Nakoma walks along the fence line of the camp as she sees everyone packing up and bringing all they can of weapons and food to the cars of Rebecca's men. They were all getting ready for departure as they are well overdue their stay in this hell hole of a camp. Chip walks just slightly behind her waiting for what she has to say next patiently. As Nakoma looks on at the muddy camp she sees Rebecca, giving orders as she points which items go where. Rebecca sees Nakoma and gives a disgruntled look. She walks over to Nakoma as she crosses her arms.

"You are just a walking case of bad luck, aren't you?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. We had a nice thing going at this camp. We were so well hidden until you came along and ruined it."

Nakoma gives her a stern angry look.

"And yet... I guess we would be dead soon if we didn't catch that luck as well. So thanks... I guess."

She looks away in embarrassment, not making eye contact as the thought of thanking her made her feel sick. Nakoma scoffed playfully as she gave a soft smile to Rebecca. Rebecca notices this and turns red.

"Can you not, god, why do you always have to be such a... such a... an optimist."

She looks off into the distant desert, looking at the vast sea of dirt and sand,

"There's nothing wrong with having hope. When the world is grim and unforgiving like this, hope can change that. If everyone has hope, then the world can soon be able to shine brightly as it once was. I've heard the stories of how the old world once was. The people Jackson has control over, and my people who still refuse to accept the outside world, I want all of them to live without struggle and fear. I learn something new every day in this world, and I want to know why my people are living the way they are in a world like this."

"Jesus, you can just say you're welcome. What's with the sappy sob story?"

Nakoma rolls her eyes at her,

"Just want you to understand of why I'm doing this. Why I always believe in hope."

As the two continued to talk on their disagreements, Ellis quickly jogs towards Nakoma.

"Hey, sorry for the wait, I got everything packed up and ready-"

He notices Rebecca standing in front of her as his face quickly went pale and nervous. She looks at him with a raised eyebrow as she stares up and down at him.

"The fuck are you staring at for?"

"Oh, I um... I... uhm..."

Rebecca clicks her teeth in annoyance,

"Whatever, I got to get back to-"

"Incoming! Convoy coming over the horizon!"

Rebecca turns toward the watch tower as one of her men was inside keeping watch outside the camp. She quickly rushes towards a shack as she climbs the piles of trash and boxes to reach the rooftop. The guard tosses towards her a pair of binoculars. She looks off into the distance trying to find the convoy. She finally spots it; it was a large semi-truck with several other vehicles driving beside it. It was hauling a trailer with a large logo on the side of it, a logo she recognized very well, Montox Research. She slowly lowers the binoculars as she stares in horror at the horizon. She quickly yells some of her men to change into Jacksons soldier's uniforms quickly. They all agreed as they made haste. She looks over at Ellis and yells at him.

"You! little brat! Go stand at the gate entrance and guard the gate! Don't let them in at all! If you want to prove you want to be by miss goodie two shoes side, do not let them in!"

He is panicking just a little bit as he looks at Nakoma. Nakoma nods telling him it's okay and to follow her orders. He was hesitant but agreed. After a few minutes has passed they finally arrived at the camp. The loud roar and whirring of the large semi echoed into the air. The hum of the engine and smell of diesel filled Ellis's ears and nose. The truck quickly shut off, silencing the engine's roar. Two guards stepped out of the semi and waited for the other vehicles to stop. A van in somewhat clean condition stops in front of the semi. A group wearing all white lab coats with ID badges stepped out. Their badges are clipped to the tip of their collar lab coat. One of the men, an older gentleman, covered his mouth with a piece of cloth and groaned with disgust.

"Eugh! God this places reeks like cow shit!"

"I know, this place is awful and smells horrendous. Couldn't we just let some other unit take care of this? Why does it have to be us?" Said another disgruntled scientist.

"Because it's our job. Now quit your whining and lets just finish this so we can get the hell out of here."

They all walked to the gate as Ellis puts his hand out and halts them.

"Halt! Identify yourselves!"

The older gentleman looks at him with a serious baffled look. In disbelief that he was ever asked that.

"Out of the way pipsqueak, we have important matters to attend to."

"I... understand sir. Unfortunately, I can't let you pass."

"Can't let me- why the hell not boy!"

Rebecca was sitting just behind the fence line, acting as if she was resting from working as she leans into the fence, staring at Ellis to see what he would say to them.

"Sir, with all due respect, I don't know who you are. We had a situation here at the camp and I am under strict orders to not let anyone in or out of this site."

"Do you know who I am? I was authorized to be here damn it! What gives you the right to-"

Ellis aims the m4 rifle at the man, making him choke on his words mid speaking.

"Sir, I understand, but we had an incident. Everyone is on high alert. As far as I know, you could be disguised as the troublemakers who started all this."

The scientist's guards readied their weapons but did not aim, only being cautious to Ellis. The man was in pure shock as he looked at him with anger. Suddenly, a voice comes behind from Ellis.

"Settle down son, relax."

"Um, yes sir..."

It was Nate, dressed in the clothing of Jackson's soldiers.

"Now then, what seems to be the problem here?"

"The problem here, mister, is that this incompetent fool doesn't realize who we are."

"Forgive his lack of knowledge, he is a new recruit. Everyone is on edge because of a recent riot that took place just before your arrival."

" A riot? You let a riot happened in your facility?"

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"It was from outsiders; they tried to storm and gave everyone hope. But we quickly dealt with the situation, see?"

Nate points to the ruined cars that were blown up and shows some of the workers "cleaning" the rubble from the mess. The older man looks on in annoyance.

"Forgive me, the man who was in charge died during the riot. I'm the acting head of this facility now."

"We are the ones schedule for live testing, do you know about this?"

"I do in fact."

"Good! Now let us through so we can start the process."

"Of course, sir. Just follow me, we have to go through orientation before anything else."

The man gave a grimace look as well as the others, but they agreed. Ellis looks at Nate with worry, but Nate calms him down. They walk through the camp seeing the destruction and aftermath of the battle. Other soldiers, Rebeccas soldiers, walk alongside the scientist's guard making small talk as they wore the same outfit of Jacksons men. The guards waited outside as the science team walked into the ruins of the Headquarters building. They were shocked to see the amount of bullet holes and damage they caused. Nakoma was in the building as she was sweeping the bullet casings that littered the floor. Others were inside as well cleaning up the lobby area.

Loud grunting could be heard outside as the science team quickly turned around to see what the commotion was. Gunshots went off and the science team was in shock hearing this. Before they could even ask what was going on, they were all struck on the head forcing them to fall onto the floor. All the people who were cleaning turn against the science team, including Nakoma.

"What is the meaning of this! Do you realized what you're doing!"

"Shut up you silvered spoon fed fuck."

The older man's face was whacked hard with a steel pipe as he fell to his back. Rebecca came in unnoticed as she stood over the man's body as he coward in pain. He felt his face as he saw tremendous amounts of blood and felt several loose and unconnected teeth with his tongue. He whimpers in fear as tears started to fall from the man as he never experience true pain before in his life. He shouts and groans throwing a tantrum at her. She points the bloody pipe at the others with a dark look in her eyes.

"Anyone else want a dental treatment, then I suggest you answer my question."

They all shook their heads furiously in agreement as they were terrified.

"What did you bring in the trailer?"

One scared female scientist had the courage to answer her,

"It- it's a new experimental bioweapon. A gas concoction, we were going to test it on this site."

"Why this site?"

"It was begging to dry up, the resources... Jackson wanted a clean slate on this site. So we were going to test it out on a new formula we created."

"New formula, what formula?"

"It's a formula we created in Sacramento before the city wide incident happened."

Rebecca looks in confusion as to what she means by that.

"What are you talking about...?"

"The formula we created is in a lab in Sacramento. We finished and shipped out the supplies to a warehouse before coming here. Something happened and the whole city is in quarantine. We wanted to test the effects on the prisoners here on a mass scale to see what we would be dealing with before retrieving the data to create the formula. The security team said its literal hell on earth from the reports."

Rebecca looks on in horror and grits her teeth in anger.

"You fuckers don't know went to stop do you. Strip their clothing off, we need their science clothes. We're heading to Sacramento boys, lock them up and take them to our next base. We need more information out of them"

They all agreed and started to prepare. She looks to Nakoma and sighs once again.

"Ughhh, I guess you want to come too and be the hero again huh?"

Nakoma folds her arms and sighs.

"Would it kill you to be a little nicer? Of course I'm coming with you guys. I want to stop this as well."

After some squabbling, they finally agree. Nakoma told Chip to stay behind with the rest of the group until they returned. Telling him to keep an eye out for them in case they do something they are not suppose too. Chip happily agrees to the task and goes without resistance. Ellis never left Nakoma's side, vowing to stay by her side for protection, no matter what. Five hours of driving later and they finally made it near the city limits of Sacramento. Rebecca, Nakoma and a few others wore the science team's gear while the rest of the small squadron wore Jacksons uniforms. As they approached the city limits, several smokes can be seen rising from the city. A long concrete wall spanned for miles at the ends of the Sacramento River to the American River. The bridges that connected to the other side were all blown out, making anyone impossible to leave the city. They arrived at the check pointed and were halted by several guards.

"Hold on, this city is off limits. No entry."

Rebecca rolls down the window and shows the badge to him as her thumb covers the picture of the other scientist.

"It's okay, we're with the retrieval team. Sent in to pick up the formula batch."

"Oh of course my mistake. But I'm sorry to say, you need to leave the vehicles here and walk towards the compound."

"Oh? Why do I need to do such a thing?"

"The vehicles are too valuable ma'am. With the risk of other survivors and the infected in there, they could break containment and ram the vehicles if they somehow acquired this vehicle. Though it looks like you brought enough firepower for the long march ma'am."

"Is there no other way?"

"I'm afraid not but take this. Once you have the data slate on the formula head to the rooftop of tower three zero one for an immediate evacuation. It's going to be hell once you fire that thing and we come to your rescue. It's literally the gates of hell opened in their ma'am."

The guard passes her a red flare gun with several shots. Nakoma looked in worry as to what he meant by the gates of hell. Rebecca ordered her men to mount off and prepare to march. Their whole group waited at the gate entrance waiting for it to open for them. The guards yelled to prepare themselves to open the gate. The gate slowly opened as the concrete scratched the asphalted ground. Rebecca signals them to move as they marched on with battle harden looks on their faces. The gate guards stood at attention and saluted them as they marched into the city. They were immediately stunned but kept on marching. Bodies piled up against the concrete wall as if they were trying to climb over. The streets were filled with dead bodies as they were scattered everywhere. The stench reeked as their bodies were rotting away.

An hour has passed as they marched through the streets. Some buildings were on fire as well as cars flipped over. Smoke can still be seen rising on the city skyline. They followed the map where the building was located as they tread on carefully. Not a single person was spotted since their march, but they kept on guard. Nakoma was really feeling anxious, it felt like she was being secretly watch from all directions. Then off in the distance was a lone person standing in the middle of the street. The person's head was drooped down and was slouched. His breathing was heavy as his body jumped up and down with every breath. The group stopped in their tracks and felt something was off.

Nakoma stepped up and yelled at the man from her distance.

"Um excuse me! Are you okay?"

The man says nothing, not even acknowledging her.

"Um... are you alright mister?"

The man immediately projectile vomits to the ground as he spews up a black and red type of bile. Nakoma stopped in her tracks as she froze in fear. The man grabbed onto his stomach feeling the bile leave his body. His body twitches violently as he makes weird and unusual dry heaving noises. Rebeccas soldiers aimed their weapon confused on what they are looking at.

"Um... mister...?"

Nakoma's voice cracked off in fear as she asked another question to the man. The man swings his whole body violently towards her staring at her. His face covered in blood his eyes blood red as it leaks from his sockets. Nakoma has never felt this type of fear. It's as if she was staring deep into a demon's face. The man convulses violently as he shrieks into the air as if he was choking on water, his own blood bile water. The scream was demonic, deep, and resonating. He quickly sprints at Nakoma with a limp to his stride. Nakoma screamed in fear as she quickly stepped back but tripped onto her back in the process. She quickly crawls backwards away from the sprinting looking demon as the deep screams of his gurgles filled the air. Ellis screamed for her as he rushed over and helped her up to her feet. BAM, a shot went off directly into the screaming man's chest, but it only stunned him a moment. He continued to sprint towards them with his loud gurgling scream.

A few shots were placed again, and he continues to still charge, despite the fatal wounds in his chest. Rebeccas face began to worry now as she changed her stance and grabbed the pistol with both her hands and continued to mag dump until finally a bullet landed on the head of the man. He stopped in his tracks and plopped onto the street as slow deep gurgle left on his last breath. Both Nakoma and Ellis watched the man bleed out as a pool of blood began to form. Nakoma tries to regain her composure but is still freaked out by this demonic looking man.

"What in the holy gods happened to that man!!!"

Rebecca reloads her pistol and looks off into the distance.

"I think I have a bad feeling what's about to happen."

Several more screams can be heard until a whole crowd of gurgling screams can be heard.

Rebeccas face widen, and her blood ran cold a horde of those demonic looking people come from all directions. Out of the homes and ruins of buildings and around the corner of the streets after hearing the gun shots.

"Run!!! Everyone, run!!!"

Rebecca yells as she sprinted away as they followed her. Two of her men at the back stood their ground unloading their magazines into the horde of people. Their bodies and faces look rotten as if they were fallen apart, others look normal with their eyes and mouth bleeding out. The two men unloaded their weapons as it barely made a dent into their numbers. One of the infected leaped onto the man as he continued to fire his gun into his body as he bit into his face. The man screamed so loud as he reached out for anyone to save him. Several other of the rotting people quickly piled on top of the man as they began to rip through his clothing. Scratching and gnawing away at the fabric. The other man tried to escape but the infected caught up to him as well as the horde began to rip their bodies apart. Nakoma has never ran so fast in her life. The stench of rotting meat and pure iron filled her nose, but it didn't stop her as the horde of rotting people chased them deep into the city.