I gingerly reach my hand up to my chest, pressing the button on my radio. “This is Saber One-Six actual, Lima Charlie, send it Warchief.” My voice is soft as my eyes couldn’t leave the sight of Corbin desperately holding onto both Morris and Ackerson. Jasper, now devastated by the events that unfolded, is hovering over Corbin, visibly unsure of what to do next. “Is this what awaits us in this hellhole? Are we all doomed?” I think to myself. “Oh my God, Saber One-Six Status Report!” Warchief sounded frantic, her voice far from the cold, lifeless voice of mission start. I go to respond, but I am distracted by Jasper, who is slowly walking to Ackerson. He kneels down and appears to do the sign of the cross. He reaches down and pulls his Dog tags. “Don’t worry Kid, I’ll get you the biggest medal I can apply you for.” He whispers as he sniffles. He takes a moment, then gets up and walks towards me. He locks eyes with me, despair filling his eyes.

“Damnit Morris! What the fuck am I supposed to tell Dee? Huh! What about Ow? Damnit!” Corbin shouts as he grabs onto Morris’ lifeless corpse, tears streaming down his bruised face. His hands move to a pocket on Morris’ plate carrier. He pulls out a folded piece of paper. “I’ll get this back to Momma Morris, don’t you worry man.” Corbin barely is able to pull himself together as he leans back, staring at Morris and Ackerson both. “I’m so sorry Ackerson. “Damnit Ackerson, why did you have to go and be a hero! Shit, Im such a fucking coward.” He sniffles and takes a deep breath. “I should’ve helped you, dammit. Why do you always have to play the fucking hero! You fucking cowboy!” He begins crying as none of us know what to say. Jasper reaches out, about to say something, but pulls away quickly.

“That’s going to happen to us too, isn’t it?“ Wilson’s voice cut through the silence. Corbin, Jasper, and myself turn to face him. Williams and Tex look at him and say “What are you saying man?” Obviously in disbelief at Wilson’s words. “It’s obvious isn’t it?” Wilson says as he shrugs his shoulders. “We’re the cannon-fodder. Again.” A defeated tone controlling Wilson’s voice. “Wilson, dude, it’s not that ba-“ Williams attempts to call him down but he is quickly cut off.

“The fuck it’s not!” Wilson screams as he throws out his hand, lifting fingers as he counts, “Patterson, Miller, Vasquez, Morris, and Ackerson! All dead in one hour! They were some of our best and look at them now! Fucking human happy meals! I mean shit look at Morris! You want to end up like that? Looking like a plague victim? Shit we should just shoot ourselves now and-“ before he can finish Corbin rushes past me and slams his arm directly into his chest, pinning Wilson to the wall. “Shut. Up. Now.” Corbin commands, grinding his teeth. “Oh, like I’m going to listen to the Guy who just had a guy turn into shredded beef for BZs and the other was a fucking human happy meal!” Wilson laughs. “What the fuck did you just say Wilson?” Jasper questions. “Oh, what? Does the guy who breaks every fucking rule in the books have a small problem with hurtful words?” He says in a mocking tone. “Oh big, bad, Sergeant Jasper! So tough he punched our last lieutenant’s lights out! But, oh no! Not the hurt feelings! Whatever will I do?” Wilson continues. “You disrespectful, insubordinate prick!” Jasper shouts back. “Oh if that’s not the pot calling the kettle black, with all due respect sergeant, hows about you and Corporal dead team here back the fuck up and realize we are in this mess because of you and the fearless leader over there sulking on the floor!” He screams. “Corbin, set him down.” I say gently. “What? Why?” He pauses for a moment, “Just do it.” I command. He looks at me with a fire in his eyes, sighs and says “fine.” Releasing him in the process.

Wilson shakes a bit and scoffs. “It’s about time.”

“Will you just shut the fuck up you pompous prick.” Tex says. “What did you say to me you white trash reject! I will not be talked down to by someone whose entire family lives in a double-wide and their education is completely based around being beaten by a drunk father! Damnit I shouldn’t even be here! I should be out on the ocean, drowning my boredom in wine and beautiful women! Not at the start of the apocalypse with all of you degenerates!”

“Well, Wilson, we are all you have. So whether you like it or not you're stuck. So how about you shut up before you piss off Tex and end up getting Fragged, I really don’t feel like filing the paperwork for it.” I say as I stand up. I shake my head and pull myself together. As I do I look around and find Gomez in the corner of the room, head in between his legs. I look to Jasper and motion my head towards Gomez. He nods back at me and walks over to him. I click my radio. “Warchief, say again? over.” “Saber One-Six, where are you? Status report? Have you heard from the other Saber Elements?”

“You shouldn’t talk about being fragged. Especially with your track record. “Lieutenant Jason Thane!” The Man who single handedly butchered his own platoon with his calls. It didn’t matter what squad! First and second took heavy casualties, but why don’t we ask fourth? Oh, that’s right the only one left from them is Gomez! And he’s over there in the corner speaking in fucking tongues! You know what the other enlisted call you? “L. T. K. I. A.”” He begins laughing. Jasper shouts back “That’s enough Wilson.”

“I wonder how you got that name, Lieutenant? Oh it shouldn’t be hard. I can still hear Kelly’s screams! And yet you were supposed to get a big shiny medal, what do they get? A hole in the dirt. What a joke you are.” He says with a smirk of pure evil. The room feels hazy, his words hit me so hard. I stopped, all sound in the room stopped. I turn to face him, in an instant I’m in front of him, both of my hands on his collar as I lift and shove him into the wall behind him. His eyes once full of spite and anger, now only hold fear.

“You think I want to be here? Huh? You think I wanted those men to die?” I slam him into the wall again. “You listen here you little prick! For the last two years I’ve done nothing but try and keep my friends alive, all the while watching them get killed one by one. Every single one died because of calls I made! I can barely sleep at night knowing that. But I keep moving! I got as many of you as I could home. Then when I finally got to go home myself, a cop stopped me, and for whatever fucking reason wanted to kill me, then I finally see my family and I found out I was dead to them for damn near the entire time I was gone! The first interaction with the girl I wanted to spend my life with was finding out she was married! I left in a fit of pain and rage and haven’t talked to any of them since. And yet I’m still holding myself together! You wanna be on a beach? You wanna be anywhere else? Take your shit, walk out this building and see how far you get!” I stop for a second. “No? Alright, well I have enough shit I’m trying to work out with also trying to keep whose all still here alive. Now, you causing issues like this is going to get more people killed. So either follow orders, or I swear to God the living dead will be the least dangerous thing you’ll be facing!” I say as tears begin to fall from my face. His face showed nothing but regret and fear.

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Suddenly a hand hit my shoulder. “Jason, put him down man.” The voice was soft. I turn and find Jackson standing behind me. I loosen my grip on Wilson and he drops to the floor. A hole in the drywall appears behind him as he does. “Jasper, send Doc up with two body bags. We aren’t leaving them here. Take Gomez with you, but leave his radio.” He says to Jasper as he motions to the door. “Tex, Williams, help Wilson downstairs.” He points towards Wilson as he speaks. “Wilson, you bring anything you just heard or saw from the lieutenant up to anyone else in the platoon, I’ll break your jaw. And that goes for all of you. Nobody brings this up. Ever. Now clear the room.” His voice is stern, jarring even as everyone quickly follows the orders. As they do, the room is enveloped by the sounds of explosions in the distance. My mind is racing, “Why the fuck did I just do that, I’ve never let myself go off like that.” I think to myself, I quickly look at Jackson and say.

“Jackson, I don’t know what got into-“ attempting to apologize, he cuts me off.

“Don’t. Get on the radio and talk to Warchief, I’ve been listening to them shouting for you to respond. I told them they could talk to me, but they wanted you.” His voice is tired and angry.

I shake my head and click my radio, “Warchief, this is Saber One-Six, current pos is an old row home between Sycamore street and Redding road, My platoon is split up, I sent One-Three to support the other Saber Platoons. I only recently made contact, they aren’t sure where the platoons are now, but they found multiple bodies ripped apart, Over.” I say, waiting for a response. I hear murmuring and scrambling in the background. Out of nowhere a man’s voice comes over the radio,“Solid copy, One-Six. Anything else to report?“. I take a deep breath “I have confirmation on new Bravo Zulu Iterations. The one we saw seemingly stays underground. It has several appendages that are used to move around and ensnare prey. It seemingly was attached to a manhole cover. It reminded one of my guys of a trapdoor spider. I have several men KIA and several WIA. Along with times one civilian survivor. I request immediate Casevac, over.” My mind immediately goes to those SpecWar guys, but as I begin to say something, I stop myself. Screaming and rushing around is heard from Warchief. “Understood Lieutenant, have any of your wounded been bitten? Over?” I stop and look down at both Ackerson and Morris’s dead bodies. “Negative, over.”. As I speak, a rage boils inside of me.

“Alright, Saber One Six, we have confirmed eyes on you via sat imaging. The closest LZ we can see is the church to your immediate west, a large cathedral with tall walls. Your current orders are to reach the church and prepare for extraction. Over.” Warchief says in a cold voice. “What? Warchief, I have a wounded man that cannot move, how am I supposed to move them?” I say frantically. “Leave them, Warchief out.”

My eyes widen to the size of dinner plates at this response, my hands tremble over my radio as I say, “Warchief, say again, over?” I wait a minute and say “Warchief, this is one Six, Repeat last? Over?“ I take a step back and look over to Jackson, his expression shows he was listening in. Before we could even say anything, “We are not doing that.” Jackson and I both turn to find Jasper and Doc standing in the doorway. Jasper must’ve been listening too. Doc stops, seeing both Morris and Ackerson, “Shit.” He walks past us, laying down at Ackerson’s body. “Jesus, he preps the body, while also grabbing any ammo and supplies he can off of him. Shutting Ackerson's eyes as he moves the body into the body bag. He then begins moving towards Morris’ body. At the same time Jasper rushes towards me.

“We are not doing that!” He grinds his teeth as he speaks. Jackson says, attempting to brush the situation off, “Doing what?” Jasper gets visibly angry, “Don’t you gaslight me! I know what I heard!”.

“Haven’t I told you to stay off of Command comms?” Jackson says.

“Oh blow it out your ass! We are not leaving him!” Jasper shouts.

“Both of you chill! We aren’t leaving anyone! Dammit let me think for a second, please!” I say as I grab my head. “Flash!” A voice said. All of us looked around, confused.

“Flash!” The voice said again.

“Thunder?” I say confused by the disembodied voice . Almost as soon as I had Feathers and Hale rush through the open window, landing in like superheroes.

“What the fuck kind of off brand Batman bullshit was that boys?” Jasper says.

“Blow it out your ass Jasp- *Cough. Cough. Cough.*” Hale, barely able to stand up, attempts to retort Jasper.

“Why are you guys here? Shouldn’t you be on overwatch?” I said.

“We Were.” Feathers said. “But, there is about half a city between us and the church.” Feathers shrugs as he speaks.

“Well that’s just great! How the fuck are we supposed to move Smith!” Jasper shouts

“Well, about that, we actually have a plan. Lieutenant?” Hale asks.

“Yeah, what is it?” I respond.

“How “liberal” is the ROE about minimum damage to infrastructure?” Hale asks with a smile.