military dress uniform. “General Whitehall, what will this wall do and how on earth will it be built so quickly?”

General Whitehall adjusted himself in his chair before speaking “To answer your first question James, the wall will contain the outbreak and define a definite contaminated area, i.e. inside the quarantine wall, and a safe area, i.e. outside the quarantine, wall and to answer your second question the military already has several thousand of the Titanium panels required for the quarantine wall and the military engineers and government sourced contractors will constructed the wall with a man force of around seventy people per two hundred metres of walling”

Anchor “Does this mean that the government has given up on the one hundred and fifty or sixty million people living in the quarantine area?”

General Whitehall “No, not at all, the rescue stations shall remain for the evacuation of non-infected people living in the quarantine zones, and it is recommended that people still living with in the affected areas stay indoors until one of the many military patrol reach them”

Anchor “Thank you General, and in other news today a bout of cock bashing has attracted a lot of attention, Julie are you there?”

Julie Patterson “Yes James, The Annual Cock Fete a local fete for owners of Peacocks, Cockerels, Cockatoos and cockroaches has been heckled by a lively ground of protesters since early this morning when organisers arrived”

Julie walks over to the protesters shouting and waving placards “Mrs Edwards, why has this fete caused such controversy”

Mrs Edwards while waving a placard with the slogan put your cocks away replies “This kind of organised barbarism is what we animal rights groups have been trying to ban for years, the poor birds and cockroaches are kept in filthy sty’s that give then little chance of a normal life”

Julie Patterson walks a little further down the crowd of protesters “Miss Wilson why are you here”

Mrs Wilson, with a furious scowl snarled back “I’m from women against oppression and the adverts for this fete where down right disgusting, I mean show your cocks with pride, that’s just offensive in every way possible”

Julie heads back towards the group of organisers under the 53rd Annual Cock Fete banner “Mr Burrows what do you have to say about these protests”

Jim Burrows rubs his chin covered in thick hair “Well you see, these here fete’s have been happening for fifty three years and we aint never had no bother, and to see these protesters here bashin our cocks, well it leaves a nasty taste in your mouth, all we want to do is show off our birds and race our cockroaches is that too much to ask, really”

Billy Burrows, Jims son interjects “Yeah a lot of people come here for the cockroach race the stunning climax of the fete, but a lot of people a pulling out before the finish now”

Janine Watson Grabs the microphone in Julies hand “I’m Janine and I’m a cock enthusiast and I did have two Peacocks and a Cockerel on display here but now these cock haters have terrified my birds and I’m going home”

Julie Patterson “Well James there you have it what should have been a beautiful display of Peacocks and Cockatoos has descended into name calling and banner waving and bird enthusiast’s fleeing the area, over to you”

The President turned away from the T.V. "Jesus Christ how come no one told me about this, Why did I have to hear about it on the fucking news?!" " Well sir to be honest we didn't think you would care.." "Thaty I wouldn't care there saying 50,000,000 Infected or dead why did you think I wouldn't fucking care!" "I want you our of my office now!,You are no longer my Sec of State!" The president got up from his chair and paced around the room for awhile.. "Mallory take this down" Dear Prime Minister, These times are unprecedented what your country faces today no one has ever predected. I cannot even begin to think about the choices that you face today. I the Preseident of Yukatania wish to give you all the help we can. In 24 hours we could have the 1st Marine Division of 50,000 Marines in your country to help with evacuation and the building of your defense wall. There will be no feelings of resentment if you decline this offer. If you do so decline this offer we will have the 1st Marine Divsion of 24 hour alert, ready to be shipped in if the Infection get out of hand and the very presence of Alidor is at risk. We also are willing to exept Refugees if you feel your evacuation centers are being to overwhelmed. We will have 747's ready to evac people as stated in my last sentance if asked. Thank you,Reguards President Cole.

Office of the Prime Minister
Government House
Cansear

“Thank you President Cole, your offer is greatly appreciated, as soon as we’re finished here I’ll have my generals prepare for the arrival of your Marines”

The Prime Minister spoke softly and calmly as if the two had been friends for years

“I would appreciate it if you could arrange for your engineers to be sent first so we can deploy them with the construction teams and hopefully get the quarantine area sealed up quickly, ok thank you again for your offer of help”

With that Prime Minister Willis pressed the button on his speaker phone and the line to President Cole was cut off.
Looking up at the high ranking officers sat on the other side of his desk the Prime Minister spoke quickly and quietly

“This could really turn things around for us, but we need a positive spin for the press”

“Sir?” one of the officers questioned

“Fifty thousand foreign troops, landing on our soil, with our permission, to help with a situation we have said is under control already” retorted Prime Minister Willis

“I see” replied the same officer

“I’ve got it, foreign soldiers on mercy mission, Prime Minister allows foreign aid in for the displaced people of the Mittleton Outbreak, yes that’ll do it, makes me look like a saint don’t you think” Prime Minister Willis reached to his speaker phone and pressed the intercom button “Shelly get me the PR boys, please”

“Saint, sir, of course sir”

Yukatania
Arkerson Military Base


In Arkerson Miltary Airbase the Men and Women of the 1st Marine Division were loaded up into C-5 Galaxy Transport Craft. "This is gonna be tough shit man I heard those things over in Alidor were already dead" "I heard that you can only kill then by removing the head!" "Holy shit that's fucking crazy!" Sargent Bradley Orkerson walked up the 3 Marines talking among themselves: "Stop bitchin Marines were going in and that's final and if you shit-the bed out there I'll kill you myself, That clear Marines?!!" (Unison) "Yes Sir!" "Hmhm Damn right now get in that plane!" As the las C-5 lifted up into the sky the Marines gave one final goodbye to Arkerson and got ready for the scariest,and most dangerous assingment of there lives.

Over the Rampart Sea
This is Military Air Convoy 0-23 looking for an open airstrip to start the relief effort. Perferably a airstrip near the Defensive Wall..Over.

"Jake Brooks," Jake said, also telling the corporal what infantry unit he'd served in. "Look, I lost a partner to these things," he went on. God, how many hours ago had that been? he wondered. "Give me a rifle and a clear line of fire--I'm not running away while there are still survivors here."
"You've got a lot of stones, mate," the corporal said. "Follow me. Armory's right over there--take whatever catches your fancy and we'll meet with the main defensive group in five. Normally, there would be paperwork involved six ways from Sunday, but given the circumstances...fuck it."
Jake followed the corporal into the armory tent. There were a few racks of SA80A2 assault rifles and a few SAW machine guns. After a moment's thought, Jake grabbed one of the rifles and as many magazines as he could stuff into his pockets. He was still wearing his sidearm, a Glock with about five rounds left in the magazine; he looked for another pistol. He didn't find any, but he did find the old riot shotgun and the fanny pack full of shells, which had been confiscated when his group arrived. He grabbed those. A belt of incendiary grenades completed his inventory. It was a lot of weapons, but without any communications equipment, water, rations, first aid kits, entrenching tools, or et cetera, it weighed less than the gear he had hiked with as a soldier.
"Time's up," the corporal said, patting him on the shoulder. "Let's move."

Leroy turned and saw June heading toward the helicopters. He waved her over. "We escaped from the hospital together," he called after Dr. Croft.
"Does she have any laboratory experience?" Croft asked.
Does she? Leroy wondered. He knew she was an intern at the hospital, but that didn't require much in the way of medical expertise. Still, they had fought for their lives together...he couldn't just leave her here. Especially since some of the soldiers were talking about the dead coming this way...
"Some," Leroy said, not without a pang of conscience. There were thousands of people who deserved to escape just as much as June did. "We got room for one more?"

Adrian, Leroy, Kelly and June looked around the large hold of the Chinook helicopter as it swept through the air; Dr Adrian Croft noted the vastly unoccupied space,

“Soldier, soldier” Adrian called to the crew chief “Why are there no more passengers on this helicopter”

The crew chief looked bemused for a second “Your special passengers, sir, we’re heading for a restricted base, no civilians allowed”

“Oh I see” Adrian replied feeling rather deflated, now knowing what this helicopter dash has cost the people at FOB Charlie.

FOB Charlie

As Jake was gathering the weapons he wanted from the armoury the sudden change in pitch of two helicopter’s engines roared above the commotion of the base.
The Corporal ran back in the armoury and grabbed Jakes shoulder

“Times up” The Corporal shouted over the engine noise “Lets move” he finished as he turned to run outside grabbing his SA80 assault rifle from his shoulder.

As Jake and the Corporal ran across the helicopter servicing area the saw two Puma helicopter’s sweep over the forward perimeter wall, as they passed over it the side window mounted mini-guns spewed spent casings on to the soldier’s spread across the walkway running around the inside of the perimeter wall, at least what had been constructed of the perimeter wall.

As Jake and the Corporal reach the perimeter wall and climbed to the walkway the soldiers either side of them opened fire into the advancing crowd. The two Puma helicopters swung round and as the remaining ammunition for the mini-guns was spent from on the infected crowd they swept back into the base and landed

The crowds of evacuated people erupted in terror running for anything that could save them; they fought to get in the Puma helicopters that had just landed, mothers pleading for the airmen to take their children away to safety

Struggling into the air the Pumas had carried forty eight people out of the base as several Chinook helicopters returned to ferry more of the hapless civilians away from the advancing masses.

Corporal Davies stood rooted to the spot on the forward operations base perimeter wall, time seemed to slow as he watched the blood stained infected running towards the base, he felt a hand grabbing his shirt in the middle of his chest, It was Jake.

“What are you waiting for, shoot them, kill them all” Jake screamed above the noise of the other soldiers weapons.

Corporal Davies dropped to a knee and brought his SA80 up to aim, the smell and taste of cordite filling his nose and mouth as he rattled off several shots.

Ripton Air Base

“Copy that Military Air Convoy 0-23 you have clearance to began your approach on runway zero-two-nine, repeat runway zero-two-nine over” the voice of the young lieutenant responded to the Yukatanian request.

“Sir contact made with the Yukatanian forces” she called to here commander “They are going to make an approach on runway zero-two-nine, sir” The air tower commander flipped through the schedules on his clipboard, circled and entered the time of contact and estimated time of landing for the air convoy. “Should be down in two and a half hours” he muttered to himself.

Infected

Estimated – 64,500,000
Actual – 72,012,006

Jake did not spray ammunition indiscriminately. The temptation to do so was extraordinary as the dead pressed ever closer, but instead Jake aimed each shot directly at one rotting, pulpy head, fired off a trio of rifle bullets, and aimed at the next target in a seemingly endless cycle. Each time he fired, the body of a man, woman, or child, already dead many hours, would flop to the ground, and the mindless hordes would trample over it. Occasionally, a bloodstained shoe or boot or bare foot would plunge through an already-damaged ribcage and an infectee would trip, with the rest of the mass charging over it without heed.
Jake switched his magazine and the cycle began anew. He had probably grabbed six or seven, with each holding thirty rounds; with three-round bursts, he could kill another sixty or seventy. He switched the fire selector to single shots, tripling the number he could take out with his rifle. Looking out at the pulsing mass of the dead outside the wall, he realized it wouldn't be enough.
Jake threw an incendiary grenade into the thickest mass of infected; it detonated with impossibly bright whiteness, spraying a cleansing rain of burning thermite across the crowd. It burned through flesh and bone, killing many, rendering many more immobile, and setting a good number of them on fire. Must have gotten at least twenty with that, Jake thought. These grenades are way better than a rifle against a crowd like this. He had five left. He wished there were a way to get more.
Then it dawned on him. Jake turned to Corporal Davies. "Napalm!" he shouted.
"What?" The Corporal shouted over the rattle of his rifle.
"Call in an airstrike! Burn the bastards!"

Forward Operations Base Charlie

Major Tanya Sheppard scanned the advancing hordes of infected humans, of all creeds, genders and ages, she scanned the perimeter of the base.
The titanium wall was not even near half way complete and the barbwire fencing wouldn’t hold the infected back long.
“Captain, get a chopper in for the Colonel, quickly” the Major realising that there was little chance of the base surviving the horde.
“Ma’am, choppers are being swamped as soon as they land” Captain Whittle said while pointing at the crowds of people trying to clamber onto the helicopters.
“Right over there are three Land Rover Wolfs, send a fire team to escort the Colonel out to safety”
“Yes Ma’am” the captain snapped “Pratt, get over here” he yelled at the Corporal while giving a wave of his right arm.

Major Sheppard took quick aim and fired to rounds dropping an infected man that was part of a group which had just emerged from the dense forest to the north of the M5 motorway.

The Major noticed Corporal Davies and the policeman, one of the few rescued from Stanton Military base she remembered, running up the stairs onto the walkway running around the interior of the defensive wall. Surprisingly the policeman fired first out of the two of them.
In the same moment she noticed the four soldiers two hundred metres down the road pushing a wooden and barbed wire barricade back across M5 motorway.
“Captain Woodward, get those men back to the defensive wall now”
“Ma’am” he replied as he turned and pressed the button on his PRR.

Seconds after the four soldiers clambered into the Land Rover Wolf, that represented the only building of the road block, the vehicles exhaust spat out a cloud of thick black fumes the first of the zombies were struggling through the barbed wired barricades, the razor sharp wire wrapping ever tighter around their bodies, their minds not registering the pain, theirs torn arms stretched out, reaching for the fleeing soldiers.

Several helicopters manoeuvred lethargically above the mass of infected people. Some helicopters had machine guns or mini-guns mounted in the cabin windows others had wing mounted mini-guns or rocket pods. They where all firing into the mass of bodies, the weight of the ammunition, seemingly, having little effect on the numbers approaching the base.

“RadOp, RadOp” Major Sheppard yelled
The radio operator dropped back from the wall towards the Major “Ma’am”
“Broken Arrow”
“Ma’am”
“Broken Arrow, Lieutenant”
“Broken Arrow, Broken Arrow” the lieutenant yelled into his long range radio
“Confirmed Broken Arrow” a metallic voice replied “Go ahead”
“Romeo Foxtrot being over run, require immediate close-in air strikes on location, Co-ordinates are..”
“Confirmed Romeo Foxtrot” the metallic voice replied.

As seconds dragged themselves into minutes the infected breached the barbed wire barricades, clambering over the trapped ones, and ran straight for the perimeter wall, at first only a few made it over the barricades and were easily picked off, but as the pulp on the barricade thickened the trickle turned in to a torrent. The soldiers redeployed with in the base most of them taking positions to cover the civilian evacuation effort the rest moving to the ends of the perimeter wall.

Gun fire continued in a never ending drone as the soldiers fired round after round into the rancid, mutilated dead running straight at them.

Major Tanya Sheppard ordered her men and women to fix their bayonets for hand to hand, as the dead closed in.
“Major” The RadOP shouted but he was drowned out by the deafening scream of high powered jet engines tearing through the air, so low the ground rumbled as they passed their 20mm cannons decimating the crowds of zombies. At the last possible minute, it seamed, the pilots pulled out of steep dives, narrowly averting fatal crashes.
With bone shaking booms, bombs vaporised, tore apart and shredded the zombie hordes. The soldiers of the base screamed and cheered as they made a sudden dash towards the zombies, their rifles firing as they went.

Infected

Estimated – 64,500,000
Actual – 72,011,432

Ripton Air Base

The C-5 Galaxy transport planes started to land at the airbase. The 50,000 Marines (Three Battilions are Engineer). A Divisional HQ was set up 2 Kilometers away from Ripton Air Base. The Division General Walked up to the Commander of Ripton Air Base "I want to talk to the Person incharge of the quarintine effort."

Divisional HQ

Out of the 50,000 Marines 30,000 have arived the remaining 20,000 would remain in the following hours. The Marines brought some heavy Equipment with them. Each Marine carried a G36K Assault Rifle and a M1911 Pistol. The Maine Battle Tank for the Yukatan Army was the Stingray II Light Tank. The main Scout/Personnel Veichle was the M114 HMMWV, also they brought along the M113 APC.

The bombs shredded thick clusters of the dead, thinning their numbers and slowing their advance. The infected stumbled across blasted craters and body parts, buying Jake and the soldiers precious time to aim and shoot.

But there were still far too many.

Jake lobbed another thermite grenade toward a group which had tumbled into a crater; it exploded brilliantly, reducing their arms and backs to wet ash as they scrabbled out of the hole. They burned brightly, their charred armbones scratching the loose rubble, then died as their brains boiled in their skulls.

He shot a little girl, missing half of her face and still clutching a stuffed bear. A fragment of skull flew from her head, taking a ribboned pig-tail with it. He shot an overweight man in a gray suit. He shot a Stanton police officer. A homeless man with blood on his stubble and a bottle in a paper bag clutched in one hand. A woman missing an arm from the collar down. A nude man with autopsy incisions. A prostitute. A construction worker. A soldier. A gaunt, faceless figure wearing a shirt that said "World's Greatest Grandpa."

One by one, Jake put a copper-jacketed 5.56 millimeter bullet through the skulls of each of them. Despite the jacketing, the bullet tumbled as it hit bone, spending little of its kinetic energy, but imparting enough of it to utterly destroy the delicate structures of the human brain. The round passed through the rear of the skull, the force of its passage blasting out a great, gaping hole in the back of the head. The bullet continued on, burying itself harmlessly in the chest of the next undead creature in the group.

Jake changed magazines again, lobbed another grenade. It boiled flesh off of bones, and then burned through them. The acrid tang of burning flesh and hot metal finally reached Jake, drowning out the now-familiar odor of old blood and rotting bodies. A rotting human body smells like little else on Earth: sickly-sweet, sour, a little bitter. He had smelled it before, as a cop, and as a soldier, but never this strong. Not even at the riots, it was not this strong. They were fresh, then. Jake was not yet sure whether the stench of charred flesh was a welcome change or merely a change.

Jake threw another grenade, and changed his magazine again. He noticed he had three magazines left and two grenades. He couldn't tell how much ammunition the Corporal or the other soldiers had--he couldn't spare the time to look to the side--but he hoped they had enough.

Jake finished the magazine and threw another grenade, leaving just one on his belt. The grenade rolled into a deep crater, away from the dead. Jake had just enough time to mentally curse at the waste of a grenade...

...before Hell opened up upon the Earth.

Jake would guess later, but for now he had no way of knowing that the bomb that had made that crater had very nearly exposed a natural gas main running under the street. The thermite from the grenade melted through the iron pipe, releasing and igniting the gas under high pressure. A globe of fire expanded at hundreds of feet per second, encompassing a hundred or more undead in a bone-crushing, flesh-searing wave of super-pressurized, superheated air. Jake ducked down instinctually, feeling the sizzling wind passing over him. When he looked up, a bright blue flame was still flaring from the bomb crater.

Holy shit, Jake thought as he tried to replace his empty magazine. His fingers were trembling badly. Holy shit.

FOB Charlie

As the fighters strafed the zombies with their 20mm cannons and their bombs tore the area to a patch work of craters and limbs, the soldiers lead by Major Sheppard charged into the remaining corpses.

Corporal Davies was crouching next to Jake as he threw one of his grenades into a group of zombies; unfortunately it had bounced into a bomb crater. The next thing Davies knew he was on his back in a puddle of mud and blood. The harmless crater had turned into an inferno, flaming zombies scattered in all directions.

As Davies climbed to his feet Jake was already firing at the zombies from his perch again, and so were the three men of the Corporals fire team. As he scrambled back to the top of the crater his, ears still ringing from the explosion, the other soldiers from the base ran past his group towards what remained of the zombie horde.

“Check weapons and ammo” he order, still feeling the effects of the explosion
“Good to go”“Three mags’ left” “I got plenty” was the replies from his fire team
“One in two spare” Jake yelled as he pop off two rounds
“Here take these” Davies yelled back over the battle cries of the other soldiers as he handed Jake two of his magazines.

“Ok fit bayonets” Davies order as he was fixing his own to his SA80A2.
As the men fitted their bayonets to their rifles Davies ran through some last minute advice.

“Ok lads, single shots or short bursts don’t waste ammo and when we get in amongst those fuckers keep moving and stay agile, don’t let them touch you, right” and with that he took a look over the rim of the crater the other soldiers were baring down on the walking dead “Come on then lets kill some fucking zombies yihaaaaaaaaaaa” he yelled as he paced off towards the fighting.

Ripton Airbase

Air Commodore Laurence Bishop sat in his office watching the typhoon jets take off down the runway when a knock at his door alerted him to the Yukatanian General stood on the other side of the hallway window.

“Come” he commanded to his underlings knocking.

In stepped one of the many sergeants stationed at the base, and with a quick salute the sergeant introduced the foreign General.

“Thank you sergeant, you are dismissed”

With that the sergeant left the Air Commodores office and headed off down the hallway back to what ever job he had been doing before being commandeered by the Yukatanian General.

Jake affixed the bayonet to his rifle and charged in among the walking dead. The smell of rot was much more pungent out here. This is suicide, he thought to himself. Goddamned suicide. A rotting teenager caught his scent and rushed him. Jake blocked the kid with the bayonet, catching him through the sternum. He kicked the dead teen free and shot him through the face at contact range. Whirling to the left, he gouged the narrow blade through the eye socket of a subway worker. There was another corpse rushing at him; Jake didn't have time to pull the bayonet free, so he just aimed, with the subway worker still attached, and shot his weapon. The rifle bullet exploded through one head and into the other.

Jake lowered the rifle, letting the subway worker slide off the bayonet. He then raised it and plugged half a dozen carriers in close succession. Finding himself clear for the moment, but spotting a group not far away, he used his last grenade. Five more were reduced to burning meat. The greasy, acrid tang temporarily overpowered the rotting stench, nearly bringing tears to Jake's eyes. He blinked rapidly; he couldn't afford for his vision to be obstructed.

The dead were beginning to thin out. Do I have a chance of surviving today? Jake wondered. He kept shooting.

Elsewhere...

"...So I think that the virus somehow infects all those different tissues--nerve, brain, and the white blood cells--and makes them anaerobic--able to survive without oxygen," Leroy explained.

"But how do they survive without nutrients?" June asked.

"That's where the white blood cells come in," Leroy said. "Just before we left, I saw a prepared sample. Blood taken from an infected brain. The white blood cells were alive, and they were eating the clotted blood all around them. They can't do that normally. My hunch is that the virus activated certain genes--the white blood cells were secreting digestive enzymes. If that's true, then that would free up nutrients for nearby brain cells as well."

"So why do they attack us?" Kelly asked.

Leroy shrugged. "Brain damage? Some kind of hormone that increases hostility? I have no idea. But I think those white blood cells were the key to what keeps these things alive...so to speak."

"That doesn't really help us now," Kelly said. Her tone was not hostile--merely resigned. "These things have no blood circulation. Even if we were able to administer some kind of immunosuppressant across the entire city, it wouldn't reach their brains."

"But it's a start," Leroy said.

"Besides, even after they're all dead, the streets would be full of bodies for days," June said. "It would be a breeding ground for disease. I'm not sure spreading anti-immune drugs would be a good idea at all."

"Goddammit, it's something!" Leroy snapped. June said nothing; she and Kelly looked away. "I'm sorry," Leroy said. "It's been a long day."

Almost despite herself, Kelly began to chuckle. "What?" June asked.

"'It's been a long day,'" Kelly repeated. "Understatement of the year."

June and Leroy couldn't help but smile.

*INCOMING TRANSMISSION TO ALIDOR PRIME MINISTER*
"Greetings Prime Minister" a very calm tone in President Hawkes' voice "Its come to my nations attention you are in a very dire situation and we would like to extend military and humanitarian aid to any survivors of this disease.
We have about 2,500 Marines on standby ready for hotdrop into areas near the infected zones, also if you agree, we can initiate in carpet-bombing areas of high-level infection."
"We have about a 3 year supply for up to 10,000 people, the supplies include mainly basic needs like food, water, basic hygiene, ready to be shipped to safe areas in need of these supplies."
"If you choose not to accept our help we understand."
President Hawkes of the Democratic States of Zarlon
*END TRANSMISSION*

Ripton Airbase

"Sir, my troops are fully deployed and ready to be deployed where they need to be." "All 50,000 troops are in country and ready to help."

FOB Charlie

The bombs dropped by the fighters had left large craters pot marking the ground between the perimeter wall of the base and the barbwire barricade. Pieces of rotten bodies littered the area. Swarms of zombies charged at the soldiers but their numbers had been drastically reduced by the effective bombings and close support from the evacuation helicopters that where armed.

Major Sheppard threw her SA80A2 to the side as the last magazine was drained of its contents. As the rifles barrel dug into the soil the major drew her sidearm, a Berretta PX4 Storm pistol. The seventeen round magazine was quickly emptied into the zombies.

The Major hadn’t realised that her charge had taken her to a crater near the fleshy pulp of the barbwire defence’s. The fire teams that had followed her had fragmented each of the soldiers in desperate struggles to remain human. Slamming another clip into the handle of the berretta she dropped three more zombies clambering down the sides of her crater, pausing when she saw a ten year old boy that looked just like her nephew James.

The rapport of an AS80A2 in semi automatic meant nothing in the confusion of battle, but what forced the Major back into reality was little James’s face caving into his scull and his long dead body flopping to a twitching heap on the mass of rotting flesh beneath him. Corporal Davies flanked by three other soldiers and Jake had pushed forward to the barricade dropping many zombies on their way. Responding to a high pitched scream Davies drove his bayonet through the skull of a naked woman whose body was a mixture of bite marks and entry wounds.

The struggle for FOB Charlie was nearly over, it seemed, a hand full of zombies remained struggling over corpse after corpse trying to reach the uninfected.

Chinook helicopter
(Above quarantine zone)

The helicopter bucked as it hit some turbulence and Adrian grabbed at a harness to steady himself. As he looked to the other three passengers he noted them laughing and was amused at the brains ability for humour in terrifying times.

Not wishing to interrupted the brief moment of strained humour the doctor held his thoughts to himself

“Ten minutes” the crew chief shouted in the direction of the passengers but at none of them directly.

As the minutes passed the helicopter came to hover and the crew chief came to the rear of the Chinook and guided through its decent to the landing pad.

Uniformed soldiers boarded the Chinook and began to unload the boxed equipment as the four passengers disembarked

Dr Adrian Croft “Dear lord, I’m glad that’s over with”

He said in one breath and in the next

“Leroy may I have a word” He said as he waved the large man over.

“I’ve been thinking, well expanding really on your cure idea” He paused for a second to gather his words “We know there is no circulation of blood in infected people, but what if we could develop a inoculation of sorts” He paused again looking Leroy in the eye to gauge his response “A pre-emptive cure if you like, kill the virus before it attacks as it where”

Office of the Prime Minister
Government House
Cansear

“Ah yes President Hawkes, I thank you for your offer in Alidor’s time of need and though we will accept the humanitarian aid you have generously offered I’m reluctant to allow more foreign troops onto Alidorn soil” mentally going over the conversation again the Prime Minister added “Its also not common policy to carpet bomb Alidorn cities in times of crisis, I am still hopeful that most of the quarantine area will be reclaimed”

Ripton Airbase

Air Commodore Laurence Bishop extended his hand towards the General and in a firm clasp shook his hand and introduced himself before moving onto the formalities of the job.

“General I have a driver waiting to take you to the quarantine wall so you may acquaint yourself with the job in-hand; here I’ll walk you to him”

With that the Air Commodore stepped around his desk and strode towards the door of his office.

Corps HQ

Three marines sat around thire tent waiting for the order to move out every marine in the 1st Marine Corps has been briefed on weak spots on thier new enemy and effective ways to make them stay dead.. "Hey Johnny, gimme your field book I wanna see it." "Alright Frank, here you go..." "So, we just shoot 'em in the head right?" "No Mitch you shoot them in the groin, Of course you shoot 'em in the head you fucking moron." Sargant Baxter walked into the tent. "How you boys doing?" "Fucking great sir!" "Thats good...Hope you all are ready."..

Ripton Air Force Base

General Maxwell got into the awaiting Car to the Wall..he had no idea what kind of hell awated him...

FOB Charlie

Soon, there were aught but a few left, and those fell quickly to the soldiers' concentrated fire. Jake found himself staring at a landscape of broken rubble, sporadic fires, and thousands of mutilated human cadavers.
It was five more minutes before they received the message from the scout helicopters that the immediate threat had passed. Jake and the soldiers would take turns re-arming at the armory tent; they would watch over the vulnerable areas of the perimeter while other crews tried to finish it as quickly as they could.
Jake was in the second group to re-arm. He had gathered up his spent magazines--those he could find--and reloaded them from a box of loose ammunition. He also restocked on grenades, taking eight this time.
When he regrouped, Corporal Davies approached him. "You were good out there," he said, patting Jake on the shoulder.
"Thanks," Jake said. "Actually, I didn't expect to survive it."
"We got lucky, a few times," the Corporal said. "Listen. I appreciate you picking up a gun and helping us blokes out here. We all do. But we're in the clear for now, at least until the next hungry mob comes this way. You're a civilian; not a one of us would blame you if you wanted to sit out the rest of the game."
God, Jake thought, there's nothing I'd like more. He wanted to go home and turn out all the lights and curl up in bed under the blankets and hide for the next week. He wanted to shake the Corporal's hand, say, "glad I could help," go back to his tent, and crawl under his cot and shiver until the barricade was finished or all the zombies were dead or a fleet of choppers came to take him to some safe place across a few thousand miles of ocean. Instead, he just said, "I'm a cop. I swore to serve and protect. I'm in this for keeps."

Secret Government Research Site

"Innoculating the living," Leroy said. "That's a damn good idea." He thought for a moment. "Now, knocking out someone's immune system opens them up to all sorts of diseases that could kill them just as fast as a bite from one of those things. Whatever we use, we have to make sure it only kills the specific type of white blood cell that the virus uses--if it is a virus. The other thing is, if my theory is right, then the virus also infects nerve and brain tissue too. So an anti-immune drug would keep a body from getting back up, but it might not keep the victim alive."
Hearing the discussion, June approached them. "You're talking about preventive innoculation?" she asked. Leroy nodded. "I don't think immune drugs alone will solve the problem if the disease also affects the brain."
"Yeah, I realized that," Leroy said.
"But if this thing is a virus, couldn't we make some kind of vaccine?" June asked.
Adrian shook his head. "It takes years and millions of dollars to develop a vaccine," he explained.
"But suppose we bred the disease in rats or something, filtered it into a concentrated serum, killed the virus with ultraviolet light, and--"
"An inactivated vaccine," Adrian said. "They have rather short-lived effects..."
"But it would work in the short term," June said. "That would give us an edge, at least."
"If we can breed the stuff," Leroy said. "If it doesn't take in animals..."
"We can ask 'then what' if it doesn't work," June said.
Leroy shrugged. "Let's try it."

*TRANSMISSION*
"Alright Prime Minister, i will give the order to send the humanitarian aid but my troops will hold back, but of you need it my troops are ready at any time to assist you in your time of need"
*END TRANSMISSION*
President Hawkes gave a vague nod, seeing this his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dejera Askari, rushed off to the airfield holding the supplies
"Thats an ok, send the supplies but order the marines to stay, Alidor is accepting humanitarian aid but is unsure about military aid, also tell the bombers they don't need to go, Alidor is still hoping to reclaim the possible target areas"
The pilot of the C-17 Liner nodded as the Dejera descended off the aircraft
Slowly the supplies transport gained speed then lifted off
"I only hope those supplies get there in time so we can save more innocent lives" muttered Dejera under his breath

In Transit To Defensive Wall

Three Engineer Battilions each of 500 men left Corps HQ for a not completed part of the wall. Marine:"Finnaly were being used for something." "I know I've been waiting for this since it started." As the M113's ,M114's, and 2.5 Half ton trucks made thire way down the local Highway. Above all the engine noise and talking bloodcuriling screams could be heard.. "Jesus what the fuck was that?" Insticivly all the Marines Loaded and Cocked thier G36K's around the same time. "Let 'em come out .50 cal machineguns will rip 'em apart." "Hell I don't want em to come I want 'em to stay the fuck away... Out of the forest lining the highway hundreds of half eaten , rotting corpses ran at the convoy. "Here they come, all vehicles open fire!" .50 cal machineguns came to life as the bullets ripped into trees and bodies, M60's on the 2.5 Ton Trucks hit dirt and bodies, Marines that had a view of the zombies fired thier G36K's at the running bodies. Some of the bodies ran right into the vehicles hitting and scratching at the Amour.
"This is Military Convoy G-632B we are under attack, shit get another man on that .50 cal! We need arial support send a few cobras our way. Goddamit run them over I dont give a fuck thier already dead right?!" Riding shotgun on a M114 John fired hit G36K at the zombies. "Oh fuck, Oh fuck gimme another mag!" A zombie puched though the window, and grabbed John's arm and pulled him though the window. John screamed as the corps bit into his neck ..well he stopped screaming when the zombie pirced his wind pipe. Other zombies soon joined in on the feast. They kept eating untill .50cal bullets ripped though them.

1st Marine Cops HQ.

Five Cobra Attack helicopters lifted off the makshift airfield and headed to the Convoy at top speed.

Military Infected: 0
Military Deaths: 12

Office of the Prime Minister
Government House
Cansear

“Thank you President Hawkes, you humanitarian aid will be distributed amongst the survivors and evacuees as soon as possible” With that he pressed the button on his speaker phone and turned to a crowd of advisors “Ok then lets see how far along is the quarantine wall then?”

FOB Charlie

Walking with Jake and reloading his rifle Davies couldn’t help but be amazed with the police officers nerve, Davies was just barely managing to stop the can of coke he had for breakfast running down the front of his trousers.

The Engineers hadn’t stop working even during the zombie assault and the perimeter wall was going up at a cracking pace. Major Sheppard had taken command of the base when the Colonel was evacuated; the radio operators were trying to raise Colonel Rogers convoy of two Land Rover Wolf jeeps without any response.

The Major instructed her men to form into burial details and set about burying the rotten corpses that now littered the area and lay in thick layers on the barricades.

Quarantine Wall Construction Area 43

“General Maxwell, damn nice of you to show up” Colonel Steven Arnold greeted the Yukatanian General “We’ve got teams working flat out along the perimeter wall, I’ll leave the deployment of your forces up to your discretion” After shaking the Generals hand he lead him in to a command tent with a drop leg table in the centre “On this map you can see the lay out of our forces and the envisaged quarantine wall position” The Colonel said while pointing at several dozen locations on the map “I trust from this you will be able to plan the deployment of your forces”

Area 12
(Location restricted)

As June and Leroy were discussing the merits of breeding the virus in animals Dr. Adrian Croft flicked through a manifest of equipment and supplies made available to them.

“Just a bloody minute” He said in a raised and surprised voice “Those infected soldiers from FOB Charlie and several over bases have all been diverted here”

He turned and looked at the group who where looking at him in a blank gaze

“Well with carriers of the virus already here we don’t need to grow a supply of the virus because we already have a fairly abundant supply already available”

(OOC: Sorry for long gap since last post, I’ve just been released from hospital)

In Transit to Quarantine Wall Construction Area 43

The Five UH-1Y Cobra's made quick work of the undead. With 20mm Gattiling Gund pods on heach wing they punched holes in the undead. "This is Puma Squadren mission confirmed and finished." "Roger that Puma Squadren, you think you can stay on station untill we get to out objective?. Over." "Roger that Convoy. Your Angels are in the sky..."

1st Marine Corps HQ

Over the Radio a Voice could be heard. ".....hello....any....one......hello...(unintelligable noise)...." Radio Operator Gallagher ran to the mike. "Yes, this is Yukatan 1st Marine Corps in Country..do you need assistance?" "...Yes...(Gunshot)...assistance would be nice....lock that door!...(More Gunfire)....(Unitenligle Screams)...fuck...fuck....kill them....please hurry...20 of us....some are police (Gunfire)....no way out...lock....roof...only....Mittleton City...will pop smoke....look for green smoke...(Screams)...please hurry...."
In 20 minutes 50 Men of the 3rd Platoon, 2nd Battilion, 75th Ranger Regiment were briefed and running to the tarmac, to the awaiting seven UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters. The seven Blackhawks were up in the air in 5 minutes.
Each blackhawk was armed with a 7.62mm Miniguns on each side of the of the Helicopter, the plan was after looking at maps of the city, by using Tiangulation they found they Target Building, there were 4, 2 story building that surrounded the Target Building. Four Chaulks of 10 men each would land on those buildings, and provide covering fire, one Chaulk of 10 men would extract the persons and provide covering fire for them.

(Will Do Mission next post)

<Incoming transmition>

From: Minister of Foriegn Affairs Major General Major Major
Nottoorough, People's Republic of Hurtful Thoughts

It has been forced to our attention that your country is having a problem containing an epidemic involving the dead coming back to kill the living, without any regard to peace treaties. Therefore, having experiance quelling such an outbrake ourselve, we understand the difficulties faced, (Outbrake on New Roanoke Island) we are willing to send an evaluation group to evaluate the extent of the infestation and recommend the best course of action (victims tend to exagerate, and nobody wants to listen to a hystarical person yell at you over the radio for three hours 'suggesting' that we "nuke New Roanoke Island", we don't have nukes by the way)

Anyways we shall send two of our finest troops to your service...
...
What do you mean they're MIA!? What about the other two!
...
One is on another mission! Ah well, send them watever we DO have, and give him a &@$$@!^#$ radio this time and some air support this time!
...
Is that ALL we have!?
...
Fine, what harm could HE do anyways, and if he dies we'll hang his inventors and make a new one. Oh, aren't you one of the project directors? Then it better work!
...
Just send them the Bio...
[some form of sobbing in background as the following is printed on a nearby fax]
<Transmitting Data>

Name: Gopher
Gender: male
Age: about mid 20s
bio (if it really makes a differance): G class Genetically enhanced soldier,
(kindof an elite, attempting to phase out the venerable C class in active force stength)
Weapons:
CM-249 (indiginous modification of M-249 SAW)
Extra CM barrel and rifled choke tubes
5 clips of regular Ammo
2 Clips "K" Bullets
4 Fragmation Hand Grenades (FHG)
4 Thermobaric Hand Grenades (THG)
4 Bottles of Vodka (might as well give everyone a proper sending off)
Bayonet, Shovel, rope, parachute, 3 days food, Axe.

[sobbing stops]
Ahem,
We shall also send shipments of alchohol, gasoline, food, and our almost famous THGs, you may refuse this request if you want, but I would not recommend it.
[aside] you sure he's all we've got? can't you do better?

<Transmition Terminated>

Area 12

A trio of soldiers led Leroy and Dr. Croft down a cargo elevator to a concrete-lined sub-level. The doctors followed the soldiers down a narrow, poorly-lit corridor with naked bulbs strung along the ceiling for lighting. The place must have been a bomb shelter in some earlier time; now it was used mostly for storage. Leroy and Dr. Croft passed a series of heavy steel doors set into the concrete walls on either side; Leroy wondered whether they were meant to keep things outside or in.

Two more soldiers were stationed outside the most distant door. One of the soldiers leading the doctors stepped forward and ran a key-card through a reader, then grasped the circular locking valve set into the door, rotated it, and pulled the steel slab open. Bright white light assaulted them, and Leroy felt a rush of air moving past him; the room beyond was kept under negative pressure--standard procedure for keeping dangerous microorganisms contained.

The room beyond was a vast space decorated in linoleum and stainless steel. Rows of immovable steel examination tables filled the room; about half were occupied with struggling forms covered by white sheets. A counter ran along the three walls Leroy could see. The soldiers ushered them inside. The air was very cold.

"These are the first infected soldiers brought in from the rescue stations around Alidor," a soldier said--the same one who had opened the vault-like door. "We're expecting a lot more. I'm required to tell you that if these aren't enough, we can round up more, er, subjects from the infected zones--but I'd just as soon not send my men out to die for Frankenstein's workshop. So make sure you don't need any more."

"Do you want a cure or not?" Leroy said, surprising himself. Why am I trying to piss off the people with guns? he thought. The soldier glared at him, but said nothing.

"We shall try to be frugal," Dr. Croft said. "This won't be enough for mass innoculation, but with so much of the virus here, I'm confident that we can find a suitable way to breed it outside of humans." He walked to the counter, washed his hands, donned some latex gloves, and motioned for Leroy to do the same. "We'll need to extract the entire brain and bring it upstairs," Dr. Croft said, removing the sheet from one corpse. The soldier underneath was still wearing bloodstained fatigues and combat boots. He thrashed at them despite missing his lower jaw and most of his face; fortunately, thick leather restraints held him tightly to the table. Dr. Croft removed a Stryker cranial saw and two pairs of safety goggles from an equipment locker near the door. "You said you were a medical examiner," Dr. Croft said. "Alas, I have not performed this procedure since my days as a resident--and certainly never on a moving subject. Would you do the honors?"

Fifteen minutes later, Leroy and Dr. Croft emerged from the cadaver room, their hands and arms stained with a fine red mist of blood and bone dust. Leroy carried a plastic jar in which a mottled mass of red, gray, and black bobbed in saline. "We must work quickly," Dr. Croft said. "We don't know how long the virus will remain viable."

Area 12

Kelly entered the Biosafety Level IV lab wearing an airtight contamination suit and carrying a tray of test tubes. The sound of rushing air roared in her helmet; she smelled her own sweat and a faint scent of plastic from the filters. The airlock doors slid shut behind her with a hiss as the vacuum seal took hold; beyond, the stainless steel countertops and sterile white floors gleamed under harsh fluorescent light. The BL-4 lab consisted of several rooms; Kelly proceeded through a door marked Animal Lab and the screams of anxious monkeys filtered through her plastic helmet.

Dr. Croft was there. "You brought the samples?" he asked; seeing them, he motioned for her to set the tray down on a counter. "We'll innoculate the rhesus monkeys and the chimpanzees first; if the virus doesn't take in them, we must move down the evolutionary ladder a few rungs."

They had made considerable strides already. In extracting the infectious material from the dead brain, they had discovered that a virus was indeed the culprit. Several other researchers were studying them with electron microscopes and sophisticated gene sequencers; June was among them. They knew it infected both brain neurons and a certain type of macrophage. They were reasonably sure that the virus could not be transmitted by air--yet Dr. Croft had still insisted that they conduct the animal study in a Level IV hot lab, reasoning that the virus may mutate in unexpected ways if incubated in nonhuman species.

A third scientist was busy prepping the primates, attaching vital-signs monitors and recording the preliminary readings. Dr. Croft filled eighteen syringes from the six vials of concentrated virus. The assistant held the animals immobile, one by one, as Dr. Croft injected the virus into their necks. The animals were replaced in their cages, the empty vials and syringes dropped into a biohazard sharps box, which would be incinerated without ever leaving the hot zone.

The researchers did leave the hot zone, each taking a seven-minute decontamination shower and unsuiting. They met Leroy and June outside. "How soon will we know?" June asked.

"Given the dosage, and how quickly the virus takes in humans, less than an hour. The transformation should be quite dramatic," Dr. Croft said. "If it takes. If not, we'll give it a day, then get another brain and start on the pigs and rats."

"And if we can't get it to work in animals at all?" Kelly asked.

"I'd prefer not to dwell on that possibility right now."

Aboard the HTS Independance.

Admiral: "Do we have any response from the Island of Alidor?"

Seaman: "No sir... It could be that Alidor has been completely over run with those 'zombies' or we are not using the right frequencies, or they just don't want to."

Admiral: Well, let's see if we can get their attention, see that city over there, have the HTS Kursk fire a warning shot in that direction., then see if anything happens, and make sure it is only a flare.

A few moments later the HTS Kursk opens fire with a solvo from its four five inch guns, lighting up the night sky as if it where day.

Admiral: Splendid! Now let us prepare the landing party, keep it small for now, we may have a whole battalion of marines waiting for some action, but it would be unwise to send them to their doom [long pause as the Admiral ponders the irony in what he just said, having just led two such missions, with the loss of some of his finest troops, they where successful though] Send in the lambs to their slaughter."

Sailor: "Aye"

Gopher leans against a rail; looks at the boats that constitute "Task Force Three" a battlecruiser (The HTS Kursk), three military transports (led by the HTS Frozen Chosin); takes a deep breath, sighs.
"So I left one infested island to fight in another. And this time I'm in the first wave, I hope I fair better than the others."

Down the hallway a man in a straightjacket is confined in a cell, with a continous drip of tranqualizers leading directly to his brain, he "sleeps" soundly, for now. He dreams of what man may do if they could live forever, of course, he knows it is no dream, because if he is corect, he is immortal.

Down the hall two men in orange jumpsuits have finished peeling onoins and doing dishes, and started a game of poker. One is large, and strong and has the label P109 on his chest, the other is but a kid, a very lanky kid at that, who every so often has a bout of shuddering his number is P256. A third chair is empty. A few hands are played, small talk ensues.

P109:
"So, Eddie what happened to Doc Lector?"

P256 "Eddie":
"Haven't you heard Ice? He went nuts, the Government says he's sick, and he thinks he's better than anyone else, he tried to make everyone 'just like him' whatever that was supposed to mean, they caught him eating the brains of one of his lab assistants, he's sedated on some pretty powerful stuff down the hall, I'm surprised that those drugs haven't killed him!"

Gopher enters:
"Is this seat taken?"

Iceman:
"No, not anymore, and if he ever comes back he isn't welcome."

Gopher sits dowwn and is dealt a hand.
"Looks like I'll be landing with you two bozoes"

Eddie:
"What makes you think we're going wit you?"

Gopher:
"I'm on the first wave with you guys"

The room goes silent, Gopher pulls out a flask and tries to cheer everyone up.
"So what brought you two here?"

Eddie: "Drugs, guns, and fast cars, a few wrong moves and you're a convicted mass murderer"

Iceman: "Wrong place, wrong time, wrong relations, I was considered to much a security risk if were ever to escape, so I was double crossed, money changed a few hands, and now I'm on a suicide mission"

Gopher:
"Do you two know of a Dr. H Lector?"

Iceman:
"Sure, we used to play cards, wired up some good drugs over to Ed here and ran background checks on our chemists. By the way, that is his chair you are sitting in..."

Gopher was speechless, he was sitting in the very chair of the person who started the entire mess that is the reason he is there, to kill zombies. Gopher is a special operative selected from a small few to kill what either is already dead, or simply does not die. One such operative is a mole in an Eternal life program, on another planet; and to replace him he gets these two and the mad doctor himself. What luck.

Shortly after, they are on the deck boarding their flight of V-22s Doctor in tow, still sedated, but also restrained by Iceman's massive bulk. Gopher carries with him a load of grenades and a light machine gun, under a CH-47 Chinook on the HTS Kursk is an M113HT light tank, one of five in PROHT's arsenal.

The fliht of five V-22s and two CH-47s lift off. followed shortly by a pair of FMX-6 tactical stealth bombers, which quickly overtakes the CH-47s and catches up to and holds formation on the flanks of the V-22s.

Admiral: "What a buetiful sight, a shame we'll most likely never see them again. Any response from Alidor?"

Mittleton City

The wheels squealed in protest as Goody threw the TRU vehicle round corners, the undead in a relentless chase began to fade into the distance.

“We don’t have much diesel left guys” Goody yelled into the back of the truck.

Sloane swaying to and fro as he walked towards the front of the truck, grabbing at handles and rails to steady himself,

Sloane “How long do you think we can keep going Will”
Goody “Half an hour max”

The TRU vehicle swerved left around a tight corner, the vehicles speed and mass lifted the left wheels of the road. In an instant Goody swung the steering wheel round to the right, the sudden change causing the vehicle to tilt in the opposite direction. Goody swung the steering wheel to the left but a second later the shocking, deafening sound of metal mangling into bricks filled the vehicles cabin and its heavy mass was flipped onto its left side sealing the side exit of the vehicle, the wire mesh that protected the windows warped with the weight of the vehicle. The warped mesh shattered the windows and pierced John Barley’s right calf muscles shredding the muscle in an agonising instant.

The truck ground to a halt on the pavement and in a daze of confusing smoke and dust Goody punched the driver’s door open and clambered out on to the side of the truck. Sloane passed Goody his M4A4 assault rifle before climbing out himself.
Minutes after the crash the ten policemen where stood on the road by the wrecked vehicle Barely was being held up by Taylor and Anders.

Sloane “Where’s the two kids?”
Taylor “One got spiked in the chest with wire mesh and the other ones neck was snapped, neither had a pulse so I left them”
Sloane “Shit, shit,”

The distant cries of the undead closing in on them forced the policemen to flee the road. Moving through the streets the policemen taking turns at supporting John Barley found themselves in an enclosed square, there were four two storey buildings surrounding a central building, the lights of the building were on which meant that the building must have its own generator and, the policemen hoped, people.
As they approached the building the police officers noticed the surrounding building’s had a tall wall, at least eight foot high, running between them with the road they came along seemingly the only route in and out of the area.
At the central building Sloane banged on a metal fire door with a clenched fist.

“What the fuck do you want?”
“Open the door man let us in” Sloane
“No fuck off”
“C’mon man I’ve got an injured man here we can’t keep moving” Sloane
“I said fuck off dickhead”
“Jimmy you fucking prick open the door”
“No, one of them is fucked up by the zombies”
“He hasn’t been bitten, it was a vehicular accident that cau….”

The door clicked from inside and slowly swung open and a pretty young woman’s face appeared “hi c’mon quickly” she said.

Sloane and the other policemen didn’t need telling twice and the hurried through the door.

“Thank you” Sloane said and then in a less than enthusiastic tone “we where being pursued be a large crowd of infected people”

Looking around Sloane saw that there were also ten people standing around the officers “How many people are here” he asked the young woman.
“Just what you see” she waved here right arm behind here “this is it, we thought there was no one else left, but thank god for you lot” As she finished here sentence Andrew Platt approached Sloane.

Platt “I think I have a signal, its weak as hell but it’s a definite signal”
Sloane “Who?”
Platt “Don’t know”
Sloane “See if they can help us out”
Platt “Susan-Four-One, requesting immediate assistance, hello do you here me, hello is there anyone there, hello”
“Yuka…..Mari…Country….you…assitan….”
Platt “Your breaking up if you can assistance would be nice” as Platt was speaking the metal fire door burst open, the woman hadn’t closed it fully and the pursuing dead had wedged it open.
Sloane “Fuck the door, quickly lock it” he said as he double tapped his M4A4 trigger blowing the zombies brain out the back of his head “Lock that fucking door” he yelled as he fired again Goody and Taylor were also firing shots at the open door as they walked to ward’s it.
Platt “There are twenty people here one seriously injured and need urgent medical attention, please if you can help hurry”

Taylor grabbed the metal push handle of the fire door while landing the sole of his boot in the face of an infected man and with all the strength he could muster he slammed the metal door into its frame and pushed the bolt into its rest.

Sloane turned to Platt “What’s going on then”
Platt “Fuck knows mate, maybe they heard, maybe they didn’t” he said with a shrug.

FOB Charlie

The soldiers mulled around the dead, finishing of the ones that were still twitching amongst the mass of bodies, a bulldozer was taken from the wall construction teams and began shovelling earth to create ditches for mass graves. The stench was becoming unbearable for the people at the Forward Operations Base.
The engineers quickened there work pace; the last thing they wanted was to be out in the open if more of the infected turn up.

Bureau of Foreign Affairs
Cansear City

Response to:
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Major General Major Major Nottoorough
People’s Republic of Hurtful Thoughts.

We thank you for your offer of help with an advisor that has previous experience and detailed knowledge of this kind of problem.
We shall make arrangments to recieve him at Cansear International Airport in three days.

Arkin Coastal Radar base

“Holy shit” the radar operator spluttered as an unidentified naval task force appeared on his screen “Sir, contact, contact, unknown vessels have entered Alidorn national waters”
The commander approached the young ensign “have they tried to hail us”
“I haven’t picked anything up yet sir” the young ensign replied
“Log and catalogue the contact, and find out where they are heading” the Commander instructed.
“Aye, sir Logged as Sierra Five Nine, heading on a bearing 210 degrees south by south west sir” the ensign passed “Sir I’m picking up several aircraft heading on a direct course for our coast” the ensign squawked.
“Bugger” the Commander uttered under his breath “I am declaring an emergency and possible invasion force approaching our positions, inform TCaCHQ of the situation” the Commander ordered the communications officer sat at the other side of the room.

Bureau of Foreign Affairs
Cansear City

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Major General Major Major Nottoorough
People’s Republic of Hurtful Thoughts.

Your offer of help has now been seem for what it is, a thin veil of deceit to cover your ambitions to invade and subjugate our nation.

The removal of your invasion force from our territories is demanded by his Royal Highness the King of Alidor and the Alidorn Government.

You must turn your air craft around and remove your vessels from Alidorn waters immediately. Failure to do so will result in a retaliatory attack on your forces.

Mittleton City

The seven blackhawks flew over the city. The two unloaded Blackhawks flew around the city looking for larger crowds of the undead to destroy. Four blackhawks found the blocking building and unloaded thier Chaulks on them. The men ran from the fast-ropes to the sides of the two-story building, each men threw grenades down to the street. As each grenade exploded tearing limbs and splattering blood across walls. The 10 men on each building fired thier G36K's in one-shot bursts at the undead. The last blackhawk flared over the target building and the Crewchief threw the fast-ropes over the edge. The Insertion Chaulk left the bird and hit the roof. The 2 Blackhawks that were flying over the city were called back for lifting off the civilians that were inside...

1st Corps HQ
"Sir we've gotten word from the Alidorian Forces that an Invasion Fleet has been sited off of thier coast!" "This is not good, first an Outbreak now and Invasion...." "Sir what shall we do?" "Well, we are not directly involved in this lets just keep helpind the Alidorian Forces with the Undead if they want we will assist them with the invasion force, but for now just keep tabs on that." "Yes Sir."

FOB Charlie

Peace had returned to the refugee camp; the kind of peace that warned of greater turmoil ahead. In the lull, Jake stood watch with dozens of soldiers as the engineering team worked fully exposed. Deeper inside, Kaitlyn sat in her cot, reading a trashy romance novel; one of precious few books which had found their way into the shelter, now part of a communal library of sorts. Her boyfriend Luke sat outside the tent, fuming, masking his fear with irrational anger.

Area 12

Kelly and Dr. Croft stared through their plastic helmets at ten rhesus monkeys and eight chimpanzees, all lying dead in their cages. The virus had incubated in them, finally killing them, but even now, eight hours later, not one had reanimated.

"Dr. Washington and I prepared additional samples of the virus, and Stiles has set up a series of pigs and rats in room V," Croft said. "I'm going to see to their injections." As he left, he turned and added, "We may have more luck with them...pigs are remarkably close to humans, hematologically speaking..."

Leroy entered the room as Dr. Croft left. He was, of course, wearing a full contamination suit like the others. "Need a hand performing the necropsies?" He asked.

Over the next two hours, the two of them examined most of the dead animals. In every case, the animal had died of massive cerebral hemorrhage--bleeding into the brain. The virus had affected them quite differently than humans.

The six control animals in the room, which had not been infected, remained quite alive. The virus had not gone airborne. Nevertheless, Leroy and Kelly were forced to euthanize the animals and examine them as well, just in case.

"What are we going to do if the virus is human-specific?" Kelly asked.
"Then we'll have to test it on humans," Leroy said.
Kelly put down her scalpel. "No. I won't be involved in that."
"I know how you feel," Leroy said. "I feel the same way. But this plague...it's killing millions. And, you know, Edward Jenner..."
"Yeah, he tested the first smallpox vaccine on a little boy," she said. "But that boy could have died. Those were different times. We have an ethical code--"
"--to save lives," Leroy finished. "If we're too scared to take the necessary steps--"
"--If we cross that line, if we kill people for this, what's to stop other scientists? What if they start taking human lives for research? Who stops the next Mengele?" Kelly said.
"This isn't Auschwitz," Leroy said.
"Maybe more like Tuskeegee," Kelly spat.
"I am nothing like those mad scientists!" Leroy shouted, slamming his fist on the examining table.

Kelly stared, and, after a moment, pointed. Leroy looked at his hand. His scalpel had slipped, ever so slightly, slitting into his protective glove. The edge was tinged with red.

Inside lead V-22
Pilot:
"I've got RADAR contact looks like an automated SAM base - looks like they still have power, I hope someone's home to yurn that thing off. Have you guys back there any word yet from the island? Send this report up the chain of command, they might have been isolated and not know we are coming yet.

A flight of planes coming in at 250 mph and 150 mph would scare anyone.

Aboard the HTS Independance:
Admiral:
Well, the good news is that they see us, the bad news is that in a matter of moments they will try and shoot those boys out of the sky, ensign, farward the transmtion from those V-22s (live feed) stateside. As for you, keep scanning a frequencies, we must get contact with that RADAR base.

If those SAMs are automated then we will have to destroy them, if manned, we should make every attempt to keep this peaceful, they have enough fighting down there already.

Order the planesexpect fight their way into Mittleton. Have the FMXs prepare to clear a path. A lot is hanging on the idea that those NINE planes make it to the quarantine zone.

Oh, and tell them to wake up Mr. Lector. Heaven help us all...

Oh and when you do make contact please state:
"Dear misguided defenders of Alidor, this is an aid drop, we have doctors on board, it is destined for Mittleton city center, if you don't trust us you are more than welcome to escort the planes to their landing zone. If you would ever be so kind, you may redirect the fight to another location so that we may do our jobs that much better, since reports have come that, since Mittleton is ground zero, it is nost likely a wreck."

Notoorough, PROHT
Minister of foriegn affairs Major General Major Major:
Open a line to Alidor, RE: RE: advisory aid.
I'm sorry but PROHT cannot let these zombies go any longer, the resualts that could happen should the disease become airborne as it did at New Roanoke is too great, you are dealing with a diisease that was developed to destroy planets in a matter of days, we already have a fleet stationed less than 20 miles off your north coast, and they have already launched their first load, I cannot say for certain what will happen if they are shot at or feel threatened. We have a doctor on board one of those planes, he has experiance with this sort of disease. We are able to open a direct line to him if you wish.

On board the V-22
"they want us to do WHAT!? He's the craziest bioweaponeer from PROHT, he testye half his diseases on his 'assistants', and then tried one on himself and killed another five, exclaiming "I am the future! Resistance is futile!".

in the distance, behind a crate of supplies,
"Stop patronizing me, animals where useless, I needed PEOPLE to run my experiments, one of which talked to me, told me how to live forever, s I did as he said and here I am, 26 bullet holes and 95 lethal injections of botox later."

"Who woke him up!?"

"Oh that, I did that myself, oh and now it is 96, I almost forgot that one."

"Well you know the terms righ, cross us and your head goes bye-bye, do as we say, and we'll give you a feast.

"yes, I understand the terms, I do bad, I get blown up, I do good I live forever in freedom. Too bad you destroyed my airbone strain."

"It was too dangerous and you knew it, you unleashed it upon all of New Roanoke Island, my parents lived there, you monster."

"Yes, and I must say, your father was the best lab assistant I ever had."

Gopher is restrained from caving in Lector's skull by his other two assistants.

"How much longer is this ride?

Pilot:
"Not long at all, in fact from the looks of it, this flight will be landing much sooner than expected."

"Good, I can't stand this lunatic much longer. Lector are you ready for your interview with Alidorian politicians, you have to make it sound as if you've still got all your marbles."

"I'm more ready than you could ever imagine."
As he effort;essly breaks himself loose from his leather straps, that were supposed to restrain him in the event that he may go berserk.

The crew that was not totally fixated on the prospect of being shot out of the sky stood in shock and awe at his abilities which were comparable to Gophers, except that Gopher was still alive and 'mortal'.

OOC: true, there are nine planes in the air, 5 V-22s; 2 CH-47s; and 2 FMX-6 stealth planes, armed with about two tons of thermobaric bombs (FAEs) internally. The FMX was designed for shipborne, recon, bombing and anti raditaion (RADAR bunker busting) missions.

Area 12

Leroy and Kelly rushed out of the room and into an emergency quarantine room within the hot lab. Leroy removed his protective outer glove and saw that the latex surgical glove he'd worn underneath was nicked too. Blood was seeping through the tiny incision and more was showing through the glove's thin white latex. He stripped the glove off, throwing it on the steel counter, and rinsed his hand in a decontamination sink. The faucet poured a greenish liquid which smelled like bleach--the same chemical solution used in the decontamination showers.

The chemical stung his cut badly. There were two handles; one of them controlled the amount of water that was mixed into the sterilizing solution coming through the faucet. Leroy turned it left, weakening the solution and reducing the burn in his finger; changed his mind and turned it to maximum strength. He gritted his teeth as fire shot through his hand.

Meanwhile, Kelly rinsed her hands off in a second sink, using concentrated solution, then she opened a large metal box sitting on the counter. It was stenciled "Emergency Amputation Kit." Leroy, fixated on his hand, did not notice Kelly until she grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand out of the sink. The skin was red from the caustic solution. He saw the box. "Oh my God, no," he said, backing away. "God, no, please--"

"The alternative is worse," Kelly said, grabbing him again. The instructions were printed clearly in large block letters on the inside lid of the box.

FINGER:
AMPUTATE THE AFFECTED DIGIT AT ITS BASE WITHIN TWO MINUTES.
AFTER TWO MINUTES, AMPUTATE THE AFFECTED ARM ABOVE THE ELBOW WITHIN FOUR MINUTES. APPLY CLAMP AFTER AMPUTATION, NOT BEFORE.

"Has it been two minutes?" Leroy asked wildly. "Has it been two minutes?"

"Shut up," Kelly said, grabbing his arm. She laid it out on the counter. "Just shut up!" She grabbed a device from the kit designed for instantly amputating fingers. It was a small white box, three centimeters wide and eight tall, with a switch on top and a circular hole near the bottom; little more than a tiny guillotine powered by compressed gas, but it was fast. She placed it over Leroy's hand, fitting his right index finger through the hole. Leroy jerked back involuntarily; Kelly tightened her grip on his wrist and forced his hand down hard against the counter. She put the box back in place and flipped the switch with her thumb. It was surprisingly stiff.

There was a tapping sound as the blade shot down, through Leroy's finger, and hit a metal barrier at the bottom of the box. Leroy gritted his teeth against a scream as he clutched his bleeding hand and doubled over; the sound that forced its way out of his throat was like a strangled gurgle. Kelly grabbed his arm again and forced it under the disinfectant wash. "Don't touch it!" she shouted, but Leroy couldn't hear her; he screamed as the liquid hit exposed bone, muscle, and nerve. Kelly stanched the blood flow with a small device from the kit which looked like a combination of metal and rubber bands. It clamped tight over the stump of Leroy's finger. She put a spare protective glove over his hand, fastened it to his suit, and only then hit the intercom button. "Dr. Croft to Level 4 Emergency Quarantine Room stat!"

The Ocean north of Alidor

Three Duke Class frigates, two type 42 destroyers and two Astute Class submarines broke of from their patrols with the Northern Defence Fleet and headed towards the Hurtful Thoughts illegal naval presence within Alidorn territorial waters.

HMS Fortitude

Captain Ramsey “Order the other vessels to fall into a close formation and have the submarines hold back, hopefully the Hurtful Thoughts vessels will leave our waters without a fight”

Executive officer Bradley Cummings “I concur sir, we should give them every opportunity to disengage and remove themselves from our territory”

HMS Trimel

Closer to shore a single River Class shore patrol vessel, a lightly armed and armoured vessel more used to patrolling Alidorn fisheries than intercepting foreign fleets, approached the Hurtful Thoughts task force, their order were to escort the fleet from Alidorn waters as well.

As the River Class shore patrol vessel crested a wave the Hurtful Thoughts fleet came into view.

Lieutenant Chris Black “Hurtful Thoughts vessels your are ordered to recall your aircraft and leave Alidorn territorial waters immediately, respond your compliance” he said his voice steady and steeled though he felt like his bones were shaking.

Arkin Coastal Radar Base

Commander Alan Richter “Hurtful Thoughts aircraft you are ordered once again to leave Alidorn airspace, Alidorn aircraft have been dispatched to escort you out of our airspace; you must comply with this order” As he spoke he glanced at the communications officer “Any word from TCaCHQ yet” the commander asked hopefully.

“Nothing yet sir”

Keeler Air force Base

A flight of four Typhoon Multi-Role Combat Fighters were equipped in for an air interdiction mission, they carried six AMRAAM missiles and two ASRAAM, their mission was to escort the foreign aircraft out of Alidorn airspace or to an airbase, as they thundered down the runway another four Typhoon’s equipped in the air-superiority mission rolled towards the runway, their mission was to act as an immediate reinforcement to the first four Typhoons should they come into trouble.

As the second four Typhoons lined up for their sprint down the runway eight other Typhoons were being fitted for maritime attack should things turn nasty the Air Force wanted to be prepared.

Mittleton City

The survivors were sat in on e of the inner rooms of the building feeling very alone despite there being twenty of them, not knowing if help was coming and not knowing how long the zombies would be held outside buy the buildings doors and windows.

Pratt “What the fucks is that?”
Sloane “What’s what?”
Pratt “That noise”
Sloane “It’s the zombies you thick fuck”
Pratt “No not that noise that noise” he said as the thumping of helicopter engines grew ever louder.
Sloane “Fucking hell, Pratt I love you mate, I fucking love you”
Pratt “What?!?”
Sloane “Can we get to the roof from here” Sloane ask the woman that had opened the fire escape for him and the other officers.
Shelley “I think so, but we’ve never tried to be honest”
Sloane “No time like the present to find out then eh”

The survivors made their way through the halls of the building looking for a stairway that lead up the roof when the gut wrenching noise of shattering glass and blood curdling screams filled the air.
The muffled noise of gun fire could be heard over the screams and then suddenly gun fire echoed down from a stairwell thirty metres ahead of the group.

Area 12

As the voice of Kelly came through the intercom system doctor Croft had been talking to a man dressed in a black suite, his arms flailing around in the air, he suddenly stopped and ran for the Bio-labs as fast as his legs would carry him.
Several minutes Adrian was pulling a contamination suite, ten minutes later he was in the quarantine room with Leroy and Kelly.

“Dear lord what….how did this happen? Has he shown any signs of, well, changing?”

Status report of Task force 3, ten miles offshore:
Three frigates, two destroyers on surface radar, PT boat on visual, is hailing, all aproaching fast.
SONAR reports mulltiple subs in holdiing positions.

Airborne RADAR reports two flights of Interceptors.

Aboard HTS Independance:
Admiral:
"Call general quarters"

The boat filled with nooise and men running to their guns and planes, they are soon at their highest level of alert.
Various voices can be heard over the pre-recorded message:

"Have our subs drop their mines, 5 minute delay (bundle of 6 CAPTOR mines each, strapped on hull). That should hold them if they get trigger happy."

"If that lil dingy gets feisty, either tear gas them or ram them, whatever is easier."

"Kindly inform the Alidorians that we are in International waters, and will remain here peacefully as long as nessasary to get clearance for our forces."

"Sir, they claim territorial wters out to 25 miles"

"That bad, eh? Sure why not, pull boats to 26 miles"

"Then order a general withdrawl of our planes, infom me as soon as they trigger one of those mines. We just don't have the firepower for a stand up fight with them, though I doubt they would want an army of undead soldiers that grew up with a gun in their hands storming the beaches after a 'successful counterattack', Zombies that have and know how to use a gun would not bode well for Alidor. "

(Territorial waters extend only 5 miles from shore, TF3 is 10 miles off, claim any more at your own risk)
(PROHT soldiers are entered into the service at age 5)
(even if the zombies can't swim, they can walk, and they don't breath)

SS-91 HTS Minnow:
off East flank of Task Force 3
"new orders, we are to drop our mines and hold a screening formaton for the fleet. Also we are to send contact reports"

CH-47 Chinook, 1 mile from shore:
"New orders sir, we are to drop our M113HT and return to the HTS Kursk"
"Sounds crazy, hooks dissengaged"
The light tank hits water - 10 marines heavy, for they had loaded in before takeoff - and remains afloat as it drifts to shore

Aboard lead V-22, over the Alidorian coastline:
"Orders are to turn back"
Dr. L:
"Just drop me here, I can handle myself"
Gopher:
"Not without me, or these two, but we'll needsome more guns"
Pilot:
"Done, take some assault rifles off the gun rack, we won't be issuing parachutes though"
Iceman:
"You guys are crazy, even if you d make it past the defenses, we'll e ripped to pieces by those zombies."
Gopher:
"Nah, me and the Doctor have that covered, that is, if he cooperates"
Dr L.
"You're the one with the finger on the dead man's switch"

Gopher takes the prisoners undrer his arms and slings the guns on his back and takes a leap out of the plane.
If it had not been for the fact that Gopher was not a normal man, he would have dead, and, well, Dr. L is already dead.
Lector will goes afterward.
After a few seconds the V-22s turn around and fly home.

Lead FMX-6: (burst transmision: one microsecond)
"Looks like we have some mud to move, then we'll have to haul out, fighters coming in quick. Radio to any nearby Alidorians that they are not to be alarmed if we drop our bombs, since we'll need to reduce our landing weight in order to return, and that wasting bombs on fishes is less cost effective than firebombing some zombies. If those fighters get trigger happy, run into those trees and engage with 35 mm cannon and lob some firebombs (FAEs) at them, should make them think twice, then again, they might not even see us. Might even get the fleet to jam their fancy Fly By Wire controls and send them earthbound for us"

Task force 3 is holding ground, 26 miles from shore, HTS Kursk fires another star shell (someting the Kursk has been doing on regular intervals, the surface fleet itself has taken no hostile actions other than this, the HTS Independance, however, is pulling back from the shore)

(It is still night time, 4 star shells are burning, this will turn out interesting; 4 troops land, claiming they are 'bombs', a light tank is drifting towards shore, along with 2 tubs of fuel, and two sling loads of ammo; the water buffalo sunk, FMXs running CAS, and covering the rear of the flight, six bundles of CAPTOR mines,6 torpedoes each have been dropped by the two escorting submarines, 18 torpedoes on each side)

The Northern Coast

As the first flight of Typhoons approached the coast the Hurtful Thoughts aircraft had already reversed their course.

Commander Alan Richter “Knight Flight, Foreign aircraft are leaving Alidorn airspace”

Knight 2-1 “Confirmed Arkin, proceeding to patrol waypoints”

Commander Alan Richter “Knight Flight, request you do a fly by of the beach area 6 miles to our east, an unidentified object was dropped from one of the aircraft”

One of the Typhoons’ swept ground wards and preceded to do a low level fly by of the requested beach area.

Knight 2-1 “Arkin, I don’t see anything at this time”

Commander Alan Richter “Copy that Knight Flight”

Commander Richter, feeling sudden relief at avoiding a sticky out come fell into automatic mode, walking across the command room and into the corridor where he found a marine sergeant.

Commander Alan Richter “Sergeant I want you to gather some men and go and check out this beach” Richter pointed at a map on the wall depicting the local area. The sergeant gave a quick nod and disappeared down the hallway towards the Marines barracks.

HMS Fortitude

As the small fleet approached the Hurtful Thoughts vessels the news came over the wire about their withdrawal to international waters.

Captain Ramsey “Well at least they aren’t that stupid” he said to his bridge staff “Helm put us on a course that shadows theirs, and make sure we are between them and the main land”

Captain Ramsey had no idea that with every second his small fleet was closing in on the mines the Hurtful Thoughts submarines had deployed in Alidorn waters.

The Beach (30 minute’s later)

The jeep left the ground as it hit the top of a sand dune and landed with a bone jarring thud as it hit the sand again, it sped on across the beach sending a cloud of sand dust in its wake. The Marines scoured the beach of any sign of foreign troops or hardware, as they were about to give up and head back to base one of the marines saw the tracks that could only have been left by an armoured vehicle, around the tracks they found foot prints how many men had left them they couldn’t tell as the rising tide was gradually washing the mark’s away.

HMS Fortitude

ASDIC report:
High speed screws heard, followed by explosion.

Radio:Confirms that sound was one of the PROHT submarines striking a navl mine and running aground
They are requesting permision to retrieve survivors and are cautioning against further pursuit, so that they may clear the minefield without risking your ships.

HMS Trimel
Visual:
Approxamatly 30 sailors and an inflatable boat floating in the distance. Debris field as well, motly oil, confirms it was a PROHT Tango class (Block II, Gas turbine powed) has been crippled and presumed sunk.

The survivors are heading for shore.

The lead FMX-6:
Returning from an uneventful CAS mission the FMXs held back to make sure the troops made it safely
Well that was close. I guess these things really DO work...
running a bit low on fuel, he decided to head back, when he spied a little jeep spreading a massive dust cloud, and they appeared to have stopped...
"Oh shit, those jarheads forgot to rake the trail behind them, they don't appear to have a radio, so here goes nothing"

At that moment the FMX appeared overhead and before any of the startled men could do anything, dropped its entire two ton load of bombs onto the jeep and its men, its wingman did likewise as the lead FMX turned around and strafed any survivors. They had to be thorough.

On shore:
The ten soldiers did not have the time to erase their tracks, response had been swift indeed. Though the 10 marines did manage to pick up the 4 "specialists" and lay some traps to maim or kill anyone following them.
(Mostly grenades on sting, piano wire at head height to decapitate, and improvised mines created by placing a bullet "sunny side up" over a firing pin.)

They heard some distant rumbling as they cleared 5 miles from shore.

After seeing a small village in the distance they decided to travel off-road through the forest.

Stealth of the utmost importance, and the risks involved should they be found, they where for the most part silent.

They are now 20 miles inland and still moving.

(Pre-emptive IC: [withdrawn])

Area 12

Leroy scowled as Kelly jabbed him in the arm with a needle. "Feel anything?" she asked for what may have been the hundredth time that day.

"Other than nervous as hell?" Leroy asked. "A little nausea..."

"Do you need another container?" Dr. Croft asked. Leroy shook his head.

It had been an hour since Kelly chopped off Leroy's finger in a desperate move to save him from infection. So far, it seemed to be working. She'd drawn blood from him four times already, examining the samples for signs of the virus. So far, it was clean. The nausea did not surprise them--or, at least, it didn't surprise Dr. Croft. It was a common physiological response to extreme anxiety. Being exposed to a disease worse than death could produce a lot of anxiety.

Leroy had spent the entire time in an isolation cell within the Level 4 Quarantine Room. His hand throbbed; not just from losing a finger, but from exposure to an extremely concentrated disinfectant solution. It was meant for cleaning the protective gloves on contamination suits. He'd rinsed his bare hand under the stuff, trying to kill the virus in his cut. They'd thoroughly bandaged his hand; he wouldn't be doing much lab work any time soon.

Several other researchers were in a cold room in another section of the hot lab, examining the finger itself. Due to a shortage of available scientists, June had been cleared for Level 4 work.

In yet another section, researchers watched two dozen pigs and white rats shiver, vomit blood, and die, one by one. Sometimes they twitched for a few moments in postmortem reflex. Not one of them got up.

HMS Trimel

As the River Class shore patrol vessel approached the Hurtful Thoughts task force the ocean ahead of her erupted skywards, HMS Trimel slowed to an all stop before slowly backing away from the explosion area.

As a communication came over the radio from the Hurtful Thoughts task force an inflatable life boat violently broke the surface water, stricken sailor’s had miraculously made it to the surface amid oil and debris and began swimming for the life boat.

Lieutenant Chris Black grabbed a loud hailer and stepped out of the side door of the bridge “Ahoy sailor’s we shall render assistance, prepare to be brought aboard”

As the inflatable life boat drifted towards shore HMS Trimel moved in to pick up the survivors.

Arkin Coastal Radar Base

Commander Alan Richter “Knight Flight be advised you have two aircraft still in your vicinity, they are approaching from the south”

Knight 2-1 “Confirmed Arkin, changing course to intercept”

With that two of the four Typhoons headed for the two FMX-6 aircraft. As the two FMX-6 aircraft approached the beach the Typhoons latched on to them. The aircraft’s built in camera showing the two Hurtful Thoughts aircraft.

Knight 2-1 “Hurtful Thoughts aircraft, you are again ordered to leave Alidorn airspace, change your course to…”

Before the pilot could finish his sentence the two Hurtful Thoughts aircraft dropped their load of bombs on the four marines stood by the eroding tracks on the beach below, the marines looking up only to see the impending doom

Knight 2-1 “Holy shit” the pilot spurted out as the bomb’s wiped the four men off the face of the planet “Arkin, this is Knight 2-1, Hurtful Thoughts aircraft are hostile repeat hostile, moving to engage” The pilot flipped the arming switch for his weapons and a few second later “Fox 2, Fox 2,” was called out as an ASRAAM shot from the wing of the lead Typhoon.

Area 12

Dr Adrian Croft examined Leroy’s left hand before applying another bandage to his stump “As a precaution I’m going to keep you isolated for another twelve hours” Dr Croft said to Leroy who was understandably upset about his current situation, turning to Kelly Dr Croft said “I would like to see you in my office in an hour, until then I’d like you to keep an eye on Leroy if his condition deteriorates in that time or he shows sign of the infection then contact me immediately, ok” Kelly responded with a nod and Dr Adrian Croft left the bio-lab and returned to his office, contemplating the turn of events of the day.

Both pilots jumped out of their planes (no ejection seats).

They drifted down to land, without the slightest clue of what reprimandations they would recieve, they hoped that being high ranking officers might buy them a trip to a POW camp. One of the pilots had injured his leg with shrapnel fron the ASRAAM, he was a Lt. Major.

Both FMX-6s crashed into fireball explosions, rending them useless hulks of twisted flaming wreckage.

The men in the water next being picked up by HMS Trimmel
Seeing the fate of their air support, the marines decided to give up, and showed the crew their rather large weapons cache, and tried to be as coperative and complacent as possable.

Aboard HTS Independence
Admiral:
"Well, that was a waste, inform the General that we lost 46 men today, let's go home."
And so the Entire task force (submarines included) left those 46 men stranded on an island that didin't want them, or would rather eat them.
14 of which had no clue of these occurances.

They did not bother finishing clearing the minefield, it would take them awhile, but they could finish clearing it themselves.

Alidor now has 32 Prisoners, for 4 dead Alidorian coastwatchers to tend to.

OOC:
BTW:
Someone please get Pratt and Sloane out of that rubble before they turn into zombies.
and, in another cross thread,
Gotree finally hitched a ride back home, crazy eternals...
Mostly because of time scale issues, he will not take part in this thread, though it is tempting to strafe zombies in a captured spacecraft, and scare some locals senseless.

When Lt. Major Moris finally hit the beech, it felt as if hislegs had ben ripped off from under him, in reality, they were only broken and bleeding. Major Gatsby faired much better, his legs didn't have shrapnel in them, but they would soon be captured (like in about 5 to 10 minutes if they use a jeep) and the Lt. would only slow him down, and was most likely to be captured, and to spill very incrimminating secrets of PROHT's weapons programs. He knew he wasn't far from a supply drop offloaded by the flight of V-22s, under the pretense that they were "bombs", he decided to search for the weapons crates while his less mobile colleuge would come up with a plausable excuse for frying those men.

Moris did come up with a story, ad it might hold, and they could claim they were looking for 'zombies' to fry and then they found those 4 men huddled and moving very slowly and awkwardly on the beech, could have been 4 zombies that escaped from the quarintine zone he heard so much about over the news.

Gatsby also did find the weapons cache, picked what he wanted, a CM-16, extra barrel, 'K' bullets, and filled his parachute pack full of grenades. He decided to get a CM-249 for Moris, and then drag the two of them to a nice hiding hole and ambush point. Perhaps he could find a way off the island, make his way to a boat or plane and return home.

Moris never did get that gun, because while Gatsby was away, he took his own life. He wrote his 'confession' which also stated that the other pilot had drowned at sea, and then took his and Gatsby's cyanide pills. He had named both pilots and rank.

Gatsby knew the folly of such an act, he would become a zombie long before his captors arrived. So he leveled his gun at Moris's temple and pulled the trigger. Then he wrapped the body with Moris's parachute, and walked away.

Alidor now has:
5 dead bodies.
30 prisioners
1 downed pilot with no intention of being caught
and 14 marines in an APC
to contend with

OOC: Sorry I have been away I hate school officialy now.

Over Mittleton City
Super-Six Five

The warning light came on along with the warning tone.
"Fuck, Pete the Tail Rotor isn't responding!"
"Jesus Christ, fuck!"
"This is Super-Six Five were are going down!"
The 10 Men is the back heard the words and instantly dreaded it.
"Pilot, see if you can crash land on that roof over thier!"
"Ill try!'' The Pilot struggled with the contorls but in a feat of luck the Smoking Blackhawk Crashed ontop of the building. Admist the Smoke and Fire Ranger Sargant Chris Whol stood up.
"Cough....Fuck what a ride."
"Sir...Jimmy broke his leg...and Mike's dead."
"Alright Get me the Radio"..."This is Chaulk Four...We landed on a roof we have one dead and one critical Wounded...the rest are fine..."We will Continue our Support from this point on and await EVAC."
Chaulk 1s Blackhawk flared over thier blocking position. Fast Ropes were thrown out of the helicopter."Go,Go,Go" 10 Rangers Slid down the ropes onto the roof top. The Helicopter stayed over head and provided Minigun Fire into the Zombie Hordes. The Other Blocking Chaulks followed suit save Chaulk four who crashed 3 blocks away on another roof. The men threw grenades onto the street and fired thier G36K's at the Hordes of the Undead below.
The Insertion Chaulks Blackhawk flared over the target building. The Fast Ropes were thrown from the side. "Go!" The 10 Rangers Zipped down the line and took up positions on the roof. The Empty Blackhawks flew to the target building in Anticipation for the Civlians to be extracted. A 4 Soldier Fireteam Broke the Lock on the Door to the stairs...

As soon as they entered the forest, it became obvious that going any faster than 20 mph would be impossable. And so the driver got used to driving VERY alert in order to not hit every tree, which gave a dull thud every time they did hit one.

After about another two hours (50 miles from shore) of this the men started to get bored:
Gopher had a sharp pain in his back, checked what it was, and found 4 bottles of rum and decided to pass it all around.

They started talking, yapping, swapping stories, like how 'Iceman' got his name, apparently, he was the best, thiefe, locksmith, escape artist, mechanic, roughhouser, and occasionally found himself being an asasin for certain political coups. But he was mostly know as a ladies man, he was 'as smooth as ice', or, at least that is what he claimed.

Gopher was about to go next, but was interupted by a private, who hed senoirity over him. All the private had to say was that he loved his job, he did't really say why, and nobody wanted to know why. Edward went next, but was cut short when he became a little bit too graphic. One of the marines threw up in the middle of the crowded floor, and so the usd Gopher's uniform to clean it up, gopher then put his uniform back on, much to the applaud of his 'friends'.
Ice decided to change the topic and pulled out a deck of cards and offered everyone to play a few hands of high stakes poker. Eventually it went down to a match between Gopher, Eddie, and Ice. One of the privates had been forced to trade uniforms with Gopher for extra playing money, which he promptly lost.

They had covered an additional 50 miles.

The driver cut the game short, they were running low on fuel, and most likely lost. They had seen a small village a ways off, and decided to pull in. Gopher took a look around from the turret. It was daylight, about 6:15 AM. the town was about a half hours drive still, so they decided to get their story straight andtake inventory:

10 'Normal' PROHT Marines
1 Geneticly enhanced soldier, 'G' class (Gopher)
1 Insanely undead doctor (Dr. H. L.)
2 Convicts assigned under the care of Gopher
armed with:
8 CM-16 assault rifles \w\ bayonets
3 CM-249 LMGs
2 RPG-7 rocket launchers
11 shovels
3 cases of grenades (50 grenades per case, 2 thermobaric, 1 fragmentation)
2 Army NCO Sabers

The M-113HT was well armed as well, it had a Model 1B turret.
It had a 35 mm linear action autoloading CC-35A cannon that fired 5 round clips, with a coaxial .50 centrifugal machine gun, that could be aimed up to 45 degrees in a fully traversing turret.
In side sponsons if the turret were an RPG rocket launcher on the right, past the MG barrel, which had pump action loading and held two dual tube clips of 5 rockets, to his left was a flamethrower, which would undoubtedly come in handy when the zombies get in close. In the rear of the otherwise mushroom shaped turret was an angular box magazine that housed 15 5" mortar tubes, these would provide rudimentry artillery in a combat situation, but in this case would be used to blow masses of zombies to bits at a distance. The turret itself was only 1' tall and 4' wide, the guns where pinioned 2' below the rim of the APC, and was alo where the MG connected to a PTO shaft that powered it from the main engine or an electric motor.

They also noticed they had run out of rum and suggested that Ice and Gopher go find what they needed from the town. Gopher had been accumilated a considerable amount of money, and like before all landings, they had been all paid in Alidorian Pounds. And he had accumilated over $5,000 of it at that one poker game with the help of Iceman.

Was in some serious trouble...
His wingman was dead, he had no plane, and he'd either have to get out on his own or face certain death to either zombies, Alidorian MPs, or both.

But what he needed most was supplies, and a ride. He figured he was well armed for one man. And after following some tank tracks, found some improvised mines.
"Well they weren't THAT stupid, lets see here, bullet mines, grenades in a can, followed by more bullet mines, finished off with some piano wire, punjis on the shoulder to injur those who try to run into the woods, and right on a sharp corner, those who lose control would plow into a tree, those who stay on the path lose their head!"
He grinned, then set himself up a position on the inside corner, added the barrel extension to his CM-16 and loaded it with 'K' bullets, then loaded the CM-249 and aimed it down the road and finished loading it. then set some ready fragmentation grenades in front of him, and readied the pins for easier extraction.

The CM-249 Machine gun and grenades were for the ambush, the CM-16 was to finish off those who made ot 'out' and he had a bayonet for everyone else.

Now all he had to do was wait.

Area 12

Kelly entered Dr Crofts office, a cramped room barely wide enough for the desk, two chairs and filing cabinet squeezed in their, as she did Dr Croft greeted her with a hand shake depositing a piece of paper in here hand, he pointed at a white plastic boarder, about two inches tall and an inch wide, that ran around the roof of his office, as well the roof of every room and corridor in the research complex, as she read the note.

Do not talk about what is on this piece of paper, they will hear.
We must leave here quickly; our work here is futile they will never allow us to develop a cure that may already exist.
I have a plan for our escape

The note stated Kelly looked at Dr Croft confused, silently he placed a finger to his lips to stifle her question before it came.

“Tell me Kelly has there been any change in Leroy’s condition in the last thirty minutes” Before Kelly could respond Dr Croft interrupted “I think we should head down and see how he is doing you can tell me on the way.

On their way to the Bio Labs they passed an armoury, Dr Croft made sure there was nobody in the corridor then dragged Kelly in. he quickly disrobed from his lab jacket, shirt and trousers and began to dress in military DPM clothing, without saying a word he indicated for Kelly to do the same.
Dr Croft grabbed a kit bag and put a third set of DPM clothing in the bag as well as a gas mask and an SA80A2 assault rifle. When that was done he passed an AS80A2 and gas mask to Kelly before grabbing the same for himself. The pair headed towards the Bio Labs again, now disguised as soldiers, it wouldn’t hold for long, as soon as someone saw their faces they would know who they were.
As they approached the Bio Lab with Leroy held inside it Kelly interpreted Dr Crofts hand motion as a sign for her to walk ahead, she was right. As she passed the door to the lab the guard couldn’t resists trying to visualise Kelly’s rump as his eyes followed her down the hall, then blackness and unconsciousness, Dr Croft brought the butt of his assault rifle down on the back of the soldiers skull with a thick crack.
Dr Croft dragged the soldier into the quarantine area as Kelly took the bag to Leroy

“Dress quickly” Dr Croft called out to Leroy, his hands already on the isolation breach alarm switch. Waiting for Leroy to change in to the soldier clothing Dr Croft said only “remember your gas masks” as he pulled the alarm handle down.

The quarantine room, the corridors and every other room in the complex was filled with flashing red light and a repeated monotone sentence “Containment breach, please head for your allotted meeting area” Leroy and Kelly followed Dr Croft through the halls of the complex, as with every other uniformed person in the complex, all three had their gas masks on hiding their faces from the soldiers and researchers dashing passed them in both directions. The group headed up to the ground level

“Right now what” Kelly asked Dr Croft as they reached the ground level.

“Well I’m not sure, I was just going to wing it from here on so bare with me” Dr Croft replied.

Arkin Coastal Radar Base

Commander Alan Richter dispatched another sixteen marines to the beach, now that the Hurtful Thoughts fleet and aircraft were no longer factors.

The Beach

The Marines arrived in four jeeps approximately an hour after the Hurtful Thoughts aircraft had been downed. They found an enormous crafter created by the two tonnes of thermobaric bombs, dropped on the previous four marines and of those marines and their jeep nothing remained.
At the edge of the crater the marines found the body of a PROHT pilot, what was left of his brains were on the ground next to his head, single shot to the temple, they assumed an execution had taken place due to the dead pilots lack of weaponry, there must be more PROHT personnel with in Alidorn boarders.
The Marines sighted foot prints leading to a weapons cache near the beaches edge and a whole mess of foot prints and armoured vehicle tracks heading in to a near by wooded area. A single set of foot prints were fresher than the others but still headed into the wooded area next to the beach, the lieutenant radioed the information back to Arkin base.
Heading into the tree line the marines filed in to combat patrols searching for the enemy forces. No more than thirty metres into the wood a muffled thud announced the presence of the booby traps and the loss of one marine’s toes; he fell backwards to the ground screaming in agony.

Folly Meadows

The PROHT APC had sighted the petrol station on the outskirts of Folly Meadow at six am the single attendant, a man in his early sixties was setting out the shop for the early morning commuters heading for the nearby city. The village was still asleep and the quarantine wall construction area was less than twenty miles too the south, but on the whole life remained normal for the one hundred and sixteen inhabitants of the small village.

Mittleton City

The circling helicopters and rapid burst of gun fire could be heard clearly now through the open door to the roof, the twenty survivors headed to the stairwell leading to the roof and the hopes of rescue.

“Hold your fire, friendlies coming out” Pratt shouted up the stairs before he allowed any of the survivors to pass him and head up the stairs to the roof top where the Yukatanian soldiers had landed.

The marauding zombies on the lower levels of the building responded to Platt’s yell and blood curdling shrieks and the noise of doors being forces off their hinge’s and crashing to the ground filled the building. The Zombies were storming up the stairs to the top floor there wasn’t much time left, the soldiers and the survivors would soon be in the thick of it.

The APC pulled up to a gas station, it was decided that Gopher ('John' G. 'Smith') and 'Iceman' (Alias: 'Isaac Assimov', they even had fake passports and ID's, acquired in various ways, all identification tags and patches had been removed, as a decommisioned surplus military uniform would) would go and buy the supplies wile the others used the restroom and fueled up their 'truck'.

They found ONE sole gas station and convienacnce store, atended by ONE man in his mid-early 60's. Otherwise the place looked DEAD, too dead, but they were confident that this city was safe for the time being and went ahead anyways.

They pulled up to the pump, opened the back door, piled out (most went straight for the restrooms and formd a line) the driver started fueling the APC's two rear tanks from both the pumps at the station.

Dr. Lector was wandering around, and petted some stray dog, and would appear somewhat comical if anybody saw him.

'John' and 'Isaac' went into the store, Isaac would pay for the gas and directions, while John would go get the supplies.

Gopher\'John' still had his assault rifle slung behind his back and went coasting about the isles, picking whatever fit his fancy.

Iceman\'Isaac': (In best forign redneck drawl he could muster, still slightly drunk)
Hia ya'll, can you give us directions to Mittleton City? We'sa planni'n on shooti'n ourselves a coupla'a zombies and take some pictures to show dee li'l young'ins back home. What dio ya say?

Had become a 'Hero' back home, after PROHT newspaers had gotten a hold of the information and put it all on 'spin' cycle.
It had proclaimed that they had used some sort of super weapon, shot down two flights of Typhoons, thus single-handedly saving the HTS Independence from being sunk by the "Crazy Alidorians". However, his plane had been dissabled and he was forced to bail out at sea, and is now officially MIA, unnofficially he is dead and had an impromptu ceromony across the nation, honouring his sacrifice so that others, no matter how insanely stupid, may live a little longer, in freedom of the zombie plauge.

The REAL Major Mark Gatsby, was alive and well, and the ambush he had taken was working perfectly, one of the troops had steped on a bulletmine with his toes, lucky fool (had he landed his heel on it, the bullet would have tunneled its way up the soldier's leg, and into his crotch area); he jerked a pair of the trip wires from some of the grenade mines, pulling them out and detonating them bwehind the would be pursuers, and then right in the middle of them.

His goal was to rattle them into thinking they had just walkied into the center of a minefield, and he silently prayed that it would work, otherwise, he could just mow them all down with his MG, just as he planned. But he decided a wounded prisioner would become much more valuable than a pile of 16 corpses in the field. He also noted one of them had a radio, and that help would arrive shortly after loss of radio contact.

Mark Gatsby didn't so much want to go back to PROHT, as much as leave Alidor and everything else behind, and settle down in some tropical paradise. Alidor came close, apart from the fact that he would have to fight for his very right to exist, and an ever increasing zombie population, Alidor would have been perfect.

"Well, there are definitely traces of the virus at the entry site," Dr. Graham concluded, "but the tissues at the site of amputation are clean."

"So Leroy wasn't infected?" June asked. She placed the finger in a specimen tube, sealed it, and then put her examination instruments in a countertop autoclave. They were finished.

"Doesn't look like it. There's a possibility that the virus worked its way into a vein and entered his body without passing through the capillary network, but if he hasn't turned yet, I'd say he's in the clear."

"Finally, some good news," June said. "I heard they're having a bit of trouble with the vaccine."

Graham nodded. "The test animals don't respond to the virus the same way humans do. I'm going to go help out with the necropsies. How long have you been in Level 4 today? Ten hours? Why don't you take a break?"

"Thanks," June said. "This suit is getting pretty uncomfortable."

***

June waited patiently as the seven-minute chemical shower sterilized her biohazard suit. Then the outer lock disengaged, she stepped out, and began taking off the cumbersome suit. She changed out of her scrubs and into a clean, if ill-fitting, white uniform. It was then that the alarm sounded.

“Containment breach," a mechanical-sounding female voice droned. "Please head for your allotted meeting area.”

June rushed out of the changing area, not knowing what to do. No one had ever told her about an "allotted meeting area." In the hall outside, clusters of scientists and technicians hurried past, all heading in the same direction. June decided to follow them. "What's going on?" she asked over the drone of the alarm. "What kind of breach?"

"Containment breach," the scientist yelled, hurrying on. No shit, Sherlock, June thought. What she really wanted to know was, was it a virus...or had those things gotten loose?

As she followed the scientists, she passed an armory; the door was slightly ajar. If the creatures had gotten in, she wanted to be armed--and she knew how to use a gun. She ducked inside.

The interior was dim; it took her eyes a minute to adjust. There were racks of assault rifles and boxes of grenades, neither of which June trusted herself enough to manage. Finally, near the back of the room, she spotted a rack of pistols and shelves stocked with ammunition. She filled her pockets with magazines and tucked a 9mm semiautomatic into her slacks.

There was something white in the corner. June gasped, thinking it was a body. But no--it was just a discarded uniform. No, a pair of uniforms. Curious, June crouched to examine them, though she knew time was short and getting shorter. When she saw one of the nametags, she gasped again. Dr. Adrian Croft. What the hell?

Folly Meadows

The petrol station attendant was horrified to see the APC pull up ion the forecourt and the uniformed jumping out of the back of the vehicle, two of which strolled up to shop as if nothing was wrong with the scene out side

“Hia ya’ll, can you give us directions to Mittleton City?, We’sa planning on shootin ourselves a coupla’ zombies and take some pictures to show dee li’l young’ins back home. What dio ya say?” the man drawled over the counter, ‘Redneck hick’s’ he thought to himself.

“Erm yeah” feeling nervous, these hick’s are known to kill a man for the silliest reasons, “Mittleton City’s a couple of hundred miles down that road, but you’ll not get there sonny” he said, then suddenly realising that you do not upset a forest dweller he splurted out “The soldiers have, have a fence up about twenty miles south of here, and they patrol it pretty regular as well” Sweat formed on his forehead the hick in front of him wasn’t looking to impressed right now, then the other one in the shop shouted across the shop at the attendant “Erm, yes sir the liquor at the back of the shop sir just behind you” the attendant now close to wetting himself, for drunk hicks are something no one wants to meet especially this old man “There’s one patrol goes by once an hour, if you go through the woods you might be able to get past them, but me and my brother were caught a couple of days ago, anyways nice meeting you sirs and I hope your hunting goes well sirs” the attendant finished barely able to control the quiver in his voice.

Area 12

Dr Adrian Croft, Kelly Watson and Leroy Washington stepped through the elevators doors just as they were closing

“You mean you didn’t have a plan to get us out of here after all” Kelly spat out through gritted teeth.

Adrian quietened the young lady as two soldier’s dash past them. The three walked out of the bunker type entrance that lead to the elevators, most of the complex was below ground level with just several building up to four storeys tall above ground and numerous aircraft hangers.

“There” Dr Croft said a little louder than he wanted to but then he was a military doctor not a foot soldier “over there are some helicopters, I hope one of you two can fly one of them” with that sentence Dr Croft realised something he had left behind “Oh my god” he exclaimed “I forgot about June, what are we going to do”

For three soldiers in the middle of a possible viral release in a military research compound the last thing they wanted to be doing was standing in one spot for to long, and Dr Croft Knew this, as he had participated in numerous biological attack simulations in the past, he began walking to one of the hangers.

“What about June” asked Leroy and Kelly

“I don’t know, we can only hope she finds us before we leave, we can’t risk going back in there now” Dr Croft said without slowing his pace.

In the hanger they found a Puma helicopter painted black and with the cabin doors pulled forward, the cabin mounted weapons had been removed or hadn’t been fitted yet as it seemed pretty new looking the Trio assumed the latter, Leroy looked at the helicopter for a second then spoke as he climbed in the cockpit side door “I have a pilots licence of rotary wing aircraft, I’ve never flown one of these before but I’ll give it a try” The other two climbed into the cabin to the rear as Leroy primed the engines.

The Beach

The Marine was lying on the ground screaming when the Lance Corporal of his fire team spoke into his Personnel Role Radio (PRR) “Contact, Contact, Contact” he shouted, The lieutenant who was part of another fire team responded “Go ahead contact, who is down” The Lance Corporal informed the Lieutenant of what had happened to the unfortunate marine, who’s screams were echoing through the wood’s now. As the other four fire team stopped their advance and moved into positions to cover the wounded marine, the other three men of the wounded marine’s fire team moved towards him moving slowly, two marines covering while one edged ever closer, his eyes dashing from searching the foliage to scanning the ground directly in front of his feet. Once he had reached his wounded team mate the two marines that had covered him followed his exact path, one of the fire team was a combat medic (luckily) and began to apply bandaging to the wounded foot and an injection of morphine quietened the poor mans pain for awhile, the other two marine’s were crouched by the feet of the wounded man there weapons raised to the ready position as they scanned the trees and bushes that surrounded them, then a slight glint of light caught the eye of one of the marines and seconds later three grenades detonated in and around the fire team.

Shrapnel dug into the two crouching marine’s, one was killed out right the other took a few of second’s to choke on his own blood the wounded marine took the brunt of the last grenade in his side killing him instantly but sparing the medic form any thing more than slight gashes on his left arm. Stunned for a second, while his brain decided he was still alive, he crouched frozen to the spot.

The Lieutenant in command of the now thirteen men had ordered the medic to fall back to another fire team using his PRR, as the four remaining fire team’s had stop advancing forward and took up positions to cover the wounded marines position in the improvised mine field this meant that they were either behind the medic or to either side at a distance of approximately thirty to forty metres, The medic retraced his steps back to the fire team behind him as he knew that path had already been checked and cleared of booby traps.

GeneTech
Military Research Facility
Mittleton City

On the thirteenth floor of the GeneTech building and looking at the mess the once ultra clean lab was in one of the men dressed in a black suit talked into a short range secure radio and moments later the black Chinook gradually lifted of from the buildings roof top helipad. The man dressed in the black suite turned to the lieutenant and ordered him to proceed to secure the twelfth floor and the rest of the floors up to the roof ensuring they did not fail to eliminate any and all infected person on those levels. Moments after the orders were given the sounds of assault rifle shoots began to echo through the building. The two men in black suites began sifting through the papers scattered everywhere and using and using a single password to override the security features on the PC’s, the few that still worked but were, scattered around the room.


Three Marines killed.

June dropped the name tag and looked for the other one. Dr. Kelly Watson. Her confusion grew.

She saw a slip of paper sticking out of one of the lab coat's pockets.

Do not talk about what is on this piece of paper, they will hear.
We must leave here quickly; our work here is futile. They will never allow us to develop a cure that may already exist.
I have a plan for our escape.

The puzzle started coming together. June didn't know who had written the note--she had never actually seen either Kelly's or Dr. Croft's handwriting--but she decided it must be Dr. Croft, who, after all, worked for the Army. He must have learned something--or known it all along. He had warned Kelly, and perhaps others.

But there were still missing pieces. If there was a cure, why were they brought here to work on one? And why was it necessary to escape? Was there some deeper conspiracy here? Was her life in danger from the government as well as the dead?

June left the armory, hiding her pistol under her lab coat, but conscious of the suspicious bulges created by the extra ammunition. If she were right--if she were in danger--she couldn't just follow the scientists to the "allotted meeting area." She had to get Leroy.

***

June found that the airlock to the Level 4 research zone had been sealed as an emergency precaution. She couldn't get in. Her brain was freezing up, and the alarm made it that much harder to think. What was going on? What could she do? How could she escape?

Motion out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Someone in a contamination suit was pounding desperately against an observation window. She looked closer, and realized it was Dr. Graham, who must have been trapped inside when the alarm sounded and the airlock sealed. The glass was thick and soundproofed; she couldn't hear the thud of his fists against the window.

***

It happened before June realized what she was doing. And when it was done, she almost vomited in horror.

June drew her pistol and shot out the glass. Not wasting a second, Dr. Graham kicked out a few more shards and climbed through the gaping hole, tearing open his suit in the process. He hugged her. He hardly knew her; it wasn't an affectionate hug. He had just thought he was going to die in there.

His plastic suit was cold, and with his face hidden by the helmet, any human qualities the hug would have otherwise held were made alien. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked. "God knows what you just exposed yourself to." He seemed to notice the rips in his own suit just then. Recognizing his own foolishness, he took off the helmet. "I owe you one. Hey, where'd you get a gun...?"

June didn't hear him. What have I exposed myself to? she wondered. And worse...did anyone hear those gun shots? She felt dizzy.

"Hey..." Dr. Graham shook June by the shoulders. "Hey, are you okay? Come on, we have to get to the meeting area."

"No!" June said sharply, surprising him. "I mean...I don't know why, but we can't. We've got to find another way out."

Dr. Graham didn't know what was in this girl's head, but he was inclined to trust someone who had risked lethal infection to save his life. "How about the hangars?" he asked. "I know the way."

"You know how to fly?" June asked.

Dr. Graham shook his head. "But we can work that out when we get there."

“There’s one patrol goes by once an hour, if you go through the woods you might be able to get past them, but me and my brother were caught a couple of days ago, anyways nice meeting you sirs and I hope your hunting goes well sirs”

The attendant seemed rather unsettled, which was reasonable, so Ice decided to change his tone, and gave a pre-determined signal to Gopher by tapping his fingers and looking casually at the magazine rack.

"So, whas dat ye say about going inta da woods? Why would you do such a silly 'ol thing like datm, you don't seem da type ta go popping off zombies in de mittle ah da night. Eitherr way, it looks like you'd be the perfect guide to getting us there, we'll pay ye well and take good care of ye, being you'd be the guide and all."
With that 'Isaac' pulls out a wad from his winnings and slams it on the table.
"There's more where dat came from, ye wit us?

Gopher,having finally managed to get his load of 'supplies' (booze, junk food, batteries etc.) and carried them to the counter, he then set it down and asked the attendant.
(In a very reasureingly civil tone)
"How much for all of this? Isaac, you pay for the gas yet, or are you just wasting time again?"

'Isaac'
"No, sahr mistah Smith sarh, I was a just settling a lil business arrangement, it seems dat da locals have gone shut down all dem purdy roads to Mittleton, and he's the only person who knows the way."

'Mr Smith'
"Well, then it looks like we're stuck here till we get a guide then, and it looks like [reads attendants nametag, very slow and delibrately, so as not to mispronounce anything] is our man."

Dr. Lector walk in, he's a mess, the dog he was petting earlier apparently went vicious on him and tore up his clothes, and a few other things.

"So, are you guys ready yet? This town seems to get crazier by the minute! You're holding us up, we're going to be late because of you two! Don't you realize that time is everything right now?! Those zombies are getting deadlier by the second!!!"

OOC: experimenting with Post per Scene, if anyone objects, please say so, there is also an OOC thread.

At first he thought he was just wasting another 4 particularly unlucky marines, but like before, he was now in another tight spot, he noticed some shout (a radio perhaps) and rustling to his left, in a matter of moments he would be overrun and done for.

From his little hole inside one of the punji traps, he could visualise the summary execution he would recieve for the things he has done, one of the mines he dteonaed triggered a third grenade, which had unexpectedly added to the carnage before him. However, it would not take long for them to realize that the minefield was limited mostly to the road, except for some recent additions he made, which were grenades that if one traced their trip wires, looked like the spokes of a wheel, with Gatsby's 'foxhole' as the hub.

Now was the time to act, he pulled out 2 White Phosphourus (WP) grenades (2 sec fuse), and 2 Thermobarics (10 sec fuse), he pulled the pins on all of them, chucking the WPs at the closest troops, then straddled them with the thermobarics. He then pulled out another thermo, lifted all his gear, and made a run for it past the (hopefully confused) troops, pulling the pin and jamming his grenade down one of their shirts, he fired a few sparodic burst while running, hoping to pin them in a simulated ambush, to slow them down yet some more. They also looked bogged down with gear, so a jeep or something must be nearby, he prayed that they had not posted a gaurd on them. Every time he saw anybody he lobbed a pair of grenades at them, he didn't really care what they were, just so that they would not follow him, and better still if they didn't shoot him.

He could hear the screams and explosions behind him, which even for an unfeeling person such as himself, had to shed a tear for the lives lost, just because, like him, they where at the wrong place at the wrong time, in more ways than ten.

He was then again painfully reminded that this was his life...

He felt a sharp stab of pain in his left leg and hoped it was 'just a cramp', and not a bullet. He couldn't stop running, he knew that, but it was so painful, but not as painful as the torture he could imagine recieving should he be caught alive.

'A few more yards, just a few more and I'm in the clear!' he thought to himself as he pulled the pin to another grenade with his teeth and fired another burst of machine gunfire over his shoulder, 'just in case'.

OOC: Meanwhile those 30 Marines are still waiting to be processed aboard the HMS Trimmel, and are still willing to answer questions.

Folly Meadows Petrol Station

“You want me to come with you” the attendant said with a stammer “I couldn’t possibly, sir I’m an old man with a family and mortgage, I need my job Mr Smith sir” the attendant said now he was just seconds away from soiling his underwear “If you stick to the trees and wait for the patrol to pass, then you should have around an hour before another one goes by, that should give you plenty of time to get in to the quarantined area, but it’s still a long slog from there to Mittleton you know” The hicks didn’t look impressed with the attendants reply to there offer.

The Beach

As the Lieutenant, fresh out of officer training at Shantmier College, was deciding how best to recover his wounded men when a White Phosphorous grenade, and then another was lobbed from a bush on the other side of the improvised mine field, seeing this the Lieutenant opened fire on the foliage and issued orders for his fire team and the other two fire teams to do the same, the White Phosphorous grenade’s landed in the middle of the fire team to the left of the lieutenants position, and released their blinding smoke. That fire team began to withdraw from the thick smoke when another two grenade’s landed second’s apart were the retreating fire team had just been, the first one detonated in a large fire ball, luckily (because they moved back) the explosion only knocked them to the ground, the second one slung soil over the marines already on the ground.

The other two fire team’s didn’t relent their fire on the collection of bushes and small trees and the weight of rounds going in to the area had stripped the bushes of branches and one of the smaller trees had collapsed.

Under that amount of fire what follows could only be suicide, but somehow it worked, a single man jumped up with an assault rifle in his right hand, a grenade in his left and a squad support weapon slung over his back, he threw the grenade at the next closest fire team, the one to the Lieutenants right, it hit a tree and deflected away detonating while still in the air leaving that fire team with ringing ears, a smoke grenade landed amongst that fire team blinding them to the path of the Rambo like man, who then rushed the Lieutenants fire team, now five men all firing at him, and the use of another smoke grenade enabled him to get past them without tripping a single booby trap despite the thick smoke from the White Phosphorous grenades covering the area.

Then once the PROHT pilot had made it past the marines unscathed a blinded marine tripped on an exposed root from one of the tree’s and landed hard on his chest and right arm, his hands contracted instinctively from the pain, and unluckily for the PROHT pilot a single shot was fire from his assault rifle which had, by a mean twist of fate, line up exactly with the fleeing pilots backside. Another burst of automatic fire from the PROHT pilot removed bark from the tree above the marine flat out on the ground.

Would the wounded pilot make it to the jeeps before the thirteen remaining marines could clear the stinging smoke from their eyes?

The hanger
(Area 12)

The engine noise was deafening in the hanger as the rotors began to spin in to life. Leroy applied a little throttle and the Puma helicopter rolled forward out of the hanger doors. As Leroy continued to familiarize himself with the instruments and controls Dr. Croft and Kelly Watson sat in the rear cabin struggling with their seat belts praying that they wouldn’t be killed by the soldiers patrolling the base or Leroy’s flying. Kelly took a double take at the bunker door leading to the main facility of Area 12 that the trio had just fled from. There were two scientists running from it towards the hanger.

“Jesus, it’s June” shouted Kelly over the engine noise, Dr. Croft turned immediately to see the two people running from the bunker door, but Leroy couldn’t hear her over the engine noise and continued to throttle up the engines as the wheels lifted of the ground and landed again with jarring thuds.

Dr. Croft lunged from his seat and grabbed a head set from the cabin wall and shouted into the microphone.

“Leroy, don’t go yet June is coming”

Leroy glanced over his left shoulder and spotted June and the other scientist running towards them. Leroy slowly rotated the helicopter and then slightly dipped the nose to ease the Puma helicopter towards the pair. As they closed the distance Leroy throttled down the engines and the Puma helicopter landed heavily, testing the suspension on the helicopters three leading gears with a crunch. After a slight bounce the helicopter coming to a stop Dr. Croft extended his hand out of the open cabin door to help June and her friend onboard.

GeneTech
Military Research Facility
Mittleton City

The two operators from the Bureau of National Security dressed in black suits continued to transfer information from the research centres computers on the thirteenth floor, to portable hard drives they had brought, as another black Chinook helicopter landed on the roof helipad. The fifteen agents all dressed in either black or grey suit’s disembarked from the Chinook, each with heavy looking thick metal briefcases or suitcases. As the fifteen agents walked across the roof to the open access door the Chinook lifted from the helipad and disappeared into the distance.

On the Thirteenth floor the elder of the two agents from the Bureau of National Security took charge of the fifteen new arrivals, instructing some to help with the data transfer to the portable hard drives and the others to search for the Lazarus Virus and antidote that should have been on the thirteenth floor airtight research laboratory, but had yet to be recovered.

FOB Charlie

The zombies hadn’t attack FOB Charlie for sometime time now and the engineers had work at an amazing pace. The central compound had been completed its walls, each two hundred metres in length and eight metres high, forming a hexagon shape with each wall having a double gate entrance system. Too four of the walls of the central compound the construction of more hexagon shaped compounds were going up while in between those hexagon compounds four square shaped compounds were being constructed.

Amidst this hustle and bustle Corporal Davies walked out of Major Tanya Sheppard’s command tent in the central compound of FOB Charlie, his face red with anger. He walked over to the collection of tents in one corner of the central compound that served as a barracks cursing with nearly every step.

Corporal Davies saw Jake and thought for a second before continuing back to the tents. Davies stopped, turned to face Jake and walked over to him.

“Jake, I need your help mate” Corporal Davies said to Jake, his whole body shaking from the pent up rage.

HMS Trimel

Aboard the HMS Trimel the PROHT marines that has surrender to the crew where disarmed and the marines guarded them from choke points on the deck of the River Class patrol vessel, which headed back to a navy base not to far away to process the captives. The HMS Sacrifice one of the Duke class frigates ventured to close to the remaining PROHT mines and a torpedo caused considerable damage to the starboard amidship area leaving the vessel crippled and with fourteen crew members killed. As the vessel sank slowly the remaining crew launched the lifeboats and headed for one of the nearby destroyers for recovery.
The Alidorn navy dispatched two mine sweepers to pick up the remaining PROHT mines from Alidorn territorial and international waters.

Folly Meadows Petrol Station
The old man was caught in an obvious lie.
Gopher: (Non-redneck tone, since all it did was scare the poor man)
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that you cannot go, we only planned to take you to the edge and then escort you back, and we were willing to pay a few thousnad Pounds, for safe journey, and your home would been well taken care of. But then that leaves a few questions: Why were you willing to go out there alone, without pay then; but now that we come by asking for you to do it again, you claim to be too feeble and old?
And another thing, if Alidor patrols are so lax, why hasn't this town been overrun by zombies yet?
I believe I speak for my entire team when I say I do not believe your story.
Our offer still stands, you may come willingly, and be returned unharmed with pocket full of Alidorian Pounds, or be forced to be our 'expendable' guide, all the way to Mittleton. Your call."

At this time most of the men from the APC had finished what they were doing and had formed a tight ring around the counter of the shop.

HMS Trimel
When the Marines saw one of the Alidorian ships go up, they gave a frightful cheer, this was quickly stiffled when they too, were in an Alidorian boat.

The Beach
Mark Gatsby finaly cleared the trees, and his heart skipped a beat. If it had not been for his aching leg, and the fact that he was badly fatigued from running. He would have jumped for joy. Before him lay 4 ungaurded jeeps, all standard military push button ignition (military cars don't use keys).

He also knew taht if he just took one he would most likely befall the same fate as the 4 Alidorian Marines that caused this entire mess. He quickly came up with a plan.

First he started ALL the jeeps, aimed one up the road, and the other two up and down the beech, canted slightly for the treeline, leaving the last one for himself.

He then poured gasoline on those jeeps, engaged the clutch, wedged his grenade (a very rare LSD\Hallucegenic gas grenade) on the accelerator, lit the jeep on fire, and took his foot off the clutch while jumping off, he repeated this another two times (using the more common Thermobaric Grenades).

To cover up the evidence of a landing, he fired burst after burst into the weapons caches until they started to cook off and finaly exploded.

He then hopped into the last jeep and drove in the only direction that did not lead to certain death. Away from where the jeeps had came and where the patrol was. He planned to head for the treeline as soon as he saw another road.

"Boy, are they in for a surprise once they see those!" He laughed a little to himself as he sped away, driving in the surf to prevent tracks from showing, only to be stifled by a whince in pain as he looked at his leg.

"Them stupid yanks shot me!"

OOC: That jeep will most likely set off neary EVERY mine on that road. Keep in mind it is on fire. And will not manage to take any corners. (It will fly off the road and into a tree after passing through the minefield at full speed)

FOB Charlie

Corporal Davies left the command tent looking mad as hell. He stormed past Jake, seemed to reconsider something, and turned back to face the cop.

"Jake, I need your help, mate," the corporal said. He looked ready to murder someone.

"What's the story?" Jake asked. From the look on Davies' face, it had more to do with the living than the dead.

Area 12 Hangar

June and Dr. Graham reached the hangar just in time to see a military helicopter lifting off the tarmac. Dr. Graham looked around, spotting another helicopter nearby. "We'll have to hurry before all the soldiers leave," he said, taking her hand and starting off toward the vehicle.

"Wait," June said. As Graham looked, the first helicopter settled down again, bumping hard against the ground. Graham backed away, fearing that they'd been discovered, but his fears were unfounded. A door opened in the side, and a familiar figure waved them over.

"Dr. Croft!" June shouted, running toward the helicopter. She and Dr. Graham climbed into the back. Graham slid the door back into place and the helicopter lifted away from the facility.

"June!" Kelly gave the younger woman a hug. "I thought we were going to lose you." She turned her attention to the researcher in the torn biohazard suit. "Who's this?"

"Nathan Graham," the man said, shaking her hand. "Virology. You must be Dr. Watson...we haven't met in person."

"Did you just come from the hot lab?" Kelly asked. "What happened to your suit?"

"When that alarm went off, the airlock sealed," he said. "Miss Stokes...broke an observation window and helped me get out." He wasn't sure whether to tell them about June's gun.

"Good god," Kelly said. "If you were exposed..."

"Little chance of that," Dr. Croft said. "Biohazard Level 4 facilities are kept as sterile as possible. The suits are an added precaution against airborne pathogens--but we've established that the virus we're working on can only go airborne when extremely concentrated. You haven't been exposed to anything."

"But the breach alarm..." June started to ask.

"Was a distraction," Kelly said. "There was no breach."

June sighed in relief. She felt like a death sentence had been lifted. Then the questions came. "So, if there's no breach...what's going on?"

The seaplane then made a course for The Kingdom of Alidor, under instruction to not only pick up the Alidorian observers, but to take pictures, many pictures, mostly of a stricken destroyer and a massive bomb crater, or whatever else looked interesting. (The goal was to get the news first, and then distort it before Alidor releases its rendition (also distorted) of events.)


Commander Alan Richter “Knight Flight, request you do a fly by of the beach area 6 miles to our east, an unidentified object was dropped from one of the aircraft”



Some ways east of the north coast of Alidor where some unlucky Alidorians had been killed, was none other than Mjr.Gatsby, who decided to pause a moment to tie a tournaquet around his left leg, he also noted a few other graze wounds all over, head, chest, hip, foot, which by now had become great big painful welts and burns. He also noted a few more holes in his helmet and pit marks on his flack jacket he didn't remember seeing before leaving the HTS Independance. He decided to count his toes, he only found six, the others had been blown off either by misplaced steps in the minefield or when running past the troops. He decided to crash his jeep into a tree like the others, and hope nobody could tell the difference. He looked in the sky to see a plane humming in the distance, what appeared to be a RPY-1, a plane he had trained so hard to fly at a great air show, only to let his rival Major Stryker, take his place as the demonstrator pilot. Mark held a vial in front of his lap, it was the 'innoculation' developed for PROHT's illiegal Plauge bioweapons project. Taking it would make him nearly impossable for the Alidorians to kill or track (and would regrow his limbs, or so they claim), but also would blow all his chances of a normal life, although that is only comparative when you are missing body parts. Mark tucked it back neatly into his pocket. He then laughs at an old saying he heard back in basic training:

"If you lose anything, come and see me, and I'll try my best to help you get along without it"

He could really use a plane about now, prefferably if he was in the pilot's chair of the RPY-1. So he walked along the treeline.

Black Puma Helicopter
(Heading for Mittleton City)

Dr. Croft looked around the helicopters cabin, at the face’s looking back at him. He took a perch on one of the troop seats before he spoke.

“A few hours ago an old friend of mine came to see me while Dr. Washington and Dr. Watson were working in the Bio Labs. He told me that while the Mittleton City outbreak was an unfortunate accident the virus which caused it had been under developed at a secret military research centre in Mittleton City centre”

Dr. Croft paused for a second to let the information sink in, the captive audience looked shocked and scared

“We all know what happened after that, the city was over run in a matter of hours and then the virus quickly spread to the surrounding towns and village’s, the death toll is in the tens of millions already and is still rising”

Dr. Adrian Croft wiped the sweat from his forehead as he reminded himself of the conversation he had had a few hours before hand.

“My friend had told me that entire base (Area 12) was being constantly monitored, our work, our conversations, the food we eat, our rubbish has been sifted through for anything they could use to misguide us and any advances we made to creating a cure were being sabotaged by the….by people who do not want another cure for the engineered virus to be developed and threaten their work with a widely available antivirus”

Dr. Croft paused for a second and looked at the people in the helicopter’s cabin, all of them looking a little unsure of what they were hearing.

“My friend, Brian, works for the Bureau of National Security, or maybe that should be worked for them. I had asked him to wait for me while I checked on Leroy and Kelly but when I returned to my office he wasn’t there and there were traces of blood on my desk and office floor. It was then that I became convinced that what I had been told was the truth and that our lives were in increasing danger the longer we stayed so I felt it was imperative that we leave Area 12”

Shock hit all of the members of Dr. Croft’s audience at the claims of the Mittleton City virus actually being a bio-weapon developed by the agencies that defend Alidor.
The helicopter engine noise was all that was heard in the helicopter while the people took on board what Dr. Croft had just said, Dr. Croft reflected on the last time he had seen his friend before today, its was a hot sunny day in the middle of June while they were both at Atlerton University, it had been many years ago.

The helicopter bucked as it hit a patch of turbulence rocking the passengers in the cabin.

FOB Charlie

Corporal Davies clenched his fists trying to control the rush of emotions surging through his body, demanding attention, demanding release, demanding action.

“A report has just come in about Scarlen, Jake; the place is a zombie hive man”

Tears welled in Corporal Davies eyes as he spoke, his voice cracking with each word.

“My….my wife and kid live there, we have a house…..they must be…alive Jake they must e alive”

Corporal Davies turned away and cupped his face for a few seconds as he struggled with his fears and emotions his whole body shaking.
Corporal Davies turned back to face Jake, you don’t talk to a man like Jake through the side of face, his actions demand better.

“Jake, I have to go their” Corporal Davies started “The Major wont let me say’s its to dangerous to send more patrols out” Corporal Davies stopped talking for a second while he stared at the ground wrestling his emotions “Jake, I cant ask any of the soldiers to go with me, I don’t mind throwing away my carrier but I cant ask it of others, can I ask you to help me Jake, will you help me to rescue my family Jake, will you come to Scarlen”

Hurtful Beach

The remaining marines cleared the tree line chasing the fugitive PROHT pilot. A flaming jeep speeds through the middle of the marines and crashed into the trunk of a thick tree and burnt fiercely, one of its rear wheels spinning furiously, throwing sand dust into the air as plastic ad rubber bubbled and split.

The marines regrouped on the beach and watched as a single man fled east along the beach a cloud of sand spreading in his wake. The lieutenant grabbed the headset of the long range radio operator.

“Patrol two to Arkin, Patrol Two to Arkin, engaged hostile forces, believed to be a single male, heavily armed, three down. Tango is currently heading east, that is east, in a stolen jeep over. Remaining three vehicles are sabotaged and unrecoverable, over”

The marines secured their immediate area searching for any other ‘survivors’ that may still be in the nearby bushes and grass.

Folly Meadows petrol station

“I guess I have no other choice than to go with you boys then eh”

The attendant spluttered out, the old man fearing for his life wondered how long it would be before the first of the mornings commuters would be stopping for petrol it shouldn’t be long now.

“You know it’s not really that hard to find your way, it’s just getting past the patrol-but then again they only go by once an hour or so, so it shouldn’t be that much of a problem for you chaps”

Offices of the Bureau of National Security

Adrian Walker had been summoned to his section commander’s office, this was either a good thing or a bad thing, and Adrian hadn’t been on any excursions for over a month so, he figured, it must be a good thing.

“Adrian, sit down” his superior instructed.

Adrian Walker sat in one of the two expensive looking leather seats on his side of the desk, and tried to guess what was coming next.

“Adrian, the Peoples Republic of Hurtful Thoughts, or PROTH, are organising a fly off between some top of the range military aircraft at their Roanoke Island facility (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=456503)”

An unnamed lady came into the office and handed the two men a mug of tea and a plate of biscuits.

“We want you to get over there and find out what they thought they were up to, trying to land troops on our shores”

Reaching into his top draw the Commander grabbed a non-descript brown A4 sized folder, handing it to Adrian Walker he said.

“We have organised a cover for you. You will be a Strategic Arms Incorporated junior executive and will be accompanying Andrew Garner, Strategic Arms heads of Procurements, familiarise yourself with this information before you go”

Folly Meadows petrol station
Gopher\Mr. Smith
"Well, I'm glad you came to your senses. I take it you want to ride in the protection of the APC and be given an armed escort back home, you shall be paid then."

Some random marine:
"You're in luck! It's not everyday you get to sit next to a celebrity, perhaps you heard of Edward Geissman, also known as Prisioner 256."

Ed gives a short smile, then returns to staring at the non-too immaculae floor of the APC.

Isaac:
You might also recognize world renound microbiologist, Dr. Hannibal Lector. For safety reasons, we'll have him ride on top."

Hannibal:
"The stories of my many deaths have been greatly exagerated as you can see."

Gopher:
"Oh, and to prove we aren't liying..." - waves a wad of Alidorian pounds in front of the attendant, easily worth a few million dollars. Peels off a few of the bills, and tucks it in the attendant's pocket.

Isaac picks up a peice of cardstock, and writes on it:
"Will be back in one hour"
Personal leave of abscence

"Now, if you'll let us, may we begin?"

OOC: feel free to describe their physical charcteristics

FOB Charlie

Poor bastard, Jake thought. There's no way his family could have survived. He reflected on the sheer luck that had kept him alive until now. Maybe, if they managed to hole up somewhere... But getting them out, he realized, would still be next to impossible.

He suddenly realized that this was it--this was how he was going to die. He'd come inches from death half a dozen times since he and his partner had been dispatched to the "riots." His luck had to run out some time.

"How do we get there?" Jake asked.

Black Puma Helicopter

"Jesus," June murmured. Two terrible revelations, one after another. The virus was made by the government. They were suppressing research on a cure.

June felt a sinking feeling as she suddenly recognized the Mittleton skyline through a window. They were heading into the city. "What's going on?" she asked. "I thought we were escaping..."

"If there's a cure," Leroy said, "it belongs to everyone. Not just the government."

FOB Charlie

Relief swept through Corporal Davies when Jake agreed to help him, and immediately the two men prepared for the coming days. They drew weapons from the armoury, an AS80A2 assault rifle each with around eight hundred rounds between them, two Beretta PX4 Storm pistols and fourteen magazines and enough 9mm ammo to fill the magazines, and two Remington modular combat shotguns with about a hundred cartridges’. With their weapons and ammunition in front of them Corporal Davies and Jake set about loading their assault rifle magazines and pistol clips with rounds and placing the loaded magazines into the magazine pockets of forest camouflage Kevlar combat jackets that Corporal Davies had acquired. The jackets held seven pistol clips and six thirty round assault rifle magazines and eighteen 12 gauge shotgun shells, the rest of the loaded magazines, clips and shotgun ammunitions went into combat patrol bags, a smaller version of the Bergen, which then ended up in the back of the Land Rover Wolf Corporal Davies was driving out of FOB Charlie and towards Scarlen.

Corporal Davies threw the jeep around the bends in the country roads, the light was beginning to fad and Davies wanted to get to Scarlen before dark. It was just a few miles up the road…..

Folly Meadows Quarantine Wall Construction Area

The old man from the petrol station pointed from the tree line were he and the PROHT marines where stood, his finger aimed at a single Land Rover Wolf ambling across an untended corn field.

“See that’s the second one to go by, an hour apart as a told you boys”
he motioned beyond the lone jeep
“about two miles in that directions there is a chain link fence, they put that up about two days ago”

The old man turned to the leader of the rabble of men

“They aint said when they’re gonna build the wall around here but I’ll bet it’ll be soon”

The old man extended his hand, hoping for enough money to rid his life of debt but fearing that these young bucks would just as soon kill him as pay him.

Black Puma Helicopter
(near Mittleton City)

The cabin of the black Puma helicopter the group of researchers had liberated was still quite as the group of would be hero’s thought of their situation and how in such a short time life could change so much.
The helicopter jerked wildly and Dr, Adrian Croft stumbled to the cockpit were Leroy was struggling with the controls.

“What’s wrong Leroy” Adrian shouted over the engines

The Marines in the APC decided to pay the man a total sum of 3,500 Alidorian Pounds for his services, and with the implied promise to keep his mouth shut, further brought home by the events that took place.

"One of our men shall now escort you back home"

Gopher was theroughly convinced that the 'attendant' was actually a spy of some sort - I guess he's a bit paranoid at this point. Then one last thought crossed his mind...

"Wait! Have you - or anyone you know - been, well, bitten by one of those, things? Because if so, we have a remedy for that, Hannibal here is living proof that it works."

Folly Meadows Quarantine Construction Area

“Na, we never got far enough to see any zombies, the soldiers grabbed us less than five miles into the quarantined area” the old man responded to Gophers question. “I knew it, they are going to kill me after all” thought the old man as he stood in the woods next to the PROHT APC and marines.

GeneTech
Military Research Facility
Mittleton City

Most of the operators of the Bureau of National Security continued transferring the data from the research facilities computers to portable hard drives while a hand full of operatives searched for the Lazarus Virus and its antidote in the bio-labs of the thirteenth floor. The marines continued to monitor the stair wells and access doors to the thirteenth floor and roof. There didn’t appear to be any infected people roaming the building but appearances can be deceiving.

River Bend Road
Scarlen

The Land Rover Wolf squealed to a halt outside the two storey detached house that used to be Corporal Davies home the two front doors swung open and the two men had leap from the car almost before it had stopped. The fence around the front garden had been forced over and the front door was open a jar. There were no light’s visible from the front were Corporal Davies and Jake had just pulled up.

“I’ll check the rear” Jake said to Corporal Davies, his voice tense and strained.

Corporal Davies had his shotgun strapped to his back and his pistol in his hands, raised to the ready position as he entered the front door. The house interior was dark so Corporal Davies grabbed his torch from his a utility strap on his Kevlar vest and holding it in his left hand and his pistol in his right hand, he crossed his left arm over his right at the wrists so that the torch shone were the pistol was pointed and continued into the house.

Grudgingly, Rick followed Gopher's orders, picked up his CM-16, a barrel extension, and a clip of 'K'-bullets, which only had two practical purposes, shooting holes into tanks and sniping people from a very long distance.

Rick then suggested that they get moving, and reassured the rest that he would catch up later.

Rick was then given all the remaining cash, to buy his way either in or out of the mission, as he saw fit.

As the trest of the group leaves, Rick turns to the old man and asks what kind of car he could get in town for 1,000 Alidorian Pounds. But always made sure the old man was in front of him, Pvt. Gopher's paranoia had spread somewhat, and Rick didn't care to get killed by someone three times his age.

Jake cautiously circled around the house, his shotgun at the ready. The place was in disarray; fences had been trampled, debris was scattered across the ground. As he entered the back yard, he saw something protruding from behind two overturned trash cans--a tennis shoe, a bit of blue jeans. If the owner was getting back up, Jake decided, it was better to take care of it now. He approached slowly, rotating around the cans to get a better view.

The owner of the leg turned out to be missing. The amputated limb terminated in a ragged, reddish-brown stump at the knee. Jake hoped it wasn't anyone Davies had known. He turned his attention back into the house.

Jake found out that the back door had been barricaded only after he opened it, knocking off a few weak planks held on by undersized nails. He reflected that the front door was open--had the creatures broken in? Or had Davies' family had the sense to get out in time?

The interior of the house was dark; perhaps the power was off in this area. Jake turned on his torch and slipped it under one of the shoulder straps so that it shined more or less forward. When he moved into the shadowy interior, the stench of blood and rot hit him hard. A very bad sign. Jake knew he would never find the family alive, but he'd hoped they could at least meet their end peacefully. During the ride over, he'd pictured them, people he didn't even know, sitting in their living room...the kids, he didn't know how many, with makeshift blindfolds and maybe cotton in their ears, Mrs. Davies, weeping, shooting them one by one in the head with one of her husband's sidearms, then turning it on herself. Or maybe she'd given them all painkillers or sleeping pills, and broken out the champagne they'd been saving for a special occasion...Or maybe they'd died out there on the streets, where at least Corporal Davies wouldn't have to see their mangled bodies, perhaps seeking one last gruesome embrace...

But no. The cloying, sour, slightly coppery scent of blood told him that someone had died here, violently.

His thoughts were interrupted by the guttural screech of the undead. He whipped around a corner, training his weapon down the hall, toward the source of the sound. A form raced at him. The beam of light from his torch was too low; it didn't illuminate the monster's head; he caught a glimpse of glistening, exposed intestine and aimed for that.
BLAM.
The form went down, its spine shattered by the buckshot. Jake aimed for the head, which he could see now--brown hair, a youthful face.
BLAM.

Jake looked around for more trouble as he waited for his ears to stop ringing. He saw Corporal Davies running up, asking him something. "What?" Jake asked. But Davies was already on the ground, examining what was left of the person's face. He seemed to be breathing heavily.

"I'm sorry," Jake said. His hearing was starting to return. Davies looked up. He was on the verge of crying. "I'm so sorry," Jake repeated.

"Jake," Davies said quietly, "I didn't know this guy."

There was a handgun tucked into the young man's waistband. Two gold rings had slipped from his hand when he hit the ground, and a hundred-note was sticking out of a back pocket. He was just a looter.

Saying nothing, Jake helped the corporal up. He was seeing tears of relief, he realized--and every kill they made in this house would mean another heart-wrenching thirty seconds of visceral panic for poor Davies. Every kill until they found his family, dead or alive.

They continued their sweep together. They found a naked, emaciated, elderly man in the kitchen, dragging himself across the tile on a shattered knee. He had been autopsied, but the sutures on his chest had ruptured. His intestines dragged behind him; where the rest of his organs were was anyone's guess. Jake took just enough time to make sure Davies didn't recognize the man before converting his skull to paste.

They came to the stairs--and stopped.

The stairs were gone. A pile of wooden wreckage lay in their place, leaving the second floor more or less inaccessible.

Jake leaned in, picking up a fragment of wood. He set his shotgun against the wall and took his torch out of its loop, shining it on the end. "This wasn't broken," he said. "This was chopped. Like an axe was used." He considered the implications. "This works better than a barricade. Nothing could follow them up there...they could still be alive."

OOC: Sorry about the absence. Essays and other crap came up.


Mittleton City
Super-Six-Four Over the Target Building

Door Gunner Jackson looked down on the roof.
"Hey there coming out!, Radio Super-Six-Six and tell him to swoop down and we will pick up the seccond 10!"
"Alright!"
The Blackhawk swooped down onto the roof, it hovered a few inches off the ground and waited for the men and Civilians to climb aboard.

Super-Six-Two Crash Site

The Surviving men grabed ammo and supplies off of the destroyed Blackhawk, after the supplies and ammo were taken off the Chopper, the Healthy men pushed the Chopper off of the building killing tens of zombies below.
"How yeah like that, you fucking bastards!" Sargent Jensen yelled at the Horde below.
"Alright we just need to sit tight. The rescue chopper will be here in a few moments....

YMB In Country

Setted well behind friendly lines. The 50,000 Marines were spread out helping Civilians relocate and running Partols for any pickets of the Undead.
a Single Blackhawk rose up and headed in the Direction of Mittleton City. It's intent and Mission was to rescue the Stranded Rangers.

Defensive Wall Construction Site

The full Engineer Battalion of Yukatan Marines help with this Part of the Wall.
"Give me the Radio.." Engineer Caldwell said to a Private.
"Yes Sir."
"Commander. We need another Battalion of Engineer's to help Finish this wall."
"Yes sir..standard Ground Convoy will be find."...

Folly Meadows

The old man and private Rick Sawyer walked slowly through the woods towards the petrol where the old man had planned to work out the last of his days.

“What kind of car can I get for a grand?” the PROHT private asked the elderly attendant.

“We’ll it’s been awhile since I bought a car but I think you should be able to manage something like a small to medium size car, it depends on the age really” The frightened old man replied.

River Bend Road
Scarlen

Corporal Davies stood in Jakes cupped hands as he reached up to the upper floor of the house, a few minutes later Davies was edging down the landing hallway checking the bedroom and bathroom doors as he came to them “There’s no one here” Davies realised as he checked the third and final bedroom of the house.

While Jake took care of himself down stairs Corporal Davies returned to the master bedroom that he and his wife had shared for eight years, Davies noticed a penned note on the bedside table



David,

I’ve taken James to my parents

Love you,
Sarah
X

“Here parents, is she mad” David Davies thought to himself “That in the middle of Mittleton City”, his mind raced “could she still be alive in Mittleton” he didn’t know and couldn’t know, he just had to get there to save them, if they could be saved.

David took of down the hallway with the note in his hand towards the destroyed stair case were he had left Jake on the ground floor, BLAM, BLAM, Jake’s shotgun discharging again. When David reached the top of the stair case he saw Jake fire another two shoots towards the front door.

Mittleton City

Pratt watched from the door side seat as the buildings and zombies disappeared beneath him and the other surviving policemen and civilians that had made it this far.
Relief for the first time in days swept over Pratt as he aloud himself to relax in the protection of the military.

Black Puma Helicopter

“We just ran out of fuel Adrian” Leroy yelled over his shoulder, as the helicopter began to descend towards the inner city slums of Mittleton, a place that you wouldn’t want to go under normal circumstances, never mind when the city had been turned into a zombie hive.

Adrian Croft and the other passengers gripped onto their harnesses, the protrusions from the bulkhead or each other for comfort as Leroy struggled with the controls of the helicopter.

“Get ready” Leroy yelled into the rear cabin seconds before the helicopter’s main rotor blades were torn from their fixing’s by the apartment blocks lining the roads.
The helicopter ploughed into the abandoned vehicles and tarmac street, the hull screamed and moaned as the landing gears forced their way up through the crushed floor and the ballistically hardened windows filled the cockpit and cabin with shards of razor sharp glass.

Rick [as they entered city limits]:
Mind if I pay you 1,500 Pounds if you'll look the other way as I borrow a car?
(this may be the old man's chance to settle a longstanding grudge)

Mjr. Mark Gatsby [yes, still alive]
Being heavily bruised and battered by his brief and non-heroic firefight with an Alidorian search party, and lugging some 80 lbs of munitions, Mark decided to drag himself up the road, and try to stay out of sight of any searching air patrols, although he wished he had an RPG, a CM-16 with a hand grenade and cup discharger ought to do it for any helicopter that strayed too close.

The APC "The little loose coupe" (They thought up it's name while drunk)
after an uneventful hop into the quarintine zone, the APC made best speed to Mittleton, hoping to be mistaken for a search and destroy party and not as invaders.
(National insignia was pounded and brazed off, along with most of the paint, to make it look 'battle weary')

OOC:
Defensive Wall Construction Site

The full Engineer Battalion of Yukatan Marines help with this Part of the Wall.
"Give me the Radio.." Engineer Caldwell said to a Private.
"Yes Sir."
"Commander. We need another Battalion of Engineer's to help Finish this wall."
"Yes sir..standard Ground Convoy will be fine."...
<Reply> Alidor has 30 POWs on the Trimmel, if you [Yukatania] would like, he may send those supervised by a squad of his own troops (one platoon, considered ‘expendable’ to Alidor, since according to PROHT, they don’t exist).

Mr. Gatsby, no longer content, in fact he never was, to make a last stand against Alidorian MPs. staggered into the nearest town he could find, it seemed to him to be rather luxurious (some sort of beech resort?). And so he dragged himself into the first unlocked building he could find (well, it was locked, but he didn't seem to notice, it was only a padlock to a fence, no biggy). Gatsby already had a plan in his head on how to get out of Alidor alive and in one piece, and it involved getting some 'help' to do this, this help would come from what he believed to be local hoodlums and terrorists, or anyone not totally loyal to Alidor for that matter.

River Bend Road
Scarlen

Jake kept watch out the front door while Davies investigated upstairs. He wondered idly why he didn't hear anything.

Something lunged into view right outside the door, fast enough to give Jake a heart attack. A bald old man in a bathrobe reached in, trying to grab him. Jake recoiled, stumbling, almost tripping over. He fired his shotgun, but his aim wasn't right, and the blast ripped through the dead man's collarbone. His arm went slack, and clotted, black blood oozed out of the gaping wound as the muscles tried to work. The creature reached in with its other arm, lunging forward, but Jake's second shot was right on target. The dead man fell backwards out the front door.

The shots echoed up and down the quiet, empty street. They were answered by a chorus of unearthly howls. The dead stumbled out from their hiding places, behind hedges, inside homes, within crashed vehicles. Jake ducked back into the house, fervently hoping he hadn't been spotted. The howls told him he had. Cursing, he reloaded his shotgun and crouched in the doorway in time to blast the nearest two creatures rushing toward him.

Black Puma Helicopter

The helicopter came down fast, but it hit the street at an angle, so it skidded forward instead of crushing like a soda can. Even so, the skids collapsed under the weight of the fuselage and the helicopter skidded on its belly, careening against a concrete building and shearing off its rotors. The aircraft rotated, ripping its tail off against the corner of another building; it tumbled, actually rolling over a sport car abandoned in the middle of the street before coming to rest on its side with its nose crushed against a city bus.

June wasn't sure if she had been knocked out or merely dazed, but she was very suddenly aware of smelling smoke and fuel and feeling like she'd spent a week in a rock tumbler. Her first thought was that she and the others needed to get out of the helicopter before the fuel caught fire. Her second thought was to wonder if she could move enough to get out of her seat. She wiggled her fingers and toes, and tried moving her joints; she was sore as all hell, but she was pretty sure she hadn't broken her arms or legs. It hurt to breathe though; she may have cracked a rib or four, she decided.

June undid her seat belt and tumbled into Dr. Croft, who was unconscious and seated to her right--now below her. She wriggled off of him and stood on the asphalt where the helicopter's door would have been. It had come free at some point, and there was a gap between the street and the door just large enough for someone to squeeze through. She checked Dr. Croft's pulse--strong and steady. He seemed to be breathing, though it was hard to tell. Under normal circumstances, she should have left him in place; if he'd suffered spinal injuries, moving him might leave him paralyzed or worse. But she had no idea if or when the helicopter's spilled fuel would catch fire.

June shook Dr. Croft gently, trying unsuccessfully to wake him. Frustrated and understandably impatient, she pinched him. He winced and opened his eyes. "...June?"

"We crashed," June said. "We're in Mittleton City and I think the fuel tank's ruptured. We have to get out of here. Do you think you can move?"

"Y...Yeah," Dr. Croft said, fumbling with his seat belt. He fell out of his seat by June's feet, and maneuvered into a sitting position--about all there was room for. The asphalt was slippery with blood. "I'll check Kelly and Dr. Graham. I can't get to Leroy from here; can you check on him from outside?"

"I'll try," June said, dropping to her belly and squeezing out through the door.

Dr. Croft reached up to check Dr. Graham's pulse. There was none. Dr. Croft realized with a shock that a piece of ballistic glass the size of a hubcap had neatly sliced through the man's throat, stopping against his spine. There would be no reviving him.

Kelly's pulse was weak and thready, and she had a major shrapnel injury in her abdomen. She was breathing, though. Dr. Croft tried to wake her. "Kelly."

Her eyes opened. There was not much fight left in them. "Dr. Croft..." she said quietly. Her mouth was crusted with blood. "I'm hurt pretty bad."

"I think I can patch you up, but we need to get you out of here," Dr. Croft said. "I think you'll make it." His voice held the confidence his gut lacked.

Outside, June clambered up the crumpled nose of the helicopter to get at Leroy. Her chest punished her with every breath, every exertion. She peered in through the broken windshield.

"Hey." It was Leroy. He could barely whisper. He had a fierce black eye and blood streaked from his broken nose. "That you, June?"

"Yeah. We need to get out of here," she said.

"Tell me something I don't know," he said, coughing.

It was ten minutes before everyone was out of the helicopter--everyone except the late Dr. Graham. Kelly could not stand up on her own, so Leroy and Dr. Croft held her up. "We need to find shelter, fast," Leroy said.

"We could try one of those apartment buildings," June suggested.

"No dice," Leroy said. "They could be crawling with those things, and we're in no shape to fight. Especially since most of our guns are still in the chopper." They had salvaged one of the SA80A2 rifles and June's 9mm pistol. They didn't dare go back inside for the rest--the smoke from the engine was getting thicker and the aircraft could explode at any time.

Something caught Leroy's eye. A delivery van was parked askew in front of one of the apartments. Its driver-side door was open. Blood was splattered on the white paint in gaudy crimson arcs.

Leroy approached the van cautiously. The front seats were empty--and the key was in the ignition. The back doors were closed, but unlocked. The back of the van was, thankfully, also empty.

"I think we've just had our bit of good luck for the day," Leroy told the group. He helped lay Kelly in the back, and June stayed with her. Leroy took the driver's seat and Dr. Croft rode shotgun.

"Where are we going?" June asked.

Leroy gunned the ignition. "Kelly needs help, bad. The hospital's only a few blocks away, but that's a deathtrap. That laboratory Dr. Croft told us about must have medical supplies...so it looks like that's still our destination."

After a day of bone jarring driving, the rew tuned into the shortwave and heard from PROHT propoganda... er... newsstation that ALL M-113s have been given to the police and are being replaced by something called the HT-101 AFV. As being demonstrated to Alidorian businessmen at New Roanoke Island.

They must have forgotten one. The 'news' wasn't ever that accurate, NRI was off limits... A few wondered if they would recognize PROHT when they returned.

Mr. Lector was lying on the hull top when he saw the Mittleton city skyline.

A very tense half-hour later, the group had reached a building Dr. Croft assured them was GeneTech. They had encountered only a few lone undead along the way; most had probably gotten inside the buildings. Leroy was glad they had decided to press on rather than taking shelter in what could have been a deathtrap.

Not that this place was much better. With some effort, they had broken open the building's front doors. The lobby was a vision of carnage. Crimson splatters on the walls, blood pooled liberally on the marble floor, overturned furniture. Intestines lay like streamers over the front desk. No bodies, moving or otherwise.

"Croft, where do we go from here?" Leroy asked. He didn't expect Dr. Croft to know the answer, but he asked anyway.

Mittleton:
They drove onto a road marked ‘Willow street’, the place was littered with wrecked cars. Out of an underground garage, that had seen better days, were tire marks, a large truck at one time burst through the steel doors in an attempt to escape. Upon closer inspection it appeared to be a police station. They sent a pair of grunts to check inside, the front door was barricaded, and so they walked in through the busted garage door. Infestation was rather low, and the zombies encountered were dispatched with a clean cut from their entrenching tools, decapitating them, or using their rifle butts to crush their skulls. They eventually walked into the control center, and took note of where the ‘riots’ started, this would be were they would begin their search for the cause of the outbreak. They returned to the APC and instructed them to head for the intersection of Maple View and Knotts Road. Where the police set up the first roadblock to quell a riot that started somewhere in Mittleton city Centre, predominated by a rather large government building with heaps of dead men should have been, it was an obvious military research facility. The location of which reminded Lector of a quote from a report ‘proving’ that Russia didn’t have a bioweapons factory in the heart of a city, that one of the air filters where removed for cleaning, but never replaced, and sent many tons of Anthrax upon the population. ‘Only an idiot would put a major bioweapons factory in the middle of a city’.

Before leaving the men planted some thermobaric charges to thuroughly destroy the police station.

While en route to the building they saw in the distance, they came across a crashed helicopter, one of the dead was wearing a white lab coat and had been decapitated. At this point it was decided to take pictures and leave four men with the APC in case the team sent into the building didn’t come out. Dr. Lector wrote a brief preliminary summary of his findings, including a smashed vial he found in an alleyway not to far from the entrance of the building. Hannibal planned to go inside the building, to see how far Alidor had gotten in its doomsday project and to make sure they can never use it against them, at least that is what he said. The nine other men walked cautiously into the building. Infestation was apparent, but something had arrived earlier and exterminated all the zombies.

Folly Maedows
Upon reaching the old man’s home he decided not to risk being caught, Rick Sawyer and used chloroform to render him unconscious as he stole a nearby vehicle and stashed his remaining money into the old man’s pockets. He then drove off for Mittleton. Gun locked and loaded, and hidden from view.

In his haste, he also gave the man 10 Mhtzs.

‘Mark Gatsby’ In unidentified warehouse.
The warehouse was empty. So he stashed whatever he considered ‘unnecessary’ or undesirable in his attempt to evade the authorities, this meant leaving many of his grenades and the CM-249 behind, he mde sure to break down the ammo boxes and refill his clips for the lighter CM-16 assault rifle. He also left behind his insignia, and patches, which he burned. He then better tended to his injuries, splinting broken legs, binding his feet so they wouldn’t bleed so much among other things. He then set up the grenades to explode in 1 minute, and then made best possible speed out of the warehouse.

Hannibal Lectors Preliminary Report: (In sealed envelope)
Current evidence supports theory that Alidorian Military officials created the disease, vials were found smashed in the alleyway that may have contained the antigen of this plague. PROHT had nothing to do with this. Symptoms of their disease, though similar, are NOT the same as that exhibited in agent PVNRT2, and appears to be more of a highly advanced form of walking pneumonia. Studies will have to be made to confirm this, since at this point it is merely speculation and guesswork.

A dead lab technician was found in an attack helicopter near the epicenter of the disease, investigating a building that is obviously military, judging from the size of the building, the stack of dead bodies, military uniforms and absence of zombies inside. One of our men has been left behind in Folly Meadows. With further research we may have sufficient cause to declare war. Their economy, even during these troubled times, runs like clockwork. The locals are rather free spirited and most likely armed though. The police force appears inept at handling ‘well-driven’ riots and frenzies.

Enclosed are photographs that we have taken during our journey so far and the vial fragments and tissue samples collected.

Scarlen

"We need to go!" Jake shouted. "Right now!" He fired his shotgun again, catching a dead man in running shorts in the face. He stepped out the front door, fired twice more, and called out, "Come on, dammit!"

Corporal Davies was out the door a second later. "Jesus, mate, we stirred up the hornet's nest!"

The dead were closing in. Jake switched to his rifle and fired in short bursts, popping heads like rotten cantaloupes. He got in the Jeep on the driver's side and hit the ignition. He stomped on the accelerator before Davies could even close his door.

"Christ on a bike," Jake said. A moment later, "What now?"

"My family wasn't there," Davies said. "They left a note. They went to Mittleton."

He's going to ask me to go back into the city, Jake realized. No. No way. It's one thing to risk your life. This is suicide.

"Jake...they could still be alive." Jake said nothing.

They were coming up to an exit ramp leading back to Mittleton. "Jake, you've put your life on the line at FOB Charlie. You risked your neck coming out here. There's no guarantee my family's alive...I'll understand if you want to evac with the rest of the survivors..."

They reached the exit. And passed it.

A minute passed with only the sound of the engine between them. Davies looked like a lost man.

Jake slammed his fist in the dashboard. "God damn it," he muttered, and he jerked the wheel hard to one side. The Jeep hopped over the low concrete divider and onto the other side of the road. They reached the exit again and Jake turned hard onto it. He's given me every chance to throw in the towel, Jake thought. Do I want to die this badly?

Mittleton
GeneTech Building

"I don't know where to go from here," Dr. Croft admitted.

June checked the directory behind the main desk. "It looks like everything below the tenth floor is just offices," she said. "There is a Biosafety Level Four lab on the thirteenth floor."

"That sounds like our best bet," Dr. Croft said. "Do you see anything about first aid or medical treatment?"

"There's a first-aid station on the fourteenth floor," June said. "There's a surgical laboratory on the sixteenth."

"We should head for the surgical lab first," Leroy said. "Kelly doesn't look so good." The woman was barely conscious and very pale. She still couldn't stand on her own; she was supported by Leroy and Croft.

June made for the stairwell. "The stairs will take too long," Dr. Croft said. "She's lost a lot of blood. This building still has power--we should take the elevator."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Leroy said. "Power could go at any minute, or God knows what else could happen. If we get stuck inside..."

"We'll have to chance it," Croft said.

The group crowded into one of the elevators and headed up. "What if it's pretty bad up there?" Leroy thought out loud.

"Let's hope it's not," June said.

The room was empty, evidence did show a massive fight, but the bodies where gone, along with the usual paperwork at the check in counter, such as personel files. Which might come in handy if PROHT wanted to start accusing war crimminals. One of the men heard an elevator 'ding'. They rushed to the door, it was going up, they would follow as soon as the elevator stopped, sending two men, then the rest. The first two would have weapons ready, in case zombies where living upstairs, while the rest aimed their guns onto the elevator doors in case zombies came down on the return trip.

GeneTech Research building
Mittleton City

The elevator doors pinged open on the sixteenth floor and the level appeared empty as the bedraggled group stumbled through the open doorway. Leroy and Adrian help Kelly from the elevator and down the hallway towards the surgical lab.
Kelly Watson wasn’t walking anymore and her feet dragged along the floor as they entered the lab.

“Ok we don’t have much time now we need to get Kelly on the table” Dr Croft said “June, get me an emergency surgical tray immediately…..you will have to play assistant this time” he continued.

Mean while on the thirteenth floor the intelligence operative had finished retrieving the information on the research complex laboratory computers detailing the virus and anti-virus DNA configurations. There was unfortunately no sample of either compound, active or frozen, in the research laboratories on the thirteenth floor and the intelligence officers began their evacuation of the building.
Only the two original intelligence agents and the marines were still in the building as the elevator pinged passed the thirteenth floor and came to a rest on the sixteenth floor, moments later the lift began its descent down passed the thirteenth floor coming to rest in the lobby again.
The lead intelligence officer spoke into his radio.

“Lieutenant Gordy, respond”
“Gordy here”
“We have company on level sixteen and in one of the lifts heading up from the lobby”
“What is the status of the recovery mission sir?”
“Primary package recovered, secondary package unaccounted for, prepare your men in defensive positions”
“confirmed”

The marines were already covering the choke points of the stairwell that lead to the rooftop helipad and with the exception of the lift there was no other way up the building. If the foreign soldiers tried to come up the stairs they would be cut down quickly.



Arches Road
Mittleton City

The land rover wolf carrying corporal Davies and Jake came to a screeching halt outside Sarah’s parent’s house and David recognised the small hatch back car he owned parked on the drive. His wife and child were either in the house alive or they had been infected.
As the two men forced their way into the three story town house, the sound of muffled cries drift from some hidden location.

“Sarah, Sarah where are you” David yelled into the house.

Shuffling noises came from a cloak cupboard beneath the stairs and the door crept slowly open “D….David”

“Oh god, sweetheart, thank god your alright, were is James?”
“he’s here with me, my parents weren’t here David”
“It’s ok Sarah, were going to leave here now come on”

Corporal Davies didn’t want his wife to dwell on what might have happened to here parents, god knows it would have been sickening if they had been infected. They had to keep moving to avoid a similar fate.
Back in the land rover wolf the foursome sped through the city streets, they were heading into the city centre, abandoned vehicles blocked the side streets and the howls of the running dead echoed behind them.

“Corporal Davies to FOB Charlie do you receive, over” nothing came back through the radio. David’s mind raced, were they out of radio range?, had FOB Charlie been over run?. He tried again.
“Corporal Davies to FOB Charlie do you receive, over”
“This is FOB Charlie, go ahead corporal”
“I’m in Mittleton city centre now, and have found two survivors, repeat two survivors and am trying to return to base, over”
“Corporal Davies” it was Major Sheppard “You fucking idiot, what the hell do you think you are paying at”
“Ma’am, I, I” Jake stamped on the brakes hard and the jeep came to a sudden halt.
Before them lay the Genetech building and a foreign APC, and it wasn’t the Yukatanian military, they weren’t this far in the quarantine zone, it could only be there with hostile intent. Jake yanked on the steering wheel and with a squeal of blue smoke the jeep shot down the side road of the Genetech building.

“Fuck” Davies mouthed “there are zombies behind us and god knows how they are in front” Jake looked around the ally, there was only one way out and that was a forced fire door leading into the Genetech research building. Davies sent a quick radio message to FOB Charlie and then the group made for the open fire door.

A short message rang back through the radio but no one heard it

“Davies, I’m coming to Mittleton, hold tight”

Radio
All across the radios, even the one in the APC, the ones tuned in to PROHT's newstation, or any that had anyone form PROHT as a source, claimed that they uncovered two Alidorian spies on Ne Roanoke Island, carrying and using biological weapons. The press release also went on to state that a recon unit, had made its way to Mittleton where they found the bioweapons lab that created the disease.

On the telivision stations:
They included photoes of the police headquarters interior, the chopper, the doctor, and a vial, claimed to have contained the disease. It also cut to the log cabin, with blood splattered walls, bullets holes, a story of a missing PROHT escort, whom was said to have reported the Alidorian spies to officials. And then their breifcases, filled with electronics and espianoge gear; whether it wasfabricated or not, Alidor would be reciveing calls from the international community very soon.

In the APC:
We're screwed....

Send someone into the building and notify them for immediate extraction, we'll be leaving in half an hour.

As one an sprinted to the door, another went to the communications radio and started to request extraction. The response was cold and immediate.

"We don't have any military forces deployed in that area at this time, nor are we willing to lose any of our fleet getting you out, if you make it to the beach we might be able to arrange a trade of spies and prisioners, otherwise we'll try and get you aboard a submarine, somehow."

New Roanoke Island:
The entire omplement of Task force Three, along with 1 and 5, were stuck there for the time being due to a quarantine, The SSA Yahoo was undergoing compatability trials with the HT-101 AFV along the North coast.

Top brass was working on a way of keeping its many secrets intact, and leaking select ones to cause general fear and amminosity among nations.

On the high seas
Task Force Two 'Old standby' was living up to its name, being caled upon for three missions:
1> Extract recon unit fom Alidor
2>Deliver a special 'package' to Alidor
3>Set up first line of defense from impending Alidorian retaliations.

Task Force 3 consists of
CC-2 HTS Verdun heavy Cuiser/arsenal ship
SS-19 HTS Turtle
SS-56 HTS Loggerhead

LC-47. Calsign Dakota Chinook leading:
LC-12 carrying AC 84 hovercraft
LC-13 carrying AC 39 hovercraft

The landing forces comprised of (normally):
1,800 Marines
25 HT 5 trucks
25 HT-101 AFVs
25 CC-5 5" towed artillery
25 MC-5 5" towed mortars

The air wing comprised of:
16 UL-2000 Ultralights
5 CH-47 Chinook helicopters

GeneTech Building
The Sixeenth Floor

June helped Dr. Croft get Kelly on the surgical table, then she rolled over a cart of gleaming instruments. "June, get me two IV kits and as much plasma as you can."

June rummaged through various cabinets, finding the drip kits. In a stainless-steel refrigerator, she found the fluid. "There are only three," she said.

"Then get some point-four-three saline as well," Croft said. He was scrubbing his hands under a sink. As he spoke, he finished and snapped on a pair of latex gloves and a mask and threw on a pair of scrubs over his street clothes. He motioned to Leroy, who was doing the same. "Cut off her shirt," he said briskly. Leroy took a pair of surgical scissors and did just that. Neither of them were abashed; they were doctors working on a patient, and modesty didn't come into play.

Kelly brought over the supplies. Under Dr. Croft's instruction, Leroy set up two plasma drips, hanging the bags from a nearby IV tree. Dr. Croft probed the injury, locating the shrapnel. "One piece, about eight centimeters," he said. "Looks twisted." He removed the shrapnel, careful not to tear the surrounding tissue. "Suction." While Leroy kept the injury clear, Dr. Croft did his best to locate and tie off or repair the severed arteries. Several times, he had June scratch up some antibiotics or epinephrine. He considered it too risky to use anesthetics with her fluid levels so low.

Finally, Dr. Croft stopped working. He and the others removed their gloves and scrubs, dumping them in the corner. A flagrant violation of protocols--not that it made a difference.

"June, keep her in saline," Croft said. "Point-four-three. Leroy and I are going to that biohazard lab you mentioned on the thirteenth floor." June nodded. "June...if we don't come back in one hour, you need to get to the van and try to get out of the city. If you can't wake Kelly up by then...she probably won't wake up."

GeneTech Building
The Lobby

"Get in, now, now, now!" Davies shouted, shepherding his wife and son into the GeneTech Building. He and Jake pulled the fire doors closed. "They open outward. The zombies are pretty stupid, they'll probably not think to pull," Davies said.

"We should still try to find something to block the doors," Jake said. As he finished, they heard the unpleasant sound of rotting meat slapping against the heavy metal doors. The moans and growls followed.

They were in the building's massive lobby, near the rear. Everywhere they saw blood and bits of gore, spent shell casings, signs of a battle. There were no bodies, and Jake could guess who'd won. Even so, he reasoned they were safer inside than out. Jake had the Corporal keep an eye on the stairwells and the front door while he and Mrs. Davies pushed some furniture against the fire door. They tried to push the heavy reception desk, but it turned out to be bolted to the floor. There wasn't much they could do about the front door; fortunately, it looked pretty sturdy. Sturdier than the ruined fire door, at any rate.

"We can't stay here," Jake said. He sat down at the front desk, looking at the built-in computer. "There's got to be a way to contact the outside world and let them know we're here." He searched through the computer's systems. "Phone lines are down..."

"This is a military building," Corporal Davies said. "There might be a secure line we could use. But how do we find it? This building's huge..."

Jake stared at his computer, thinking. He tapped his fingers irritably...then suddenly went alert. He glanced at the elevators.

The number above one of the elevators was increasing. They watched as it came to a stop at 16.

"There are people here," Jake said.

FOB Charlie

Major Tanya Sheppard ran from the communications tent and signalled one of the captains under her command over.
“Captain Whittle, we have men in Mittleton City that need recovering”
“Ma’am, there was a convoy of eight Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicles arriving we could commandier some of them”
“Good thinking, get four and fill them with our men and well be off”
“Yes ma’am” The captain responded before striding off towards the Warrior’s.

Fifteen minutes later the convoy of four Warrior IFV’s were leaving FOB Charlie each vehicle had a turreted thirty millimetre auto-cannon and six hundred rounds and carried a crew of two and eight passengers.

Genetech Research building

Leaving June to care for the unconscious Kelly Adrian and Leroy armed with a single SA80A2 assault rifle headed down the hallway to the stairwell when they heard the elevator ping as it reached their level and the doors slide open behind them.

On the ground floor Corporal Davies suggested that the group head up, explaining that at least that way they knew what was waiting for them rather than hoping that what ever level the elevator took them to was clear of zombies.

Undisclosed location
outside the quarantine zone

At one of the Alidorn military bases a radio operator informed his supervisor that a radio signal had been intercepted from the quarantine area, a PROTH recon unit requesting extraction, the signal was distorted by the sophisticated electronic warfare systems to prevent a coherent message being sent or received by the unit and the radio frequencies used by PROHT were scanned and filled with localised static to prevent further communications by the recon unit to the outside world.

Genetech
Lobby
Hannibal turned around, to see a group of men with guns with two women. Obviously not here with the intent on killing anyone, but they are panicked and may do some stupid things.

"Uh, Guys?"

The rest of the armed squad, at the base of the elevator divided their atention between the elevator doors and the lobby doors.

Gopher decided to try and makes sense of this mess before bullets started flying.

"What are you doing here? This area is quarantined, you should leave this area immediately. We are, a Marine unit sent from the People's Republic of Hurtful Thoughts. This Building is very dangerous, this is where the outbrake started.

Just then one of the marines from the APC ran headlong into a closed glass door, opened it, walked in, panted, and told everyone in the lobby that they just made the associated press, and very inoprotunely, that their cover was blown and that they would leave in the next 30 minutes. Only after blurting all this that he finally noticed the 4 uninvited guests.

"What's going on?"

Elevator
The two men watched as the elevator went to the 16th floor, then entered the one next to it (elevators usually come in pairs) and selected the 16th floor. As the doors where closing they could see a commotion unfolding in the lobby, but where helpless to deal with it. And then the doors closed with a cheecky cheery 'ding'.

Outside
The crew of the APC saw a jeep with a pack of zombies chasing it, they ran into the building, followed by the runner they sent to inform the party inside that they where now public knowledge.

As soon as the men cleared the APC's field of fire, they started up the .50 cal rotary operated machine gun, which mowed down the zombies in a surreal silent fashion. as the zombies got closer the APC opened up with its flamethrower and started running over the zombies to prevent them from flipping their armoured safe haven from the undead.

The cammander of the APC, tried the rado again to inform them that they might be delayed, but all he recieved in return wasd static.
"crap, they're on to us already, I guess we might as well maintain radio silence then"

GeneTech Building
The Sixteenth Floor

"When we reach the biohazard lab, we'll have to find some spare contamination suits," Dr. Croft said as they approached the stairs. "If there's any kind of antivirus or vaccine inside, it will probably be kept in cold storage. We'll have to find an insulated container for it."

Behind them, an elevator chimed open. Leroy turned. "Survivors?"

GeneTech Building
The Lobby

Jake held up his hands in a non-threatening gesture. "We came back to the city to look for survivors," he said. He decided not to mention that the survivors were the Corporal's family. "We got cornered in an alley and came in here for shelter." He didn't trust these people entirely, and he debated whether or not to tell them he thought there were survivors on the sixteenth floor.

It might turn out that these people were really here to help. In the meantime, Jake wasn't taking any chances. He would have to play the situation by ear.

GeneTech Research building

Corporal Davies stepped through the door leading to the stairwell with his arms raised and his assault rifle hanging from his shoulder as heard Jake talking to some marines in the lobby.

“I’m Corporal Davies of the Alidorn military” he stated then continued to ask “why are you in the quarantine zone? Last I heard not even our guys should be around here”

Davies flashed a quick look a Jake and understood from the subtle look on his face that Jake had his misgivings about the group of PROHT marines as well, time will tell David thought to himself.

Adrian Croft and Leroy tried the door that lead to the stairwell exit of the sixteenth floor but it was secured from the other side and muffled noises could be heard through the door but nothing that could be conclusively classed as alive or infected. The pair decided to walk back down the hallway past the lift that had caused them such concern, for no reason it had made an arrival pinging noise and the doors had mysteriously opened, when they notice that the lift right next to it, which neither one of them had noticed before, was actually ascending through the buildings floors and if it was going to stop at their level then it would most certainly be there quickly as it was already at the twelfth level and rising.

Mittleton
Genetech building
Sixteenth floor
The two men, though expecting people, didn't expect to see two unarmed men, how did they last so long?
1st Marine
"Um, you do know this is an infected area, and that this is most likely where the outbrake started. You do know there is an outbrake of a mass plauge outside, don't you?"

2nd Marine
"Of course they do! You saw that chopper, they are wearing the same lab coats even!"

1st Marine
"Perhaps, either way they could, or rather should, be giving us names. Alidor's secret weapons program must be shut down, and these two are going to help."

2nd Marine
"Is there anyone else here on this floor? If so, call them, but don't arouse suspicion."

Lobby
Gopher:
"Well, from the looks of it lots of stuff happened without your full knowledge, like a pair of Alidorian spies have been recently caught in New Roanoke Island Naval base with a disease that sounds very much like the one raging around us. Last I checked New Roanoke Island was off limits to outsiders, especially Alidorians..."

"Either way, we're leaving in about 30 minutes, and we have an APC out back, it would be a tight fit, but we could carry you out of here. But on one condition: You never saw us here..."

Pvt. Rick Sawyer, en route to Mittleton:
While driving on the backroads, Rick became a little bored. So he turned on the AM Radio, and tuned into the International News Network:

"Earler today, PROHT Marines in Mittleton city, Alidor have confirmed zombie outbrake was caused by an accident in an Alidorian bioweapons factory, PROHT is currently petitioning that Alidor halt all wok opn said disease, and open the country to UN weapons inspectors."

"In other news, New Roanoke Island has been quarantined again for health reasons after Alidorian terrorists dployed said gas upon PROHT CDFs."

Pvt. Sawyer stopped the car, slumped, and thought long and hard on his next course of action, he then cursed aloud, and handbrake turned his barrowed car towards the shore.

Mjr Mark Gatsby
has been limping for a few days now, and found a scenic road with a sign that said, "Now entering Folly Meadows", a less pleasing sign stated that he was within 15 miles of the quarantine zone.

"Yippee...." As he limped further along, using the spare gun barrel as a walking stick.

OOC: It seems at least one of us has gotten confused by the others' posts. I'll do the best that I can. Incidentally, Leroy and Dr. Croft took the M82A2 rifle (I assume Dr. Croft is carrying it; Leroy's missing finger would make using the rifle difficult) and June has the 9mm.

IC:
GeneTech Building
The Sixteenth Floor

"Hey," Leroy said, holding up his hands. "We had nothing to do with this program. I'm a civilian, he was at one of the rescue centers," he said, gesturing toward Dr. Croft. At the same time, he shot the doctor a look. Don't mention the women. Please.

"I learned not an hour ago that the plague was artificial," Dr. Croft said. "We came here on the off chance that a cure existed--a vaccine, or an antivirus. I'm afraid you people probably know more about the program than we do."

"You don't look Alidorn," Leroy said to the soldiers. "Just who are you, and what are you doing here?"

GeneTech Building
The Lobby

The soldier said that he could help them get out of the city...if they kept their mouths shut. Jake considered the offer. Davies' Jeep was probably still functional, but it was surrounded by zombies. The APC could get them out of the city with no problem, but he had no way of knowing if these foreign soldiers would simply execute them when their collective guard was down. It certainly sounded like they weren't pleased to have any witnesses.

Jake decided to stall. "We won't say anything," he said. He wasn't sure whether that was true or not. If they were after military secrets, then his silence might cost Alidorn lives down the line. He wasn't sure he could live with that. "But your friend here was saying that your operation was already exposed to the press."

Opposite the GeneTech Building, Twelth Floor

Malaki lay back against the wall, panting. He brushed the sweat from his brow, sleeve bloody from the gash in his arm. He looked over to the door, the thick desk preventing it from opening at last. He checked his pistol, three bullets left. Two for zombies, one for himself, unless he could get them to notice!!

He stood up, walked stiffly over to the window and picked the mirror up, pointing it across the street, flashing it across in broad streaks. He would of yelled if he could, but his throat was raw, and he was weak from bloodloss. All he had ever wanted was to secure a future for his children, now he sat here in a world of the dead, his only hope across from him, unreachable. He looked down, the street filled with them. Shambling, looking around, lost souls. Trying to make him one of them. He looked around. Nothing but a rope. Nothing he could use it for unless he could get someone over there to catch it.

He opened his breifcase up again. Nothing there either. The radio was flat, and he had already injected some of that green liquid in his arm, a few vials still sitting there, nestled in paperwork. He had hoped it was a poison, yet he now thought it was what kept him alive. For now... A tear rolled down his cheek. What of his beloved?? and his boys?? We're they just a bunch of mindless ghouls like all the others?? He stared back across the street.
He knew they we're in there!!
He had seen them!!
They were ALIVE!!
And so he flashed the mirror, round and round, hoping that someone, anyone, would see it!!

OOC: Just so you all know, This was all approved by Alidor.

GeneTech Building
The Sixteenth Floor

June sat on a counter in the surgical lab, watching Kelly's rhythmic breathing on the table. She wondered if, or when, the woman would regain consciousness.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught something flashing. She ran to the window. In the building across the street, someone was flashing a mirror from a darkened room. Another survivor.

June thought quickly. She had to signal back, let the person on the other side know someone had seen him. Near the door, there was a lightswitch. She flipped it up and down a few times.

Now they know I know they're there, she thought. But what do I do next?

OOC: duely noted, they are both well armed, change above tone to slightly hostile. 1st Marine didn't notice the guns.

16th floor
"No, we have nothing to do with Alidor, in fact, Alidorian troops weren't too happy of our arrival, and now we know why, please come with us, your testimony would be most helpful in convivting Alidor for war crimes, and at the very least, improper testing proceedures of potentially dangerous cantaigens.

Lobby
Ice (the convict): It would make it easier for us to get past your quarantine zone alive if you don't mention where we are from, since Alidor is unofficially trying to hunt us down and kill us, because of what we found. A lot is at stake if we do or don't make it. This building oozes with evidence that the Alidorian government is behind all of this! All you have to do is let us by so that we may confirm this scientificly"
[gestures to the entire plague, the building, outside where the APC was quietly slaughtering masses of zombies]

GeneTech Building
The Sixteenth Floor

June watched the flashing some more. The doctors still weren't back. The floor seemed free of zombies...

June checked her 9mm, making sure the safety was off. She found a pen in a drawer and scribbled a quick note on the door to the operating room. She headed for the elevator (not noticing Leroy, Croft, or the soldiers, who were closer to the stairs), got inside, and hit the button for the lobby...

Near the stairs, Leroy was torn. On one hand, these were foreign soldiers in a high-security Alidorn military facility, apparently illegally. On the other hand, they were right. The Alidorn government created this plague and then kept quiet about it. They even tried to silence the only people working on a cure. They needed to be held accountable. And they could get them all out of this undead hell. And, he suddenly realized, they might be able to get Kelly better medical treatment...

Leroy looked over at Dr. Croft, hoping his expression might provide some solution. It didn't. "Alright," Leroy finally said. "I can't speak for my colleague, but I'll come with you--on two conditions. There's a woman on the sixteenth floor. She's badly hurt. You need to get her to a hospital. And second, if there's a cure, we have to find it, and you have to make it known world-wide. You keep it hidden, I don't testify."

GeneTech Building
The Lobby

The elevator door opened. June was surprised to see some sort of confrontation in the lobby--so surprised, the door closed before she left. She quickly hit the "door open" button and stepped out.

There were some foreign soldiers here--from where, she didn't know, but they weren't Alidorn. They were speaking to an Alidorn soldier and a cop who both looked like they'd seen better days. A woman and a little boy stood behind them.

There was something familiar about the cop. "...Jake?" she said--then clapped her hand over her mouth. But it was too late. They'd seen her--including the foreign soldiers.

No going back now. "There's a survivor in the building across the street," she said, struggling to keep her nerves. Who are these soldiers? Are they here to help, or are they going to kill me? "I think he's on the twelfth floor. I saw him signalling with a mirror. Could someone...come help me find him?"

Opposite the GTB, twelth floor

Up there!! A light!! There's a woman!! He moved to grab the rope. Walking back over to the window, he held it up and waved... She was gone!! What was that?? oh no... nonono!! NO!! Malaki heard a shuffling outside, a moan, then a thump on the door. They had come back... That was a heavy desk... but how long would it last?? He began flashing the mirror again, fast as he could with his good arm. He tied the rope around his waist, he would need to be quick if they noticed him... and if they dident?? He put his bad hand on the gun, hoping it wouldent come to that...

GeneTech Building, 16th Floor

Dr Adrian Croft listened to the Hurtful Thoughts soldiers trying to persuade Leroy and himself to turn traitor to their nation, an Alidorn soldier and a patriotic civilian, and Adrian could believe that he was actually contemplating helping the illegal foreign troops when Leroy made the decision for them.

Anger swelled in Adrian for Leroy’s betrayal of his nation, but then wasn’t he there in that building to expose the Alidorn government’s bio weapon research as the cause of the out break in Mittleton. The PROHT marines walked towards Leroy and Adrian apparently more relaxed by Leroy’s agreement to help them.

The four men didn’t notice June dash by to the lift as they discussed how to get the proof they needed to unequivocally hold the government to admit its dangerous research programs to its populace.

GeneTech Building, Lobby

Corporal Davies notice the elevator doors opening behind the PROHT marines, he didn’t recognise the young woman but he did breathed a slight sigh of relief as the doors closed on her she wanted no part of what was going down in the lobby he thought to himself but then she reopened the doors and stepped out she obviously knew Jake, as she called to him.
Shit, David thought to himself she should have gone back up in that elevator and stayed there, these PROHT guys weren’t to be trusted, they’re here to fuck Alidor over as much as they can, they hadn’t said what their mission was but he knew it wasn’t one of world peace and love all round.

GTB Lobby:
“A man in a building you say? Well, I guess we can spare three or four men to get up there.”

One of the soldiers pulls out a squad communicationb device (government for walkie talkie) and informs the squad in the tank to search for a guy stranded in a building, around the 13th floor, and not the GTB.

(Is there a fire escape ladder on that building?)

16th floor:
"Alright, as soon as we get back to PROHT, a full lab will be set up to find a cure based on the initial contagion and various tissue samples we collected. We sort of have a doctor that… specializes in such diseases, being that he survived a similar infection himself - although if you ask me, he’s crazy. We also have an APC fitted with basic medical gear for treating combat casualties, would that be sufficient?”

Outside:"Wel, might as well infoprm him that help is nearby"
They then fire a 35 mm cannon shell (flare) into the sky. Hoping to get the man's attention toward the ground.

GeneTech Building
The Sixteenth Floor

"Yeah, that'll have to do," Leroy said. "We tried to patch her up as well as we could, but I don't know if it was enough. If she survives long enough, I'd still like to get her to a functioning hospital." He led the group back to the surgical lab. He didn't notice the writing on the door. Kelly was still on the table, still breathing. A good sign. But...
"Where is she?" Leroy suddenly asked, looking around the room. "June?"

GeneTech Building
The Lobby

"I'll come with," Jake said. If they meant to eliminate witnesses, they wouldn't introduce a new witness, would they? he thought. On the other hand, if June saw the survivor, they might think the survivor saw them enter...

Jake decided that paranoia was ultimately counterproductive. He would go with, to help get to the survivor and to help keep June alive if it turned out that they had more than zombies to worry about.

Opposite the GTB, twelth floor

Malaki scanned the building, looking for another person. His attention was drawn downwards, a flare going off nearby on the ground. He began flashing the mirror that way to signal them back.
He ran to the desk, got a few papers and a pen and began scrawling. Folding the paper into planes, he threw it downwards hoping to reach them. Each one had the same message 'Please, hurry. Need help. Almost in here. Have a rope. dont think its long enough to get down there. please help! Not much time at all.'
He had been planning on getting someone acroos the street to catch the rope, but maybe he could shimmy down to the road and get across before those... things... got him...

The desk slid a centremetre into the room... they were almost through...

OOC:The probably is somewhere, its an office type building...

Streets outside GTB
The crew saw a paper airlane land on their turret, the cammander took a breif pause to open the hatch a little to snatch it, then read it.

"Well that won't be necessary, loader! ready a grapnel!"

Th third crewman, took a rocket shell, removed the fuse, and tied a strong cord/rope to the end. While the unner fired a flare past the window, in order to get him to back away from it. (wouildn't want him fried by rocket exhaust)

Meanwhile, the squad of Marines with Jake and June in tow (Jake because he volunteered, and June because she knew roughly where he was).

16th floor
The 2nd Marine decides to move on to clear all intermittent floors, in the event of a zombie rush, or a group of shoot first aask questions later group, he would watch from the elevator car roof, and pressed every floor on the control box.

The 1st Marine, followed the doctors, and oblieged to help carry the wounded woman, the doctors appeared to be panicing about something as he noticed a note nearby which he decided to read aloud.

GTB lobby
Troops sitting quietly, and trying to keep the civies calm.

Folly meadows
Mark Gatsby, was shuffling down the road as he had to dive out of the way of a speeding car.
"Stupid drivers, this is why PROHT banned those infernal things..."

Rick Sawyer was driving through Folly Meadows, Again, in order to get out of Alidor, since it was reasonable to state that they where most likely dead by now. He sped up as he noticed a man in a military uniform, whom obviously saw better days.

(so close yet so far Mjr. Gatsby, better luck next time ;) )

Opposite the GTB, twelth floor

Are they aiming at me?? Either m about to get mauled, or Im about to get shot. Thats great... Just great.

Then he saw the warning flare. "ah... I see"

Moving back across the room, he sat with his back against the desk to add a bit of extra weight... It diden't help, the desk sliding another inch...

He cocked the gun and gripped his breifcase tight...

The 'tank' (PROHT calls the M-113 a light tank, even though it is an APC) fires the makeshift grapnel through the window, hoping the rocket snags onto something as it bumps around the room.

The assault squad meanwhile covers the tank as it has to remain rather motionless while the man fast ropes down, if the rope fails to snag, the squad will proceed into the building after the tank guts the entance of zombies.

GeneTech Building
The Sixteenth Floor

The marine read something aloud. "Saw a survivor in the building across the street. Went to find him. Kelly should be safe here. June."

"With just a nine-millimeter? Is she nuts?" Leroy asked. "She should have waited for us to get back." He sighed. "When we get this woman in the APC, I've got to go find her."

Outside the GeneTech Building

June pointed out the window where she saw the survivor, as closely as she could remember it. Jake watched as the PROHT crew (he had asked one of the soldiers who they were) fired off a flare, then a small, rocket-powered grapnel at the window, about twelve stories up. That's a long way to climb down, he thought to himself. I hope he's not afraid of heights. Then again, if the grapnel didn't work, he and the others would have to go in. He still had plenty of ammunition from the earlier expedition...but could the survivor hold out long enough?

Of all the things he had expected to come through the window, a rocket propelled grapel wasnt one of them. It bounced around awhile, before it began sliding backs towards the window. He dived at it, catching it in one hand, it pulled him across the room with it.

He crashed into the wall with a crack, his loose grip lost and the grapnel flying out of his hand. It got caught on the crossbar of the window, which bent outwards dangerously.

As the door slid yet further inwards, he tried to rise, pain shooting through his body as he reached up. Standing shakily, he reached for the Grapnel to pull it further into the room

But, no, the crossbar snapped, grapnel flying out of the room again and falling to the ground. He looked down, eyes following it, his vision blurry. He fell once more as the grapnel struck the ground, the world dimming.

His last vision was of the door opening fully...
OOC:I figure they wont hurt him because a)He's been vaccinated and so has some virus in him. and b)He's KO'd
Plus... I think having you come in would be more interesting...

GeneTech Building Lobby

Corporal Davies saw the Grapnel smash into the pavement shredding two infected people outside the office block. The PROHT APC seemed to be firing in a constant drone into the crowds of infected, thinning them out quickly.

“That worked then” Davies commented in a low voice. Looking at Jake, David said “I suppose well have to do this the old fashioned way” and checked his assault rifle, pulling the cocking arm slightly back to check there was a round in the barrel.
“Stay here in the building” David instructed his wife and son before patting Jake on the shoulder and indicating the door with a flash of his eyes.

“If you guys are coming then now’s the time” The corporal said in an authoritarian manner to the PROHT marines in the lobby, as he rested his hand on the main door getting ready for the dash across the street.

Somewhere between Stanton and Mittleton City

“Sir well have to around it” the driver of the lead Warrior IFV shout into the troop area of the vehicle. The Warriors commander, Lieutenant Watson was surveying the overturned lorry blocking the three lanes of the motorway cars piled up to either side of it block the verge leading up to the tree-lined side of the motorway and a burning car was wedged up against the central divider.

“Can we go through the central divider” Major Sheppard radioed from the third Warrior of the convoy.
“I’m not sure, ma’am” The Lieutenant of the first Warrior IFV responded “They are built to stop trucks form jumping the central reserve into on coming traffic”
“Lieutenant, I want you to go through the central barrier and get this convoy moving again, understood”
“Yes ma’am” Lieutenant Watson looked at his driver “I guess we’ll find out if this thing can clear that barrier then” The driver nodded his acknowledgement to his commander and edged the Warrior up to the barrier and gunned the powerful engine.
The central barrier groaned heavily under the stain before crumpling under the Warrior’s treads.
“Convoy’s moving again ma’am, road looks clear on this side so far” Lieutenant Watson radioed to Mayor Tanya Sheppard.

Lobby
Easy there, the 5 of them should be able to do adaquately, adding any more and you'll just get in the way. Now then, back to the mission, we'll clear every floor for evidence for file, names, codenames, budgets, any document we can use to make a case, a few diseases wouldn't hurt either.

Inside other building
ZThe Marines where making good progress, not as fast as it was in the police station, since they all seemed to be concentrated by the door that the man was behind, but it was steady nonetheless, the marines mostly slashed at the zombies with cavalry sabers, axes, and sharpened shiovels to conserve bullets, spraying the halls only when encountering massed clumps of them.

They would attack two abreast, with the others in the rear resting or shooting, the ones i the front rained blows that decapitated, every so often trading jobs so that the men could rest their arms and have a higher chance of killing the zombies without getting bitten.

The APC
"Reload, let's try it again! We almost had it! And this time fix a hook onto it!"

Task Force Two
"Sir, reports that New Roanoke Island is under attack!"
We have our orders, steady as she goes, send SS-56 Loggerhead to scout ahead, and let the turtle take the rear. Those are my orders and they shall be caried out, New Roanoke has 3 task forces and at least one military base that I know of, plus isd within flying distance from the mainland, we'll do more good over here."

OOC: Note Stranton is at least 2 hrs driving at 50 mph, My men should be gone in 30 minutes.

Great, my cold war with everybody just turned into a really one sided Pearl Harbour, Adrian just had to call in a Flightpian air strike.

(OOC: note there are still several marines on the only useable stairwell leading up the genetech building, and some on level thirteen (the lab) as well as two intelligence agents, also note that all relevent data relating to the virus has been removed from the lab computers for later research and all vials of the virus were destroyed in the alleyway were the outbreak started. The new survivor has the only surviving vial (1) of antidote-vaccine for the virus and thats if he hasn't already used it, leaving no evidence at all except circumstantial(sp) nothing to draw the Alidorn government through the international mud. I'll add a new IC post soon. PS to Hurtful, It would take longer than thirty minutes to hack the security programs to get access to any computer files that you are searching for as well as searching each and every floor of a skyscraper for evidence.)

My men aren't going to be nearly that thorough, all they are loking for is a careless mistake, or better still, people, which as you stated, are plentiful in the building.

30 minutes is the approxomate time it would take for a sizeable force of helicopter commandos to arrive find my men, hence, it is vital that they leave before that time. (My men are assuming that Alidr launched a patrol to check on PROHT's claim to have reached the GTB)

They won't need much, some dead shells of the virus, a few people who worked with it, and to coax Andrew Garner into a confession on tape, the rest of the gaps may be assumed and can be made to look real enough to get someone off their chair.

(remember when Ameria invaded Iraq to get rid of nonexistant WMD? Off of a tip from a dissloyal Iraqi after a few hours of torture? Except I don't even need to torture anybody, or send them to another country to get around the 'no torturing prisioners' policies)

By the way, one of my guys are going down the elevator, and will stop on the 13th floor, among many others.

GeneTech Building, Lobby

Corporal Davies didn’t like the situation and as each minute passed the feeling grew in strength. Looking at his young family David was wondering what he had got his family into. Jake seemed to be at ease with the PROHT soldiers but surely a former soldier turned police officer knew a rat when he smelt one, either way one onto five(?) or one onto six would result in a very dead corporal and family. His mind raced, trying to find an escape before the worst happened.

GeneTech Building, Sixteenth Floor

After reading the note Dr Adrian Croft suggested trying to catch up with June but the PROHT soldiers didn’t seem interested and Adrian and Leroy went to prepare Kelly for the journey down to the lobby and the waiting APC.

“We already checked the door, it is locked from the outside” Adrian said to the PROHT soldiers “So we’ll need to take the lift down” but then Adrian thought to himself of course they would take the lift Kelly was in no fit state to be carried down sixteen floors.

GeneTech Building, Thirteenth floor

The intelligence agents surveyed the room one last time from the doorway leading to the stairwell. With a nod towards Lieutenant Gordy, who had come to the level after the agent’s previous radio message, the lieutenant ordered his men to set their radio detonated satchel charges in areas that would cause the most damage to the remaining equipment.

With their task complete the two agents and remaining marines headed to the top of the stairwell to await the return of the Chinook helicopter, it wouldn’t be long. On the roof top four marines secured the area of the helipad by taking up defensive positions to cover the access door to the roof.

A faint black dot in the distant sky revealed the Chinook on its final run to the GeneTech building.

Some were between Stanton and Mittleton City

Major Tanya Sheppard was feeling uneasy it had been nearly an hour since Corporal Davies had radioed for help, and with a sighting of foreign troops in Mittleton City. The convoy of four Warrior IFV’s was a little over a third of the way to Middleton City’s outskirts and god only knew what waited in the city limit’s for them.

The APC
As they where about to fire another grapnel, the crew noticed a Chinook Helicopter, much too soon to be one sent looking for them, or the men inside, what where they here for?

The crew decided to keep the two fire teams posted.

Lobby
(demolition charges not yet detonated)

The Personal communication radio (Short range, very staticky due to jamming attempts, barely legiable)
"Chinook helicopter spotted, aproaching bioweapons building, what should we do?"

"Tie it up, but don't shoot unless you have to"

"understood"

To the group
"Did you radio for help, and when, corporal do you think you could convince them not to shoot this place up?"

OOC: Wait a sec, when did Mjr Tanya learn all this?

Outside the GeneTech Building

As the PROHT soldiers loaded the second grapnel, Jake wondered once again pondered his situation. He had no way of knowing whether or not he and the other survivors would simply be murdered before they left Mittleton. Sure, the soldiers could have killed them already, but that didn't ease his concerns. He could tell that Corporal Davies shared the same concerns. Certainly the man would be worrying about his family.

Then June showed up as well--one more person who needed to be protected. He was pretty surprised to see her here...

"June," Jake said. "How did you get here?"

"Our helicopter crashed," she said.

Damn. Jake had been hoping she might have a working vehicle somewhere. But at least she had survived. "Jesus. Who was with you?"

"Leroy, Kelly, a doctor from the rescue center, and a scientist who died in the crash. Kelly was hurt. We found a van and drove here, hoping we could use the medical facilities."

Jake perked up. "You have a van?"

"It's across from the main entrance," June said. "Leroy has the key."

"June!" It was Leroy, just exiting the building. A couple of PROHT soldiers followed, along with a doctor, carrying Kelly on a stretcher. "What the hell were you thinking? Why didn't you wait for us? Is that the survivor--oh my God, Jake!" Leroy exclaimed. "What the hell are you doing back in Mittleton?"

"I could ask the same of you," Jake said. "Anyway, there's still a survivor in that building," he said, pointing. "Hey, what happened to your hand? You weren't bitten--"

"Long story," Leroy said. "But no, I'm not infected. Are you here with these soldiers?"

"That one," Jake said. "Not the others." He leaned in closer, after making sure no one was paying them too much attention. "I need the keys to the van."

"What?"

"That guy, he's got his family here with him. He's worried about these soldiers, and so am I. If there's a way for them to get away, I'd like for him--for us--to have that option."

Quietly, Leroy handed Jake the key. Jake said, "I owe you one." He turned to Corporal Davies, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Look what I got," he said quietly.

(OOC:Radio message to FOB Charlie was sent in post 130)

Genetech Building, Rooftop helipad

The Chinook helicopter was about five minutes from landing as the pilots altered the helicopters pitch and throttle setting to slow it down for a comfortable landing.
The four marines on the roof hadn’t noticed the Chinook until its engine noise echoed in from the distance. The two BNS agents and the rest of the marines were inside the building at the top of the stairwell waiting for the helicopter to land before exiting the building.

GeneTech Building, Lobby

“Whoa there fella” David said to the PROHT soldier suddenly questioning him “I sent a message telling my commanding officer, we where in Mittleton City and were returning to base with two survivors” David looked quickly at Jake, Jake knew the Corporal had sent a distress message to FOB Charlie the Corporal only hoped he would play along, “They will think we’re nearly halfway back by now, it will be another hour at least before we are missed and then with these friggin zombies everywhere I doubt anyone will be sent to look for us” David finished, this again was lie and Jake would know it because standard op was for missing personnel to be found and recovered, starting from the last known position.

Noticing some people stepping out of one of the lifts Corporal Davies stepped around the PROHT soldier to see who it was, “Jesus” David muttered to himself, then shouted “Dr Croft, sir”.
Dr Adrian Croft looked at the Corporal in the lobby and a faint glimmer of recognition passed through the doctors mind for a second, maybe the man was from FOB Charlie or another military base the doctor had worked at but corporal David Davies’ face didn’t hold any strong memories, just a glimmer, and Kelly Watson was the doctors preoccupation right now not old acquaintance’s.

Outside:
[One of the Marines To June]
"So that was your chopper, the one with the doctor? What was it doing here?"

"What the hell is that?" [points to CH-47 Chinnok approaching rof of GTB, M-113 swivels turret, pointing grapnel, 35 mm cannon, and .50 cal MG at plane]

GTB Lobby:
[To Davies]
"Look on the bright side, looks like you're going to be picked up sooner than expected, that chopper was sent to pick up someone, and it sure wasn't us."

Hotel lobby (the building across the street)
"1st floor secure!"
[Marine looks behind himself, notes a marine, June and Jake missing]
"We lost 3!"

"Go back and find them, we'll take it from here for now"
[other 2 advance, slower, and using more precious bullets per yard gained]
(the APC may be stocked to the gills with ammo, but the Marines went into the building light)

Meanwhile
Ice notices the jeep, with a radio, and decides to do some snooping...
The radio was still on....
Ice [faking corpral Davies voice, noticed nametag on pocket flap, and rank hevrons]: "Hello, this is Corpral Davies, we have a rescue chopper over here, do you have one on your logbooks or is this plane one of PROHT's that didn't get caught, it's a CH-47 chinook."

(being of a secret organization, it wouldn't show up, if it is regular military, they might as well send Davies on up)

OOC question:
How big is the Gentech building, what do the other flors claim to contain, and what form of milling machine doyou use to process areosolized bioweapons, air blast (best), grindstone (worst) or milling balls (iffy)? Does the building have test blast chambers? Is anything labeled 'level 4 biological research area'? Are there any fermenters/incubators (for making bacteria, or alchohol\making viruses)?

Such things tend to be good indicators of a bioweapons plant, and are rather difficult to hide (explosion chambers immune to explosions, milling machines rather large and can only serve one purpose when in close proximity to a lvl 4 biohazard facility)

(OOC:

‘How big is the Genetech building, what do the other floors claim to contain’

GeneTech Building is 28 floors and for a description of each floor, so far there are,
Ground floor – the security area and front desk,
13 floor – Lazarus virus research labs,
16 floor – medical centre,
Roof – helipad

‘what form of milling machine do you use to process aerosolized bio-weapons, air blast (best), grindstone (worst) or milling balls (iffy)?’

Wha? Don’t have a clue what you’re on about.

‘Does the building have test blast chambers?’

Do you mean as in explosives? I wouldn’t have thought so.

‘Is anything labelled 'level 4 biological research area'? Are there any fermenters/incubators (for making bacteria or alcohol\making viruses)?’

I suppose most of the thirteenth floor would be labelled level 4 biological research area, and I guess there would be incubators for the growth of bacteria and viruses but they would be inside the air tight labs and I’m not sure you would want to make alcohol with them. I should point out that the GeneTech building is a research building not a bio-weapons factory (if there is a difference).)

(IC)

Radio transmission to Ice

“Negative, Corporal Davies, Chinook is Friendly bird” The metallic voice spoke through the radio set “Flight is Zulu, Zulu, Two, Nine and the mission is classified as ‘Above Top Secret’, it looks like you’ve just seen something you shouldn’t have, over” The metallic voice ended.

GeneTech Building, Lobby

“Helicopter, what helicopter” Corporal Davies said to the PROHT soldier, David thought that it might have been a rescue flight, but then remembered the clean civvies at FOB Charlie and how every helicopter that touched the ground was swamped before it could be unloaded, and so knew that a helicopter rescue was a very, very faint possibility, he just hoped the cavalry turned up soon.

Lobby:
Gopher:
Well, yeah, the APC just spotted a chinook landing on the roof... [notices ice at the jeep] Oh, lord what is that maniac doing now???


"Just checked out the plane on Alidor's logbooks, [I][pant] it's alidorian all right, [pant] and well above top secret, [huff] they told me not to tell anyone else that we saw it [cough]. We just hit something big. And Alidor doesn't want Davies to know about it, sorry I used your name..."

[Gopher yanks personal radio]
"Don't let that plane leave"

Ice:
"Well Davies? There is a slight chance that it is here to pick up some potential cure, being this is a genetics facility, or something else could be going on, perhaps the reason you weren't supposed to see it and why we're not supposed to be here. Currently, I'm inclined to lean toward the later."

Hotel:
The rescue party reaches the 4th floor, found a stairwell, and decided that it would be easier to blockade the doors leading off to the ther floors. They have yet to find a working elevator.

APC:
Turret locks onto helicopter (using optical rangefinder/aimdot, no lasers, no emissions, no radar) The gunner leans back as far as he can to elevate the tank's guns.
"well, he did say 'tie them up' so I guess that is wat I'll do, it would be swift"

OOC:
Crap, I guess my case is rather iffy, but then again, has a lack of correct facts ever stop a media expose'?

But then I noticed this lil gem...

David forced himself to walk out of the military building in the heart of Mittleton city, though he desperately wanted to run passed the guards, he felt sure he would be stopped. The guards looked him up and down with the suspicious scowl they use on all the buildings workers who didn’t wear a light grey uniform and a military identity badge.

Uh, huh. A military genetics research center, much better name I guess.

Same equipment is required, if not more. Since they must also manipulate
and analyze their products, while factories just churn them out. In fact, many Russian 'Bioweapons factories' were running as vodka breweries at the same time, holding freeze dried starters for fermenting pre-selected agents.

Although a miltary bioweapon 'reseach center' only makes enough powdered biological agents to run tests, a field facility is normally somewhere and comprises of testing and agent release towers. Also the incinorator for the dead test subjects, and the holding pens, and, since government run, would document the influx of these animals, and their astoundingly high mortality rates.

Blast chambers are used to test how well an agent withstands being released from an explosive device, normally a soundprofed, and air tight, bank vault, riddled with pock marks and shell fragments from use. This would survice almost any demolition attempt and would have o be dismantled by hand and removed.

Jake had no idea what that Chinook was doing here, but he held out hope that it might be a rescue vehicle of some kind. In the meantime, though, there was still a survivor trapped in the building across the street.

"Are you guys going to fire another grapnel, or should I go in and get that guy myself?" he asked the soldiers.

Lobby:
[One of the soldiers scratch their head]
"Where is the recue party? I thought you and that crazy lady where with them as they rushed the building."

[one of the assault troops from the rescue party come out of the hotel]
"There you are, we almost thought you died back there! I came out looking as soon as I noticed you three where where gone, did you find a marine and that woman yet? We just finished clearing the 2nd floor when I turned around to look for you. But while we're out here, we might as well restock ammo for the next push."
[runs off into APC, whose turret guns are set at high elevation at the GTB, not the hotel]

Awhile later he pulls out case after case of explosives, grenades, and bullets. Then swathes himself with a rather large amount of it.

GeneTech Building, Roof top Helipad

The second the Chinook’s wheels touched the helipad the team of intelligence agents and marines left the building and boarded the helicopter, the four marines securing the roof top doorway being the last to board, as the Chinook helicopter lifted of the helipad lieutenant Gordy activated the radio detonator for the satchel charges.

As the Chinook passed over the side of the GeneTech Building lieutenant Gordy pressed the finger trigger and then pressed down hard on the thumb trigger, less than a second later the satchel charges detonated. A fireball erupted from each bomb spreading across the thirteenth floor hitting the two double lift doors first, they sheered off from the walls and hurled into the shafts severing the cables to the elevators and then plummeting towards the ground. The intense fireball spread outwards slamming desks and chairs against the outer windows sending debris of glass concrete wood and metal towards the streets below and a fireball that reached out to neighbouring buildings. The plummeting lift door smashed through the roof of the lift on the ground floor sending plastic and metal fragments, through the still open doors, into the lobby

The Thirteenth floor had been devastated and fires raged around the level, the airtight laboratory’s were twisted mangled messes of there former selves and sections of the concrete floor had collapsed into the twelfth floor. The stairwell had completely collapsed between the eleventh and sixteenth floors into a thunderous avalanche of mortar and girders. Leaving the levels beyond the eleventh unreachable and the ninth and tenth floors could only be reached by finding a way through the rubble, twisted girders dust and severed electrical, water and gas conduits.

GeneTech Building, Lobby

Corporal David Davies reacted instantly when the explosion on the thirteenth floor shook the building; he pounced at his wife and son and dragged them running into the stairwell. Dust and small fragments of concreted fell from above on the Corporal and his family and a loud crashing exploding sound from the lobby was followed instantly by the twanging of small metal and plastic fragments ricocheting of the walls on the other side of the stairwell access doorway.

Outskirts of Mittleton City

Major Tanya Sheppard’s convoy of four Warrior IFV’s had reached the very outskirts of Mittleton City, the lead Warrior set the pace for the rest of the convoy and now they were in the city the pace slowed down to a crawl. The Lead Warrior IFV had to force a path through abandoned cars and vans that littered the cities streets and Lieutenant Watson, commanding the lead Infantry Fighting Vehicle was stood up through the commanders hatch his eyes searching left and right looking for infected people that may emerge from anywhere.

Diplomatic Message to PROHT

To the leader of the Peoples Republic of Hurtful Thoughts,

It has come to our attention that you have deployed military forces with in our sovereign borders, this is an affront to our sovereignty and it is hereby demanded that you order these forces to stand down and surrender to Alidorn military personnel at the earliest possible opportunity.

Your military may have noticed a localised jamming of your forces radio transmissions from within Alidor. As we are not prepared to interrupt the counter measures we ask that you give us the password or phrase they will use as a challenge for Friend or Foe identification and your forces location as last known, as well as a properly structured order that they will accept to be from your government or military, instructing them to surrender ‘all’ equipment and ‘all’ materials until they can be handed over to your government at a neutral location, at which time their equipment and materials shall be returned to your force’s through third party.

You have two Alidorn citizens held hostage on New Roanoke Island we request that these persons be returned immediately and unharmed, and in return we shall hand over the thirty PROHT marines that are currently being held as POW, they have not been ‘debriefed’. If our citizens are not returned promptly we shall consider you a terrorist force and your marines shall then be tried as terrorists in Alidorn courts.

John Watson
Minister of Foreign Policy,
Bureau of Foreign Affairs.

Diplomatic Message to Mondoth

The People Republic of Hurtful Thoughts has taken two Alidorn citizens hostage at the New Roanoke Island installation; we should warn you that military actions against the New Roanoke facility may not be long in coming.

John Watson
Minister of Foreign Policy,
Bureau of Foreign Affairs.

Diplomatic message to Dweladelfia

The Government of Alidor would like to inform you that two Alidorn citizens were taken hostage earlier today by agents of the People Republic of Hurtful Thoughts at the New Roanoke Island facility, we are trying to recover our citizens through diplomatic channels, but you should be warned that a military response maybe required to free our citizens from their captors.

John Watson
Minister of Foreign Policy,
Bureau of Foreign Affairs.

APC, Gunner's position
"Holy crap batman!"
The gunner cursed as he let loose with an MG rounds to figure the lead and drop of the RPG on the chopper, intending to get it tangled in the rotors, if that failed, he still had the 35 mm cannon, which would shred holes into the plane more than anything else. (CH-47s don't have the greatest record for ability to take damage, at least when compared to the AH-64/CH-60, I would assume armor similar to UH-1)

between 16th floor and ground, elevator shaft
The Marine on top of the elevator, while clearing floors, was hit with the majority of the blast (doors still open on 13th floor), he tried to grab onto the service ladder, but then the binding and twisting of the shaft soon crushed him, PROHT casualty #2 in Alidor Campaign, 1st to die while under enemy fire.

(forgot that 2nd shaft finished trip already)

Lobby
The remaining marines ran for cover, some even decided to run out the nearest exit. Ice ran to the jeep to give a report: (forgeting what his alias was)
"Those fuckers blew the building up with people inside, request immediate helivac pronto! Dangit answer me! I know someone is on the other end of this thing!"

Stairwell
Hannibal: "Now do you believe us, or will it take another attempt for your own government to kill you to convince you you're fighting the wrong side?"
[still disfigured from when the dog decided to have a nibble of his arm and leg]

Hotel stairs, level 6
Fighting had come to a standstill, and the 2 Marines where now on their last clips. All forward movemnt stopped. The men then head an explosion, then saw a large hunk of concrete put a hole through the sairway, partialy blocking the 4th and 5th floors.

(Does my tank/squad have an MMP-1 with it? My military usually is given them on a 1 unit to 4 troops basis)
Loader's Position, APC
Getting rather etchy, and figuring enemy reinforcements where on the way, the Marine prepares the MMP-1 for its (as far as he knows) test flight, not quite knowing what to expect. He still loaded it with 3 grenades.

OOC: Something I wish I could do right about now....
Loader's Position, APC
getting desprate to get the word out to PROHT, the Marine pulls out a homing pigion, and writes down recent occurances, then releases it into the sky, hoping that it makes a safe journey.

If only we had Homing pigions!

PROHT's Reply to The Kingdom Of Alidor's Demands

I have no intention of surrendering your delegates, on the grounds that they are government funded terrorists, and their pressence caused the deaths of many PROHT citizens. It was hoped that such a transfer of people was a show of goodwill and faith into the future, and now we see that it was merely an excuse to spread your disease to other countries. They shall be dealt with as PROHT health codes, and laws dictate.

As for the Marines in Alidor:

We have listed 120 dead on record, none captured, yes I have heard that a recon unit is in Alidor, but I have also heard that they found evidence quite damning of your actions, which many officials here belive, is that one of your gvernment facilities caused the outbake, and that you sent agents to PROHT to plant evidence within our borders.

As for their terms of surrender:

They where given none, for whatever they found you would not let them make public.

As for your countermeasures:

If you wish for ANY co-operation on uor part please stop jamming our radios, the people have a right to know what is going on.

Message to all PROHT forces:

Hurt em Plenty! Prime Minister Wimptastic deems it so, so shall it be written, so shall it be done. The Kingdom of Alidor shall be punished for their crimes, crimes to which we have signed confessions extracted without torture.

Task Force 2
Well boys, looks like this is it! Been a pleasure working with all of you! If we die today, be t so that PROHT may set up proper defenses while we hold our positions, in the meantime, get the Loggerhead to approach Alidor's shore, quietly. Have the LCs and their hovercraft start laying mines, and get the Turtle to set up a listening position, call in some land based air support if we can get any.

The Skies above Mittleton City

The RPG reached the end of its cord five metres short of the Chinook as the pilot tilted the helicopter to full acceleration.
The pilot and co-pilot watched in awe as the explosion below them reach across the distance towards the neighbouring buildings of the GeneTech building, through the fiery cloud thirty five millimetre rounds raced towards the Chinook striking through the rear quarter of the aircrafts fuselage four wounded marines and one of the intelligence agents, and finally destroying the engines mounted below the rear rotor.
Black smoke billowed downwards through the wash of the rear rotor as it spun lazily.
The helicopter lost height and passed through the gap between two skyscrapers, lucky the wide streets below meant the helicopter had several metres on either side but not so luckily the street the helicopter was crash landing along was coming to an abrupt end in the shape of another of Mittleton cities down town skyscrapers.
The helicopter crashed into, roughly, the middle of the skyscraper and was engulfed in a fire ball that killed nearly every body onboard, the helicopters fuselage snapped in half leaving the crushed cockpit and several burning bodies stuck hanging from the side of the building while the sheared of piece of the fuselage, containing the surviving intelligence agent and three living marines, plummeted twelve storeys to the waiting street below. No one and nothing survived the crash.

GeneTech Building, Stairwell

Corporal Davies covered his family like a human shield from the small fragments of falling concrete and dust struggling to breath in the thick atmosphere he force the fire exit open again and dragged his family into the open air when an man who had seen better days approached them.

“Now do you believe us, or will it take another attempt by your own government to kill you to convince you your fight the wrong side”

Corporal Davies turned to the man, anger burning in his eyes

“Fighting, who’s fucking fighting, were trying to live through this fucking nightmare”

Shaking his head slightly David asked to give him some time alone with his family.

Northern Shores of Alidor

A Nimrod MRA4, of the 71st Maritime Reconnaissance Squadron, was flying its routine patrol when the PROHT fleet was detected on its Searchwater 2000MR multi-pulse Doppler Search radar. The communications officer radioed the second fleet’s detection back to a ground base and then banked left to head between the PROHT fleet and the Alidorn shore line. As the Nimrod passed between the PROHT fleet and the Alidorn shore line, twelve miles from shore, the internal weapons bay doors slid open side ways and several passive localisation Barra sonobuoy’s were dispensed into the blue sea below in a line between the PROHT fleet and the Alidorn coast, circling left the process was repeated two miles closer to shore and then circling left again the sonobouy’s were deployed two miles closer to the PROHT fleet than the first set of buoy’s. The crew of the Nimrod hadn’t been given clearance to fire on the PROHT fleet, yet, so it flew to altitude to keep the foreign fleet under surveillance and retained its two AGM-84 air launch Harpoon missiles and two AIM-9 sidewinder missiles.

Diplomatic response to PROHT

Prime Minister Wimptastic

It was our hope that this situation could be solved amicably for both parties; it pains me that you should be so intent on driving the Alidorn government to military action.

We would like to point out that all of the PROHT casualties are from your own weapons, such as the illegally placed torpedo dispensing mines your naval forces place in Alidorn territorial waters.

The pilots of the two PROHT aircraft shot down, after repeated requests for them to leave our airspace and the murdering of four Alidorn marines, survived the destruction of their aircraft and were unharmed as they fell to Alidorn soil. They later slaughtered three marines.

John Watson
Minister of Foreign Policy,
Bureau of Foreign Affairs.

(OOC: I’ve posted about Task Force two, minor changes to first pharagraph)

Outside the Genetech Building

"Jesus," Jake shouted as the wall of the GeneTech Building exploded outward. Cursing, Jake took cover by the APC as debris rained down; he heard colossal explosions--the helicopter getting hit, hitting the building, then the ground--and cringed. When he felt some modicum of safety returning, he went back to the building for Davies and his family--but the front entrance was blocked by wreckage.

Madness, he thought. Madness. He was more confused than he'd been at any point in the whole ordeal. He didn't know what these soldiers wanted, or what the Chinook had come for, or why it had been shot down. He didn't know what these soldiers would do to him or the others; he didn't know where the hell June had gone--somehow, she had just slipped away.

He ran for the alleyway, where he knew there was a fire exit. When he was last there, the Jeep had been cornered by a mob of zombies. The horde was mostly exterminated--they'd been attracted to the sound of the APC's guns, like moths to flame; the PROHT forces had ripped them apart. Unfortunately, wreckage from the crash had rendered the Jeep totally unusable as an escape vehicle. Good thing the van's still intact, Jake thought. He shot a few lingering zombies with his rifle, spending a round apiece.

He saw Davies and his family rush out through the fire door, looking like they'd seen better days. He had a brief argument with a PROHT soldier; when the soldier walked away, Jake approached. "We need to get out of here," Jake said. "Some other survivors came here in a van, and I've got the key. The van's parked in front of that hotel." He put the key in Davies' hand. "I've got to look for a friend; I think she went in there to look for a survivor. If I don't come back, get those two doctors, wait for the right moment, and take off. Just...give me enough time."

The Hotel
Sixth Floor

June had rushed in with the assault team to find the survivor in the hotel. They had fought their way up six floors, clearing the stairwells of zombies, closing doors where they could, and improvising grenade traps where the doors were absent or damaged. On the fifth floor, they had heard a grenade trap go off below; they'd backtracked to the third floor to set another one. The stairwell smelled like sulfur and burned wood, and there wasn't much left of the creature which had set off the trap. They worked quickly and continued upstairs.

They were now on the sixth floor, and a lot of the soldiers were apparently low on ammunition. June wished she could help, but all she had was a puny 9mm pistol. Her thoughts were interrupted by a terrible crash which shook the floorboards under her feet. It was matched by a great crunching sound a moment later. A chunk of concrete plowed through the wall right next to her, scaring her half to death.

June looked through the hole in the wall. There was a gaping wound in the skyscraper. What the hell... she had time to think before she heard a second, much smaller blast. A Chinook passed into her view, vomiting black smoke from one of its rotors; it collided with the building, then tumbled to the ground. "What the hell is happening?" she asked the soldiers.

Hotel, 6th floor
One of the Marines finally noticed June behind them, asking him what just happened.

"My guess is enemy fire, that thing plugging the stairwell is a hunk of concrete, [looks out gaping hole] and it came from the 13th floor of the Genetech building, I hope nobody was hurt."

Hotel, stairway, 4th floor
The marine returned from the APC loaded with desprately needed ammo, only to find the stairs choked in debris:

"Is everyone all right up there?!?"

Lobby
Was a mess, further investigation in the building would be nearly impossable, Gpher, after a brief look around decided it would be best to pack up and leave, now.

Convict #109 (Ice):
KIA
Cause of death: Blunt force truama
Location: Davy Jones's jeep

OOC: kinda difficult to make an RPG blow up when it has no explosives, also, if it was going down, why follow it up with 35 mm cannon; it would only shred the plane. The cannon was in the event of a miss.


Pvt. Rick Sawyer
Was listening intently to the Prime Minister’s speech which started with a reading from a telegram sent from The Kingdom of Alidor, and gave this response:

The People’s Republic of Hurtful Thoughts, Shall not, and ever shall be, bullied around by other nations. The world has a right to know what The Kingdom of Alidor is doing to their own people. The People’s Republic, in turn shall open their doors to the Kingdom of Alidor.

As some of you people listening at this moment know already, The People’s Republic of Hurtful Thoughts has been under an unprovoked attack without warning or declaration of war, from an unidentified agent that for the time being chooses to remain hidden. These insurgents shall be dealt with as international and PROHT laws dictate.

Alidor claims that PROHT has both of their delegates imprisoned at this time. This however, is not true, one has been missing since we declared quarantine. The other has escaped incarceration during an air attack that vastly damaged our infrastructure. It is of no matter though, since the captured Alidorian readily confessed without needing to resort to torture and a search and rescue team found large amounts of contraband at their lodgings, in their suitcases. Both agents are presumed dead, and therefore, it would be pointless to have to pick our way through over half a million dead bodies in order to find the corpses of your two spies just so that we should mail them to you. Since The Kingdom of Alidor has not been as generous to treat our 120 dead marines with such dignity.

*******
Mark Gatsby (left off in Folly Meadows)
Major Gatsby comes across a derilict old man passed out in the street, noting that his pockets where stuffed with cash. Mark pokes the man in the ribs with his rifle:

"Hey, you, wake up!"

*******
Task Force 2 (approximately 50 miles from Alidor)
Breaks into three groups, the CC-2 Verdun and SS Turtle, breifly escorted by the LCACs; the 3 Transports; and the SS Loggerhead

LC-47 “Dakota Chinook”With the aid of the other two transports, lays mines to the rear of the fleet, setting up a fixed cordon against any naval agression from The Kingdom of Alidor. Finishing this task, they sail around to the southern coast of Alidor to repeat the process.

Meanwhile:
The LCACs run up and down the flanks laying mines to prevent any enemy fleets from sneaking up on the main fleet.
---
SS-19 Turtle
Was at the front of the Battle group, which consisted of itself and the Verdun, it was ready to relay contact reports, fire a salvo of 6 torpedoes or lay mines at a moment’s notice.

CC-2 Verdun
Prepares to launch its two CH-47 Chinooks, each loaded with eight 21” rockets, while the deck crews readied the ships two 48” SSMs (measured in Diameter). All rockets where loaded ether with a composition of HE-80 (more potent variety of disease just used on New Roanoke Island), or the old stock of Ergot laced with LSD; the immediate effects are not discernable from each other. This was the ‘Special Package’ that Task Force 2 was to deliver.
----
SS-56 Loggerhead

Was submerged, and creeping past the 25-mile territorial water borderline. Its two rear tubes where loaded with 21” rockets loaded with an Ergot based biological weapon (straight Ergot-X) and within her bilge tanks, held 5 tons of the stuff to be released into the air with the intent that the gas cloud drifts toward shore.

*****
Full weapon loadout comparison between a CC and an LC

CC
One 4-cell 48” rocket launcher usually carries 2 SSMs and 2 SAMs
2 twin 5" (some are 8") Dual purpose gun turrets
Ten 21” tubes (Rocket OR Torpedo)
2 twin CC-35B 35 mm cannons (CIWS)
Two CH-47 Chinook Helicopters
UL-2000 light planes

LC
One 4-cell 48” rocket launcher usually carries 4 SAMs
1 twin 5” Dual purpose gun turret
Two Triple 21” tubes (Rocket OR Torpedo)
2 twin CC-35B 35 mm cannons (CIWS)
One CH-47 Chinook Helicopter
UL-2000 light planes
Infantry weapons (may include HTC-108 or HTR-148 [8” self propelled gun and MRBM launcher (called ‘Big Bertha’) respectively])
May carry an LCAC (heavy

(OOC: To me RPG stands for Rocket Propelled Grenade, if I am wrong then correct me and I'll try and rewrite the earlier post . The 35mm cannon was put in for good measure, you had already decided to shoot the helicopter down so why not rake it with the cannon.

(Does my tank/squad have an MMP-1 with it? My military usually is given them on a 1 unit to 4 troops basis)
Loader's Position, APC
Getting rather etchy, and figuring enemy reinforcements where on the way, the Marine prepares the MMP-1 for its (as far as he knows) test flight, not quite knowing what to expect. He still loaded it with 3 grenades.

I dont know, if its your military norm I would guess so, but if its a new weapon that has been developed or acquired after the deployment of your troops then no.
by the way what is a MMP-1,)

The marines only wanted to make sure it didn't get away, not blow it up.
Hence "tie them up if you can, shoot only if you have to"
Keep in mind that RPG is trailing heavy gauge wire behind it.
(funny thing is a, RL country made an AA weapon this way in 1940, it was called Great Britian, and managed to down a few He-111s)

The MMP-1
Miniture UAV that looks like a minurature FMX-6A, amd was developed around that time, Marines ended up getting them first for trial use when thread started, and now even the Police has them in large stocks, intended to be used against enemy artillery (carries 3 hand grenades, finds artillery, and 'bombs' them, or calls in other methods to destroy a fortified position; early models could be jammed, although it has a secondary (and very short ranged) method that overcomes jamming.

MMP-1 was abbreviation for what it was, Motorized Model Plane Mark One.

Tried selling them at my storefront but nobody seems to want these inexpensive bomb haulers. Also makes a good recon plane. Although I did get Roman Republic [I think] to also try selling them, a very interesting and inexpensive weapon system.

Funny thing I noticed
Had the troops not offered assistance to June and the others, they would most likely have died when the bombs went off. So techniclly I already saved 8 lives, which is more than the death I caused so far. (excluding the helicopter for now)

The RADAR on the CC-2 HTS Verdun spotted an unidentified blip about 37 miles away, and the captian decided to make sure everything was friendly (been shot up on arrival a few more times than I care to have been)

"Greetings, unidentified blip! Would you be so kind as to identify youself, it looks like we'll be camping out here for awhile, orders and such. Seems our government is a little nervous you'll go trigger happy any day now, so, as usual. They sent us to see the first signs of war coming and, as if we could, try and stop it before it reached our shores. Our sonar's a bit on the fritz, it's been stuck on high freqency active pinging, my apologies to your sonar operators. As a show of goodwill, I'll be ordering my supply ships to leave the area, leaving just us on the HTS Kursk for you to watch. I hope you're not dissappointed."

OOC: Yes our sonar is on that highly deafening sonar frequncy that has been known to cause deafness in whales, dolphins, and sonar operators. Although this is a random on\off thing making frequncy cancelation amost useless. (Think how anoying that flickering flourescent bulb is, now picture that as an air horn.)

Comparision between 48" rockets

MRBM (Medium Ranged Ballistic Missile)
Length: 45 feet (modular, so techniclly it could be up to 90 feet tall)
Mass: 15 tons
Diameter: 48"
See SCUD, now see SCUD on steriods, you are now looking at PROHT's MRBM.
(inertia makes shooting these things over poles impossable, arcs in a circle)

SAM
Length: 15 feet
Mass: 5 tons
Diameter: 48"
4 21" boosters strapped behind a sea sparrow (only feasable way to use these up without any great risk to combat effctiveness [other than as a HARM/Shrike)

SSM:
Length: 15 feet
Mass: 5 tons
Diameter: 48"
Similar to beefed up cruise missile, baed on Long range areial torpedo.
Take a Harpoon and multiply that figure by 4.

Long range areal topedo:
Length: 15 feet
Mass: 5 tons
Diameter: 48"
48" diameter carrier, with 6' long 48" solid rocket booster, carries a 21" topedo.

yippee! threads fixed!
bump

The Hotel

Jake clawed his way over the debris-strewn stairwell. "June?" he called. "June?" He heard a faint response, which he couldn't make out, but before he could answer, he found himself staring into the barrel of an assault rifle. "Easy, man, I'm not infected," Jake said. "Just put the weapon down."

The stairs beyond the soldier looked blocked off by a large chunk of wreckage. "Do you think if we worked together, we could push that back out?" he asked.

Above him, June called again. "Who is that? Is that Jake?"

This time, Jake heard her. "Yeah. Are you alright?" She answered that she was fine. "What's the status of that survivor?"

"We haven't found him yet," June said.

"I'm going to find a way past this blockage," Jake said. "Hang on."

Hotel 4th floor
[stares at debris for awhile]
Well, we could try, or we could use explosives.
[takes assault rifle 'drills' a hole in the largest piece of concrete, pulls a grenade from his belt, hesitates] (pin not pulled yet)

"We would have about 10 second to get out of the stairway before this chunk of concrete turns to powder, and I would suggest that we find someplace safe from the blast, so do we take 10 seconds or dig? Digging would be safer but would take much longer, I'd judge that boulder to wiegh upwards 800 pounds."

Hotel 6th floor
[to june]
"Do you have a gun or anything? I'm down to my last clip (30 rds), my friend here just ran out..."

The streets
Gopher decides to go and check out the helicopter crash site, and comandeers the APC. 3 other Marines join him.

Skies above Mittleton
Finaly airborne, the MMP-1 goes to see if any other uninvited party crashers came knocking. In order to stay within LOS of the controler, it climbed in a tight circle until it topped the local high rises. [Using IR datalink, last I check was only able to be jammed by LOS or atmospheric conditions]

Reasponse to Task Force 2 from PROHT mainland (not NRI)
We may offer emergency air support, ETA 30 minutes after being called. We are delivering an HT-Blimp and a commandeered MPP-2 seaplane. ETA 10 hrs.

Hotel
Sixth Floor

"I've got this," June said, holding out her 9mm, "About half a clip inside, and I've got another full one. Sorry..." She thought about giving the soldier her weapon, but decided that she would rather not leave herself defenseless.

Hotel
Fourth Floor

Jake hadn't come all this way to get killed by a hand grenade. On the other hand, he didn't know how long that survivor had. "We'll dig," he said. "June?" he called past the blockage. "This might take a while. Are you anywhere near that survivor?"

Hotel
Sixth Floor

"He's six floors above us," June called back. "These soldiers I'm with are running out of ammunition, though. You'd better hurry."

Hotel, 4th floor
From the sound of things we don't have time to dig, when those guys say 'low on ammo' that means they have less than a clip of ammo, and not much else. We have to get up there now or they'll be dead. Fire in the hole! Take cover up there! Run! You too, this job only takes one domelition expert, I signed on for this but you didn't.
[pulls pin, releases leaf, jams grenade in boulder (hoping blast of 1 pound FAE will be limited) and runs down the stairs for distance, trying to push Jake in front of him]

Hotel, 6th floor
[Marines duck into nearby vacant room and yank June inside as well, then they close the door and hope it will keep them safe]

The streets
After a breif inspection of the wreckage, it was fairly clear that all hopes of getting concrete evidence against Alidor just flew out the window.

Eddie curses outloud:
"If only we knew of another bioweapons lab! All this for nothing! We just flushed our country's credibility down the crapper and we have nothing to show for it. We might as well pack it in and leave now!"

Hotel
The Fourth Floor

Jake didn't need to be told twice. He scrambled down the stairs, nearly tumbling over some scattered debris, passing one landing, jumped down the last five steps into the next landing and ducked into the corner. "What's the fuze--" he asked, just as he got his answer.

Jake shouted and slapped his hands to his ears--all he could hear was a painful ringing. It wasn't the first time that had happened to him today; he hoped it was the last.

After a moment, he stood up, getting his bearings. "Did it work?" he asked, a little too loudly. He could still barely hear himself.

Hotel, 2nd story
[after craning his neck to see what damage was done]
"Looks like the explosion pushed out most of the small chunks and blew the big ones into rubble, staiways might have taken some damage, but it'll hold. We should probly get these supplies to the others before they are overrun."
[rushes upstairs]

GeneTech Building, side alley

Davies looked at the keys to the van Jake handed to him and then at the van Jake was shaking a thumb at, on the other side of the PROHT APC next to a hotel.

“Thanks Jake, you have risked a lot for me and my family, we won’t leave without you” Corporal Davies patted a hand on Jakes shoulder as the man turned back to the hotel that the new survivor or survivors had been spotted in.

David Davies walked back towards his family and spoke quietly to his wife and son, trying to counsel them on what had happened in the last few days and to prepare them for what may lie ahead of them in the next few days. He also tried to formulate a plan that would get the Alidorn survivors away from the PROHT recon team.

The Northern Shores of Alidor

The crew of the Nimrod MRA4, of the 71st Maritime Reconnaissance Squadron, reported the radio communications from the PROHT vessel, the HTS Verdun, as well as some magnetic anomalies the aircraft had picked up in the waters around the vessel, possibly mines. The support vessels seemed to be doing as the captain of the HTS Verdun had said as they sailed away from Alidor. (OOC: At this time the Nimrod has not detected the Submerged vessel entering Alidorn waters.)

Sir Robert Newton Combined Forces Base (CFB)

At Sir Robert Newton CFD the combined Air Force and Army Base just over a hundred and twenty miles in land from the north shore and nearly the same distance from the east shore, the news of the new PROHT fleet was met with the scrambling of Black Cobra Squadron consisting of twelve typhoons, canards and tail fin painted black with a picture of a cobra snake on the tail fin, carrying a maritime attack load out of four Penguin anti-ship missiles, four Advance Medium Range Air to Air Missiles (AMRAAM), two Advanced Short Range Air to Air Missiles (ASRAAM) and three external fuel tanks to provide the Typhoons with extra loiter time in the area encase PROHT tried another amphibious landing.

The twelve Typhoons of White Knight squadron, canards and tail fin painted white with a picture of a knight on a horse on the tail fin, were taxing from their hangers towards the runways as Black Cobra Squadron aircraft hurtled down two of the runways seconds apart. White Knight Squadron Typhoons were also equipped for a Maritime attack role.

The twelve Typhoons of the Flying Tigers squadron, canards and tail fin painted in orange and black tiger strips, were in their hangers being loaded out for their role in the anticipated PROHT landings, they were being fitted out for close air support, carrying eighteen Brimstone anti armour missiles, four AMRAAM, two ASRAAM and an external fuel tank.

The Fourth Light Infantry Brigade, consisting of one thousand men (all equipped with Kevlar body armour and balistics helmets and NBC clothing and respirators, although they are not wearing NBC masks yet) left the base and headed towards the expected landing grounds on the northern coast, they travelled in Land Rover Wolfs and Leyland/DAF 4-tonne GS (General Service)

Land Rover Wolfs are equipped with a mounted 7.62mm GPMG for the front seat passenger to use, and a Browning M2HB .50 calibre machine gun, or a Milan anti-tank missile launcher or the Mk 47 40mm automatic grenade launcher mounted on the rear weapons mount, which can traverse through 360 degrees, around the operator, and carries four soldiers, while the 4 tonne carries twenty soldiers.

Parts of the Seventh Armoured brigade, The Queens Royal Lancers, left the base on the heels of the Fourth Light Infantry Brigade, two armoured companies consisting of thirty two Sabre Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Tracked, one hundred and twenty eight Challenger Two tanks, eighty Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicles and twenty AFV432 (IFV’s and AFV’s carrying a total of eight hundred infantry men). The remaining four companies of the Seventh Armoured Brigade would leave shortly afterwards and take up positions several miles to the rear, to act as immediate reinforcements.

Eight Apache attack helicopters, of sixteen belonging to the Seventeenth Army Aviation Attack Regiment, were being readied for combat, the 1,200 rounds for the 30mm cannon were being loaded into the helicopters magazine and a missile complement of eight hellfire anti-tank missiles and two cells of nineteen 2.75 inch rockets were being prepared for fitting to the helicopters.

Sixteen AS90 Braveheart mobile guns and thirty two MLRS’s were being loaded out with their respective ammunitions as two platoons of four Rapier air defence missile systems from the same artillery group left the base with the Fourth Light Infantry Brigade, to provide last chance air defence for the ground teams against what ever the PROHT navy had waiting for them. Each Rapier missile system consisted of two, four missile, launch stations and one radar/electro-optic tracking device.

Alidrian Combined Forces Base (CFB)

Major Barry Schuehorst, commander of the 2nd Regiment of the Air Commandos, was in one of the many briefing rooms of the large base in the north eastern territories. Military planners were out lining a possible strike plan against the PROHT outpost of New Roanoke Island, and the one thousand men of his regiment were to be the first on the ground.

Looking at the plans for the possible attack, he noted the satellite photographs in the dossier showing high resolution, detailed pictures of the air base on New Roanoke Island, as well as a large FOB which, form its size, he estimated to have between four hundred thousand to four hundred and fifty thousand personnel probably stationed there, and a naval base containing a fleet of surface vessels.

The Satellite images showed considerable damage to air defences and radar installations of the PROHT air force base on New Roanoke Island, and a group of men fleeing from one of the hangers while at the same time a C-130 Hercules exited the same hanger.

(OOC: I'll post about Major Tanya and the rescue convoy in next post)

HTS Verdun, serial number CC-2

As the crew continues to try and identify the plane, the captian sends another omnifrequncy message to the martime patrol plane.

Unidentified aircraft, please identify yourself. At the very least identify your nationality, and reason for being over these currently peaceful, international, waters. Because if your intentions are hostile either againt PROHT or The Kingdom of Alidor, that shall not be tolerated. Though not on the best terms with each other, I hold the highest respect for this country and would not like to see it taken advantage of in these desprate times. Likewise I would not care to be pinned for crimes for which I have not commited.

The ship's lookout reports visual of the plane and confirms it to be a single multi engined plane of modern design. Still too far for visual identification.

Outside GeneTech Building

Corporal Davies was walking his family passed the PROHT APC towards the brown van Jake had pointed to earlier, when it seemed in the same moment, the PROHT APC took off down the street towards the destroyed Chinook and from inside the hotel a loud ear cracking explosion echoed and a thick grey cloud of dust and small concrete particles the size of pebbles spewed from the hole on the fifth floor, made by debris from the explosion in the GeneTech building before.

“Dear God” David mouthed as he ushered his family to the van “Wait here” he shouted through the thick cloud “I’ll be right back” he finished before turning and running into the hotel.

“Jake” he shouted up the stairwell “Jake, are you alright?” Davies shouted again as he reached the second floor trying to breath and see through cloud of grey dust that hung thick in the air.

Willow Street, Mittleton City

The convoy of four Warrior IFV’s passed the remains of a destroyed police station, at least if it hadn’t been completely destroyed the soldiers, under command of Major Tanya Sheppard, would have known it was a police station, Major Sheppard wondered how the building had been destroyed but the predominant thoughts of the Major and her soldiers were on Corporal David Davies and the PROHT APC he had reported.

“If the roads stay like this we should be there in twenty minutes sir” the Lieutenants voice came through the Major’s radio.

“Let’s see if we can speed thing up a little Lieutenant” the Major responded dryly to the Lieutenant in the lead Warrior IFV.

The Shores North of Alidor

The Nimrod MRA4, of the 71st Maritime Reconnaissance Squadron, reported the radio chatter back to its base, the Commander of the base decided that it would be best to respond to the PROHT vessel and, authorised minimal radio contact.

“HTS Verdun, this is Maritime Patrol ‘Passive Master Thirty One’ you are advised that you are in international trading lanes and your presence shall be monitored”

The Sonar operators reported intermittent high frequency pinging from the HTS Verdun and that their visual displays were showing intermittent, partial hull resonance that was not from the HTS Verdun but identification was not yet possible but it was certainly closer to Alidor than the HTS Verdun, but type and direction were as yet not detectable.

“It could be a whale” one of the operators suggested.
“Lets not speculate” His commanding officer responded to the comment.
“Its gone again, I can’t find it sir” the first operator exclaimed
“Damn it, find it and identify it” The Commanding officer replied to the sonar operator.

Alidrian Air force Base (North East Alidor)

The Commander of the Second Air Commando Regiment agreed to the proposed plan with a few minor amendments and instructed his Captains to prepare their troopers for the mission.
The ground crew and pilots of the Twenty Eighth Air Transport Regiment were given orders to prepare the C130J Hercules for the coming mission and maintenance crews gave the planes systems a quick look over, correcting any faults that could be fixed and clearing twenty five planes necessary for the planed mission as ground crews filled their tanks with fuel, and placed flare dispensers into their slots.

Five Hercules would carry a company of two hundred troopers, each company consisted of six Platoons and they were organised as follows,

Three Air Commando Infantry Platoons (32 men each),
One Air Commando Anti-Tank Platoon (32 men),
One Air Commando Anti-Air Platoon (32 men),
One Air Commando Mortar Platoon (40 men).

First, Second and Third Platoons.
Consists of 32 men split into eight, four man, fire teams.
Typical fire team,

First man
M4A4 Assault rifle
M-72 Light Anti-tank Weapon (LAW)
Beretta PX4 Storm .40 Calibre
5 M67 Fragmentation Grenades
3 M15 White Phosphorous Grenades

Second man
M4A4 Assault rifle
Accuracy International L96 Sniper Rifle
Beretta PX4 Storm .40 Calibre
5 M67 Fragmentation Grenades
3 M15 White Phosphorous Grenades

Third man
M4A4 Assault rifle with M203 launcher
M-72 Light Anti-tank Weapon (LAW)
Beretta PX4 Storm .40 Calibre
5 M67 Fragmentation Grenades
3 M15 White Phosphorous Grenades

Fourth man
FN Minimi SPW
Remington 870MCS (18” barrel)
5 M67 Fragmentation Grenades
3 M15 White Phosphorous Grenades

Fourth and Fifth Platoons
Consists of 32 men split into eight, four man, fire teams.
Typical fire team

First man
M4A4 Assault rifle
Javelin Anti-tank Missile (Fourth Platoon)
FIM-92 Stinger (Fifth Platoon)
Beretta PX4 Storm .40 Calibre
5 M67 Fragmentation Grenades
3 M15 White Phosphorous Grenades

Second man
M4A4 Assault rifle
Javelin missile (Fourth Platoon)
FIM-92 missile (Fifth Platoon)
Beretta PX4 Storm .40 Calibre
5 M67 Fragmentation Grenades
3 M15 White Phosphorous Grenades

Third man
M4A4 Assault rifle with M203 launcher
Javelin missile (Fourth Platoon)
FIM-92 missile (Fifth Platoon)
Beretta PX4 Storm .40 Calibre
5 M67 Fragmentation Grenades
3 M15 White Phosphorous Grenades

Fourth man
FN Minimi SPW
Beretta PX4 Storm .40 Calibre
5 M67 Fragmentation Grenades
3 M15 White Phosphorous Grenades

Sixth Platoon (Mortar Platoon)

Consists of forty men who are split in to eight, five man, fire teams. Six of the fire teams operates a M252 81mm Medium Extended Range Mortar and is commanded by a Corporal or Lance Corporal, the remaining two fire teams are the Platoons command section and are commanded by a lieutenant and Sergeant

Typical weapons load out of Mortar teams;

M4A4 Assault rifle
Beretta PX4 Storm .40 Calibre
4 mortar rounds.

Typical load out of Command Section

Lieutenant and Sergeant
M4A4 Assault rifle
Beretta PX4 Storm .40 Calibre
4 Mortar rounds per person

Corporal and Lance Corporal
FN Minimi SPW
Remington 870MCS (18” barrel)
4 Mortar rounds per person

Two Privates
FN Minimi SPW
Remington 870MCS (18” barrel)
4 Mortar rounds per person


Four Privates
M4A4 Assault Rifle
Remington 870MCS (18” barrel)
4 Mortar rounds per person

(OOC: Hurtful could you confirm if I have the right classifications for your vessels please,

CC-2 Verdun and CC-2 Kurst are Cruisers?

LC-47 “Dakota Chinook” is a Landing Craft?

LCAC would be Landing Craft Air Cushioned

SS-19 Turtle and SS-56 Loggerhead are submarines

Cheers.)

(OOC: Hurtful could you confirm if I have the right classifications for your vessels please,

1>CC-2 Verdun and CC-3 Kursk are Cruisers?

2>LC-47 “Dakota Chinook” is a Landing Craft?

3>LCAC would be Landing Craft Air Cushioned

4>SS-19 Turtle and SS-56 Loggerhead are submarines

Cheers.)

(this post will be altered later to be part of the story)

1> Modified Barbour class supply ships bought from (I don't remember at this time) and upgraded to cruiser quality.
About to be replaced by Hiragi Class CA Exports as soon as Outbrake and Air-show threads finished (given that New Roanoke still has a dockside left standing [remember those two hulls in dry dock on my north coast?])

2>It is a Barbour class heavy supply ship, the LC is because it carries a hovercraft and a helicopter and stores a quarter of the battle group's land cotingent each.
Best described as a troopship if not anything else.
(I could try bringing them to your shre, but then they'd get stuck :(.)
The 'Dakota Chinook' on particular, is the flagship of the supply ship contingent (these things where desgned to operate in convoys independent of escorts in peacetime)

3> Heavy Landing craft Air Cushoined (HLCAC)
Dropped the H because PROHT doesn't stock light ones.

4> yes SS= submarine, dropped the K denoting conventional because at this time it would be redundant, those letters on serial numbers can get costly.
(no nuclear subs, so what else could they be?)

Hotel, 2nd Floor

"Corporal Davies," Jake said. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard that blast," Davies said. "Are you alright?"

"Been better," Jake said. The ringing in his ears was beginning to subside. "The soldiers had to clear some debris. They used a grenade."

"Did you find your friend?" Davies asked.

"Not yet," Jake said, brushing some plaster off his clothes. "She was on the other side of the blockage. Is your family safe?"

Hotel, 6th Floor

When the dust settled, another soldier came running up the stairs with some much-needed ammunition. He doled it out to the other soldiers, then handed a spare 9mm magazine to June, but it was the wrong kind and wouldn't fit her pistol. "Jake?" she called down. "Jake?" But Jake, now two floors lower than before, couldn't hear her.

June thought for only a moment before starting down the stairs. The soldiers would be continuing to the twelfth floor; someone had to check on Jake.

HTS Verdun
"Roger that Passive Master three one, we'll sit tight in the meantime, holler if you need anything."

Skies over Mittleton
The Little MMP-1 finally had a good vantage point of the city, and spotted movement to the north, 4 Warrior IFVs had breifly stopped in front of the police station. The plane ducked below the skyline, hopefully nefore anyone saw it.

Streets
The APC finally returned from the chopper to retrieve what was left of the team.

APC
Loader: Uh, we have bogies on our 6 o'clock, they already made it to the police station, we better set up a plausable defense, 4 AFVs, similar to ours. I'll see if they'll decide to let us tell our story before they start shooting this place up.
[gets on radio, tries to Hail the IFVs]

"Hello, nice to see some reinforcements. Found refugees from Alidorian bio lbs on 16th floor, blown up, 13th floor, our men still inside, along with Cpl davies, and a few civillians, currently mounting rescue efforts on hotel across the street, survivors trapped on 12th floor. Casualties unknown. Shot down fleeing helicopter, was registered as 'beyond top secret', weren't suposed to see that, no reported survivors. Found epicenter of outbrake..."

The men pile out of the APC and into the hotel and what was left of the GTB, hoping to set up a decent defense if they decide to attack, the APC heads further south, then turns to the west.

Hotel, 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors
Gopher and Eddie run up the stairs, finally confronting Davies:
"Well, looks like you're in luck, we just spotted 4 Armored vehicles just a few blocks north from here, looked Alidorian"
[continue running up stairs]
Each had an RPG-7 slung across their backs in addition to their assault rifles.

Hotel, 6th floor to 11th
With fresh supplies and manpower, the fire team made record time, and was more willing to use bullets to clear rooms than charging zombies with swords.

GTB
Those still in the GTB where met by two marines from the APC, who quickly told them the situation, and started to take up ambush positions on floors 1 to 5.

Streets
Hannibal pulled up a manhole cover, and with a copy of the report he made, and an assault rifle and some grenades, jumped into the sewers. The dark didn't seem to affect him much though.

I should probabbly get my APC gunner to speak with Croft and Leroy, and patch up Kelly.

<_<

Glad I caught Alidor's reply before he deleted it.

comment
You do know you are planning on sending a mere company into an island with almost two active divisions of marines, an nearly a million police officers, ten Mechanized Army divisions, 20 Mobile Army division and a couple million CDFs.
(not going to include my horse Marine Divisions, since I'll be assuming they are gaurding embassies and giving forgein aid.

Which also currently has 3 Task Forces cordoning off the area, Task Force 1, Task Force 3, and Task Force 5. Task Force 4 is also on the high seas (resserve).

So atacking with just a rifle company will be a bit one sided, and will look very bad politically, since we are currently pointing fingers at each other for our own bioweapons and the clout they have made.

(OOC: Not really its just a possible plan, and the Major has only been told of his companies intended role. Not the entire plan and its a regiment of five companies of six platoons, not that an extra eight hundred men would make that much diference against several million)

APC After it dissapears behind the street corner

The gunner slides down from hisd seat and finally acknowladges Leroy and the others. trying not to bump his head on a bulkhead with graffiti on it stateing 'Little Loose Coupe' followed by lyrics, half finished.

The intirior stank, mostly because 14 people had been crammed inside the aluminum hull for 2 days before reaching Mittleton, and now because of freshly opened containers of antiseptic and the smell of relatively freshly cleared human waste mixed with a tinge of blood.

The gunner looks at Kelly, "Well, it looks like I'll be your surgeon today, what seems to be the matter? - Don't worry, the loader is watching the events outside with that little UAV thing, not a chance of surprises. - ah looks like a puncure wound, heavy bleeding, looks like a deflating lung -luckily the she's still breathing- I'll have her up to 'walking wounded' in a jiffy."

He then pulls out a box, opens it up, and sets it up as a surgeon's operatng tray and gets to work giving artificial blood transfusions, pulling out ballistic glass, suturing the wounds, reinflating her lungs, all was then topped off with a pinch of sulfa tablets and redi-clot. The 'Doctor' then went over to the cooler to grab a beer to 'celebrate' a job well done.

"Anything else wrong with her?" he asks as he opens the can.

Hotel 4th Floor

Jake and June ran into each other at the fourth floor. "Jake, are you alright?" June asked.

"Yeah," Jake said. "Have you found that survivor?"

June shook her head. "The soldiers are on their way up there right now. They should reach the twelfth floor any minute."

"We'd probably get in the way," Jake said. "We'll let them handle this on their own." He leaned in closer. "Some of the others and I are going to try to escape in that van. I don't want to leave that other survivor with these foreign soldiers, but we might not have another chance to leave."

The APC

"If there's anything else the matter with her, I don't know what it is," Leroy said. "Christ, though, it stinks in here."

"Why don't you go get some air?" Dr. Croft asked. "I can wait here with her."

"No," Leroy said. "I'll sit with her until she gains consciousness...or until we lose her," Leroy said.

Hotel, Second Floor

Corporal Davies clasped Jakes shoulder when he saw that he was alright after the demolitions blast. As the pair headed up the stairs David was explaining his family were by the van and about to tell Jake they should get going when June appeared at the top of the flight stairs and was coming down in a hurry.

When see noticed Jake she stopped at explained that the PROHT soldiers were pushing onto the twelfth floor were the survivor had been seen. Jake explained about the plan to escape from the PROHT soldiers, and David interjected with “I don’t know what they want with use, but I’ll bet it will be a lot of parading around in front of TV cameras spewing out their propaganda” looking up and down the stairwell to make sure no one else heard he went on “And I’m damn sure I’m not going to be a puppet on a string for those guys”

Jake gave Corporal Davies an odd look before he finished explaining the escape plan.

PROHT APC

Dr Adrian Croft stepped out of the ‘Little Loose Coupe’ APC and took a deep breath of sweat free air, he couldn’t decide which taste he liked the least, the rotten flesh taste that hung in the streets or the stale sweat taste of the APC, but either way it didn’t matter as there was little he could do about it, except fight back the vomit.

Walking a little way back down the street to the junction they had earlier turned into Adrian scanned the streets, nothing but abandoned vehicles and dead bodies. As he looked back towards the GeneTech building and Hotel something caught his eye.

Adrian noticed June and two men exiting the hotel, looking up he noticed the gaping hole in the side of the building and the faint echo’s of automatic weapons fire as well as the flashes of muzzle discharges in some of the windows on the higher floors.
When Adrian looked back at the hotel entrance he noticed that June and the two men had moved away from the hotel and were stood by the rear doors of the brown van he, Leroy, June and Kelly had arrived in earlier. Poking his head back in the APC he told Leroy he was going to take a walk down to the hotel to see how June and the other survivors were holding up, Kelly had been stitched up and there was nothing they could do but hope she pulled through.

Willow Street, Mittleton City

“To unknown contact, identify yourself immediately” Major Tanya Sheppard responded to the PROHT radio message on an Alidorn frequency.

Flicking a switch to encrypt the radio message she ordered the four Warrior IFV’s to separate, so they could advance on the GeneTech building from different vectors, while a RadOp monitored other frequencies for a response from the PROHT crew.

The Major also radioed back to FOB Charlie to check on the PROHT claims of downing an aircraft over Mittleton City.

The response from the FOB was quick, confirming the loss of a high priority flight over Mittleton City centre.

(OOC: Amended the HTS Kursk to HTS Verdun on previous posts)

Skies over Mittlton
The little MMP-1 pops over the skyline and does a circle and then slips down again. It had seen all it needed to.

APC
Loader:
"Well, you could call us Davy Jones's guardian angel then, because if it weren't for us, he and about 8 refugees would have died in that unschedualed demolition your men did of the building we where hunkered down in. I'd say you should be grateful for that. Davy and the others are fine as far as we know, and are permitted to leave on ther own free will; although we are willing to provide them with transportation outside of the infected area and to a safe location. Our gunner just finished patching up a lady with shrapnel, she came from an unlisted Alidorian helicopter that crashed before we got here. So, what brought you here? Are you picking up the survivors or are you finishing them off? By the way, what country's forces are we speaking to? You don't sound Alidorian."

Willow Street, Mittleton City

“You still have not identified yourself, what is your nationality, troop numbers and reason for being here?” The Major asked back to the evasive voice on her radio.

As the Major was talking the Warrior IFV’s continued to circle around the GeneTech buildings location, approximately a mile and a half away, as they prepared to advance on the area from different sides.

The willingness of the foreign soldiers to shoot down an Alidor aircraft made the Major uneasy and through an encrypted radio message to FOB Charlie the Major requested gunship support from any nearby bases. The FOB Charlie radio operator sent a message back less than two minutes later informing the Major that Apache Longbow attack helicopters would be available in the area in approximately twenty minutes and gave her the radio frequencies and encryption codes needed to communicate with them.

Two of the eight Apache attack helicopters, already in the air to thwart an expected PROHT landing on Alidorn shores, diverted from their course towards the northern shores and headed towards Mittleton City, they would reach Mittleton City outer limits their in seventeen minutes and thirty four seconds.

APC Radio

"Territoial Militia, Mechanized, Experimental. Company C, Battalion 3 Division 6. 150 men strong at the outset, many casualties, a bit disorganized and seperated from everyone else. A few of our men where fired upon here and there. (Actual unit name, just not theirs, and not based in PROHT)

Been here since the outbrake, never left. Seen alot of crazy things in this town. A number of these survivors don't seem too happy about the way the government is handling this mess. And seem to trust us gun happy locals a bit more than they seem to trust you. Been trying to get a message out for assistance in mopping up, but we appear to be jammed outside of a radius of 20 miles from our radios.

Heard over the radio that some country muscled in some small military force, and that we have some sales representitive MIA on some god foresaken island. .

So that again raises our question, who are you? and what took you so long?"

Off radio
"Might want to send runners to inform everyone what 'unit' they are in."
[prepares a message, and puts it around an inert RPG-7 projectile, fires at hotel and GTB (this method was used extensively in WW2 to send messages and communication wires over rivers and from trench to trench)]
"Hope that works."

Bump

At the van

Jake took a head count. Present were himself, June, Corporal Davies, and his wife and kid--five people. They could all fit comfortably into a van. But Leroy was in the area too, and Jake wanted to give him an opportunity to escape.

"When June and I escaped Mittleton the first time, there was another doctor with us," Jake said to Corporal Davies. "He's here now. If possible, I'd like to give him the opportunity to leave with us."

"Kelly's here too," June said. "But she's hurt pretty bad. I think they put her in that foreign APC."

Shit, Jake thought. "How bad is she?"

"Last I saw, she wasn't conscious. Dr. Croft had to pull a chunk of shrapnel out of her; I don't know if she'll make it without medical attention."

"Well, crap," Jake said. This complicated things. "Who's Dr. Croft?"

"He was at the rescue station," June said. "He and Leroy and Kelly and I went to this government lab together, to help look for a cure. Dr. Croft discovered a government conspiracy against us--should he be hearing this?" she asked, gesturing at Davies.

"He's on the level," Jake said.

"Anyway, Dr. Croft probably saved our lives by getting us out of there. I think...I think he should come too," June said.

"Well, if Kelly's in the APC, then maybe Leroy and this doctor are there too," Jake said. "But the APC just took off."

"It stopped just around the corner," Dr. Croft said.

Jake had his rifle leveled at the man in under a second. "Easy," June said, pushing the barrel down. "This is Dr. Croft."

"Sorry, you startled me," Jake said.

"I think a little jumpiness can be forgiven, seeing what we've all been through," Dr. Croft said. "Do you and June know each other?"

"We escaped from Mittleton together," Jake said. "The Corporal and I came back to look for his family. Now that everyone's in one place, I think it's time to get the hell out of Dodge. What are the odds that Leroy and Kelly can get here?"

"Kelly's in no shape to be going anywhere," Dr. Croft said. "Her injuries have been tended to, and she's stable, but she'll still need proper hospital care eventually. I have a feeling these people from Hurtful Thoughts could get her to a hospital more quickly than we could. Leroy's in the APC with her now. I think he's rather attached to her; I don't know if he'd be willing to leave her side."

At the APC

Leroy sat in the cramped APC, absently rubbing his bandaged finger. It was funny, he thought, how the tip of his finger still hurt, even though it was gone. He wondered how long phantom pain lasted, or whether it ever went away.

"Leroy?...Leroy, where are we?"
"Kelly! Thank god you're awake!" Leroy said. He grasped her hand. It was cool, but warmth and vitality were starting to flow back in. "It's a long story. We're in a foreign APC. They're going to get us out of the country and get you to a hospital."

"What?" she asked, apparently confused.

"Don't worry about it now," Leroy said soothingly. "You were hurt in a helicopter crash, but you're going to be fine. Dr. Croft is here too, he just went out for some air. We're going to get out of this nightmare together." He called up to the driver, "Hey, when are we going to get out of here?"

APC:
Loader:
"Well, Alidor has been jamming our radio since we arrived and met you, we did ask for an immediate evac, and had confirmed a reply. And we are currently surrounded by Alidorian forces with no freindlies for the next 200 miles.
Situation is on dead man switch protocall. Meaning, there are 2 passwords, one starts all out war, theother clears us to leave. Silence just foces SOP to continue.

So, what floor did you come from, saw some nasty explosion on the 13th floor."

bump'n
:headbang:

"We were on the sixteenth floor not too long ago," Leroy said. "We were trying to patch up her injuries." He didn't mention that he and Dr. Croft had been planning to head to the thirteenth floor. It occurred to Leroy, for the first time, that if he hadn't run into these soldiers, he, Dr. Croft, and Kelly would all be dead now. He shivered.

"If you get the signal for war, what happens to us?" he asked.

Willow Street, Mittleton City

“Company C, Territorial Militia, You are addressing Major Sheppard of the Rapid Reaction Task Force Third Battalion, now what are your current numbers, your nationality and the state of the civilians in your care and who am I talking to?” The Major thought that the foreign soldier had been evasive in his answers so far and doubted that the given company designation was true but none the less she radioed back to FOB Charlie to find out if any such company existed anywhere in the world.

As Major Sheppard’s Warrior IFV remained idling on Willow Street the other three IFV’s were traversing the streets of Mittleton City to flank the force near the GeneTech building.
The Two Apache Longbow attack helicopters were still approaching the cities outer limits from the west fifteen minutes till they reach the outer limits.

Outside the GeneTech Building

Dr Adrian Croft approached the van outside the hotel that a handful of PROHT soldiers were currently trying to rescue more survivors from. When Jake turned suddenly and pointed his weapon at the doctor’s head, after June’s intervention and a quick apology the group discussed what had happened and what they should do next.

Scarpa Naval Base

Two EA-6B Prowler Electronic Warfare Aircraft swept down one of the naval bases runways seconds apart and as they climb into the sky they banked north-westwards to put them on a heading for the HTS Verdun, their mission was to jam all communications and radar operations of the cruiser, this would be carried out in rotating four hour shifts with two aircraft attempting to jam the HTS Verdun’s signals until their replacements took over.

Meanwhile Seventy two Marine Commandos were being briefed on a possible smash and grab mission that they might be going on, they would carry a 12 gauge shotgun and non-lethal rubber rounds as their first weapons, however they would also have M4A4 assault rifles just encase things went south.
Half a mile away, on another of the naval bases three runways, nine Puma helicopters were being prepped for take off and each one would carry eight Marine Commandos to their destination.
The helicopters where having their rear cabin windows removed and either a 7.62mm Minigun of 40mm automatic grenade launcher being fitted to the window mountings.

Eight Marines of the Special Boat Regiment (SBR) were gathering their weapons and equipment for the possible smash and grab mission and would be delivered to their destination by C-130J Hercules transport aircraft.

Standard Marine Commando load out for mission

Remington 870MCS (shotgun equipped with non-lethal rounds)
M4A4 assault rifle (with 330 rounds each in 11 magazines)
Beretta PX4 Storm (with 42 rounds in three clips)
Five XM84 Stun Grenades (Flash and Bang grenades)
Three M15 Smoke Grenades
(One in four men would carry two explosive breaching packs to clear obstacles)

The Marine Commandos were a Kevlar body armour system to protect their torso from multiple hits from up to 7.62 assault rifle rounds, ballistics helmets and ballistics glasses and Night-Vision goggles.

Each marine would have a Personnel Role Radio (PRR) and one long range communications radios would be carried by each thirty two man platoon.

SBR Marines would be similarly equipped but would also carry a parachute each and each four man fire team would have a long range radio.

HTS Verdun
It didn't take long to notice their radio was being jammed. And decided to inform the other boats in the area of this via SONAR, burst transmission, morse code, almost undistinguishable from their 'broken' SONAR emissions.
The CH-47s took to the air, if they wanted an explanation, they would have to raise the jam.

HTS Loggerhead
Was approrriatly warned of impending hostilities, and sank itself to the sea floor, and rigged for silent running, passive sensors on of course.

HTS Turtle
Dispatched its mines and rigged for silent running on the sea floor.

APC
Loader:
Radio transmission:
[heckling]
"I'm a lttle busy right now, you might as well call us local, being we've been living here in Mittleton longer than yourself, your group looks lost, would you like directions?"

Aside: To Leroy:
"If war breaks out... well, a mass exchange of Biological weapons would most likely ensure, including this disease here. Followed by mass air and amphibious assualts, chemically induced riots in major population centers, a few E-Bombs would be dropped in each other's financial districts, followed by waves of FAEs to level the survivors. And if PROHT is on the lossing side, well, I'll simply state that PROHT has been known to be a sore losser, and will trigger its variety of doomsday device. Casualties will be in the trillions. Other countries will get dragged into the conflict.

But us, we'll be dead before any of it is over, and we'll be on our own to find a way out, and the only thing on our side would we would be the least of Alidor's concerns, and might even manage to get out before the air assaults start.

Standard operating proceedure is much less costly, and inloves a simple clandstine extraction upon reaching shore, this APC is seaworthy enough to make it to reletive safety."

Gunner: [back on his post, peers through scope]
"um, I see a speck, no, make that a mess of specks, it's an Alidorain helicopter wing! And it don't look intrested in picking up survivors... more like killing some. Permission to fire upon Alidorians? Sir?"

the loader/cammander gave a few parting words:
"I'm sorry if we put your lives in any more danger than they where in when we found you, we shall try and get you to safety whenever possable, I'm sorry for any trouble we may have caused coming here, we did not come here to make war, but to prevent one (imagine what a country could do if they could control zombie hordes, then tweaked them into frontline soldiers), before you go, is there anywhere else we could find evidence of Alidor's bio-weapons programs?"

In the front of the APC, the silent driver shows for the first time an emotion, fear. And was breaking into a cold sweat.

"Leroy, Kelly; you might want to run for the sewers right now, we have a man down there, he will lead you to safety, MOVE!"

PROHT APC,
Mittleton City

Adrian was wandering back towards the PROHT APC to check on Kelly’s condition and see whether Leroy and Kelly, if she had woken yet, wanted to join the other survivors in their half baked escape plan.

To his surprise he saw Leroy stagger from the rear of the APC with Kelly in his arms, she appeared conscious and, despite the morphine in her system, she was in considerable pain.

“Leroy, what the hell are you doing” Dr Adrian Croft yelled “She shouldn’t be moved again, not this soon!”

Willow Street,
Mittleton City

“If, you want an escort out of this zombie shit hole, you will provide the requested information” The Major responded to the curt radio operator.

After checking on the locations of the three other Warrior IFV’s, which where still traversing the congested Mittleton roads, she radioed again to FOB Charlie for an update on the Company designation given by the PROHT soldier, defiantly not Alidorn and difficulties in tracing the units nation of origin, was the response she got back.

The two Apache Longbow Attack helicopters were now eleven minutes from the cities outer residential areas and their approach was obscured by the city centres many skyscraper buildings that surrounded the GeneTech building.

APC:
radio: (a bit irrate)
"ESCORT????? Who said anything about a F****ing escort???? We've been here for days getting people out of here and you are asking us to leave? Fine then, we'll leave, but we don't need an escort."

OOC: oh, yeah... the skyscrapers. well, I should probly change my last post, but since hostilities look bleak, I would have asked for them to seek safety regardless. (I guess...)

Outside the APC
Leroy knew he was putting Kelly in danger by moving her; he also knew he didn't have much choice at the moment. Still, Dr. Croft's admonishment stung. "This situation could go from bad to worse any moment, and these Hurtful Thoughts guys know it," he said. He didn't say just how bad it could get; what that loader said to him chilled him to the bone. "They said they had a man in the sewers who could help us get out of the city safely."

PROHT APC,
Mittleton City

“I’ll give you a hand with Kelly” Dr Croft said to Leroy, while placing the woman’s right arm over his shoulder and cupping her back and legs in his arms “but I think that the van we came in would be a better option than the sewage system” Adrian nodded down the street in the direction of the van, were the crowd of survivors had gathered.

Willow Street,
Mittleton City

“Of course we will escort you to the nearest military base, you do not have a choice in the matter” The Major interjected into the PROHT soldiers obscene message “I understand that after being subjected to prolonged exposure to infected persons you maybe feeling a little less than trusting, but we are here to escort survivors to safety” the major continued as the PROHT soldier yelled something about leaving but without an escort.

After checking on the locations of the three other Warrior IFV’s, the Major noted that only one had not reached its intended location yet on the far side of the GeneTech building, but the other two had sent messages of readiness to the Major.

The two Apache Longbow Attack helicopters swept across the tree rich land surrounding Mittleton City and the black smoke of the fires at GeneTech and the Chinook crash could be seen rising from between the tall building of the city, The two attack helicopters slowed as they neared the city limits, seven minutes out now.

Folly Meadows Gas station
Major Mark Gatsby groaned as he dragged the old man into the gas station, then went through the aisles looking for a black trenhcoat and a ski mask. Mostly because chances where, being convicted of robbing a gas station would be less severe than being a pilot on the run. Especially if the recon unit was as poor at concealment as they where at the start.

Streets of Mittleton City Center
Eddie saw the shell land with a thud, then ran down 4 flights of stairs to pick it up, he then read the message...

Eddie then noticed a crowd gathering arond a parked van.

"Oh great, they aren't going to try what I think they're going to do... seen thse go bad real quick."

He ambles over to the van, notices a woman, freshly patched up, not a great job, but she'd live.

"Something just doesn't seem right. There is a group of Alidorian armored vehicles surounding the city, and, uh, well, they might mistaken that van for a car bomb. Please, just don't put all your eggs in one basket, all it would take is one trirger happy gunner and you'd all be dead."

At the van
"Crap," Jake said. If only the Jeep was still in working order, he thought, but he'd seen it get smashed by rubble from that explosion. He wondered if that was part of the conspiracy June mentioned. "Davies, do you think you could get us past them?" he asked.

"Someone in that APC told us we could get out through the sewers," Leroy said. "He said there's a soldier down there who can help get us out."

"Trust me, you don't want to go through the sewers," Jake said. "They suck in a firefight. Blind corners, total darkness, and the acoustics are all screwed up. And you can find yourself up to your knees in wastewater. A submerged zombie could bite your ass before you knew it was there. And," he added, "we have a wounded woman. The sewers are a bad idea."

Meanwhile in the sewers....
Hannibal was having a fun time, walking along the 'streets' (sewers have dry spots for maintnance crews) and would stick his bayonet into the water and yank whatever he happened to poke, and almost caught himself breaking into a song.

"Any-thing goes in, Any-thing goes out, Fish, bananas old pajamas, Any-thing goes..."

665 zombies in the ground, 665 zombies, stick one down toss it around, 664 zombies in the ground...

At on point he decided to poke his head out and say "hi", if for nothing else but to keep himself reletively sane.

Willow Street,
Mittleton City

Major Tanya Sheppard waited for a response from the radio operator who claimed to be part of Company C of a Territorial Militia, the lack of a response made her more concerned about the safety of the survivors they claimed to have saved as well as Corporal Davies, who had radioed the sighting of an APC to the FOB earlier.

Outside the GeneTech Building

Corporal Davies looked at Jake for a second before answering “I’m not sure of anything right now Jake, but if there is going to be a shooting match around here then I want my family out of the way” He glanced at his wife and child “It would be real shitty if we got this far just to be killed by stray bullets” Davies pulled the drivers side door open and climbed in the van, his wife and son entered the passengers side “You can go through the sewers if you want but I’m not and neither is my family” he flicked the ignition and the van spluttered into life.

“Wait” Dr Adrian Croft shouted at David Davies “This woman has serious wounds and shouldn’t be moved to much, she should go in the van and I will have to go with her as well”

“Get in the back then” Corporal Davies grunted to the doctor “See if you can secure her to something in there, and I’ll try to keep the ride as smooth as I can”

Looking back at Jake and the other survivors Corporal Davies said “Well that's five and its starting to get dark, is there anymore of you coming or not”

“What about the survivors in the hotel” Sarah Davies, Corporal Davies wife asked “Shouldn’t we wait for them”

“Those PROHT soldiers have been in there for thirty minutes now, and it’s been forty minutes since anyone saw the survivor at the window” Davies answered his wife “It would take a miracle for them to still be alive”

Mittleton City,
Suburban sprawl

The ground below the two Apache Longbow Attack helicopters changed quickly from green forests and fields to red and grey suburban blurs as they reached the outskirt residential areas of the deserted Mittleton City.

“Archer six to, Major Sheppard” the lead Apache pilot radioed “Approaching holding point awaiting orders”

Folly Meadows,
Petrol Station

The old Attendant had had two of the worst days of his life, he had been press ganged into helping foreign soldiers bypass local military patrols, and frog marched back to the petrol station, rendered unconscious and now dragged into the petrol stations shop were he was propped up against the till on the counter.

As he woke form his chemically induced slumber he realised there was someone rummaging through the rows of sweets, treats and magazines for something, the elderly attendant wasn’t bothered what the stranger was looking for, in-fact the chemically dulled brain of the attendant didn’t even register that he was half standing half slumped over the counter, it just lazily played with the blurred images and muffled sounds trying to make sense of things.

OOC: sorry about the delay in posting about the hotel, didn't want to bore everyone about the long trip up the stairs.

Hotel, 13th floor
After the fresh troops and more than adaquate supplies, the team made record time up the stairs, only to find a busted in door where the "survivor" was, but they cleared the floor just the same, and decided to wave a piece of white cloth out the window to signal the others outside that they made it.

One of the soldiers noticed someone on the floor, apparently alive and not zombie, and decided to check his vitals.

Hotel, 5th floor
Gopher and another soldier thoroughly cleared this floor in order to stage an ambush of any impending attack, true, they stayed much past their 30 minute point, and every moment they stayed they risked being overrun by a force of expected helicopter cammandoes.
(they ironicly are actualy being set up to assault a boat instead)

Petrol Station
Gatsby was rummaging franticly for something to hide his identity to no avail when he noticed the old man coming out of his befuddlement.

"You okay over there???"

He then resumed lokking for a trenchcoat and ski mask, if not a little faster.

APC
Loader/radio operator
"Oh, yeah, 'escort' them, like your men did the others, out to a wall and in front of a firing squad? Is that what you mean? Then by all means, coninue blowing up the city, we'll just keep pulling out the survivors, and more of you'll come to have them shot. Seems kind of pointless what we are doing over here when put in those terms doesn't it?"

At the van

"I'll take my chances in the van," Leroy said, helping Kelly in with him.

"I was involved in a gunfight in the sewer system a few years ago," Jake said. "These zombies obviously don't have guns, but trust me when I say our chances are still way better in the van. But if the Alidorn Army is as jumpy as our PROHT friend says, then that might be trouble. Corporal, are you sure you can get us through their lines without getting shot?" he asked.

"Look," June said, pointing at the hotel. Someone was waving a white rag through the window, at about the 12th or 13th floor. "Is that the survivor trying to get our attention, or did the Hurtful Thoughts people reach him?"

Outside the GeneTech Building

Corporal Davies looked up to where June was pointing and reluctantly switched the engine off to wait for the possible survivors to be brought down, they should at least be given the option of leaving with them, he thought to himself. At that moment he noticed the head of an incredibly ugly PROHT soldier pop up from beneath the manhole cover near the entrance to the GeneTech Building, crazy bastards he thought to himself.

Folly Meadows,
Petrol Station

The old Attendant grunted back at the question from the unknown person rummaging through the petrol stations shop.

Manhole cover
Hannibal
Anybody want to take a ride down the sewers, this place is surrounded. And they don't seem interested in taking anyone to safety, unless you define standing between a wall and firing squad as a safe place to be.

Folly Meadows
to himself
"Ski mask... where are the ski masks...?"

OOC: what happened to those MPs?

Willow Street,
Mittleton City

Major Sheppard ordered the men in the four IFV’s, which were now all in position, to disembark and to advance on the GeneTech building.

Outside the GeneTech Building

Corporal David Davies ignored the comments from the head sticking out of the manhole next to the van, Dr Adrian Croft help Leroy to carry Kelly into the van and placed her on parcel shelf and secured her to it with several straps, to stop her from falling off and from moving.

"I'm not at all happy about this but we need to get her out of here if this situation is going to turn into a street battle.

Folly Meadows,
Petrol Station

The old man finally came round from his slumber to see the man rummaging through his shop “Hey what are you doing, there?” he asked in a tired half asleep way.

(OOC: Warshrike has said he can only access internet at school and wont be able to join the RP anymore)

At the van

"If the soldiers haven't found him, they will soon--long before we could," Jake said, referring to the survivor. "Not much we can do for him. Now...sewers, or the van?"

"The sewers do sound way more dangerous," June said. "I'm sure we can get past the Alidorn perimeter."

"Left to my own devices, I'd take the van in a heartbeat. But if some of you want to take the sewers, I'll come with--you'll need all the guns you can get," Jake said. He turned to the others, waiting for their response.

APC
Loader/radio operator
"Oh, yeah, 'escort' them, like your men did the others, out to a wall and in front of a firing squad? Is that what you mean? Then by all means, coninue blowing up the city, we'll just keep pulling out the survivors, and more of you'll come to have them shot. Seems kind of pointless what we are doing over here when put in those terms doesn't it?"

Willow Street,
Mittleton City

Major Sheppard ordered the men in the four IFV’s, which were now all in position, to disembark and to advance on the GeneTech building.

APC
Loader/Radioman/Commander
"All right then, I'll just let you know that the men of the Territorial Militia has been given permission to defend themselves since the previous attacks, this includes, but is not limited to lethal force. And that the only reason you are so close to the city center is because we let you come this far, in hopes that you where not here to kill survivors, I was wrong. Squadron leader out."

The Loader landed the plane, then replaced one of the fragmation grenades with a 5 pound Anti-tank grenade. And then got the lumbering little UAV off the ground again.

Hotel, 13th floor
The man they came to rescue appeared to be dead, except for a faint pulse, he slipped into a coma. Just great. They found a vial containg some mystery liquid, and decided to bring it to Hannibal, as soon as they could find him.

Sewers
Hannibal didn't really mind the dark, he did't much rely on his dimmed vision anyways. He also didn't mind any diseases, since the serum he took precluded most diseases (though chemicals and bio-toxins still had an affect). The cold was a minor hinderance, but he was used to it, tucked in his pockets was a pair of thermobaric grenades, a pair of fragmation, and a single Anti tank grenade.

Pvt Rick Sawyer
Finally made it to the North shore, he hopped out of his borrowed car, and looked at the sea. He saw a speck, which upon much finer examination would have shown as the HTS Verdun.

Having nothing to do, he closed the door to the old sedan, and leaned against the trunk of the car, as if he where on leave from active duty. He gave a slight sigh of relief.

It was sort of surreal with all the Alidorian choppers buzzing over his head, and the report that they where to be recognised as terrorists, yet here he was, out in the open, and nobody even cared.

OOC
This post is to pin a definite location on Pvt Sawyer, and to provide a much calmer counter perspective to what is giong on in Mittleton.

OOC
Alidor wanted me to do an extraction, and after a few protestations, decided to relent.

It took awhile to come up with an even remotely realistic way of pulling out, and this is the best I could think of...

I also noted that this is the longest running/active Zombie RP.

IC
Hotel level 13
The four soldiers found a blanket and two poles, and some straps of cloth, and made astretcher and set the man in a coma in it. Then they strapped him down for bith his own and their own safety.

They then carried him out of the hotel, and into the street, and due north. Towards the Alidorian AFVs, and gave the vial to Gopher on the 5th floor. They walked, almost as if in slow motion, through the streets, two of the four stood at the sides of the stretcher, keeping it level with one hand, holding an assault rifle with the other, and scanning the streets for any wandering zombies.

They soon came to a lone Alidorian Warrior MICV, and wondered what would happen next.

OOC: There's not much I can do until Alidor's people at the van respond. Sorry.

At the van

Gradually, the survivors became aware of a low and ominous sound. It seemed to have no definite source; instead of echoing off the blank facades of the surrounding towers, it seemed to filter in from everywhere at once.

"What is that?" June asked, edging closer to the van.

Jake listened for a moment, cocking his head. His brow furrowed in sudden worry. "It's them," he said.

"Jesus..." June said. "Are you sure?"

"I've heard this sound before," Jake said, thinking back to the siege at the rescue center. "But this sounds like more--I can't pick out a single voice. There must be thousands. The bombs, the choppers, the APC's guns--all this noise must be drawing in every infected person in the city."

June shivered. "How long do we have?"

A sudden, stiff breeze assaulted the ragtag group with an overwhelming odor of carrion.

"Everyone in the van, now!" Jake said. "The sewers would be suicide. Our only hope is to plow through them."

"Wouldn't we have a better chance in the APC?" Leroy suddenly asked from inside the van.

A distant shriek sounded. It was joined by a chorus of others.

"It's a hundred yards away and we've got a wounded woman," Jake said. "There's. No. Time." He ushered the rest of the survivors into the van and jumped into the driver's seat. "Slam that fucking door--we're leaving now!"

Hannibal, in the sewers
Heard a horrible echoe of an inhuman shriek, and turned around and saw a small band of zombies clawing their way at him, (fell through an open manhole) Hannibal opened fire, then as they got closer he started clubing them.
He was outnumbered one against who knows how many...
Most likely 5 or 10... Not even a decent 'Mob' to die to, but enough...

GTB, and hotel
As the men heard the screams they barricaded the doors, and watched the band chaser after the van down the street.
"They'll never make it..." one of them said

The Four men walking to the Warrior IFVs
The two escorting Marines turned around and opened fire upon the zombies, they saw a van mauling its way though the crowd, they tried not to shoot anyone inside. The stretcher bearers started to run. Every so often one of the Marines would franticly wave at the IFV, but it just sat there.
They could imagine the captian of the tank sitting, watching, and smiling...

M-113HT 'Little Loose Coupe
The UAV saw them first, then the driver could feel them running into the AFV, the driver drove circles, crishing and grinding the zombies into a homogenous gelatnis mass of flesh and bone.

old ooc thread I dug up
http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=410062

The van motored down the street, rolling over bodies and swerving around larger bits of debris. The big vehicle was slow to accellerate, and while the undead hordes weren't gaining on them, they weren't falling behind either. June watched through the rear window, stricken. "Can't this hunk of crap go any faster?" she demanded.

"We're too heavy," Jake said tersely. "Is there anything back there you can toss?"

There wasn't. June didn't answer.

"Get onto the highway!" Leroy suggested.

"Worth a shot," Jake said, swerving onto a ramp. He jerked the wheel hard to avoid a jack-knifed tanker truck, nearly overturning the van in the process.

Gradually, the horde fell behind them, but never disappeared from sight completely. As the skyscrapers fell away, the survivors could see helicopters circling in the distance. "Davies, you've got a radio, right?" Jake asked. "Any chance we could get some help from them?"

OOC: I think this RP has gone on long enough that it at least merits a proper end. If there's no response by June 1, I'll end it myself.

He'll be back by June 2nd then...

Well, if the thread is dead/dying, give it a proper sending off, and then a decent funeral (don't want them pesky zombies).

The end does look interesting... Wonder how he wanted it to end?

I don't know. I've really only been paying attention to a few characters--my own, and Cpl. Davies (all currently in the van), so I'm not sure how to tie up all the other loose ends. Perhaps you could take care of your portion of the story.

If Alidor doesn't come back, I'll have his government firebomb the city. I'd recommend getting your people out by then.

OOC: This is it. I apologize for taking control of others' characters, but this thread deserves a decent end.

In the van

"Worth a shot," Davies said. He tuned to a standard military frequency. "This is Corporal Davies of FOB Charlie. Is anyone out there?" Static. He tried again on another frequency.

"Corporal Davies, you're coming in loud and clear. What's your situation?"

"We're southbound on Highway Six, leaving Mittleton," Davies said.

There was a pause. "Jesus, I didn't think there was anyone left alive there."

"There won't be, for long," Davies said. "Thanks to all the noise, every zombie in five miles is converging on the city center."

"Yes. we're aware of that," the voice on the radio said. "We're warning them to pull out now. We're giving them five minutes."

"Five minutes until what?" Davies asked.

Central Mittleton

"Alright, move out, move out!" the PROHT commander said. "We need to disappear in five!"

It was easier said than done. The undead hordes reached the city center not long after the other survivors had fled in their van. Even with the APC and its guns, the PROHT troops were finding themselves unable to cope with the great masses of the dead.

Finally, those who could crammed themselves inside the APC, almost quadrupling its standard troop capacity. Those inside hardly had room to breathe. Those outside were not so lucky. Some escaped in helicopters or tactical ATVs; the rest were set upon. Within moments, there was too little left of them to reanimate.

The APC plowed forward, crushing writhing corpses under its bulk. The bodies of the dead, laying six deep in some places, proved almost more than the APC's treads could handle--it sunk into their pulpy bodies like they were mud. Putting the vehicle in higher gear, the driver was finally able to get some traction; once it was moving, it simply rolled over the carpet of dead flesh. It reached another highway and tore south, its treads leaving red and black tracks for over a mile.

Without the APC's guns, the city streets became almost quiet--almost. There was still, everywhere, the soft, listless moans of the undead, now denied their prey. The moaning filled the air; millions of voices blending together into an almost monotone background hum.

This background noise was soon overlaid by the sound of approaching jet engines, deep and powerful. Soon, a squadron of heavy bombers passed over the city center, their bomb bays open. Hundreds, perhaps over a thousand 750 lb. canisters fell from their bellies over an area three miles in diameter.

When the canisters reached a certain altitude, each burst open, releasing and igniting hundreds of gallons of napalm. The sticky liquid splattered against building facades, parked cars, and rotting human skin. It burned hot and slow, taking its time, turning flesh to charcoal, eating through bone, boiling the still-active brain tissue that kept these creatures moving. Not one of them reacted; having lost the capacity for pain sensation and the instinct to avoid injury, they merely shuffled indifferently as they collapsed to ash.

The napalm burned hot, and soon other materials ignited as well. Paint, plastics, even fiberglass and aluminum in automobile bodies quickly caught. Well-fed, the fire spread beyond the radius of the napalm, seeking out vehicles and structures to consume and sterilizing the walking dead which stood in its path. Skyscrapers sagged inward as their structural steel softened; they collapsed on themselves, as often as not spreading flammable debris around them. Petrol stations and stored chemicals caught fire and exploded spectacularly. Heat and fire cleansed the heart of a dead city.

Far away

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," Jake murmured, perched upon an Alidorn APC as he watched the conflagration. He and the others had reached the perimeter and convinced the soldiers that they were uninfected. Leroy's severed finger caused some consternation among them, but, seeing that the wound was some hours old, it was deemed safe.

"Do you think they'll ever say where it came from?" June asked nobody in particular.

Jake shook his head. "The GeneTech Building was torched along with everything else. All the evidence is gone."

"Maybe not everything," Leroy said. "That Hurtful Thoughts APC might have made it out--though, who would believe a foreign military unit saying that our own government did this?"

An Alidorn private hopped up on the vehicle with them. For several minutes, they all watched the blaze in silence. Finally, the soldier said, "I heard they did this to a couple of nearby cities, too."

"It won't be enough," June said. "There are still tons of those things wandering the countryside."

"But the bulk of the creatures are gone now," Kelly said. "The military is fully mobilized, and they know what they're dealing with."

"Even so, I'm getting the hell out of this country," Leroy said.

His sentiment was quickly seconded by most of the group. Only Davies and his family wished to remain. "We've got a history here," he explained.

Night was setting. In the waning light, the burning city took on surreal beauty. The perimeter force soon packed up, heading for a base many miles outside the infected zones. Jake and the others turned their backs on smoldering Mittleton. They did not look back.

(Sorry in advance, but ive been reading this for about an hour and wish to add my thoughts)

A truly fitting end to a great novel. It reminded me so much of Raccoon City from the Resident Evil series. *claps loudly* :D :D :D :D

OOC
I'm going to kick myself if this ends up angering Alidor.

IC
PROHT conclusion

The APC churned its way to a gas station, refueles, churned on as people where gaping in awe at the feiry ruins of Mittleton.

They noted that 4 more PROHT troops and the comatose survivor where missing, the Alidorian military officially dissavowed all knowledge of their pressence and especially the comatose man.

"That makes 8 out of 14 dead, missing or captured..."

In anact of defiance to be silenced by the noise of the firestorm, the APC launched its 15 artillry rockets (stored in rear turret bustle) into the center of the city, making the arc long and high for everyone to see.

Meanwhile Hannibal was making slow progress in the sewers and was burned alive when the Napalm dropped... also destroying the 2nd copy of his findings.

Pvt. Rick Sawyer was picked up by a small rubber boat launched by the HTS Verdun
---
28 days later
The surviving members of the Recon Party into Alidor (all 7 of them) along with those who decided to follow, finally made it to a procesing center (for decontamination) On New Raonoke Island, PROHT. Rick Sawyer was promoted to Corpral in partaking in a raid to knock down RADAR bases to screen the evacuation of the rest of his unit. Gopher, was promoted to Captain for his heroic actions and calm during the operation (also because he was declared the only surviving member of an elite unit that "doesn't exist"). Ed Giem was pardoned of his mass murder charges and set into the rak of the PROHT Police (SOC) field agents. Al other members where promoted 2 full pay grades.

Hannibal's meager notes (in conjunction with the experiance/notes of some of the doctors who fled to New Roanke Island), managed to identify the particular strain of virus, and work started upon finding a cure at earnest, as promised.

PROHT cost:
40 POWs
3 KIA
4 MIA
Of 54.

Evidence Found:
Bodies and brains
Hannibal's Preliminary findings
Fragment of vial containing original virus
Alidorian Doctors who have studied the disease

Evidence Lost:
The comatose Spy (who was immune to the vius)
The Antivirus
Hannibal's conclusion
Hannibal himself (officially dead for the past 10 years)
The Alidorian Helicopter full of spies and evidence from the GTB