Gomez taps my shoulder, I shake my head and tap Ackerson. Ackerson taps Corbin, I hear a sigh before the door handle clicks and flies open. We rush through the doorway in an instant as we raise our rifles and scan the room. Our flashlights illuminating the room. The room was a spare room, obviously being repainted, with a stairwell in the back left of the room. Two windows, now shattered, sat on the back wall of the room. The room laid barren, nothing more than paint cans and tarps throughout it. I immediately look down to follow the blood trail. The silence of the room is quickly shattered by Gomez saying “Damnit, where is He!”.

“Guys, is anyone else getting some horror movie vibes from this?” Ackerson says.

Corbin lowers his rifle and says, “Fuck me! Why would Morris just run off? He has never done this shit before.” A sigh can be heard as he lowers his head. “It doesn’t make sense!”

“Maybe Smith said alguna cosa dañino.” Gomez retorts. “He probablemente necesitaba tiempo para refrescarme.” A smile hit Gomez “He was always short of temper.” Both Ackerson and Corbin look at each other, then back to Gomez. Almost in unison they ask “What in the fuck did half of that mean?”

Gomez, in a complete rage growls out “Maldita sea, ¿por qué no pueden ustedes, perras sin educación, aprender un idioma diferente de este estúpido que también son malditamente usados?”

Suddenly, before anyone can retort, a large bang is heard from above us. Everyone rips their rifles up and scans around us. “W-What in the F-fuck was that?” Ackerson asks, his voice full of fear. “It might be Morris! It has to be!” Corbin says as he begins bolting towards the staircase. I rush forward and grab him. My mind immediately went to those red eyes. Corbin recoils back and looks at me, “What the Fuck, Lieutenant?”

“Corbin, we don’t know what that was, nor if it even was him. We don’t know what else could be out there, what if something else got in up there? We need to take this slow, you tracking?”. Corbin calms down, “I-I’m tracking. Sorry, I don’t know what the hell just got into me.” I think to myself “Corbin has always been like this, usually he’s level headed and ready to go, but when his friends safety is in danger, he will tunnel vision. I can’t have him doing that here.” “You’re all good man, don’t worry, we will find him.” reassuring him. Corbin looks at me and nods his head. I raise my rifle and walk to the start of the stairway. I point my light up the staircase. The narrow staircase leads to a black painted door with a silver handle. I take a deep breath before saying “On me.” They stacked up behind me, I took my first step up the stairwell. We are all so close I could feel Ackerson's breath on my neck. The silence of the path is jarring, as if as soon as we entered the stairway, fear took hold. As we reach the door, I lift my hand to open the door. I take a deep breath and grip the handle. I twist the handle, but I hesitate to open it. I feel this sharp shock down my spine, almost paralyzing me. “Am I feeling fear? Why am I so afraid? This can’t be right.” I think to myself. “Jefe, you good?” I Jolt out of my trance and looked back to meet Gomez’s gaze. “Y-Yeah, I’m good.” I shake my head to bring myself back to the land of the living. I grip the handle hard and twist. I throw open the door and we all rush Into the room. It is the attic. Rushing into the room, A silhouette stood looking out a broken loft window, the dim light of the burning napalm and rocket strikes illuminating the room.

We all take a sigh of relief and lower our weapons.

“Morris! Where in the fuck have you been? We were all worried!” Corbin says.

“Corbin, was good homie? Y’all shouldn’t be worried bout me.” Morris says in a tired and calm voice. Taking a good look at him, I realize his helmet is gone, same with his rifle. I look around and find boxes torn up and ripped apart, his helmet smashed through a mirror, his rifle off to the side of the room. I look behind me to find Gomez, he was pointing his rifle towards Morris. Him and I have come to the conclusion something’s wrong.

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Corbin begins walking forward, “Come on man! Let’s get back downstairs! Ow and Smith are probably worried sick!” He says. I stretch my arm out and stop him. He looks at me confused. I look back with gaze of fear and concern.

“Morris, what happened to your cover man? What’s going on up here? You got shit thrown all around and your rifle is in the corner. Are you alright?”

“Lt, you’re here too? That’s good, really good. Y-yeah, I got a bit upset. I- ah!” His calm demeanor drops and shrieks out in pain. He grabs his arm and falls to the ground.

“Morris! Corbin begins rushing past me as I scream to ackerson, “Hold Corbin back now!” Ackerson and I grab him. Attempting to hold him back. “What the fuck are you two doing! He needs our help you fucking traitors!” Get off of me!” Corbin screams at us. Suddenly, Morris stopped screaming. Everyone stopped to look at him. “Lieutenant.” Morris choked out. He began to turn around, as he did, I could see the bite on his left arm. The black veins across his face and neck, a stark contrast to his ebony skin. I am in shock at the sight. “Lieutenant, I got hit out there, when we were running. But it’s going to be okay, right? Doc’s-Doc’s gonna p-p-patch me up. Right? Corbin, we are all gonna make it out right?” Morris’ voice full of terror and pain. Tears begin to stream down his face as I feel Corbin drop. I look at Corbin, he has a look of disbelief and pain on him. Tears falling from his face.

“L-Lieutenant, I-I’m gonna b-be ok-k-k…” as he spoke the veins in his face turned black as his eyes went from a dark brown to a milk white. Morris put one foot out and stood up. “Oh fuck.” I said.”Corbin get up right now!” Ackerson shouts as Morris looked at all of us “Gomez shoot him!” Ackerson screams. Gomez is frozen with fear. “Fuck it!” Ackerson shouts as he rushes up and raises his rifle. Morris rushes him, ackerson fires three rounds dead center of mass, hitting the plates in Morris’ plate carrier. Morris slams into Ackerson and wrestles down into him. “I need to move!” I kept thinking, but my legs wouldn’t move. Ackerson screams for help. I blink and rush up to help him. I move full speed and slam into Morris. I roll off of him. I raise my rifle and attempt to fire, but it was too late, he was already ontop of me. His face was less than a foot away from me as I am wrestling for my life. His eyes were staring right into mine. As he kept biting the air between us, every second felt like hours. “God damn it someone get him off of me!” I scream at the top of my lungs. I can hear movement from the first floor scramble and rush up the steps. Every second that passes he gets closer and closer, those milky white eyes peering into my very soul. *Crack*.

Morris flies off of me, and someone rushes past me. I roll onto my side gasping for air. “Lieutenant!” Jasper screams. He rushes to me and helps me up. As I stagger back to my feet, I get startled by a helmet flying past me. I look closer, brain matter and blood are covering it. I look over and find Ackerson covered in blood. With Corbin next to the now dead Morris. Corbin begins saying “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry! It’s all my fault Morris''. Ackerson stands up and looks at me. I blink in disbelief. “T-thanks Ackerson.”

“Yeah LT don’t mention I-.” His eyes widen as he looks down at his hand. Covered in blood and excrement is a bite. Black veins already climbing up his hand. “Son of a bitch.” He iterates. “Ackerson, I’m-“ I am quickly cut off by Ackerson. “Nah LT, don’t feel sorry.” He pulls his arm into the light. “Lieutenant, it burns. Almost like there is fire in my veins. Like when you lay on your arm all night and it’s so numb it hurts.” He says with a calm demeanor. He smiles and asks “Sergeant Jasper, can you do me a favor?”

I look to Jasper who was followed by Jackson, Tex, Williams, and Wilson. He is at a loss, he shakes his head and says “Y-Yeah kid, what is it?”. “Put me in for a shiny medal, so my ma has something to remember me by, would you? And don’t tell her how I died, she’s a hardline Christian and would never be able to live with herself if she knew I died like this.”

“Ackerson, what are you talking about, there is nothing in the Bible against dying to a vir-“ *bang*

Ackerson’s body falls to the ground as his sidearm drops next to his body.

Corbin looks back, the entire room stops. I drop to my knees. Fear, shock, pain, all surge through my body. My hand instinctively goes into my pocket and pulls out a piece of gum. My hand is shaking so bad I can barely get the gum to my mouth. I begin to chew. “We need to get the fuck out of this God damn city.”

Suddenly my radio pops on. “This is Warchief to any and all call signs. Do you copy over?”