This is fucked up.
The word is gone to hell or worse. You’d think that the would have been a sign or something but no, just a regular morning like all others. Slightly cloudy spring day. The snow had melted weeks ago, and it was just getting warmer and warmer.
A regular day besides the point of waking up to screaming, yelling and gunshots only to find that your bunk mates below are for any better word gone mental. I mean how’d you feel to wake up and see your gunner getting his guts eaten by the driver.
I probably would have gotten eaten as well if not for the fact I was on the upper bunks, as the raving crowd of former comrades now cannibals were unable to reach up here with their mouths. That is if you’re not sleeping on the edges where they can drag you down with impunity.
What is this anyway? some zombie flick? Chemical attack? Bad case of mass food poisoning? Can’t rule out aliens ether.. God. This better be a nightmare.
I stood up on my bed and looked around only to see how badly we were caught with our pants down. There is now only 4 of us not having a gorefest in a 50-man bunk quarters with no guns or means to get out and probably nobody to come get us any time soon, not to mention these crazies had started to crowd around us still sane and pushing the bunks... A second dose of shit is about to hit the fan.
I couldn’t just stay here and wait for the inevitable, so I decided to try my luck to use the upper bunks to get towards the door to the outside of the barracks, inspiring the rest to try the same.
The ceiling was barely high enough giving us barely enough room to properly switch to the next bed. And for awhile everything ran like clockwork until one of the 3 other survivors got ambushed by a recently turned comrade on the higher bunk causing him to fall only to get encircled by the mob. The screams of agony and the gurgling sounds of would be zombies as they feasted on him nailed us in place due to sheer horror as we could only look at what was to be if we’d fall.
All in all, only me and another who almost shared the same fate as the others not so much fortunate but ended up only getting a scratch on his arm. As we left the barracks, shutting the door behind us to contain the situation we witnessed the absurd situation than it was outside. The survivors were gathering around a tank forming a perimeter with around 20 guardsmen holding off a tide with one guy on the tanks turret hatch using the machine gun on former comrades who had formed an uncountable tide coming at them from all buildings while 5 others escorted by 10 more guys seemed to go back and fourth the armoury to get armaments and ammo hauled to the perimeter.
Me and the other survivor from our sleeping quarters while yelling and waving rushed towards the perimeter. The other survivors cleared the path for us to move unimpeded towards them only to get guns thrown to us and given directions on how to help. No time for pleasantries when most of the garrison is out to get your blood I guess. I took place with the rest of the 20 guys holding the fort while my compatriot from the quarters got dragged to the supply gathering group.
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“What’s the objective?! No, more importantly what the hell is going on?!” I yelled to the others with me trying to make some sense of the situation.
“Heck if I know what this is but looks awfully like a zombie movie!Also, No objectives other than to survive!” One closest to me yells over endless groaning and gun fire
“We’ll gonna use the tank to pave a path to the depo to get some more wheels and load the rest of supplies on them, you wouldn’t know anything about operating one, would you?”
“Tank commander Graham at your service, my crew got eaten by my other crew. But I can manage her.” I say while unloading my magazine into the zombie looking things.
“Fuck, I feel ya, most of my squad got done in as well.” The man next to me yells back at me. “I’m pretty sure you’re the only guy who knows anything about her, so she’ll probably be yours to use.”
“I’ll be fine on my own to just drive. Just keep the guy on the hatch to use the machine gun and we’re golden” I Say while reloading the rifle and head to the M1 Abrams. Time to get the hell out of here and regroup.
I got into the M1 Abrams while receiving a royal welcome and started her up and got ready to move at moment’s notice. Around 10 minutes pass waiting until suddenly an explosion slightly shakes the tank.
“Fuck, the perimeter got breached!” the turret guy yells “The supply group had an infected among them, we need to move!” I tense up and put pressure on my leg ready to fly.
As he says that I hear people climbing onto the tank and hear the turret guy yell “That’s all of us, move, move, move!” And I let her start crawling forward while slowly speeding up and head towards the vehicle depo.
“What the fuck exactly happened?!” I yell at the guy on the machine gun as I wasn’t able to see what was going on from my sensors that were only forward facing, showing only a little from the sides for turning.
“The guy you came with had it whatever the others have and jumped on the supply team as they were coming back.” The guys voice I was standing next to while holding the line answers “The guy he jumped was carrying volatile cargo and well we and the supply escort laid them down both with lead and that was the explosion.” He yells over the machines noise and gunfire. “13 dead.” He adds.
I blankly listen to the explanation and ask the question I really didn’t want an answer.
“How many left?” I just feel sick now as I’m listening how 13 of us got killed while I’m driving over our former comrades.
“23. Including us.” He says, and I can feel he’s just as weary of this as I am even though not much time has passed form waking up.
“How are you holding up on the tank, not much space to fit 20 guys” I try to change the subject to a less morbid one.
“Half of us are jogging behind us while keeping themselves clear of hostiles while the guys on top lay down supportive fire. It’s the best we can do which what we have.”
I’m rather surprised that even though the casualties the guys are keeping themselves rather organized without panicking.
Still even with staying calm and organized we lost 4 of the 10 runners as we made through the horde before we reached the depo for trucks and close the exits and then cleared the stragglers in the depo. The poor bastards were in their night clothes like us, so they were probably trying to GTFO as well only to get done in by the shamblers.
It took mere minutes of military efficiency and fervent motivation implied by the banging outside to get one of the trucks ready and loaded with the little supplies we hastily managed to load onto the tank along with the guardsmen left.
Then with me as the vanguard we left the depo by me ramming trough one of the entrances flattening the blob of probably zombies that had gathered behind it. We left the base with relative ease now that all of us were out of harms way with minor issues with the road block at the gate but nothing that 68 tons of tank as vanguard can’t fix.
19 national guards survived and got out of a base holding a garrison of 500 soldiers.