Chapter 3: The Night Life
Landford and the squad reached to the crash sight and saw the crashed helicopter. The flames were gone and left a black mark on the burnt helicopter, Landford immediately sent out a hand signal to spread out and cover the perimeter.
“Fan out, search for evidence and grab their dog tags. Captain Linus get your squad to cover us, Cody, Davis assist them as well.
“Yes sir!”
“Yeah, we got your back Landford.” replied Linus
Linus and the squad immediately fanned out and began shooting at the rushing bodies. Landford immediately dived in towards the the pilot seat, and saw only one charred body. He leaned in and grabbed the dog tag, and looked at the other seat which was empty.
“Seems like one of the pilots got out of here alive.”
“Sir, there’s only two dead bodies over here, three of them got out alive.” yelled Ivan
“Sir, they left a direction where they were headed. It seems they want to accomplish the mission. Their mission is the same with ours, getting the lab data.”
Landford nodded at the reports.
“Everyone gather up, let's get out of this dump. Linus continue providing covering fire, Private David and Omar get the c4 and start placing them at that alleyway. We’re going to escape through there.”
“Jake ammo check!” yelled Linus
“ 5 mags each, 4 boxes of shotgun pellets, everything else are good.”
“Conserve ammo, we’re about to get out of this damned place. “ ordered Linus
“Ready Sir!” reported Davis
“Let’s go guys, Cody, Jake cover our backs. Linus take point, I’ll be back here.”
The squad started run through the alleyway while Davis and Omar knelt down at the very end of the alleyway ready to press the button to detonate. After running towards Davis and Omar, Linus turns back and tells Landford to come back.
“Come on, we’re all here. Let’s set the charges.”
Landford ran back towards them and Ivan simply took a short rest by kneeling down.
“It’s fine, all of those things are just walking. None of them seem to have the ability to run yet.” stated Ivan
“It’s true, but never lose caution. They have the grounds covered with their decaying bodies.” answered Linus
“Obviously…” Answered Cody, he looked at the alleyway that was covered with dead bodies filled with gunshots.
Landford looked towards the sky and placed a thumb towards the sky. He then looked towards the way towards the street, it was currently empty but the groaning was behind them.
“I say we find a place to sit down and rest, nights coming.” said Landford
Dan grabbed a map out from his backpack, he pointed towards their location.
“Sir, currently we’re in the alleyway, we have only one way towards the street, it’s going to be the runned down shopping district.”
“hmm, find a building with two entryways, and a decent exit point.”
“Right, the closest one to us is the “Pillaging Fools” they sell outdated viking, pirates, and even medieval gears.”
“Right, right next…”
“Err right, the next one is a restaurant named “Bread Food”. The other shops that I see from the map are either full of open spots, or broken large windows. These places are the only parts that seem to be defendable.”
“No, wonder this shopping district got dumped.” stated Ivan
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“Alright, seems like we cleared most of the things here guys.” said Davis
Landford silently looked at the scenery, the windows were boarded up, the door was covered with tables, and the exit behind them was within the kitchen where Cody, and Omar stood on guard. He slowly walked towards the windows and peered out of it, the nightlife was silent, groaning was still there. As he looked outside he heard his squad muttering about their situation.
“It’s going smoothly so far…”
“Letter of will check, boxes of ammo check, radio set.”
“Wonder how far we’re from the goal.”
Landford merely listened to the surrounding and lightly grimaced. He simply crossed his arms and looked outside the door.Linus came from behind him and tapped him on his shoulder. Landford continues to stare out the window.
“Hey, rest up… you’ll need it tomorrow. Since today, we already encounter hostiles within thirty minutes after landing, thankfully we have the option of going into a building for shelter after that encounter since night was coming. Tomorrow is going to full of those bastards.”
“Hmm, yeah it going to be full of them..."
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An old apartment door crushed underneath the groups of dead bodies that laid on top of it. Each corpse had their own stories to tell, one used to be a chef, a common customer, a housemom, and many others that laid there to slowly rot.
A young teen ran by the dead corpses, avoiding and sidestepping a decent meter away from them. The teen carried a machete, and a hiking backpack. His hair was slicked towards the back almost as if he was wearing a swimming cap to swim faster, he wore tight clothings as if to emphasize a fashion on something.
He slowly started to crouch and slow down, to stop by a car. Giving a quick peek over to the side towards a ruined restaurant, there was broken windows the glass shattered upon the asphalt road, a body laid there having sharp glass stab it's back. The blood in the asphalt ground was dried, while the flies and maggots feeding upon the flesh was fresh. The insides of the restaurant was dark, the only figures that could be made out within the dark was the tables. The teen slowly crept towards the restaurant, entering from the broken down doors and avoiding any glass shards on the ground.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Quickly flickering the flashlight on and viewing the scene, he found multiple dried blood stains on the ground, but the bodies that should be there were gone. He quickly grabbed his machete and his flashlight, shining the light around the place. A bead of sweat slivering down his neck.
" I know Pedro died like this, but I'm desperate for food..." He mumbled
He went to the pantry and spotted a refrigerator and a couple of burnt steaks on the cooking pots. He quickly moved over towards the refrigerator and opened it. He found bags of red meat within, quickly bagging them into his pack. He closed the refrigerator and stood back up only to find someone standing there. He jumped, only to find that it was a human.
"..... Friendly?" He asked
The being simply stood there within the dark corner of the kitchen, the young teen slowly coming out of the pantry, his eyes darting to other points of exits, one was a broken window towards a car that seems to be trapped with an alarm, the yellow lights blinking ever so slowly, the door in front of him was obstructed by the mysterious being and the other doorway would lead back to the dining room, where he had no idea whether if the strange being was alone or with a pack. He's heard stories of cannibalism from fellow survivors, but they would've attacked him by now...
" Friendly?" He continued to question, slowly inching towards the door that led to the dining room.
The figure simply stood there, the man flashed his flashlight towards the figure and found the its head was severed by a butcher knife the blood stains was on the wall behind it. The teen simply felt a sort of relief and disgust roll over upon him.
" ha... Ha... Right." As he finally relaxed heavy footsteps sounded outside the window, he quickly crouched below it and gave short peeks on the side. The footsteps slowly grew louder and louder, he heard the constant gasping. He looked through the window and found that it was two humans running away from something, he was curious to see what but he simply sat back down and waited. He heard nothing for awhile, there were no footsteps that followed, nothing... Only short scratches upon the walls, for it was too quiet almost as if it was a rat. Suddenly the footsteps came back, however it was the man that ran by before, lacking the second person, he grabbed his revolver and aimed towards the building. The young teen simply watched silently, he heard the scratches upon the walls again, coming back from the other side.
He started to question the scratches and immediately grabbed his machete out and waited, he was slowly pondering why this man was alone... Where was the other. The man he slowly observed had his eyes flicking about within the darkness, he looked around while aiming his gun towards that direction.
"AAAHHH! " the man suddenly screamed and shot a bullet towards the darkness, the gunshot sound rebounded throughout the street. The young teen cursed at this man,
" why is he randomly shooting? Does he want to die?" The man unable to hear the mumbling shot another revolver round into the dark, scratches on the walls started again however more frantically. *scritch scritch* the man shot towards the window that the teen was peeking through. The teen ducked from the gunshot, the concrete shattered a little shedding dust upon him. Before he got back up, something flew within the air. The man screamed louder shooting again and again until his revolver made a dead sound, *click*
" NO NO NO THAT LAST BULLET WAS FOR ME! STAY AWAY! AGH--- UGH"
The sound of flesh ripping, the man continued to scream his pain, the sound of this man was quickly approaching to the windows, the teen simply sat there, listening. The man's voice slowly rose up towards the rooftop. He could still hear his muffled voice from the window.
" NO KILL ME- UGH," the teen could hear blood gurgling, a short shrill * SCrahhhhh*
" AGGGGGGGHHHhHH" the sound of blood dripping upon the ceiling as if there was heavy rain upon the thin ceilings, things thudded upon the top. He heard the bones crunching. Everything went silent after a few moments, the teen continued to sit there in silence, feeling something wormed within himself. *scritch scritch* the walls sounded again. He felt his sweat rolling, his legs powerless... Only his mind was able to move, having a feel for the scene... Should he check the top? Or wait a little longer before moving? He chose the latter, he knew only grief would come to him if he wanted to see the gruesome results upon the top.
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Radio tuning could be heard within the room, tin cans getting scraped by utensils, and guns getting cleaned. The outside had crowes calls, there was nothing else but the smell that accompanied death.
" Landford, radio operator got some more detail from Base" Linus called
Landford walked over slowly and took the radio from Dan and listened.
> this is base to raven squad, new information has just came in. Avoid the night, we repeat avoid the night. We discovered that our squads have been getting eliminated during the night.<
Landford replied back to base and looked at the squad then slowly focusing onto Cody.
Cody had multiple gun parts on the ground and was slowly dismantling and attaching them to each other. Cody looked back up, slowly stood up and reported quietly.
"Morning sir, I was just doing some gun assembly.... Allows me to clean, and use some of the time to improve my gun assembly. We have a contest for that back at base."
" Hmm, right... Alright guys check the perimeter, and get ready to move!"
The troops confirmed his decision and started to pack their things and readied their weapons.
*****
The doors were kicked down, dust fell slowly from the crushed doorway, and the squad quickly created a perimeter around the entryway taking out any standing corpses with precise aiming, Landford eventually emerged from the building and pointed towards a tall building within the distance the sign Biopak could be seen.
Landford's eyes turned serious and started to walk towards the tall building within the distance, his squad slowly following from behind, Linus's squad broke away from the group after a while. He was heading towards the smoky area, Linus and Landford made eye contact and nodded at each other. Linus made a hand sign shaped as a gun and pretended to shoot it at Landford, Landford also made the same gestures towards him too.