What Remains: The Outbreak Read online

  Scattered across the rooftop of the building where the bodies of civilians bloodied by various wounds. They all held a great many small arms fire embedded in them. Evidence of a frag grenade exploding was present as well.

  The four men stared at the horrifying picture before them, taking in all the nightmarish details. They located several of the men that had been dropped in by the crashed helicopter. Before them was the most disturbing scene that they had come across yet. Several of the men had teeth marks along with bullet wounds. The shrapnel of an explosion had charred one of the bodies, and the smell of charred flesh filled the air.

  The container that held all the gear for the forward operating base’s communication tower was open. As two of the men walked towards it, they heard a shuffling noise from within. The men tensed, fearing the worst. They quickly raised their guns, their flashlights mounted underneath lighting the inside of the dark container. Moving inside, they heard a voice whispering incoherently. A man’s voice came from the back of the container behind the boxes of supplies…

  Chapter 8

  The Survivor

  Approaching the survivor, Knight made slow movements, not wanting to upset the man. The survivor was apparently still in shock, muttering and shaking. Knight moved closer to the man slowly reaching for the man’s firearm. He only had a pistol in a holster on his side. The man in shock did not acknowledge that Ramirez was there; let alone reach for his gun. Knight was inching towards the man now.

  He had his rifle slightly raised towards the man, hoping it wouldn’t come to that. The further he moved in the darker the container became, making the moment ominous. Taking his hand off the rifle, he started to reach for the man’s gun. A mere few inches away, he quickly jerked forward grabbing the weapon, grateful it was already unclasped. Knight turned and threw the handgun out of the container; Ramirez quickly picked it up.

  A few minutes later they had the man sitting on a box of supplies, hands tied behind his back. The other four soldiers talked amongst themselves about their current situation. Ramirez turned towards the survivor, staring intently.

  “What are we going to do?” said Ramirez. “I can’t get him to snap out of shock. Whatever he saw messed him up pretty bad. Who knows when it will wear off enough to get some information out of him.”

  Carter nervously shuffled from one foot to another. Since he wasn’t sure how Knight and the others would normally handle this situation and felt he had no say in the matter at hand and stayed quiet. Smith, on the other hand, knew his job and knew that he would have to set up the comm link to command since the other communication tech was now dead.

  “We should set up a line with command, and then see how to proceed. It changes the whole mission; at least, it should anyway,” said Smith with some uncertainty.

  “We need to figure out what the hell is going on here. Something doesn’t feel right about all this,” said Ramirez.

  “I agree with you both. We have to get a comm line set up to command, as our priority,” said Knight.

  He gave a look that the matter was settled, decided, and needed to be carried out. Smith left the huddle and made his way to the supply crates. “Carter, you are on watch, wait on the other side of the roof access door, I want to be prepared if anything else comes this way. Ramirez, I want you to make a stock of the medical supplies in the container and attend to our friend over there”. Knight pointed his thumb towards the survivor.

  Each man went off on their way, setting up the base as well as they could, and soon Knight started to take inventory of the other supplies. Ramirez looked at his new patient once more, checking to see if he had improved at all. The soldier hadn’t in the small amount of time that had passed. Staying close by he started to look at the little pile of medical supplies.

  Knight began his job, taking inventory of the rest of the supplies. There wasn’t much to take stock of, a few boxes of MREs and several containers of ammo, and around eighty bottles of water; it didn’t take long to complete inventory. It reminded him of his early days in the army though, being assigned to receive stock in the armory at the base and keep it all accounted for. The days of being a grunt bring back some good memories, a time before his time in special ops.

  He did his job methodically, jotting down a rough count of everything they had. Knight had finished the final tally, grabbed the list from Ramirez who had begun to help Smith with the Communication tower, looking over their final count. Total they had enough ammo divided amongst the four of them to fight to last a couple of good firefights. The dead soldier’s rifles and handguns, totaling eight of each. The MREs would be enough to have two solid meals a day for at least a week. Water wouldn’t be a worry for a while either.

  The medical supplies included several combat medical kits, enough to treat about six people total, a small box of painkillers, and four cots. All in all, they had a decent set up for their small recon group. They could wait out until they got their reinforcements from command, but Knight wanted to know their supply count all the same.

  Shortly after Knight was done taking inventory, he went and checked on Carter. He slowly opened the door to the stairwell, finding Carter sitting just a few steps below the door.

  “How are things here?” asked Knight.

  “All clear, haven’t heard a single thing the whole time.” Stated Carter, with boredom in his voice.

  This annoyed Knight slightly, but he didn’t let it show, “We will need to clear out the floor below us soon. After the comm tower is set up, and we establish a line to command, then we will clear it.”

  “Ok,” Carter replied with a little more excitement.

  It was around this time that Knight heard his name being called. Knight opened the door and went back onto the rooftop. He headed to where Smith and Ramirez were at; they had finally finished setting up all the equipment, and the tower was fully ready. Smith beckoned Knight over, just as he finished attaching the last set of wires. They powered on the radio, its lights came on, and static was heard, humming softly.

  “We have it up and running!” Smith said in excitement.

  Knight approached the radio and took the microphone. Smith turned the dial to the command ship, offshore by several miles, but still in the range of their broadcast. Hitting the correct frequency on the radio, the static stopped.

  Knight held the button down and tried to hail command, “This is Delta team to command.”

  No reply, so he repeated his call. He did so another two times, to no avail. Smith had begun to check all the wires and the radio tower itself. Finding nothing wrong with the cables, Smith shrugged his shoulders. An uneasy air settled over the men. Minutes went creeping by, still no answer.

  The darkness seemed to envelop the area. No reply; no help. The soldiers gave each other unsettling looks. The night crept on; they needed to clear the floor below and prepare for staying overnight. The Survivor they found had fallen into a fitful dream-like state, lying down on a cot they had kept in the supply container, now a cell to hold the soldier in. Knight didn’t want to risk the man leaving the building until they found more information out about what happened.

  Knight thought about their options. He had tried to hail the other teams receiving the same result as trying to reach command. Worry began to set in, but he kept his calm demeanor in front of the men. He was their leader and had to have their respect in any situation if they were going to succeed in their mission and get in contact with command. Knight had to keep them focused on working forward towards a goal.

  Chapter 9

  The Encounter

  Knight decided it was time to set up the base. If they weren’t going to get any help, they would need to make sure that they had shelter. Having already taken stock of their supplies, they could wait until command back home tried to establish contact with them. Knight and his men were trained to operate on their own for weeks at a time without anyone giving them supplies, Intel, or contact to command. It disturbed Knight, however that there was no contact
at all.

  “Ramirez!” Knight called.

  Ramirez left Smith to deal with the radio, “Yeah?”

  “We are going to clear the floor below us and move the supplies and cots down below. I want you to stay here and watch him,” Knight said, his eyes never leaving the sole surviving soldier.

  Ramirez didn’t reply, but stood at the door to the container, hand on his MP5.

  Knight left him there to guard the container, heading over to talk to Smith, “Hey, we are going to clear the top floor. Carter and I are, that is. Keep trying to reach someone. Hopefully, when I get back, you’ll have some good news for me.”

  “I’ve checked the cables, reset everything. Still, nothing,” said Smith, frustrated, “I hope you have better luck than I do.”

  Knight patted Smith’s shoulder before leaving him. Again, Knight approached the roof access door, finding Carter on the other side, standing in wait. Carter looked energized and ready, rather than bored like Knight had found him earlier. Knight didn’t want to hold it against him, knowing that staring down a dark stairwell wasn’t the most exciting thing ever, but they were up shit creek. Eight dead soldiers, seven operatives, and one pilot, lay just through the door behind him; the least the man could do is show some form of remorse at the situation.

  “Are you ready?” asked Knight.

  “Yes, let’s do it.” Said Carter with enthusiasm.

  “I’m on point,” stated Knight with a slight sneer.

  Together they walked down the stairs to the door, turning on their rifle mounted flashlights, Knight signaled for Carter to open it. Carter reached across with his left hand and pushed it open, making sure to keep his rifle aimed through the door. Knight pushed past Carter and quickly looked to the left, while Carter entered and looked to the right. The floor layout was simple, offices lined each side of the floor, along with two hallways. In the middle of the building were larger rooms, mainly conference rooms.

  Knight decided to clear the offices on his right and would work his way to the other side of the building, come back on the opposite hallway. The building was eerily quiet, and nothing moved. They slowly scanned the immediate area with their flashlights, hoping they didn’t find anyone. Paper and other office supplies littered the floor. Several pools of blood stained the otherwise boring carpet.

  Moving as a team Knight led them to the closest door on the right, which was open. This allowed them to quickly clear the room, finding only a desk and a few chairs inside. The offices were small, but numerous. Their size allowed them to quickly clear them, making sure no one was hiding inside.

  After a few offices had been cleared, they quickly moved over to the rooms in the middle of the floor. The first room, they didn’t bother to enter, the entire wall was glass, and they could see a long conference table with many chairs inside, and looked completely untouched as if waiting for the office workers to show up and conduct a meeting. Knight moved to the second room, finding a set of bathrooms, both empty.

  So far, they hadn’t found anyone and hoped that would be the case for the rest of the floor. They had only cleared a quarter of the floor though, and it seemed empty. Knight noticed the layer of dust on all the desks; clearly, no one had been in the offices for some time. If that were the case then, it would make the rest of the task easier. Once they cleared the few remaining offices, they finally ended up in the middle of the building, which cut through to the other side of the building and parallel hallway.

  Elevators and a small lobby split the building. Knight decided they were eating up too much time sticking together, so he opted to have them split up.

  Knight stopped Carter, “Let’s split up, I don’t see any signs of anyone on this floor. You clear the rooms in the middle, I’ll clear the side offices.”

  Carter wordlessly moved to clear the next room on his side of the hallway. Knight began his job of clearing the offices. He took his time checking each on carefully to make sure there was no one inside. The first three offices looked untouched, but the fourth had files and paperwork strewn everywhere.

  A dried pool of blood trailed from the office leading down the hall. Knight checked the messy office, finding no clues to what happened to the person bleeding. He continued to check the offices, following the trail. It led to another office, but no body was found. It was odd, there were no bodies, but there was plenty of evidence of people bleeding enormous amounts of blood.

  Carter already stood at the end of the hall waiting for Knight to finish his check. He only had four rooms to check, compared to Knight's twelve offices. The first one was a break room, with a few tables, but otherwise easy to clear. The next, another conference room; this one the door was closed, and inside Carter spotted a body in the adjacent corner. Dried, black, blood caked down the front of the bodies chest, clearly indicated to Carter that this person had died to the infection. He moved on, finding nothing in the next two rooms, and waited at the end of the hall, looking down the next hall.

  Knight only had a couple more offices to check and decided to have Carter check the next hallway ahead of him to speed things up. He grabbed Carter’s attention and signaled for Carter to move forward and clear the next set of rooms. Knight continued to clear the few remaining offices before stopping at the end of the hall. He waited for a moment, an uneasy feeling overcoming him.

  He wasn’t sure why he had the feeling, but it normally came when they were trying to be stealthy during a mission, and they were about to be found. Knight quickly turned around, only to see two hands reach out from the darkness grabbing him, with a force he didn’t expect. The man grabbed ahold of Knight’s rifle, which Knight used to keep the man away from him. He almost lost his footing but regained his balance as the man fought with unrivaled devotion.

  Knight fought the man, using his strength the best he could. The man shoved him down, unwavering in his attempt to get as close as he could to Knight. Having had extensive hand to hand combat training Knight easily used his attacker’s momentum against him. Knight rolled, using his rifle to break the attacker’s hold, bringing the stock up to the man’s chin in a quick movement, knocking the man down. Using this moment, he aimed at the man.

  “Don’t move!” Knight shouted.

  The man ignored his command and began to get up. Knight noticed that the man seemed to have trouble moving, and his movements seemed stiff. When the man had grabbed Knight, he wasn’t able to use the flashlight to see the man. The light showed a man, covered in black dried blood; Knight stopped frozen once the light shined in the man’s face. Black eyes stared at him, pale dead skin webbed with black veins spider-webbed across his skin.

  “What the fu-” Knight said trailing off in disbelief.

  Knight could only stare at the man, unsure what he was seeing before him. It was clear this man was infected, but it was clear most of the blood on his shirt was his own. The man had a large bite taken from his neck, and the blood had flowed down his shirt. How could this man still be moving though? His artery had been punctured, draining him of a large amount of his blood. There was no doubt in Knight’s mind; this man was dead, yet he still was alive, moving, and trying to kill him.

  The man was now standing once more, and Knight readied his rifle. He gave a warning shot, not expecting the man to heed it though. The sound of the shot echoed through the building. Knight took a few steps back as the man moved forward. Carter ran up from behind Knight, stopping in his tracks, just as dumbfounded as Knight had been moments before.

  Knight took aim at the man’s chest and pulled the trigger. The bullet found its mark, hitting the man in the chest, but only succeeded in jerking the man back, before he started walking towards Knight again. The gunshot snapped Carter out of his stupor, and he moved alongside Knight.

  “What the hell is going on?” Carter asked.

  Knight ignored his question, finding it pointless to answer. Instead, he sent a burst from his rifle into the man, hoping more bullets would stop him. All it did was make the man stumble an
d fall against the wall. The man got up again, unfazed by the bullets; they were just something that slowed him down, nothing more. Knight felt fear creep into his mind, something that rarely happened, even during the most intense firefights.

  The man didn’t show any signs of stopping, but Knight wasn’t going to give up. Even with the fear settling in, he was determined to make the man stop no matter what. In one last attempt to stop the man, he stopped moving, planting his feet solidly on the ground. He pressed the rifle against his shoulder and aimed down the sight on his rifle. He carefully took aim at the man’s head, breathing in, and releasing. He squeezed the trigger as he breathed out, like he and practiced doing so many times before.

  Knight’s aim was true, and the man’s head snapped back from the force of the bullet now lodged in his brain. The man collapsed in a heap where he had stood. The man was finally immobile, and Knight was sure he was dead but didn’t want to take a chance. He kept his rifle aimed at the man, not wanting to leave himself undefended. Carter crept forward towards the man on the ground, and once close enough gave the body a kick.

  Knight felt the tension leave his body; the man was dead now. Only one thing remained on his mind now. Where had the man come from? He knew he had cleared all of his rooms thoroughly and had found nothing. He looked at Carter, who had looked down at the man in disbelief.

  “This was the man I saw in the conference room. He was dead…” Carter said.

  “Clearly he wasn’t. If he was, he wouldn’t have attacked me,” Knight pointed out angrily, “Did you get close to the man to check?”

  Carter rubbed the back of his neck, “Uh… No, I didn’t, I just assumed. With all the dried blood on his shirt, I figured he was dead. He should have been dead. I mean it’s clear his artery was severed, how was he alive? It doesn’t make any sense. There’s no way he should have been even able to attack you.”