Through the Fire and the Flames

“Move! Move!” My commander, Jason, called. I quickly obeyed his command and ran up to the next bunker up the beachhead. Laser and plasma zoomed by me as I ran. I reloaded my dual SMGs when I got to the bunker, before re-engaging the enemy.

“Ryld, cover me!” Cassandra yelled and sprinted toward the bunker I was in, from the start of the beachhead before I could respond. I rolled out of the bunker I was in and opened up with my submachine guns. When she got close I rolled back in to the bunker and reloaded, again.

“Thanks” she said quickly before she sniped a few zombies from there perches on top of the ridge.

“I thought zombies were supposed to be stupid and easy to kill!” I yelled above the roar of my weapons and the clink of shells as they hit the concrete floor.

“Key word: Supposed to!” she replied killing a few more. Something zoomed by so fast that I almost didn’t see it.

“What was that?” I turned to look at it through the shooting hole in the bunker. It was a little jaguar like skeleton that was eating Jason’s arm. He was having trouble killing it with his knife; his gun was on the ground his bloody hand still holding on to the handle. I aimed and shot the jaguar like skeleton thing in the head and it instantly became just another pile of bones. Jason’s skin was obliviously infected with zcabies. It was covered in pus, but under the pus the wound had lots of quickly spreading sores and rashes. I took a moment of silence to honor Jason before I shot him in the head.

Zcabies is a lot like rabies but it the disease attacks the brain in a different way and much quicker. There is no cure and the disease acts so quick that around an hour after a bite the victim becomes a zombie. That’s why I had no choice but to kill Jason. The virus kills the decision making part of it and shuts down the nervous system. Some zombies retain the part of their brain that includes speaking. These zombies tend to be commanders or the equivalent of commanders. After killing the nervous system it then creates a hunger so strongly that the now zombie will eat what ever it can get his hands on. All zombies love the taste of human flesh, we are not completely sure why but we think it is because that is how the virus is spread.

Zombie defense units were created to control the spread of the virus and contain it when they found a place where it breeding. The virus breeds in places of heat and water. We were currently trying to take back the same exact beachhead that operation overlord took place.

“This is z-defense unit number 725 come in Eagle” I called in to my helmet not even slowing my dual SMG fire in the process.

Eagle is our command center. To make sure it won’t be attacked it by zombies it was based out of the International Space Station. That’s why it’s called Eagle because it see’s all. Its interlinked with all the satellites we have in orbit to help keep track of zombies, z-defense units, and the Zcabies virus.

“Eagle to z-defense unit number 725 we read you loud and clear”

“Our commander is down and there is something here that looks like a jaguar and is super quick. It is infectious too. Pleases send orders”

“Z-defense unit number 725, continue as planned. Until we get confirmation they are not a huge threat, but watch each others back.”

“Orders received, out.”

I switched to the command frequency with a brief movement and addressed the z-defense unit as a whole.

“Z-defense this is unit 725. I am now the commander. Unit 701 is dead. I repeat James is dead; Ryld is now your commander. Report in.”

Lights started to glow on my, now active, heads up display signaling that that single unit was checking in. The lights for units 701, 715, 750, 773 through 782, and 785 through 799 did not light up. The numbers 701 through 799 should have lit up. They did not, meaning that they were dead or that they had equipment problems. Equipment problems are almost imposable.

“Radio confirmation: units 701, 715, 750, 773 through 782, and 785 through 799 are dead. Report any visuals on them.” I said both to Eagle and to the living members of Z-defense unit.

Eagle reported no visuals of the missing units and none of the ground units could say what happened to them either. They were dead or now zombies which was much worse then dead. They were equipped with weapons that would make our lives hell. We were all equipped with dual FP 90 submachine guns, five M67 grenades, helmet with an automatic heads up display called HUD, and type V ballistic body suits. A built in backpack, that not only holds things for you and puts them in your hand when you want, but it also it monitors your body state and adds or removes chemicals in the blood helping the unit achieve peak performance, and it also contains a PRD or a personal radar device which picks up on movement around the user and displays it on the HUD alerting the user if anything not registered as friendly comes too close. If worse comes to worse we also have a standard ka-bar knife. The ka-bar knife has been in use for 114 years but the military have found it to be the best knife in the business. The newest edition has a plasma radiator that forces plasma to become a blade when it is drawn.

To me the dual SMG’s can’t be beat by any other gun, and the ka-bar knife is the best around. The type V ballistic body suits have saved my life on more then one occasion and the PRD and HUD comb just can’t be beat. I really have no idea how to make any of this equipment better it’s all just so good. 

Pulling me from my thoughts my HUD started to beep in my ear, I glanced at it, spun and opened up on a zombie that was lumbering toward me. The zombies were slow which was very nice. If they got too close they could be easily brought down. This one was no exception.

I looked for any others that may have come behind the two of us and found none. I turned back to the view port of the bunker and kept picking off any zombies or the jaguar skeleton things that I could see, monitoring my troops the whole time. The number of lights that were still lit up on my HUD was falling very fast. I was starting to get worried.

I continued to shoot zombies left and right while I talked. “This is Z-defense unit 725 to Eagle our troop’s number around 35 units, requesting evacuation, pronto.”

I waited for a reply, but all I heard was static. I repeated my radio request but all I heard was static again.

“Z-defense unit this is unit 725 I can not get in contact with Eagle. Can any of you?” A few replied saying that they could not but not a single person could get in contact with it. We were now doomed.

“Regroup at point alpha. It’s marked on your map we will hold there till we can figure out what to do.”

I marked point alpha farther down the coast in a forest. The beach head we were on now was too open and we could not camp there for fear of attack. I sent the marker to all the Z-defense units.

By the time I was done Cassandra had already prepared to leave. I glanced over the area making sure that we were not going to be attacked as we left. The battlefield looked clear but as we left the bunker bullets began raining down around us and bouncing off our hi-tech armor. Instantly we retreated back in to the bunker.

“Where are th-“

“They are on top of the bunker!” Cassandra said cutting me off quickly.

“Then let’s give them hell!” I said as I raised my dual SMG’S to point at the roof. I opened fire, empting both guns clips. Cassandra used her radar motion tracker and sniped the zombies from where they were on the roof. When there were none on our motion tracker.

“Cover me.” I did not even wait for a response I knew she would. I sprinted out of the bunker and spun only to find nothing on moving on top of the bunker. All the zombies and jaguar things were dead. I lowered my SMG’s to the ground and motioned for Cassandra that it was safe to come out. Ever so quietly we moved from bunker to bunker to tree to rock always behind something for cover. I never was left out in the open. Cassandra with me the whole time that we were moving.

Finally we climbed the last hill to point alpha. There were some soldiers at the rendezvous point but we had beaten most of Z-defense unit there. That’s when the bomb went off. The whole beach head that were had just been on went up in flames. The blast killed anyone who had not reached at the rendezvous point. “Report in!” I called hoping that the blast had not killed anyone. Besides the people around me, no lights came on. The blast had killed all of our other troops.

The troops that we had left included Unit 375: Roxas Honeywell (Bomb specialist), Unit 374: John T. Thompson “Thompson” (Radio specialist), Unity 353: L. James Sullivan (Solder), Unit 346: John Browning (Solder), Unit 327: Cassandra Springfield (Sniper specialist), and of course me (Commanding officer and Solder). Our little band would stand no chance against the massive zombie hordes. We were doomed.

“Thompson can you contact Eagle?”

He stood there for a few seconds trying to contact them. “No, I cannot”

“Keep trying. Cassandra and John create a perimeter. James, Roxas you two are with me.”

“Where are we going, sir?” It was more of a statement then a question.

“We are going to take the fight to them.”

“Yes, sir!” Both of them said instantly.

I turned and headed out toward the burning beachhead. We were not going to let our comrades die in vain. This was most likely a suicide mission trying to kill horde upon horde of zombies but I could not think of anything else to do.

We quickly got to the beachhead and found no zombies. Not a single living or undead thing there. We quickly crossed the beachhead with no sign of any movement except us. The silence of the once thunderous battlefield was immense.

“Where did they go?” I whispered almost afraid that my voice would kill us.

“Farther up?” James was not sure.

All the sudden thousands of zombies appeared on the ridge above us.

“Surrender!” one zombie shouted in a rough voice.

“Never!” I yelled sounding much more confident then I felt.

“We have either killed or converted all your friends! Now your next!” He yelled down to us.

“What if we do?”

“You will join us!”

“I cannot do that!” I yelled back opening fire upon him.

All of the zombies stormed down the face of the ridge. Every zombie I killed was immediately replaced by another; it seemed hopeless.

“The Calvary has arrived!” A voice yelled in my helmet.

The ground all around the three of us exploded as missiles collided with the endless amount of zombies. This cleared us a path down to the shoreline.

“MOVE!” The voice in my helmet yelled and we needed no more orders. I sprinted faster then I knew I could and boarded the ship that was hovering just above the water. It sped away before any zombies could get us. Without being told I knew what had happened.

“Thanks Thompson I owe you.”