As I looked around the guys were all getting back up from the ordinance rock. All the while, helicopters, jets, and rocket salvos could be seen and heard in the distance. Slightly shaking the row home with every blast. Realizing that sensory overload is a concern, I needed to streamline the plan and limit the concerns of the platoon.
“Alright boys! Listen up! Tonight’s been a hell of a night, I realize that. And I know I’m asking a lot from all of you to keep pushing forward in the face of literal monsters. But I just need you all to push a tad bit further. Staff Sergeant Jackson here is going to divide you up into ad hoc teams. Now, before we do anything else, Has anyone seen Morris?” I look around the room as I speak. Suddenly, Corbin’s eyes rip open and look around frantically.
“Alright, can we confirm he entered the building with us?” I ask. Ow speaks up, “Ye! I hid em wit mey.” “Alright! Great! Then we know he is here. Ackerson, You, Gomez, and I are all going to check every floor of this building for him. When we are done, we are going to the roof, from there Gomez will get on the long range, getting in touch with Warchief. As I can’t for whatever reason. After this, we will get a sitrep on the rest of the companies currently in the city. As well as advisement on what to do next. Until then, Jasper!” I look to Jasper, who is standing over by Trenton and Tex. “Yes Lieutenant?” He responded. “Ammo check! How we lookin?” He took one look at me and his entire demeanor changed, I think he realized what I was doing. His crooked, mischievous smirk that he was so known for bequeathed his face.
“Well, I gotta tell ya lieutenant, we are about as dry as a hookers cooch in the Vatican!” He chuckled a bit. The platoon seemed to lift their heads a bit. “Lieutenant I’ll tell ya, we got around two or three mags for each guy, when it comes to the machine guns, Williams, Wilson, and Ow all have around four to five box mags each, two hundred rounds per box. Now, to me, that’s more than enough, as long as you deadeyes actually hit your targets!” He said with a snicker. The teams snickered a bit. I stare at Jasper, he gives me a wink and motions his shoulder slightly back to me. I nod my head and go back to speaking, “Alright, we can work with that! Now, for the elephant in the room.” I step to the side, stretching out my hand towards the young woman. She sheepishly walks out and looks around. “Everyone, this is-“ I pause for a moment. “Actually I don’t even know her name. She doesn’t really talk. She is a civilian, and I have made the decision that she is in our care. She may have vital information about the contagion. So it is our top priority to get her out of here alive. So, while Gomez, Ackerson, and Myself search for Morris, I want you all on security. After you get your new teams of course!” As I spoke, I kept attempting to act like I knew what I was doing, I need to reassure everyone. Because If I don't, we will all die.
“Ackerson, Gomez on me!” I say as I walk towards the staircase to the second floor. As we walked up the stairs, I said “NVGs on.” As I raise my hand and drop the nods down illuminating the dark staircase. I take a deep breath, putting my boot on the first step, a creaking can be heard as my wait hits the step. Step after step we move up the stairs. As I reach the bannister, I see a hallway going left and right. I climbed up the final step and turned right aiming my rifle down the hallway. “Clear.” I said with a sigh of relief. “Uh, Jefe, Sergeant Jackson already cleared this. Right?” Gomez said in confusion. “Yeah, right.” I say as all I can think about is the principal's office and how that was “clear”. I lower my rifle and examine the hallway. Three doors, two of which are closed. But there is one at the end of the hallway that is open. I could see into the open door, it was a small bathroom. “Morris, you up here?” Ackerson says as he walks past me. He walks up to the first door and opens it. “Hellllllo?” Ackerson says as he peers his head inside. “Ackerson, what are you doing, punta?” Gomez whispers to him. “Man, this shit is silent and clear, if I know Morris well enough, we will find his dumbass asleep in one of the beds or some shit.” He says with confidence. “Bullshit! Morris likes to take his siestas but never away from his team! And never without telling ow or I.” A voice echoed from behind us. It was Corbin. “Corbin? Get back with your team!” I said as I pointed back down the steps.
“With all due respect lieutenant, I’m trying to find my team right now. Ow is watching over Smith. Morris is my guy, I’m not letting you guys search for him without me. “Damn it Corbin.” I sigh as I look down debating on what to do. As I do, I notice a small stream of black liquid on the floor. “What the-“ I say as I kneel down. I pull my surefire as I lift up my NVGs. The liquid that was a black turned into a bright red in the light. “Blood.” I say. “Uh, lieutenant, I don’t know if you’ve realized, but there is blood all over this city.” Ackerson says as he checks the other room. “Damnit, he isn’t in here either. Damn this kid has it made! He’s got a fifty inch flat screen and an awesome gaming rig.” He said with a shock. “Yeah Ackerson, I’m sure he really has it made now, Huh!” Corbin says, sarcasm emitting from his voice. Ackerson shoots a look of disappointment towards “Corbin, that's not what I-“ he pauses for a moment, with a sigh he says “sorry.”
“Anyways, the reason the blood is important is that this is bright red, which means it’s fresh. Trail looks like it went from the bathroom over there.” I point my flashlight towards the open door. Turning my flashlight towards the opposite side of the hallway, my light now resting on a closed door at the end of the corridor. “That’s where it leads.” I raise myself up and begin walking towards the door. “God damnit!” Ackerson shouted, spooking everyone in the hall. Gomez, jumping at the startle, “Jesus Christes, Que!”. Ackerson, fuming with anger, rips his NVGs off their mount and throws them into the wall, leaving a hole in the drywall. “The God damn things just fucking shorted out again! Fuck!”. Gomez rushed towards him and pinned him against the wall. “¿Que? ¿Que? Say it again for me? I swear to God if you scream like that again and you aren’t dying, I’ll-“.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
I rush and pull Gomez off of Ackerson. “Gomez, chill out! Fuck! Ackerson, what in the fuck do you mean they shorted again?” I ask while holding a foaming Gomez back from beating ackerson. Gomez shakes me off and says “Jefe! I’m chill!” As Ackerson orients himself towards me, he iterates. “Half of the shitty second gen Nods aren’t even rated for these jobs lieutenant! When we were gearing up they fizzed, then crackled, then went back to normal. But apparently now they wanna full on shut off! And I couldn’t get them back on. So now I’m fucked! This is so god damn cliche it’s ridiculous!”. “Fuck!” He says as he kicks the pair down the hallway further. A crack is heard as they hit the floor. “Well, if they weren’t broken before, they are now.” Corbin says with a scoff.
“Oh blow it out your ass Corbin!” Ackerson says with a snarl.
“Ackerson, calm do-“ I attempted to say as Corbin cut me off.
“Oh, blow it out my ass. Huh, you’re acting like I broke the damn things! Chill out before you catch hands.” Corbin retorts.
“Corbin, we gotta move, chill-“
“Catch hands? How about you catch the area of your fucking guys! Aren’t we up here because you can’t seem to keep tabs on them. What a great leader you are.” Ackerson said with a crooked smile.
“Yeah, well at least I still have guys to lose.” As soon as those words left his mouth, Corbin’s eyes shot open, realizing what he just said he attempts to backtrack. Ackerson’s smile dropped as his eyes closed and he recoils back. “Ackerson,I- I didn’t mean tha-“.
Ackerson rushes Corbin, punching him so hard I hear his NVGs crack. Corbin staggers back as Ackerson tackles him. Gomez and I rush to pull Ackerson off of Corbin. All the while, ackerson is barraging Corbin with punches. “You think it’s fun losing guys! I fucking show you, you Whiskey Tango Fuck!” Ackerson says as he slams punch after punch into Corbin. Trying to rip him off Corbin, I, raising my fist, slam into Ackerson with all my might. Ackerson flies off of Corbin as if he just got KOed by a Street fighter character. I rush onto Ackerson, saying “Corbin didn’t mean it you fuck calm down.” His breathing is sporadic, I know his adrenaline is rushing through him. He kept struggling under me, so I pinned his hands down and shouted, “Ackerson!”. His eyes darted towards mine as he started calming down. I let go of his hands and back up onto my knees. Breathing heavily, “God damnit, we are all going to die if we keep it up at this rate.” I think to myself as I hear sniffling. I look up to find Ackerson on his knees, his head looking down. “L-Lieutenant, it’s all m-my fault isn’t it?” Tears fall from his face as he attempts to speak. “Miller, Restov, Nilcon. They’re all dead because of me. Aren’t they?” He says as he raises his head. His eyes revealing the pain of a broken man. “All my friends. I-“ He stops as he falls backwards onto the floor.
“They weren’t your fault, Ackerson. War is… unpredictable and hellish. You can’t just blame any one fucked situation on anyone. You just did what you were told to. And that-“.
A slam echoes from behind me, startling me. I look back to find Corbin’s helmet hit the floor. Corbin walks past me as I say “Corbin do-“. Corbin keeps moving as he gets above Ackerson. “Corbin, I-I.” He is choking over his own words. Corbin kneels down. “I’m sorry Ackerson. I was wrong to say that. I know I can’t take it back. It was childish and wrong of me. We are all stressed out.” He chuckles a second. “I mean who wouldn’t be? It’s a fucking zombie apocalypse outside. But that doesn’t validate my actions.” He stands up and stretches out his hand. “If you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I could really use your help finding Morris.” Ackerson, shaking his head in agreement, reaches out and grabs Corbin’s hand. Corbin lifts him up, saying, “Thank you. We need to stick together if we are going to survive this shit.” Corbin says as he turns to me. I get back up on my feet as I stare at his face, black and blue with blood coming down from his nose. “Uh, Corbin, are you alright to continue?” I ask.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, I played a stupid game and won a stupid prize, I deserved that to be honest. Here I don’t have any NVGs anymore either. We can just use our surefires.” He grabs his helmet from the floor and says “Now come on Ackerson, let’s get to that door. Stack up on me!” As he motions to the door, they both walk past Gomez and myself. Gomez and I look at each other in disbelief. Gomez sighs, shaking his head while shrugging, saying “Gringos”. Walking towards them as well. “Yeah, I can’t believe it either.” I iterate as I walk towards them. We stack up, as we turn on our flashlights.
“Everyone ready?” Corbin asks.