Sector Redacted, Vermont, Operation Confused Rainbow

With a loud smashing noise, a large section of what's left of the settlement's paling is reduced to matchwood as the nightmare bear barrels headlong into the fray. Towering over the settlement's buildings, the Herd are simply dashed to the side as Xir carves its way through the battlefield. The bear's ruined face twists into a grisly snarl as it scans the burning landscape, looking for what it had come all the way to Vermont for. Then those sickly yellow eyes lock on to Alex and his sanctuary team.

"Move! Move!" Sergeant yells at the top of his voice as he begins backpedaling back toward chopper one. Alex needs know urging and promptly starts pulling along the Immune woman's body as quickly as possible, no longer having the luxury of worrying about her wound.

"This is chopper three." the squad radio carried by Sergeant buzzes to life again, "The Maine UMA looks like it is injured. Moving to intercept. Wish us luck."

As the shadow of the bear begins to swallow up all the combatants in the settlement, it becomes clear to everyone that the fight against the Herd on the outskirts had left its mark on the beast. The monster's breath is ragged, as if it was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion. Wounds cover its entire body and the beast drags one of its hind legs uselessly behind it. Sticky strands of blood are coughed out of the bear's maw whenever it roars. And already the Herd has recognized the UMA as the biggest threat on the field, dispatching several packs to push the monster back. Xir's labored progress through the settlement immediately slows as Infected throw themselves at its legs, clawing and biting at the injured giant.

"The UMA is taking the heat off us." Alex gasps, "We'll be able to make it!"

"If we don't get trampled by the survivors first." Sergeant grunts and fires his rifle at the settlement's frenzied survivors trying to rush toward chopper one. Xir's appearance had sent the settlement's survivors into maddened terror and they began throwing themselves at the only chance of escape they had. Chopper one. The soldiers with Alex and Sergeant fire their weapons remorselessly at the crowd and bodies fall. But its not enough. No matter how many men, women and children die under their bullets, more take their place in the mad stampede. Probable death was a better option than certain death at the hands of the Herd or from the nightmare bear's fury.

"Chopper two!" Sergeant shouts into the squad radio, "Forget the sniper and cover our escape. We're leaving!"

"Roger." a voice acknowledges over the radio's static. Chopper two veers hard away from the barn and initiates a strafing run on the survivors nipping at the sanctuary team's heels. The rain of death from above slams into the unprepared survivors like an anvil and the crowd scatters in surprise, leaving behind several fresh and gory corpses.

The metallic taste of slaughter seeps through Alex's gas mask, invading his head with its sinister musk. His headache becomes even worse as his eyes focus on the lurid warm yellow of the flames consuming the settlement, standing in stark contrast with the dark blood spreading all over the ground, as if an abyss had opened up to swallow them all. Maybe that's what would happen. Maybe that's what should happen.

"It wasn't meant to be like this." Alex moans to no one in particular, "I didn't report back at DC to take part in something like this."

"Stop whining!" Sergeant snaps brusquely at Alex, but the agent's mind sinks further into his own thoughts as a reprieve from the carnage unfolding in front of him.

.....

"No." Woody looks Alex directly in the eye as the pair sit in the deserted diner. A table separated the pair, but it might as well be an ocean.

"Orders are orders Woody." Alex protests, "They need us back in DC. Things are falling apart right now."

"Things are following apart right here!" Woody slams his fist on the table in frustration, "We've got Mr Hung Crescent stockpiling an arsenal for who knows what -"

"Everyone knows what the guns are for, Linwood." Alex sighs, "Its no secret what Babul wants."

"And you're perfectly fine with that?" Woody demands, "The cops aren't going to be enough to stop Babul and his gang. Plenty of people are going to get hurt if we pull out right now."

"People are already getting hurt thanks to the virus." Alex rebuts, "There are larger issues at stake here." Internally though, Agent Norrie cringes. That was the official line they had been fed, but deep down Alex didn't care about that. He was more concerned about something else.

"Its the small things, Alex." Woody stares hard at his partner, "The small things, do you understand?"

"I am not sure I do?" Alex shrugs helplessly, completely lost.

"If you can't handle the small stuff, the bigger stuff, the larger issues you keep talking about," Woody presses on, "you're not going to be able to handle them either. We've a real chance to stop a disaster from happening here."

Alex nods. He agreed. But not for reasons that could be said out loud. Agent Norrie understood the importance about getting the small stuff handled. And what was the smallest stuff of all?

Keeping his job obviously. Woody might be a great guy, but not great enough to risk losing a good position for.

"You made the call to let Babul go when we were about to bust him for being a pedo." Alex counters, hoping to checkmate his partner, "You knew that by letting the man go, we could deal with something bigger."

Alex hoped that bringing up his partner's previous decisions would get the man to reconsider. But Woody's reaction was not something that Agent Norrie expected. Linwood's face flushes a deep angry red as he chews his lip in contemplation. And when Woody speaks again, his voice had lost its previous passion, leaving behind something flat and almost mechanical.

"So that's your decision then?" a polite, ice cold question.

"Its the right thing to do, Woody." Alex insists, hoping to get through to his partner.

"Alright." Woody answers with his eyes shut, as if he was making his peace with something. And when those eyes open again, they are clear, without a hint of doubt or regret in them.

Woody reaches into his jacket and tosses his badge on to the table before getting up to leave.

"You're dead to me." Woody plainly announces as he turns his back to Alex.

"What the hell?" Alex barks in surprise, "God, you're always so inflexible. Will you for once just set your pride aside and do the right thing?"

"Isn't that what I am doing right now?" Woody asks sadly. Alex can only stare speechless at his former partner's receding back.

"Goodbye Alex." Linwood says as he steps out of the diner.

....

Now Alex was part of something bigger and finding out that he thoroughly was not able to cope. The Herd, the Maine UMA, it was all too much. But it was this slaughter that was the worst of all. It was as if the pungent, greasy odor of murder had rubbed off on him the moment he set foot on this accursed settlement. Alex knew that he had become soiled just by being a part of this operation. That he had irrevocably lost a part of himself. The gas mask clenches tightly on Alex's face, as if reminding him of his place.

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Alex chose to be here. Now he had to be man enough to see things through.

The crackle of gunfire from chopper three ripples across the injured nightmare bear to little effect. But the beast is fully occupied with the Herd swarming at its legs and is steadily being forced back. The monster roars and slams its massive limbs to the ground, turning Herd into paste with every attack, but the Herd charges forward without fear, hitting the beast with the force of a hurricane. Xir loses its balance and crashes into the dirt, flattening a nearby house in the process. With triumphant coofs, the Herd swarm all over the body, ripping and tearing away at their opponent. With a long keening cry, the nightmare bear begins to deflate like a balloon as the Herd tears it savagely apart limb by limb. Chopper three hovers overhead, firing away at the nightmare bear and blasting huge craters in its ailing body.

"Shit. They dealt with the UMA." Alex breathes in disbelief. The reports had given him the impression that the UMA was far more formidable.

"That monster just threw down with all the Herd residing in Vermont." Sergeant grunts, "And took plenty of them out in the bargain. We need to hurry though."

"No argument there." Alex agrees. With the UMA on its last legs, the Herd's attention would be drawn back to the sanctuary team. Alex did not want to be anywhere near the settlement when that happened. The Immune woman moans in his arms, hazily coming back to consciousness.

"Hang in there." Alex reassures, but before he can say anything further, the ground beneath him and Sergeant sags with a spiderweb of cracks blossoming around their feet.

"Shit! A sinkhole?" Sergeant curses as he tries to scramble away to safety.

With an explosion of dust, a slender arm erupts from the ground and clawed fingers sink into Sergeant's leg, causing him to scream in pain. As Alex gapes in shock, a second arm shoots out from under him, looping around the waist of the Immune woman. The sinew of both arms tighten and with a powerful pull, a rainbow haired abomination hauls itself out from beneath the soil.

"Great Xir is not foiled so easily, meat." the creature licks its forked tongue as it taunts, "Both of you have something that the perfect being wants."

"Fuck!" Alex screams in alarm as the abomination wriggles its body like a thrashing snake, trying to pry the Immune woman from his grip. Agent Norrie hooks his own two arms around the Immune woman's armpits and digs his heels in. Whatever sanctuary has planned for her, it has to be better than falling into that monster's hands. Literally anything would.

"So clingy. But Great Xir doesn't mind." the abomination sneers, "There is room in paradise for both of you as well." And with that said, the cracks on the ground start spreading outward again, encompassing both Alex and Sergeant. Sergeant cries out in alarm as he feels the earth begin to give way again.

"Someone help!" Agent Norrie cries out in vain to anyone that might hear him.

The crack of the sniper's rifle is heard and one of the soldiers that had been forming the cordon has his head turned into an explosion of meat. As the rest of the unit flinches and desperately tries to regroup, they are met by the head long charge of the Herd. In the face of such rabid violence, the troops quickly turn tail and flee. Chopper two hurriedly swerves, turning its attention back to the sniper.

"Stand your ground you cowards!" Sergeant demands but its like pissing in the wind. Already several of his men have been grabbed by the Herd, with the remainder dropping everything to run for chopper one.

"No!" the Immune woman screams in horror as she awakens to the sight of Xir trying to pull her into a gaping hole in the earth. Xir leers at her distress yanks hard, causing Alex to sink to his knees.

Then the sniper fires again, and this time a body falls from the sky and tumbles straight into the bonfire. One of the soldiers from chopper two. The remaining soldiers in the helicopter open fire at the rooftops of the settlement, driving the sniper away and back into hiding. But this leaves only chopper three to hold the Herd back, and its far from enough. The mob hoots joyously as packs start breaking away and setting buildings on fire.

"Die you freak!" Sergeant bellows and levels his rifle at Xir. The weapon blows its load on to the abomination's face, causing its head to snap backward. But Xir's grip remains as strong as ever.

"Augh!" Sergeant howls as the creature's claws sink deeper into the flesh of his leg and Xir's arm twists with tortuous slowness. Xir then opens its mouth like a python and deep throats the barrel of Sergeant's rifle.

"Great Xir doesn't mind if you give." the monster mumbles from its stuffed mouth, "Because Great Xir is more than willing to receive."

The fangs of the beast crunch down on the barrel of the rifle, snapping it in two and throwing Sergeant off balance. The fires in the background spread completely out of control, devouring the buildings around Alex and Sergeant, forming a crude circle penning them in with Xir. There's an explosion of flame as a molotov lands near Alex, followed by several more. Just beyond the circle, the chopper one waits for the duo to complete their mission and extract, the remnants of the team having already retreated. But on the opposite side of the circle is the Herd, readying more molotovs to throw, their intent clear. Everything in this settlement would be destroyed by fire.

"We'll burn together if you don't let go!" Alex yells, hoping that the beast would see sense. But a derisive snort from the monster is all he gets.

"You want the baby and the woman?" Sergeant pipes up and draws his service pistol, "You're not getting them!"

"No! Stop!" Alex cries out in alarm as Sergeant presses his pistol on to the temple of the Immune woman. But this gets a reaction from Xir, who immediately releases its grip on Sergeant's leg and loops both arms tightly around the Immune woman in a macabre embrace.

"She will do for now." Xir howls in anger, the ground shaking almost feverishly. With a groan, the earth beneath Alex's feet crumbles into sand as Xir pulls hard on the Immune woman. The Immune woman is wrenched free from Alex's arms by a combination of the beast's strength and gravity and she plummets into the yawning maw of the rapidly growing pit. Alex impotently throws his hand out to reach out for the Immune woman before his survival instinct takes over, sending him rolling to solid ground with barely any time to spare.

"Secondary ... secondary target secured." Sergeant pants as he staggers back to his feet beside Alex, the baby secure in his arms. The agent nods tiredly, well aware from the hoots and growls in the background that they were not yet out of the literal fire.

"Got enough in you for a dash to the helicopter?" Alex asks rhetorically.

"After all that has happened, what's a few burns?" Sergeant shrugs nonchalantly, but the fatigue literally rolls of his shoulders despite the show of bravado.

And with that, the pair leap through the flames to safety, carrying the future of the world with them.