Chapter 4: The Initiative

Landfords squad slowly walked through the devastated streets taking out isolated corpses, and kept a wary eye. The sun beat down upon them, every time they looked up towards the sky, crows could be seen hanging from the edge of the buildings silently watching them.

" crows.... I don't remember them being this scary..."  Said Davis

" don't worry we're the Ravens... We're larger than the crows and we are essentially the messengers of death" stated Cody

"I want to shoot those pesky crows off their feets now... Like beer cans in the alley. Said Ivan

" now now clam down, we gotta save some ammo for the ones that can actually kill us." Said Cody

" clam?" Questioned Dan

Landford's hand rose up, signaling a movement up ahead. From the alleyway a person ran out of there, making trash cans fall, cans clattering. He turned back towards the alleyway and threw a grenade. * kaboom* the explosive echoed the street, the squad ducked down and immediately covered all sides.

" How did he get a grenade?" Cody asked

"Probably off of a dead corpse." Ivan answered

The person just stood there, marveling at his great job. He pumped his arm as if he just threw the marvelous curveball and gave a strike. He then turned his head towards the crouched squad behind the debris. He gave a wave and as soon as he waved a roar echoed through the streets from behind him. As he turned back to see a green corpse appeared from one of the destroyed storefronts. It walked somewhat elegantly, it had an unexplainable sneer across its face, looking at the person that stood there and the squad crouched behind. It slowly lifted its hand towards the person and the squad, Landford immediately reacted and shot a bullet at the green corpse, swiftly taking it down.

" nice shot!" Yelled Cody

"... Cody, Davis take point, retreat and sidestep this street, BREAK!"

The squad started to retreat, with Landford continually looking back. Nothing came but he felt something when the green corpse rose its hands towards them. As if to issue an order. His thought interrupted by the person simply standing there.

"Hey! Why are you guys running? Aren't you guys suppose to save me? Not like I need it..." Yelled the person

The person saw a corpse emerging from a storefront slow and steady, he took aim with his beretta tomcat and headshotted the corpse, slowly another one walked through. The person once again took aim. Landford immediately looked at the other stores, corpses slowly rose within the dark, the alleyway corners had corpses standing around it, he saw the dead hands moving from the corners. Landford turned his head and immediately went into a full sprint, reaching the center of the group and issued an order.

"Ignore him, Book it! "Ordered Landford

The squad immediately started from a jog to a full sprint, Ivan holding out his shotgun besides Cody. Roars suddenly happened, the corpses that stood in the alleyway suddenly goes out in a full sprint, the bodies within the storefront slowly walked towards the person shooting. The person slowly realized that he was surrounded and corpses that came from the store fronts covered the escapes, while the alleyways offered corpses that rushed towards his front. "shit!" The person started to sprint towards higher ground and grabbed his pistol out shooting.

Landford and the squad encountered the sprinters but was out of the surround by the slow corpses. Davis and Dan started to snipe off incoming runners, giving short bursts, while Cody and Ivan take out the ones that came near them.

Cody took a direction into a broken store front, the windows broken and the door still intact, quickly kicking the door open, he cleared the room with Ivan as the group slowly trickled back in.

"Orders!" Yelled Cody,

"They have our position, keep moving! We can't have a standoff in this operation!" Stated Landford.

Landford kicked a table towards the door, and grabbed a nearby chair. Corpses jumped through the windows, and banged onto the doors, the glasses shattered upon the wooden floors alongside the thuds by the bodies who couldn't sustain their weight with their rotting legs. Landford and Dan started taking shots. Cody moved out of the exit door and started down the alleyway, the squad followed with Landford behind them giving a couple more shots and quickly closed the door and stuck a chair underneath the doorknob. Quickly following his actions the door thudded, and the wooden doors in the front broke down. Landford quickly followed his squad, Davis threw down a claymore behind a trashcan as Landford ran passed him. He followed through, Cody took the squad through corners.

Eventually they stopped at a dead end, fenced off. Landford came through towards the front and issued Cody to assist the rear. Landford crouched down and placed his gun behind him, he folded his hand, squatted and looked at Ivan. Ivan immediately understood, and walked onto Landfords' hands and was lifted over the fence. The squad followed his action.  * BBBBSSSHHH*

" Claymores out! ETA 2 minutes! " Stated Dan

Dan climbed over Landfords hand and over the fence, Cody followed but stopped at the top immediately turning over and giving his hand towards Landford. As he was getting lifted up, Cody saw something in the corner of his eye. When he looked another green corpse silently watched them.

"Shit! We've been spotted sir!"

Landford pulled up and climbed over the fence , grabbing a grenade lobbing it over the fence. Then signaling the squad to move forward, explosion occurred. Landford looked at the skies and found that the time passed by too quickly, it was already closing into night. The orange tinted sky was now falling into the darkness, his squad somewhat exhausted. They quickly broke into the open, quickly scanning the streets, the streetlights still followed their daily time to turn on, lighting up the dark corners of the street.

Dan pointed at a corner and they saw a person run by, covered by a hood. They found out that the stores in the were barricaded heavily. Landford ran up to a building only to have a gun shot in front of him, making him stop at his place. A person appeared from the top of the building with a ak-47, dressed in a leather jacket and a red bandana.

" Stop where you are and turn back, we don't want your military asses here!" The person yelled

"We have to take shelter, it's nighttime and I've received information that the corpses are more active." Stated Landford

" Take shelter somewhere else! Don't bring trouble to us!"

" Fine, come on squad let's find somewhere else to rest." Said Landford

He looked at the dwindling sun, the sun itself was covered by the buildings ahead of him. Casting a long shadow upon him and his squad. His face simply grimaced once again letting the lines of worries form again. He looked around the place and saw that there were multiple corpses with a headshot on their forehead, he counted the numbers and eS looked at the surrounding buildings, most of their barricades destroyed and abandoned. There were wires on the past buildings while this one only have the windows boarded up.

*********

"...." Landford only sat in silence, the sun's shadow fell into darkness. The orange sky now turned darker and darker. His squad shuffling with their gears, nervously checking around their surroundings every few moments that passed while their squad leader simply sat in silence staring at the dying sun.

"Squad bayonets up!" Landford yelled out

The squad quickly grabbed the bayonets attached to the side of their backpacks and stuck it underneath the m4 muzzles. The man at the top of the building started to question their movement and yelled at them.

"Hey, get out already! If you charge in here we won't hesitate to shoot you worthless soldiers!"

Landford faced towards the dark alleyway. Sounds stirred within the dark, metallic noises echoed through the narrow alley. Wood crunching underneath multiple bodies, groans seeped out. Landford looked at his squad he lifted an arm towards a direction, the squad quickly followed where his arm pointed and started to rush there. Landford held Davis back for a moment. Davis grabbed a c4 from his backpack and set it down once he passed by Landford by a couple meters. Suddenly throwing the switch to Landford who grabbed it in the air.

Landford carried his m4 on his hip and the switch on his other hand, the man up top of the building had a handful of people come out top of the building. They all stared at Landford with pure dislike, some casting glances at the squad who was running towards a dark building with destroyed barricades. There were some squad members running about toward the other destroyed Cades.

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" Hey! What are you planning!"

Landford continued to look straight ahead towards the dark alleyway. The moonlight slowly rose from its slumber letting the light glow upon them. Landford suddenly opened his mouth with a short grin.

"The days are short and the night is long what better way to spend the night than to play a little game of trick or treat?" Stated Landford

The others on the top of the building looked at each other in question, then one of them yelled at Landford

"Hey! It isn't Halloween you bag of old crap!"

"Well it's for your guests then..."

The moonlight's glow shined upon the the alleyway as the moon moved towards the middle of its journey. The glow revealed the eyes and heads of the hoard, they all looked amused by the show that they calmly watched within the dark, their smiles shined in the moonlight, while the people on top only gasped in horror at the hoard. They immediately directed their anger at Landford.

" You bastard you led them to us while we weren't watching!"

Landford simply stood there slowly backing up towards the dark building that his squad disappeared into. Slowly breaking into a sprint after he lost sight of the standing hoard.

" Hope you have enough for your guests!" Yelled Landford

The people up top immediately saw the numerous red lights that shined on the walls, c4s that stacked upon the corner of the building, they suddenly looked back at the hoard to find a green specimen at the front of the hoard, slowly rising its hands towards them.

"Shit! It's the pack leader! Kill it!"

A person on top with a m1 garand shot at the green corpse only to be intercepted with another zombie's head. The green specimen finished lifting his hands toward them letting down its fists to an open palm facing towards the ground. The fast corpses ran out of the crowd, quickly getting taken out one by one, more people within the shelter came out of guns. Gunshots multiplied within the scene, shouts hollered. When Landford got back to the squad within the dark, it was silence. They looked at Landford with questioning gazes.

" What is it soldiers?" Asked Landford

Cody came up to Landford and stood in front of him, his eyes in worry.

" Are we really going to dump these zombies on these innocent people... Sir?"

Landford's eyes sharpened at the question, he looked at Cody and the squad. His shoulders fell a little and sighed.

"We have no time to save these people, they were already doomed in the first place... Our mission as of now is to secure the lab data, a chance to save the future before his situation grows too large... Our mission will require sacrifices..."

Dan gave a short glance and went back to his positions, Ivan simply looked at the battle between the two forces, the dead and the living. While Cody continued to look at Landford waiting for any movements, he simply stood there looking at Cody. Cody gave a short salute, and yelled at Landford.

"Sir! Give permission for this soldier to assist the civilian in battle!"

" Reasons sergeant!"

" Before this outbreak began our mission was to uphold the peace of the nation, to protect our citizens from the foreign threats that may occur, and to protect our loved ones and this nation! We would be breaking that very code as of today if we were to run away. While we let our sole goal to protect the citizens to rust, we would lose our honor...our reasons... And definitely our hearts..."

Landford simply stood there in silence. Cody's face was grim starring at his leader, simply waiting for a reply. Then Landford's mouth opened, it was one word.

"Rejected" the answer shocked Cody, the coldness changed Cody's face in an instant. Cody immediately frowned at his answer and started to walk pass Landford. As Cody passed the entrance of the building, explosions occurred. The zombies bursted from the alleyway, the buildings slowly collapsed on top of the alleyway, dust flooded out. The gunshots slowed down as the zombies were slowly picked off. Cody simply looked at the explosions and turned his body towards Landford once again.

Davis was simply standing next to Landford with two switches in his hands, the buttons pressed. Landford stepped forward and looked at Cody expecting an answer. Cody walked forward slowly and faced towards him.

"I... I'm sorry sir, that I doubted you."

"No apologies needed, you still withheld that code of honor... You still have the heart to go against the higher ups to protect that code. Even though your reason was somewhat imprecise but you still passed.... Soldier." Landford placed his hand onto Cody's shoulder. Dan suddenly yelled out.

"Sir! Incoming!"

Large thumps were heard, buildings falling apart can be heard. The darkness claims the land, only the moonlight fights against it. They saw the people on top of the building yelling with happiness. The radio on Landford's belt came to life, it was Linus's voice.

" Landford get out of there! I'm sure you're at the explosion but multiple entities incoming!"

"What?"

Before Linus's voice could answer radio calls were cut off, the people at the building top suddenly looked at one direction, as a few moments passed by a roar was heard. *GRAAAAHHHH* the thumps were getting louder and louder. The squad looked around searching for that sound. Then the debris that once covered the alleys were launched out and flew into the barricaded buildings the people were. The horde once again rushed forward into the fray again, gunshots were heard.

Current Situation:

Squad Raven

Captain: Landford  (m4, Desert Eagle Mark XIX (Deagle), bowie knife, radio, frag grenades)

Sergeant: Cody (m4, beretta tomcat, bowie knife, radio, frag grenades)

Corporal: Ivan  (Remington 870 shotgun , beretta tomcat, bowie knife,  frag grenades, breach clear equipments)

Private: Dan (Radioman) (m4 , beretta tomcat , bowie knife, satellite radio, frag grenades)

Private: Davis    (m4, beretta tomcat,  bowie knife, frag grenades, c4,)

Captain: Linus  (m4, Desert Eagle Mark XIX machete , radio, frag grenades)

Sergeant: Jake  (m4,Desert Eagle Mark XIX bowie knife, radio, frag grenades)

Corporal: Lucas  (m4, beretta tomcat,  bowie knife, frag grenades, breach clear equipments )

Private: Zack (Radioman)(Remington 870 shotgun,beretta tomcat  bowie knife, satellite radio, frag grenades)

Private: Omar   (m4, beretta tomcat  bowie knife, frag grenades, c4 )