There is no time to waste. Even if it was Base that was under attack, there is nothing we could do in our condition. Two of our members are injured. Treating them takes all priority, Base would have to wait.

“Kouz! Irene! Follow me! Captain and Keenan are injured. We also need to complete the purification.”

I direct the remaining 2 squad members to follow me. I need their help with treating the others inside. By the front door, Akina has collected herself and is dragging Kennan out.

“Captain hasn’t moved!”

The worry in her voice is apparent. I jog over to Akina and the fallen Keenan, and take over treating him. Behind me, Kouz and Irene race ahead inside for Captain. Akina helps me drag him further onto what was once the vivid front yard of the house, and check his pulse.

“You two! Make sure to check your surroundings in there. He’s on the first floor, by the TV.! There might be more Corpses!” I shout after Kouz and Irene.

With my fingers on his neck, I check his vitals.

“How you doing, pretty boy”

It takes a few seconds before Keenan’s eyes open and he mutters something before anything coherent can be heard. His pupils are unfocused, and he peers at me.

“I’m fine, Vice-Captain.”

His once vibrant facial features are now dull, his color almost all drained from his face. The blonde hair that he is so proud of is drooping all across the dirt and dust.

“Well, to be honest, you don’t look so hot right now. Where’d you take the hit?”

I pass my hand over his head, wiping away his sweat. Keenan coughs out some blood before taking a deep breath.

“My godly abs, of course. Little shit bag took a chuck of my side when I wasn’t looking.”

Another cough exits his mouth.

“Akina, if you tend to my wounds, I might feel better, heh…”

He smiles weakly while whispering out to Akina as she returns back to us with a red case from the truck. The metal case is red all over, with the print “COLLECTER’S” in white paint, with a white medical cross under it.

Although quiet, it seems that Akina heard his last remarks.

“Shush. If you’re able to joke like that, you’ll be fine. Besides, Vice-captain has prettier hands” She hides a smile as she speaks to him, handing me the case all the while.

“Akina, standby.”

Scanning his body, I see blood trickling from his left abdomen. Inside my pants pocket, I grab a packet of fresh bandage and tear it open. Pressing a fresh bandage on his wound, I push down and let the cloth soak up as much blood as it could.

“Keenan, put some pressure on that.”

I snap open the security locks on the case, and it opens with a crisp snap! Flipping the top open, I take out one of the vials inside. There are 8 vials total, 2 of them already missing. I quickly raise the vials up to eye-level, and swirl the contents around. The shadow that is inside looks like a dark thunder cloud, waiting to unleash its wrath.

“Ready?”

I nod to Akina as I draw the vial closer to the wound and grin at Keenan.

“You know how this is going to go”

Before he could retort, I remove his hand and bandage, then flick off the cap of the vial. In one motion, I press the black clouded vial onto his wound. The smoke inside seeps into the injury, and runs itself into his body.

“Ahhhhhmmm!”

Keenan grits his teeth together and muffles his own screams. The black smoke that was inside the vial is now inside him, incinerating all traces of the virus that entered his system. His veins all around his body start pumping his blood at incredible speeds, enlarging as to prepare themselves for the task at hand. His once drained face is overflowing with life again as the contamination is expunged from his body. Soon, after what seems like hours but really only minutes, his body relaxes. The once overworking veins of his fades back into his skin, disappearing beneath the safety of his body.

His exhausted body loses all its strength, his voice quiets down, and he loses consciousness. I place two fingers on his neck again to ensure his breathing. After a minute of steady breathing, I nod to Akina to let her know of his condition.

“He’s stable now. Vitals check out, he should be alright. Let’s lift him into the truck.”

I slip my hands under his armpits, and lift him up. Akina pressed his legs together and follows suit. We transport him to the back of the truck and lift him inside.

As I come out of the truck, Kouz and Irene leave the dusty front door of the house and are carrying Captain. He too, like Keenan, is unconscious. Within seconds, the three of them are at the truck and I verify his status.

“Keenan’s stable. How about him?

I check his pulse as we lay him down onto the seats.

“I managed to stabilize him for now, but it doesn’t look good. He suffered a lot of blood loss and treatment was delayed. We need to take him back to base.”

Irene’s soft and gentle voice reinforces their grave conditions. We need the medical attention at base now, and it seems Base also needed us too.

“ I haven’t heard anything since the last transmission.”

We are all at the back of the truck and II gesture to the radio. The silence from the device is beyond concerning. Maybe not getting another message is a message.

Down the walkway on the side of the house, we hear a Thump! There is a cement path that leads down to the side of the house, sandwiched by the wooden porch of the front door and the wooden fence that separates this house from its neighbors. The side door that I observed earlier contained some kind of interest.

“Let’s check that out and complete the mission. Purify before we head home.”

I peer into the eyes of the remaining 3 Collectors. Fear, uncertainty, and hope could be seen. I flash a smile at them, trying to raise a little morale.

Kouz surprisingly speaks out. He was usually quiet and a yes man, so this abnormal.

“Vice-Captain, let’s head home. We should get them some help!” He gestures towards the truck, to where Captain and Keenan are.

“I’d love to, Kouz. But we can’t. If we don’t purify now, the contamination will spread. We can’t let this zone be compromised.”

Kouz looks down, his short, brown hair seems to follow his gaze to the ground.

“Come on, give us just 5 minutes. We’ll check it out and come back, we can only forge forward at this point.”

Akina smiles at me.

“Yes, Vice-Captain”

With his eyes still looking downward, Kouz hesitantly agrees. Irene nods and Kouz reluctantly does too.

Inside the battle wagon, we have a supply of larger weapons. They are on racks on the walls of the vehicle, or laying down under the seats. I grab 3 shotguns and hand them out to the squad members.

“Kouz, stay here and watch over the injured. Keep trying to contact Base.” I reassure him by nodding to him as I finish speaking.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Here, take these and follow me.”

I hand each of the girls a shotgun, and keep the third one for myself.

“Kouz, lock the doors.”

I sling the long gun over my shoulder and take the lead as we head to the other entrance. Past the front porch and fence, there is a single walkway that leads to the side door of this house. The path is littered with weeds, and has immense cracking. The walkway was once probably straight and smooth, but it’s now uneven and in disarray. The side of the house is simple, and there is a single window looking in. All that can be seen when looking inside is the stairs that Akina was standing on before this whole incident.

Further down the path, there is only a gray protruding gas meter and more unkempt vegetation. As we round the corner, the narrow pathway opens up and heads downward. In the backyard, there is a large space that once hosted the cars of the people living here. The pavement is now empty, only hosting a number of oil and blood stains.

There is another Thump as we near the back door. I lead the squad down the damaged steps and we spread out in front of the door. The sun’s rays from above are dampened by the surrounding trees, only slivers of sunlight shine upon us as we load our weapons.

“I’ll perform the breach this time. If there is no response when I call out, light up whatever comes out of there.”

I slide the shotgun off my shoulder and into my hands. On the side of the gun, there are 6 slots that are meant to hold shells or slugs for the gun. There are 4 empty slots, and the remaining 2 hold dark green slugs. I remove one and slide it into the tube on the underside of the shotgun. Even though the weight is the same, the gun feels heavier in my hands now. I take a deep breath and call out.

“This is the Collector’s! We will consider you a Corpse if you don’t respond!”

Half a minute passes, and no response. Whatever makes that noise is either inanimate, an animal, or a corpse. We’ll know once the door is down.

I nod to Akina and make sure she’s ready. She returns the nod and lifts her gun to her shoulder and I can hear the click of her safety being turned off. I approach the door and stand to the side of it. The doorknob is on the right-hand side, so I place my body to the right of the doorway and press the shotgun to where the lock is. Inside, another thump is heard again.Waiting for the sound to fade, I take one quick breath and squeeze the trigger. BOOM! The discharge of my shotgun echoes out from the door and wooden door jolts. Quickly, I step back from the door and sidestep to the right of Irene.

As if on cue, the door suddenly burst open outward. A corpse races out and locks onto Akina. It screams out and charges on four limbs towards her. Akina is ready however, and she fires her gun. A shower of flame jets out as the pellets exit the gun and into the body of the creature. Its body jerks backwards as the projectile makes contact and blood splatters out from its pale, cold body. Akina pulls the pump handle of her gun to reload it. The crisp clattering of the expelled shell hits the ground and two more bodies emerge from the doorway.

These two corpses are faster than the first, racing out without delay.

“They’re coming! Take him Irene!” I could only yell out before they were in range of fire.

Besides me, Irene yelps out before firing her gun.

“Ah!”

The recoil of the shotgun is high, and it kicks back into her shoulder. This in turn, causes the shot to not hit its mark. The pellets spray out and only partially hit the incoming corpse. Its left shoulder and part of its head are hit and it is pushed back a little bit. The monster makes a gurgling noise deep within its already decayed throat, as if to express its outrage. Now thoroughly enraged, the creature leaps out to Irene.

I can hear Irene fumble with her reload. She won’t make it in time for a second shot. Further to my left, I can see that Akina has taken down another corpse, but one more has emerged from the door. She looks over to us in concern. Rightfully so, Irene wouldn’t make it in time for another shot, and my gun is empty.

“Shit! Akina, stay on the door!”

The injured corpse already leapt once, and with its next jump, it would be upon Irene. The corpse lunges again and opens its rotting mouth in preparation to bite Irene. I won’t let that happen though. Just as the creature jumped, I did too.. I am able to intercept it before it can engage Irene.

My body crashes into the creature and I slam it into the ground between Irene and Akina. The creature with all its might, snares and tries to escape my hold. I position myself off the tackle so that I wind up on top of the creature. I place my left hand behind the neck, and pull its right arm towards me with my own right arm. This however, doesn’t seem to faze the corpse. As if I didn’t exist, the creature still snares at Irene and uses its free arm to claw towards our medic.

What the hell…?

Why was the creature ignoring me?

“Oh well. Your loss.”

I press my knee to the skull of the corpse to free my left hand, and draw my knife from my belt. The blade makes a crisp sing as it hisses from its sheath. I hold the knife backhanded and downward, and plunge it into the skull of the corpse. There is a soft squelch as my knife enters the corpse. All its movement stops immediately. I let out the breath that I was holding. Inhaling more air, I look up to check on the other two.

“Irene! Akina! Are you two alright?”

I look to Irene and then to Akina.

“I’m okay” Akina says. She ejects another empty shell out and aims at the door again.

“Irene?” I get up and walk over to her.

She seems a little out of it, so I walk right in front of her and ask her again.

“Irene? Status?”

Irene’s eyes snap back into focus and she answers me.

“I…I’m alright. No damage”

Her voice is shaky, and her hands are trembling a little bit.

“Hey. That was close, but you’re alright. It’s scary, I know, but you’re alright.”

Behind me, I hear another Thump from inside the room. Everything around us is quiet, except for that. I eye Akina, and she returns the look.

I peer into Irene’s eyes.

“Let’s switch”

I hand her my shotgun and she passes me hers. Pulling the handle back, I expel the empty shell and pump it forward, loading in a new one.

Using the back of my hand, I wipe away some sweat from my forehead and approach the door. There is a single window to the right of the doorway, but it is foggy and provides no insight to what may lie inside. The frame of the door is worn and simple, just like the door it holds.

Inside, there is almost no source of light. From the doorway, I can only see darkness. Taking the lead again, I advance towards the door.

“Irene, you’re on light duty. Follow in behind Akina.”

I nod to Akina before entering the building. Inside, there are two steps going into the basement. The stone steps are old and are the same material as the floor that covers the ground. The scarce sunlight bleeding in from the outside creates a silhouette of the door, but provides no more light past it. Just like the rooms upstairs, there are windows spread around in the basement.

Using what little light I have, I peer into the darkness and try to determine the outline of the area. We are in a little room, and there are various objects inside the room. To the left of this doorway, there is another door that leads into the main basement. To the right, there are 3 bicycles leaning against the cold, stone wall. Around those bikes, there are tools and collections of trash scattered around.

Dust starts covering the light coming from the door as I move around. I scan my shotgun around the small room before signaling Akina to join me inside. Our black uniforms blends right into the darkness, and make sure to keep my gun pointed towards the unknown. Now peering into the room that is on the left, I could barely make anything out.

Behind me, I hear Irene enter the space, and then see her light.

“Shine it here.” I point to the open darkness.

Irene runs the light along the stone floor and into the room. Many objects are illuminated, and some even reflect the light. Just like the space upstairs, this room is filled with junk. Everyday household items that no longer serve a purpose, just relics of our past lives scattered about. Through the bleak light, particles of dust and dirt drift in the air. There is a horrid smell, like rotting flesh mixed with human waste tainting the air as we approach the second room. My nose instinctively scrunches up as the scent hits me.

“God, the smell.”

I can’t take it anymore and tears well up around my eyes. My left hand moves up to cover my nose. I hold the shotgun with my right hand and use my forearm to keep it hoisted up. Vile. I wipe my eyes.

“Zay! Web Rot! On the ground!”

Irene’s voice echoes into the room, and I snap my head back up. I freeze in my tracks and scan the ground quickly. I lift my boot up to see if I stepped on it. No, I was lucky. Just a few feet away, there is a large section of Black Rot creeping on the floor of the basement. The dark, sticky substance seems to wiggle as it invades the cement. I couldn’t see it before, but in the middle of the room, there is a wardrobe, it’s bottom black from Rot, like a vine climbing a fence.

“Irene, shine the light on that”

I point to the wardrobe, and the light follows. The Web Rot reflects the light as it travels across it. The old wooden wardrobe stands silent, but the bottom part, where the Web Rot touched it, was rotting away. The wood that composed the furniture looked terrible, like decaying driftwood found at sea. The coloring faded, just a brown a few steps away from black. Suddenly, a shape among the Web Rot juttered up and hit the wardrobe. Its clawed hand scraping away at the wardrobe, taking another chuck out. It gurgles a scream as its claws return to the Rot.

“Corpse!”

I bring my gun to my eye and aim down. My finger moves onto the trigger, and I prepare to fire.

“Wait!”

Akina places her hand on the shoulder. Without moving, I speak out to her.

“Why?

“Save the shell, I think it’s stuck. Look, it can’t move its lower body”.

My shotgun still trained on the corpse, I scan the creature from head to toe. Like Akina said, only the arms and head of the monster is moving, its lower half engulfed by the Rot. The sticky substance seems to have morphed with the corpse, and rooted it into the ground along with the Rot. Its body is lying flat, perpendicular to us, and it is facing the doors of the wardrobe. I ease my breath away and slowly lower my weapon.

“You’re right. Let’s purify and get out of here. Irene, go ahead.”

The corpse growls again, and weakly claws the furniture, creating a thump as it slams against the wood. So that’s what was making the sound. Behind me, Irene preps a small canister by checking a pressure dial and twisting its cap. In the rot-covered darkness ahead, there is silence.

Another thump can be heard again. But something’s wrong. This time, it came from inside the wardrobe.