The Forward Operations is stationed in the top floor of a four-story business building and is responsible for acting as a foothold for the army in the southern access to the city. There are three of these posts on the edge of the city, Alpha to the west near the Ohio river, Bravo to the south closets to the base, and Charley to the east. Scattered between them and pushing into the city are many small camps, being set up as relay points and supply depots for extended missions into the city.
Part of our mission is to push in and discover suitable locations for establishing further camps. The priority being to survey the city and discover locations of higher activity and concentration of hostiles, called nests, to be marked and accounted for in future planning.
Planning for the day that we eventually push to reclaim the city for humanity.
As of right now, we have barely managed to push into the city, our maps showing the camps being but a sliver of a crescent around the bottom half of the city. The closer that anyone gets towards downtown, the more dangerous it becomes. Most of the areas that we have managed to explore are residential areas and shopping centers growing outward from the larger sky reaching building of downtown.
The operators, thanking us for the new orders and giving us updated maps of the city, wish us luck then send us on our way. Soon we are back on the streets, moving from building to building, always covered in the shade of the thousands of trees and vibrant plant life that has transformed the streets of this area into a veritable forest of green covered ruins.
With stealth being our priority, we push further and further, moving from camp to camp as we avoid packs of roving dogs hunting through the streets, giving a wide berth to a building that has been marked as a giant bats nest, hiding in buildings to avoid the searching eyes of wandering monsters and chimeric abominations that hurt the mind to gaze upon.
To many limbs, to many mouths, to many everything. From the reports, they appear to grow more monstrous the closer one gets to the city center. A team that has pushed the furthest to date, reported back on witnessing creatures that almost seem to be pulled from Lovecraftian Horror, the pictures they took of these things getting buried in red tape as just looking at them can drive a man crazy.
Today we will be following a different path, heading towards the airport. We will push as far as we can, and if possible, explore the airport itself. The resources that could be reclaimed from there are invaluable and if a safe path can be established, we will be able to start missions to send teams in to recover whatever they can, potentially establishing a new Forward Operations much closer to the city center. The chances of us being able to do this are minimal at best, but the goal is to cover as much ground as we can.
As we are stopping inside a camp, built in what is left of an old house deep into a residential area to the southwest of the airport, the Sergeant calls for us to break for a rest. There only two camps left ahead of us until we are in uncharted territory.
We have hardly walked much of a distance, only a few miles, but everyone is already tired and in need of a break. Despite the short distance, we have had to move at a snail’s pace as we sneak about and avoid dangers, often having to hide mere meters away from wondering horrors.
Resting next to a window, I gaze outside as I sip at some water, rifle loosely held in front. Something catches my eye, a shifting of shadows moving from behind a tree and into a building a few houses down. Setting aside my water, I bring up my rifle, peering through the scope to try and catch a look at whatever it was, but I fail to see anything moving.
“What do you see Rookie, report.” Calls out Sgt. Lenz in a hushed voice.
“Nothing Sergeant, thought I saw some shadows moving, but it could just be the wind shaking the trees.”
“Nothing isn’t nothing. You see movement, even if you’re hallucinating, you report it immediately. A moving shadow could be anything and if we are being tracked, we need to know it now; not when whatever it is decides to try chewing on our asses. Do I make myself clear Rookie?”
“Yes sir, sorry sir!”
“Good, keep an eye out for that shadow, you see it move, you report. The rest of you, we’re leaving in five minutes, finish what you’re doing and be packed and ready to move.”
Sgt. Lenz walk over and peeks through the window along with me. “Describe this shadow for me Rookie, what did it look like?”
“I’m sorry sir, I don’t know. I barely caught sight of it, only seeing some movement. Whatever is, it looked like it darted into that house over there.”
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Sgt. Lenz nods his head before grabbing a scope from a side pouch and examining the distant house, “Good eyes Rookie, I don’t see anything from here, but we can’t be too complaisant. When we leave, I want you locked on to that house until it’s out of sight. Again, you see anything, you report it.”
“Yes sir.”
I spend the rest of our break sipping at my water as I watch that house, but I don’t see anything move. Even as we are leaving and are on our way to the next camp, I don’t see anything move until the house is finally out of sight.
Maybe it was just the wind. All of this stress is getting to me, I keep expecting something to just jump out of the shadows and attack us.
As we are walking through a particularly heavily wooded area, Sanders comes over and gives me a knock on my shoulder, quietly he asks, “How you doing? You are looking a bit stressed.”
Honestly, he doesn’t look much better, none of us do, all being on high alert as we slowly move through the brush; hiding every time that a wondering behemoth comes plodding through the trees somewhere nearby.
“Just a bit. Being in the woods is messing with me a bit. I keep expecting something to jump us at any moment.”
“That’s normal, it’s just our old monkey instincts freaking out. We don’t belong on the forest floor, but out in the plains where we have clear line of sight and room to run and hide from predators. After a couple of missions, you’ll learn to ignore it somewhat. Just don’t completely disregard it, it is your brain trying to keep you alive after all.”
“Your right, it's just that I keep getting this feeling of being watched, I have to get…” I catch something moving in my peripheral vision.
Getting into a low stance, I snap my rifle towards it and call out just loud enough for everyone to hear, “Movement, treetop, forty meters at 7 o’clock, shadow.”
Everyone gets down without a word, grabbing cover and scanning the area. My eye doesn’t leave the scope as I watch for movement.
Behind me, I hear some shuffling of movement and soon a hand is on my shoulder, Sgt. Lenz whispers in my ear, “What do you see? Report Rookie.”
“Nothing so far sir, just trees. It looked like moving shadows again, moving from one tree to another. I could be mistaken; the woods are getting to me…”
“No mistakes here Rookie, you saw something, and you reported, that’s all that matters.”
To everyone, “Eyes on the treetops, watch for moving shadows, we’ve got ourselves a stalker. Whatever it is, it’s keeping its distance but be prepared for anything. Remember, knifes only, unless you’re about to get eaten, you keep your fingers off those triggers.”
The Sergeant backs up, tapping shoulders and backs as he passes the others and we all fall in, following behind as we proceed even slower through the woods.
It takes us two hours of slowly walking before we finally exit the dense woods and finding ourselves in a new residential area bordering a warehouse district, approximately 4 miles south of the airport.
After an entire day of marching through hostile territory, hiding and sneaking around to avoid any confrontations, barely covering any distance, we finally arrive at the final camp established in the area. The camp is built inside of a Mexican restaurant that borders the warehouse district after leaving the residential area behind.
Calling it a day, we settle in at the back, Sandy taking the first watch, as the rest of us try to relax where we can.
“Good work so far soldiers. Rookie, you’re holding up pretty well, keep it up and we’ll make a proper soldier out of you.
“Starting tomorrow, we will be moving through uncharted land. We won’t know where nests are, we won’t have secured camps for resupplying, and the chances of running into more dangerous creatures is going to go up.
“Before we leave tomorrow all of you need to refill your supplies and have your shit ready. We will be out there for an unknown amount of time and will be without aid. We might have to hide out in buildings for hours at a time to wait for something to pass or backtrack in order to avoid a nest, but our goal is the airport.
“If the shit hits the fan and we have to retreat or get separated for any reason, this camp is our fallback point. You will remain here for no longer than one day before retreating back to forward operations. Anyone that gets here first, leave a note for the others so they know you were here.
“Standard rotation on watch, Rookie, that means you’re on third, so hurry up and get some shut eye.”
Sgt. Lenz finishes up with, “And everyone make sure to keep an eye out for Rookie’s stalker, we don’t want any pervs trying to get her in the night!”
Sandy pipes up from the front counter where she is taking watch, “Don’t worry boss, I’ll protect the Rookie's chastity, even I have to sacrifice my own body.”
“My chastity!? What are you…?”
Before I can finish, Sanders speaks over me and says with a thumbs up, “Mmm, don’t you worry Rookie, we’ll keep you safe from the perverts.”
“Wha, what!? I don’t care if I’m smaller than you; don’t be treating me like I’m a kid!”
“Oh, apologies, we didn’t know you’ve already became an Adult.”
“Maybe, the Rookie is actually a perv? We already found out that she’s into bondage…”
“You’re right! Maybe we shouldn’t worry about the pervert outside, and instead worry about the one that is already in here with us!” Sandy says and pretends to cover herself defensively as if I plan to rip her out of her clothes.
“I am not a perv! If anyone is, it’s you two idiots. And, I already said, I’m not into…!”
The sergeant speaks over me as I try to defend my innocence, “Alright, alright! All three of you are perverts, it’s no contest. I just hope that someday you three can become moral and upstanding individuals like Thomas and me. That aside, Rookie hit the hay and catch some Z’s, that’s an order.”
“Eh… Ye, Yes sir...”
I don’t have to be told twice, grumbling to myself and trying to hide my red face, I quickly find a corner to settle down in and am soon out like a light. Putting aside their teasing, today has been exhausting and I want to get as much sleep as I can get.
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.