Admiral Ling was already standing in front of a huge double door entrance. It was mahogany, and the golden tag stuck on the right door said: 'Meeting Room 1'. There were a stack of files and folders she had wrapped around her left hand, and the right was heading for the tin-coated door handle in front of her. It seemed for a moment that she was holding the door handle forever, deep in thought. Then, the Admiral let out a deep sigh and pushed the right door open. Waiting inside was a small room draped in yellow lights shining from the ceiling. The floor was covered in maroon carpet, and furniture and fixtures dark brown. 3 older men were already sitting around an oval table in front of her, waiting. She walked up to the table, set her files and folders down, and got herself comfortable on one of the chairs available there.
"Good evening, gentlemen." They nodded silently, seemingly in distaste.
"I apologise for having to gather so late at night, and under such short notice. But I assure you, gentlemen, it's urgent," the Admiral said, and started passing around photos and printouts.
"I'm sure it is. I wouldn't begin to comprehend the disastruos outcomes have we found out the urgency of this event being nonsensical," one of them spoke, not even laying his eyes on the Admiral.
"The first photo you're looking at is the satellite pictures of vicinities surrounding Boston City. There has been movement 20 miles to the east of the city for the past 3 hours, and they've been moving towards the city's border. We have reason to believe these two are APCs (Armored Personnel Carriers) and they're going into the city for what we do not yet know," the Admiral explained.
"We already know this," one of the older men said, a grin running across his face now.
Admiral Ling's face turned pale suddenly, while she looked up towards them.
"You knew?" Nods came from all three of them, looking rather cool.
" Admiral. Do you assume that we old men are Generals for no apparent reason?" another one of them spoke, leaning forward.
" I do not mean any disrespect, gentlemen, but how did.." "We've been observing our enemies for a while now."
"Enemies?" They had enemies? The Admiral was dumbfounded now, that there was so much more that she was not exposed to.
"Do you think those people who created these monsters would just allow their accidental creations be seen?" one of them said.
"Who people?"
"The multi-billionaires that created these Anti-matters. They've been trying to protect the city from us all these while."
"By monsters, sir, do you mean..."
"We mean monsters, Admiral. A very literal expression of the word," one of them said.
'Monsters?' Admiral Ling was already feeling herself choking, her throat dry.
She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to do. They were all looking at her now, and she couldn't hide her expression from anyone now. She was already starting to panic, something no Admiral should be showing at times like these. She needed a way to get her people out of there.
"Why wasn't I told of this?" she asked, and anyone on the floor was entitled to answer this.
"You didn't have the appropriate clearance for such information," another old man answered. His face did not show a single hint of sympathy.
"My men are down there!" she finally snapped. Before she realised it, she was already standing over them, and her hands had just slammed the table.
The echo of the thump was short lived by the amount of absorbents in the room. The room almost instantly fell silent. The Admiral felt a slight regret for misconduct, but those feelings were quickly gone. She was very angry now. Her men were in a lot of danger. She don't even know what they were currently up against. Something had to be done. But what?
The gun shots lost its consistency, and as if they were traveling. Pyut must already be luring the huge stitched dude to an explosive trap now, and the rest were following him. The building is only a block away from their position, but Crucist could feel the cold silence. This was an office, he could tell. Cubicles, files and folders all around, drawers. There was a white mug on the table just next to where he stationed himself. It was stained, and he could swear the mug used to house some hot coffee. Some hot coffee he wouldn't mind having right about now. The window blind in front of him was down. It had to be to block the light from entering the room he was in and exposing him to anything out there. But he bet those things could smell his blood from a mile away. His binoculars were already reaching the western end of the city now.
An explosion sounded from afar. Pyut must already have killed the bugger. What would they do without Pyut. Would they have survived without Pyut. Crucist let out a chuckle. How ironic this seemed now. The people sent to save their comrades here turned out needed saving from their stranded friends.
Suddenly his binoculars spotted something. Human zombies. But they were walking too fast, and they were carrying guns. No. They're too organized to be zombies.
"Major." Crucist called over the radio.
" Yeah."
"Do you have any surviving team members here you forgot to tell us about?"
"No. Why?"
Crucist caught his gun, and silently left the building.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
Night of The Dead- Chapter 13: The Persistence for Survival
The rain was already subsiding, water still trickling down from above. Far to the east of here, a gutter from a roof was still gushing the night's load down into another bigger drain. Save that, silence was all around. We were gearing up for a stream attack of creeps. I still had no idea what we were up against, but Pyut made sure we would not hold back on anything that moves. Kheez was already far on the western junction, heating up his Arclite. The rest of us were grouped within the cross junction. Warm light from the four lamp posts cast a sombre ambience around us.
"Remember what I said about the fatty monsters. Follow me up when I move, okay."
Nods ran across the place.
" Night. I need you to injure the fatty enough before it reaches us." No reply came. "Night Cat."
" Give him some time, Pyut," I finally decided I had to defend my team member a little.
" He'll come around soon enough."
So many years have passed, and the only thing that stood between life and death was his mission. Chris has had the darkest of lives, he thought. There was not one person living today that could retell a story worse than his own. The happiness he felt was the memories he had to keep sealed dearly in his head, and he occasionally used them to keep him going on. Everyone else in the world took for granted their families. Everyone else in the world took for granted what had been given to them. He barely had anything in his life. Most of the times, he would blame god for being unfair to him and his family. He would tell people that what they see only in television, of kids living under bridges and in parks, feeding off scrap food left to rot behind restaurants, was his life.
The wave of monsters begun reaching the Cross junction they were stationed at. Those monsters ranged from mutated dogs to zombified people. The zombified people were not much of a threat to the team as compared to the faster and more agile dogs, but they needed a considerably high amount of bullets to take down. That itself was already starting to worry the team. Night Cat strode lazily towards the entrance of a building nearby. He needed to be in a silent and lonely place to think, I thought. None of us said anything. Pyut was about to cry out orders, but refrained once he got my objection.
‘Tomorrow would be a clear day for us,’ was what his brother would often tell him. It made him happy for a while. It gave him the confidence to face the perils laid before him and his brother, for a while. Life is pointless, he thought. People would wake up everyday, struggle at work all day, so that they could earn enough money not to die from starvation, disease and cold. They do all these things so that they could wake up the next morning to go to work. It is a cycle. People work to live to work to live to work. And what happens in the end? They would either die from unnatural causes, or of old age. It’s pointless to fight for survival when the end of the road would inevitably be death.
"This is not working for us. We're not getting a good distance from the monsters," Pyut conplained.
"What do you mean by that?" Kheez turned to him, puzzled. As far as we all could see, the monsters couldn't even get anywhere close to the half-mile radius around us. I was confused as well, and turned to him for answers.
"It may seem fine now. But when we're up against the fatty, we'll need to constantly shift our firepower to and from the fatty and the others. Without a Marksman, it'll be impossible to take the fatty down without causing a mess. Messes would be something we wanna avoid, as they lead to deaths."
Suddenly, it seemed all clear to me what Pyut was explaining. We need to allow more time for ourselves to concentrate our firepower on the fatty. And with the current clearance progress, we're not getting anywhere. We needed Night Cat now. I radioed him, but no reply came.
‘The importance of life is to live it happy.’ Happy? What is happiness? It is merely a self generated feeling from within a person’s mind, be it from himself or his surroundings.
‘People would not know the true meaning of happiness until he has gone through hardship.’ ‘I still don’t know the true meaning of happiness,’ Chris thought. What is happiness if you don’t know what it feels like? How does one derive happiness from a dead father, a prostituting sister, a financially crippled mother, and an aunt and a grandmother who couldn’t care less? How does one derive happiness from the surroundings filled with kids far better off than him and his brother, simply because they chose to be in another woman’s womb?
His sister got herself married to a rich person from the UK. They were all very happy for her. ‘We’re old enough to make a change in our lives now. This, my brother, is the time we know the true meaning of happiness,’ his brother looked over the heads of people seated in front of them in the church. His sister was beautiful in the white gown. To Chris’ left, his mother sobbing from joy. 'We can work for our future,’ his mother said, eyes still filled with happiness. Chris smiled. He could already see light at the end of the tunnel he was stuck in his whole life. It was going to be a new beginning for his family, he thought.
"What on Earth is wrong with that fella? Sure, his brother's dead. That doesn't constitute to him acting so emotional!" Clearly, Pyut did not know Night Cat and his brother very well. It wasn't surprising for Pyut to complain. Anyone would've said what Pyut said just now. We were not mere civilians, to be despairing so long about something that has already happened. We were already very good at keeping our job and our private problems apart from each other. Night Cat's current condition seemed pretty bad, and this would also spell bad news for us all.
The happiness was short-lived. They died in a plane crash. God must have hated his family, he thought. All these years, his mother and sister struggled to survive so many probabilities of death, and god had to send them on a one way trip to nowhere. So much for ‘working for our own future’. If we had to die, we had to die. There’s no stopping what destiny god laid down for us. What is the point in living? All these feelings of happiness, fulfillment, love. They’re meaningless when we’re dead. The beauty of the world would be nothing if you had no one to enjoy them with. Chris never saw anything beautiful in the world. Just a dark and colorless world, ruled by a tyrant, pointing down from the skies, deciding who would live and who would die, who would be rich and who would not.
"Night Cat!" I radioed. "Snap out of this, man. We need you now. We can't take the fatty down without you!" Static was the reply. Night Cat was already sitting at the edge of the tiled floor, with his upper half against the wall. There was total darkness, save the light emanating from the outside world through a series of windows across from him. The yellow light would then flash all the time, the sources came from gunfire downstairs. He moved his eyes away from the window, and went into a stooping position.
"There's nothing in the world for me now. All is lost, and I am very tired of fighting a losing battle," he thought to himself. He tried to allow a scream of frustration, but in the end couldn't manage it.
‘Don’t give up on me, Chris. Don’t give up on the world.’
‘Brother. I have nothing left. I’ve lost everything I have ever loved and tried to protect. I don’t belong in this world anymore.’
‘You have your friends. You have to protect them.’
‘They’d be fine without me. What more can I help with, anyway?’
They would not be alright. They would all die from the monsters that killed his brother. That’s good. No one needs to live in this stupid world, anyway. There’s absolutely no purpose in living at all. Why fight?
Because Crucist needs to avenge his family. Because Kheez have a woman to return to. Because Ixate believes in the future of peace for the world. And because Pyut promised Sam a proper funeral. All these cannot be done without him protecting them from these monsters.
The sound of thumping footsteps became more prominent now, sending rattles through the asphalt ground. Water puddles vibrated to the ever growing danger that was already closing in on the team. One by one, the team ran out of ammunition. The reload time for Pyut and Crucist was immediate, and Kheez reported that his fuel could last for another couple of hours. My gun's reload time would take almost one and a half minute, fastest.
"I'm reloading now!" I needed to report before making the clip change, to avoid mismanagement of the shooting consistancy. We needed to find a way to gain more radial distance from the oncoming creeps.
"Could you launch the cluster grenades onto one area to losen their attacks out?" Kheez asked Pyut.
"It'll be a waste. The creeps are not really concentrated now. I could throw 10 grenades, but only 3 or 4 would die. Hardly worth my time."
He had a point. The distance one creep had from another was too far apart, and deploying the cluster would not even cause a slight improvement. We were all still figuring out various ways to help gain more distance between us and the monsters, when Pyut, standing further south from us, radioed. "I see it."
There it was. The layers of fog begun to unfold like a million translucent curtains drawing up on the surprise attack. It was big. At least 2 storeys high. As the figure of the fatty grew ever clearer, I seemed to notice something rather weird about it. It was as if the fatty was..
"Is he stitched together or something?" Kheez asked. Exactly what I thought. Both his arms were non proportionate to each other, and his torso seemed uneven. As the fatty moved closer to us, I realised that there were in fact stitches running all over his body.
"What on Earth is this crap?!" Kheez was alarmed to see what I saw. I totally agreed, althought there was not much time for us to complain over the fatty's hideous outlook.
"Remember what I said. Run up north when I do. We might need to modify our movements a little, because the explosives I planted just now would not cut it for this fella." Replies of affirmation ran across the area.
Just to test out the fatty's resistance towards our bullets, I threw a few shells towards it. It felt as if the fatty was being attacked by mosquitoes! We clearly needed Night Cat's help now.
As the fatty inched closer towards us, I can't help but noticed the head area of the fatty occasionally spitting out chunks of blood. Then, I could hear a series of loud bangs following silence. It came from a building behind me. Pyut sensed the same, and looked around to find the source of the incident. It was the Black Arrow.
"Remember what I said about the fatty monsters. Follow me up when I move, okay."
Nods ran across the place.
" Night. I need you to injure the fatty enough before it reaches us." No reply came. "Night Cat."
" Give him some time, Pyut," I finally decided I had to defend my team member a little.
" He'll come around soon enough."
So many years have passed, and the only thing that stood between life and death was his mission. Chris has had the darkest of lives, he thought. There was not one person living today that could retell a story worse than his own. The happiness he felt was the memories he had to keep sealed dearly in his head, and he occasionally used them to keep him going on. Everyone else in the world took for granted their families. Everyone else in the world took for granted what had been given to them. He barely had anything in his life. Most of the times, he would blame god for being unfair to him and his family. He would tell people that what they see only in television, of kids living under bridges and in parks, feeding off scrap food left to rot behind restaurants, was his life.
The wave of monsters begun reaching the Cross junction they were stationed at. Those monsters ranged from mutated dogs to zombified people. The zombified people were not much of a threat to the team as compared to the faster and more agile dogs, but they needed a considerably high amount of bullets to take down. That itself was already starting to worry the team. Night Cat strode lazily towards the entrance of a building nearby. He needed to be in a silent and lonely place to think, I thought. None of us said anything. Pyut was about to cry out orders, but refrained once he got my objection.
‘Tomorrow would be a clear day for us,’ was what his brother would often tell him. It made him happy for a while. It gave him the confidence to face the perils laid before him and his brother, for a while. Life is pointless, he thought. People would wake up everyday, struggle at work all day, so that they could earn enough money not to die from starvation, disease and cold. They do all these things so that they could wake up the next morning to go to work. It is a cycle. People work to live to work to live to work. And what happens in the end? They would either die from unnatural causes, or of old age. It’s pointless to fight for survival when the end of the road would inevitably be death.
"This is not working for us. We're not getting a good distance from the monsters," Pyut conplained.
"What do you mean by that?" Kheez turned to him, puzzled. As far as we all could see, the monsters couldn't even get anywhere close to the half-mile radius around us. I was confused as well, and turned to him for answers.
"It may seem fine now. But when we're up against the fatty, we'll need to constantly shift our firepower to and from the fatty and the others. Without a Marksman, it'll be impossible to take the fatty down without causing a mess. Messes would be something we wanna avoid, as they lead to deaths."
Suddenly, it seemed all clear to me what Pyut was explaining. We need to allow more time for ourselves to concentrate our firepower on the fatty. And with the current clearance progress, we're not getting anywhere. We needed Night Cat now. I radioed him, but no reply came.
‘The importance of life is to live it happy.’ Happy? What is happiness? It is merely a self generated feeling from within a person’s mind, be it from himself or his surroundings.
‘People would not know the true meaning of happiness until he has gone through hardship.’ ‘I still don’t know the true meaning of happiness,’ Chris thought. What is happiness if you don’t know what it feels like? How does one derive happiness from a dead father, a prostituting sister, a financially crippled mother, and an aunt and a grandmother who couldn’t care less? How does one derive happiness from the surroundings filled with kids far better off than him and his brother, simply because they chose to be in another woman’s womb?
His sister got herself married to a rich person from the UK. They were all very happy for her. ‘We’re old enough to make a change in our lives now. This, my brother, is the time we know the true meaning of happiness,’ his brother looked over the heads of people seated in front of them in the church. His sister was beautiful in the white gown. To Chris’ left, his mother sobbing from joy. 'We can work for our future,’ his mother said, eyes still filled with happiness. Chris smiled. He could already see light at the end of the tunnel he was stuck in his whole life. It was going to be a new beginning for his family, he thought.
"What on Earth is wrong with that fella? Sure, his brother's dead. That doesn't constitute to him acting so emotional!" Clearly, Pyut did not know Night Cat and his brother very well. It wasn't surprising for Pyut to complain. Anyone would've said what Pyut said just now. We were not mere civilians, to be despairing so long about something that has already happened. We were already very good at keeping our job and our private problems apart from each other. Night Cat's current condition seemed pretty bad, and this would also spell bad news for us all.
The happiness was short-lived. They died in a plane crash. God must have hated his family, he thought. All these years, his mother and sister struggled to survive so many probabilities of death, and god had to send them on a one way trip to nowhere. So much for ‘working for our own future’. If we had to die, we had to die. There’s no stopping what destiny god laid down for us. What is the point in living? All these feelings of happiness, fulfillment, love. They’re meaningless when we’re dead. The beauty of the world would be nothing if you had no one to enjoy them with. Chris never saw anything beautiful in the world. Just a dark and colorless world, ruled by a tyrant, pointing down from the skies, deciding who would live and who would die, who would be rich and who would not.
"Night Cat!" I radioed. "Snap out of this, man. We need you now. We can't take the fatty down without you!" Static was the reply. Night Cat was already sitting at the edge of the tiled floor, with his upper half against the wall. There was total darkness, save the light emanating from the outside world through a series of windows across from him. The yellow light would then flash all the time, the sources came from gunfire downstairs. He moved his eyes away from the window, and went into a stooping position.
"There's nothing in the world for me now. All is lost, and I am very tired of fighting a losing battle," he thought to himself. He tried to allow a scream of frustration, but in the end couldn't manage it.
‘Don’t give up on me, Chris. Don’t give up on the world.’
‘Brother. I have nothing left. I’ve lost everything I have ever loved and tried to protect. I don’t belong in this world anymore.’
‘You have your friends. You have to protect them.’
‘They’d be fine without me. What more can I help with, anyway?’
They would not be alright. They would all die from the monsters that killed his brother. That’s good. No one needs to live in this stupid world, anyway. There’s absolutely no purpose in living at all. Why fight?
Because Crucist needs to avenge his family. Because Kheez have a woman to return to. Because Ixate believes in the future of peace for the world. And because Pyut promised Sam a proper funeral. All these cannot be done without him protecting them from these monsters.
The sound of thumping footsteps became more prominent now, sending rattles through the asphalt ground. Water puddles vibrated to the ever growing danger that was already closing in on the team. One by one, the team ran out of ammunition. The reload time for Pyut and Crucist was immediate, and Kheez reported that his fuel could last for another couple of hours. My gun's reload time would take almost one and a half minute, fastest.
"I'm reloading now!" I needed to report before making the clip change, to avoid mismanagement of the shooting consistancy. We needed to find a way to gain more radial distance from the oncoming creeps.
"Could you launch the cluster grenades onto one area to losen their attacks out?" Kheez asked Pyut.
"It'll be a waste. The creeps are not really concentrated now. I could throw 10 grenades, but only 3 or 4 would die. Hardly worth my time."
He had a point. The distance one creep had from another was too far apart, and deploying the cluster would not even cause a slight improvement. We were all still figuring out various ways to help gain more distance between us and the monsters, when Pyut, standing further south from us, radioed. "I see it."
There it was. The layers of fog begun to unfold like a million translucent curtains drawing up on the surprise attack. It was big. At least 2 storeys high. As the figure of the fatty grew ever clearer, I seemed to notice something rather weird about it. It was as if the fatty was..
"Is he stitched together or something?" Kheez asked. Exactly what I thought. Both his arms were non proportionate to each other, and his torso seemed uneven. As the fatty moved closer to us, I realised that there were in fact stitches running all over his body.
"What on Earth is this crap?!" Kheez was alarmed to see what I saw. I totally agreed, althought there was not much time for us to complain over the fatty's hideous outlook.
"Remember what I said. Run up north when I do. We might need to modify our movements a little, because the explosives I planted just now would not cut it for this fella." Replies of affirmation ran across the area.
Just to test out the fatty's resistance towards our bullets, I threw a few shells towards it. It felt as if the fatty was being attacked by mosquitoes! We clearly needed Night Cat's help now.
As the fatty inched closer towards us, I can't help but noticed the head area of the fatty occasionally spitting out chunks of blood. Then, I could hear a series of loud bangs following silence. It came from a building behind me. Pyut sensed the same, and looked around to find the source of the incident. It was the Black Arrow.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Night of The Dead- Chapter 12: The Loss
We’re already traversing the northern parts of the city, currently heading eastwards. Kheez and Crucist were now entering and exiting passing-by buildings in search of supplies we might need to sustain our lives with until we can find the data that we’re here for. I have changed our mission objectives, after hearing Pyut’s explanation to the reason he didn’t want to leave this city yet.
“We were sent here to collect and compile information about this city. This mission was to help the UWE understand better the problem that had been going on in this, and other cities suffering from similar fallouts.”
“And I assume that you collected them and have them stored somewhere now?”
“The situation became more complex for us that we’d thought.”
“That being?”
“The information disks were destroyed.” Pyut paused. “Along with three of our men.”
The Major was dead ahead of me, now regretting the recall of certain situations that happened before our arrival.
“There’s nothing left in these buildings,” Crucist reported as he was coming out of an entrance to a bank. The enormous green and blue signboard still lit, hung proud above a now shattered glass door.
We were then joined by Kheez, who failed to recover anything of use. To our right laid another sight to behold. It was a field with wooden fences running along and across it. In the middle of it were human bodies stacked to a hill, still engulfed in flames. We stopped a while and stooped our heads low to offer our respects. The sight, though not witnessed for the first time already, still gave me chills. As we passed the field, I noticed something else to our right, where a cross junction met. A couple of bodies were staked onto rusted steel poles standing steadfast on the asphalt road. Flies roamed around them, and we could see their bodies already rotting from decay.
“What in the world could’ve done something like this?” Kheez commented with disgust, spitting out saliva to clear the stench from the bodies that was already getting into his throat.
“The people firstly thought that the mutations were caused by a disease from these decaying mutated beings. The mayor closed down the city stadium to burn the dead in piles,” Pyut explained, still taking the lead up ahead.
Kheez moved his eyes away from the Night Cat trailing behind the pack, and said, “So what was the real reason for these mutations?”
“They’re in the water. All of the city’s water supplies were contaminated by the radiation caused by the fallout. A professor in my team said that the anti-matter’s chain of integrity collapsed and started binding with O2 instead.”
“O2?”
“Water, you idiot,” Kheez enlightened Crucist.
“Oh, so since your insult friend suddenly decides to fall brainless, you’re looking for substitutes?” Crucist appeared to be offended by Kheez’s remark already.
“Hey. Chill out. I’ll try to refrain myself, okay.”
Crucist gave Kheez a defensive stare, and turned to face Pyut in search for more answers.
“So are we not supposed to be under the rain? Since the rain is water from the city,” Crucist asked.
Kheez gave out a burst of laughter and looked at Crucist with a sinister sneer.
“I promised not to insult you anymore. But if you’re gonna keep leaving our goal post unguarded, how can you expect me not to score that goal!!”
“Water from rain is distilled, Crucist,” I cut in to explain.
Silence fell again, nobody seemingly wanted to venture further into the topic in hopes to avoid any confrontation.
“I don’t care what you say, Crucist. Me and my little brother are going to kill those bastards who did these things to my family.”
Sam had an almost complete resemblance to his younger brother, who had just enlisted himself into the force. He was outside, along with his batch of newly joined cadets. Sam, known to the UWA Marine Corps as Frenzy, was alone with Crucist in a hall floored with parquet and lined with one basketball court overlapping two volley ball courts.
“This is stupid. What would your mom say if she was alive?”
“She’s dead, man. So is my baby brother, so is my sister. They were looking forward to a bright future, leaving behind the shit hole where we grew up. Crucist.” Sam turned away from Crucist. The darkness was already hiding most of his body away from Crucist’s view.
“You won’t understand our situation, even if I tell you how it felt like inside me.”
“Sam. Chris looked up to you. From the day he was born, to the day your dad died, to the day he scored for his exams year after year, to the day he left studies to sign up for the force. Be a good brother, Sam. Let him have a future we all could only dream about.”
Sam got up and left the table he and Crucist were sitting on. He began pacing around silent. Crucist turned to the double door leading to the outside. Light flooded into the dark hall from a small glass that was etched onto one of the doors.
“We need to avenge their deaths, Crucist.”
“You don’t need that!” Crucist got up from the table already, his voice now firm and loud.
“Tell me something, Crucist.” Sam moved fast towards Crucist now, inching closer face to face. They could hear each other’s heavy breathing from the agitation.
“What do you understand about revenge?”
“That it fucking sucks.” Crucist said it with his teeth firmly clenched together.
Both of them stared silently at each other for a moment, seeing only what the lights from outside allowed. Crucist now saw that Sam’s green eyes had no slight hints of tranquility in them anymore. Then, Sam backed off and wandered the hall alone.
“Listen to me, Sam. It’s not worth it.”
“Fuck the worth. I’m doing it for my family.” The voice echoed on walls hidden within the darkness.
“You’re doing it for yourself. I know I did.” Crucist’s voice was a little softer now.
“Your dad was rich. He owned an oil rig, for god’s sake!”
“He and my mom and my 5 year-old brother were all killed in front of my eyes.”
There was no reply. The tapping sounds of footsteps made only by military boots marched themselves closer to Crucist now. He could already see Sam’s figure, but not hear his response, as if waiting for the rest of the story.
“I killed them all. I suffered for 3 years living with the people that killed my family. One day, I slaughtered them all.”
Crucist stopped to force a gulp through his throat.
“I joined the faction that did those things. I lived with them, and to earn their trust, I killed for them. I ate on the same table as the ones that pulled the knife across my brother’s throat and left him choking in his own fucking blood.”
A drop of tear ran down his cheek. ‘Good thing its dark here,’ he thought to himself.
“I played and studied with them. I made friends with the son of the guy who planted 6 bullets into my dad before killing him, Sam.”
There was a long moment of silence that hung within the darkness of the empty hall. Occasionally, the light from outside would be killed by people constantly roaming around outside the hall’s doors.
“I feel useless, Crucist. I am the oldest son in the family. My responsibility as the man of the house is to provide for them. I failed. Do you know how fucking useless that feels like?” Sam’s voice was already breaking up. He was crying in the dark.
“Sometimes I’d pray to God. I’d ask Him to help my mom marry another guy. For what its worth, man. It’ll at least put food on our table. But that bitch loves that dead idiot so much! She’d rather crawl past the years than to marry another guy!” He was already yelling out his stress at the top of his lungs.
“Its ok, man. I understand your feelings. Its torturous when you see your family suffer, and you not being able to do anything about it. But you have to stop dwelling on your past, and focus on what you have today. Chris.” Crucist pointed at the direction of the door on their right.
“From that day onwards, Sam made a promise to himself in front of me. He regretted having his brother join the force, and he wanted to move on to the higher ranks. This way, he’d have the authorities to keep Night Cat within safe missions,” Crucist said.
We were passing a back lane of the buildings, and I could see Pyut making a right turn as he hit the road again. The rest of us followed suit. When I reached the end of the lane, I gained visibility of the road outside. It was a road from the south and turning right eastwards, and we were on our way downwards. Pyut was planting a few explosives where the road bent.
“I need you guys to listen to this,” he said while he was plugging in the bombs and placing them next to each other on the ground.
“Firstly, we unload all our supplies down south where a cross junction is. Then, we will lure out a few fat ass monsters. When we see those things coming at us, we move up to here,” he pointed to the turn of the road.
“Keep on the right end of the road, and keep firing at them. Let those things stand right on top of my explosives, and I’ll blow them.”
The rest of us were still a blur. What fat thing? Why the cross junction?
“Don’t worry about trying to make sense of it now. You’ll know when the time comes. But make sure you remember the plan. Nobody’s gonna be dying today. Are we all clear?”
“Sir!” the affirmation echoed across buildings along the road.
“And Night. I need you to keep an eye on those fat monsters. Start shooting them from far, so they’d bleed so much we don’t have to waste too much time on them. This is important. Clear?”
No reply came. Pyut got off his bombs to look for Night Cat. He was on his way down to the junction already.
“Sergeant Major Night Cat! I am giving you an order!”
No reply came from him. Infuriated, Pyut marched down to the junction chasing after Night Cat. It was at least a 300 meter distance from the right turn to the junction. Along that road, there were no aisles or junctions. There were no building entrances either. As I reached the junction, I saw crates placed around the junction like low walls used in battlefields. Four lamp posts stood around the junction, one on each corner illuminating the area very well.
It was there where Pyut caught hold of Night Cat’s vest by the neck. He threw Night Cat around and sent him a sudden punch in his face. Night Cat almost instantly dropped his gun and replied the punch. He missed Pyut by a mile, sending his body thrashing onto the soaked ground.
“Look at yourself. Pathetic! Captain Ixate!” he turned to look at me.
“Is this the bullshit you recruited into your team?!” Pyut yelled out, pointing at Night Cat, who was currently on his knees and head drooped away from our visibility.
“Your team has a very credible reputation. Have him expelled once you get back to base!” I didn’t say anything, and neither did anyone else. Pyut then turned towards Night Cat, and paced to him. He then squat down and pulled Night Cat’s head up by the hair on his back.
‘This guy’s insane,’ I thought. But I didn’t dare do anything to protect my team member. We need Night Cat too much to let him continue on like this.
“Chris. Before your brother died saving me, he asked for a favor. He knew you’d come. And he asked me to take care of you.”
“Pyut.” A cough broke the sentence. Pyut was holding Frenzy to rest on his thighs. He was bleeding. The Kevlar vest Frenzy was wearing tore from claw marks, blood overflowing from everywhere.
“Shut the fuck up, okay. The less you talk the easier it will be for the medic to save your life,” Pyut said, his voice trying as much as possible not to sound shivery.
“You’re my best friend. Don’t give me that fucking bullshit about me not dying.”
“You need to hang on. Your brother needs you. He’s on his way now. Ixate’s team will definitely bring him along. Don’t you fucking die on me like this!”
“Take care of him for me.”
“I don’t need to do no taking care of your brother. Medic!!!. Hang on there. You can make it. Medic!!! Where the hell is that bastard?!” Pyut kept running his eyes around, looking for the team’s medic, and back at Frenzy.
“Sam. He’s coming now. You’ll be alright, okay.” He noticed that Frenzy already had his eyes shut. He tried slapping him awake.
“Sam! Don’t sleep now. A little while more. You can hold on.” The pair of eyes did not open themselves. Pyut continued slapping Frenzy across his face, left and right.
“Sam! Sam! Don’t you fucking do this to me, man!”
“Sam!!”
“We were sent here to collect and compile information about this city. This mission was to help the UWE understand better the problem that had been going on in this, and other cities suffering from similar fallouts.”
“And I assume that you collected them and have them stored somewhere now?”
“The situation became more complex for us that we’d thought.”
“That being?”
“The information disks were destroyed.” Pyut paused. “Along with three of our men.”
The Major was dead ahead of me, now regretting the recall of certain situations that happened before our arrival.
“There’s nothing left in these buildings,” Crucist reported as he was coming out of an entrance to a bank. The enormous green and blue signboard still lit, hung proud above a now shattered glass door.
We were then joined by Kheez, who failed to recover anything of use. To our right laid another sight to behold. It was a field with wooden fences running along and across it. In the middle of it were human bodies stacked to a hill, still engulfed in flames. We stopped a while and stooped our heads low to offer our respects. The sight, though not witnessed for the first time already, still gave me chills. As we passed the field, I noticed something else to our right, where a cross junction met. A couple of bodies were staked onto rusted steel poles standing steadfast on the asphalt road. Flies roamed around them, and we could see their bodies already rotting from decay.
“What in the world could’ve done something like this?” Kheez commented with disgust, spitting out saliva to clear the stench from the bodies that was already getting into his throat.
“The people firstly thought that the mutations were caused by a disease from these decaying mutated beings. The mayor closed down the city stadium to burn the dead in piles,” Pyut explained, still taking the lead up ahead.
Kheez moved his eyes away from the Night Cat trailing behind the pack, and said, “So what was the real reason for these mutations?”
“They’re in the water. All of the city’s water supplies were contaminated by the radiation caused by the fallout. A professor in my team said that the anti-matter’s chain of integrity collapsed and started binding with O2 instead.”
“O2?”
“Water, you idiot,” Kheez enlightened Crucist.
“Oh, so since your insult friend suddenly decides to fall brainless, you’re looking for substitutes?” Crucist appeared to be offended by Kheez’s remark already.
“Hey. Chill out. I’ll try to refrain myself, okay.”
Crucist gave Kheez a defensive stare, and turned to face Pyut in search for more answers.
“So are we not supposed to be under the rain? Since the rain is water from the city,” Crucist asked.
Kheez gave out a burst of laughter and looked at Crucist with a sinister sneer.
“I promised not to insult you anymore. But if you’re gonna keep leaving our goal post unguarded, how can you expect me not to score that goal!!”
“Water from rain is distilled, Crucist,” I cut in to explain.
Silence fell again, nobody seemingly wanted to venture further into the topic in hopes to avoid any confrontation.
“I don’t care what you say, Crucist. Me and my little brother are going to kill those bastards who did these things to my family.”
Sam had an almost complete resemblance to his younger brother, who had just enlisted himself into the force. He was outside, along with his batch of newly joined cadets. Sam, known to the UWA Marine Corps as Frenzy, was alone with Crucist in a hall floored with parquet and lined with one basketball court overlapping two volley ball courts.
“This is stupid. What would your mom say if she was alive?”
“She’s dead, man. So is my baby brother, so is my sister. They were looking forward to a bright future, leaving behind the shit hole where we grew up. Crucist.” Sam turned away from Crucist. The darkness was already hiding most of his body away from Crucist’s view.
“You won’t understand our situation, even if I tell you how it felt like inside me.”
“Sam. Chris looked up to you. From the day he was born, to the day your dad died, to the day he scored for his exams year after year, to the day he left studies to sign up for the force. Be a good brother, Sam. Let him have a future we all could only dream about.”
Sam got up and left the table he and Crucist were sitting on. He began pacing around silent. Crucist turned to the double door leading to the outside. Light flooded into the dark hall from a small glass that was etched onto one of the doors.
“We need to avenge their deaths, Crucist.”
“You don’t need that!” Crucist got up from the table already, his voice now firm and loud.
“Tell me something, Crucist.” Sam moved fast towards Crucist now, inching closer face to face. They could hear each other’s heavy breathing from the agitation.
“What do you understand about revenge?”
“That it fucking sucks.” Crucist said it with his teeth firmly clenched together.
Both of them stared silently at each other for a moment, seeing only what the lights from outside allowed. Crucist now saw that Sam’s green eyes had no slight hints of tranquility in them anymore. Then, Sam backed off and wandered the hall alone.
“Listen to me, Sam. It’s not worth it.”
“Fuck the worth. I’m doing it for my family.” The voice echoed on walls hidden within the darkness.
“You’re doing it for yourself. I know I did.” Crucist’s voice was a little softer now.
“Your dad was rich. He owned an oil rig, for god’s sake!”
“He and my mom and my 5 year-old brother were all killed in front of my eyes.”
There was no reply. The tapping sounds of footsteps made only by military boots marched themselves closer to Crucist now. He could already see Sam’s figure, but not hear his response, as if waiting for the rest of the story.
“I killed them all. I suffered for 3 years living with the people that killed my family. One day, I slaughtered them all.”
Crucist stopped to force a gulp through his throat.
“I joined the faction that did those things. I lived with them, and to earn their trust, I killed for them. I ate on the same table as the ones that pulled the knife across my brother’s throat and left him choking in his own fucking blood.”
A drop of tear ran down his cheek. ‘Good thing its dark here,’ he thought to himself.
“I played and studied with them. I made friends with the son of the guy who planted 6 bullets into my dad before killing him, Sam.”
There was a long moment of silence that hung within the darkness of the empty hall. Occasionally, the light from outside would be killed by people constantly roaming around outside the hall’s doors.
“I feel useless, Crucist. I am the oldest son in the family. My responsibility as the man of the house is to provide for them. I failed. Do you know how fucking useless that feels like?” Sam’s voice was already breaking up. He was crying in the dark.
“Sometimes I’d pray to God. I’d ask Him to help my mom marry another guy. For what its worth, man. It’ll at least put food on our table. But that bitch loves that dead idiot so much! She’d rather crawl past the years than to marry another guy!” He was already yelling out his stress at the top of his lungs.
“Its ok, man. I understand your feelings. Its torturous when you see your family suffer, and you not being able to do anything about it. But you have to stop dwelling on your past, and focus on what you have today. Chris.” Crucist pointed at the direction of the door on their right.
“From that day onwards, Sam made a promise to himself in front of me. He regretted having his brother join the force, and he wanted to move on to the higher ranks. This way, he’d have the authorities to keep Night Cat within safe missions,” Crucist said.
We were passing a back lane of the buildings, and I could see Pyut making a right turn as he hit the road again. The rest of us followed suit. When I reached the end of the lane, I gained visibility of the road outside. It was a road from the south and turning right eastwards, and we were on our way downwards. Pyut was planting a few explosives where the road bent.
“I need you guys to listen to this,” he said while he was plugging in the bombs and placing them next to each other on the ground.
“Firstly, we unload all our supplies down south where a cross junction is. Then, we will lure out a few fat ass monsters. When we see those things coming at us, we move up to here,” he pointed to the turn of the road.
“Keep on the right end of the road, and keep firing at them. Let those things stand right on top of my explosives, and I’ll blow them.”
The rest of us were still a blur. What fat thing? Why the cross junction?
“Don’t worry about trying to make sense of it now. You’ll know when the time comes. But make sure you remember the plan. Nobody’s gonna be dying today. Are we all clear?”
“Sir!” the affirmation echoed across buildings along the road.
“And Night. I need you to keep an eye on those fat monsters. Start shooting them from far, so they’d bleed so much we don’t have to waste too much time on them. This is important. Clear?”
No reply came. Pyut got off his bombs to look for Night Cat. He was on his way down to the junction already.
“Sergeant Major Night Cat! I am giving you an order!”
No reply came from him. Infuriated, Pyut marched down to the junction chasing after Night Cat. It was at least a 300 meter distance from the right turn to the junction. Along that road, there were no aisles or junctions. There were no building entrances either. As I reached the junction, I saw crates placed around the junction like low walls used in battlefields. Four lamp posts stood around the junction, one on each corner illuminating the area very well.
It was there where Pyut caught hold of Night Cat’s vest by the neck. He threw Night Cat around and sent him a sudden punch in his face. Night Cat almost instantly dropped his gun and replied the punch. He missed Pyut by a mile, sending his body thrashing onto the soaked ground.
“Look at yourself. Pathetic! Captain Ixate!” he turned to look at me.
“Is this the bullshit you recruited into your team?!” Pyut yelled out, pointing at Night Cat, who was currently on his knees and head drooped away from our visibility.
“Your team has a very credible reputation. Have him expelled once you get back to base!” I didn’t say anything, and neither did anyone else. Pyut then turned towards Night Cat, and paced to him. He then squat down and pulled Night Cat’s head up by the hair on his back.
‘This guy’s insane,’ I thought. But I didn’t dare do anything to protect my team member. We need Night Cat too much to let him continue on like this.
“Chris. Before your brother died saving me, he asked for a favor. He knew you’d come. And he asked me to take care of you.”
“Pyut.” A cough broke the sentence. Pyut was holding Frenzy to rest on his thighs. He was bleeding. The Kevlar vest Frenzy was wearing tore from claw marks, blood overflowing from everywhere.
“Shut the fuck up, okay. The less you talk the easier it will be for the medic to save your life,” Pyut said, his voice trying as much as possible not to sound shivery.
“You’re my best friend. Don’t give me that fucking bullshit about me not dying.”
“You need to hang on. Your brother needs you. He’s on his way now. Ixate’s team will definitely bring him along. Don’t you fucking die on me like this!”
“Take care of him for me.”
“I don’t need to do no taking care of your brother. Medic!!!. Hang on there. You can make it. Medic!!! Where the hell is that bastard?!” Pyut kept running his eyes around, looking for the team’s medic, and back at Frenzy.
“Sam. He’s coming now. You’ll be alright, okay.” He noticed that Frenzy already had his eyes shut. He tried slapping him awake.
“Sam! Don’t sleep now. A little while more. You can hold on.” The pair of eyes did not open themselves. Pyut continued slapping Frenzy across his face, left and right.
“Sam! Sam! Don’t you fucking do this to me, man!”
“Sam!!”
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Night of The Dead- Chapter 11: Blood on Blood
We were already nearing the western end of the city, and behind the curtain of fog the walls of Boston City stadium was already visible. Almost all of the supplies Pyut tagged around the city have been collected, including ammunition, stationary explosives and medical supplies. Few stray mutated dogs, called Stalkers by Pyut, tailed us along the way. None were posing as threats, though. Kheez was already getting worried about Night Cat, who was now barely catching up with the rest of us. He was striding aimlessly behind us, with his head down and obviously lost in thoughts and maybe even regret.
"Night Cat!" I stopped and yelled over at him. He did not respond. Instead, he just continued at his pace towards us, with his head drooping over his shoulders. Something had to be done. I had no idea what caused him to act like that, but his despair could only spell danger for us all. The team cannot, at all costs, do without a marksman.
"I will not have you act like this during the mission." Night Cat came up to me, raised an eye at me, and continued frontward. This is not geting anywhere. Behind him, I saw Crucist exiting a building with his hands tucking ammunition boxes into his pant pockets.
"What's with him?" I asked almost in a hush.
"His brother was with Pyut's team." At that moment all the answers came to me. It all made sense now, how he was acting. Along the whole way, Crucist began telling me Night Cat's story.
The bio warfare that lasted a good 6 years left the world with nothing less than an economic depression that ate the whole world at record low. Skyscrapers that once boasted a city’s success were now crumbled on desolate grounds. Nations that once stood as a hub for international trade were now left with nothing more than zinc roofs topping up wooden walls. People, once wealthy, were now roaming homeless scavenging food scraps all around abandoned cities. Governments were crippled, all of them, from the time the inflation bubble burst when they were over printing money to supply the war, to the time when the war was over and there was nothing to stabilize the economy with. What good is a country to the government when nobody can afford to pay taxes to finance the country’s overwhelming deficits?
Chris was born in a small village at the outskirts of Kuantan in a Malaysian coastal state. The post-war poverty around the Malay Archipelago was not so badly affected, as no direct war occurred at those areas. But because the rest of the world was badly damaged by the war, the worldwide depression pulled every other remaining nation down to extreme poverty. Within the states where Chris was from, many already resumed trading, but at very primitive scales. Money was still being used, but the barter system was a more widely accepted trading manner. Former tycoons, who’d before the war control the sugar or shipping industry within the South Eastern Asia, now operated sundry shops and food stalls. Poorer citizens now worked for them, bringing back a monthly salary of not more than half a kilogram of rice. Famine was a worldwide pandemic, killing millions every passing day. But the tropical and temperate weathers of Malaysia provided sufficient food for the people, in which imports of supplies were now inexistent.
Born in a family of a single struggling mother, Chris was the third of four children. His father went to war, and died before Chris was old enough to go to school. His mother worked many hours, from the break of dawn till the dead hours. The eldest, his sister, was already old enough to work, and had to dwell into professions that she hated to do the most, prostitution. ‘But it was the only way for us to earn enough money’, she had always thought. Chris and his two other brothers, were living with their aunt and grandmother, which had their own children and grandchildren. The aunt’s husband was from a rich family, so they’d have been living in the higher social classes still. His grandmother would not feed Chris and his two brothers if ever his mother did not provide her with monthly payments to buy provisions. Sometimes, they’d starve.
“Sam, it’s been 3 days since we ate. Mom’s not gonna come see us till the weekend,” Chris, now 10, was routinely walking back home from school with his elder brother.
“Don’t worry,” Sam, his brother, comforted him. “I stole some coins from Aunt Grumpy’s shop last night. We’ll go get something to eat, okay.”
In an instant, the weary eyes of that 10 year old boy glimmered with joy.
That day, they had two packets of white rice, sitting by the river near their aunt’s house. They’d happily swallow the rice and played in the river until the sun sinks behind the mountains. That day, they would forget all the hardship they had to go through, simply because they’d have each other. That day, Chris thought he was the happiest kid in the world, because he had the best brother in the world.
Sam was never any better at studying, so he was merely waiting to hit the age of 13 when he could be strong enough to carry rice sacks to make a living. Chris, on the other hand, loved studying. He’d go home each day from school, and read up on the topics before the school would touch on them. He believed in studying hard so he could make his family’s life better in the future. Sam saved the money he earned, and would buy Chris books and pencils.
“Don’t worry ‘bout me. You’ll make enough money for us in the future so we won’t have to suffer like this anymore.” That would always come out of the brother’s mouth.
I nodded in silence as we walked northbound following Pyut's lead. The stadium was already passing on our left side, lights shimmering from inside. Although the powerplant had been destroyed, there was still enough power in the city's battery plants underground to sustain light for another month. That was Boston City's promise to the people, that there'd be no power-outs forever. I guessed they were true. Forever can only be counted and agreed by people. Now that the power of the city outlived the people of Boston, the statement can only be true.
A part of the ringed stadium has been crumbled by something, maybe a large meteor or something. But no meteor hit this part of the world, or any other parts for that matter. What could've done something like that? From the crumbled side I could see pass the football field inside. There was a fire burning, and the fuel of it were.... bodies. Human bodies.
"It took them a while to realise what was going on in the city. The surviving ones had to burn the deads to contain the infection from getting to them," Pyut explained as we all turned our heads to witness the scene. Night Cat was of no exception.
"So what made him enlist into the Ghost Team?" I asked, still having my head directed at the burn site.
"His mom, sister and his little brother died. His sister was on her way to migrate to England with her new husband along with the mother and the little brother, when their plane was shot down."
"What? Shot down?"
A nod confirmed what I had already heard clearly from Crucist.
"He came into the force to seek revenge. So did his brother."
"And now they're still doing it?"
"Well, you could say that I kinda sorted them out a while back. That's when I heard their story."
We were already way ahead of the stadium now, with much less monsters to shoot at. There were alot of slower human-like ones, but Pyut urged us not to bother with those. It consumes too much ammo, and the heavy blood stench would lure the others to our position.
"Night Cat!" I stopped and yelled over at him. He did not respond. Instead, he just continued at his pace towards us, with his head drooping over his shoulders. Something had to be done. I had no idea what caused him to act like that, but his despair could only spell danger for us all. The team cannot, at all costs, do without a marksman.
"I will not have you act like this during the mission." Night Cat came up to me, raised an eye at me, and continued frontward. This is not geting anywhere. Behind him, I saw Crucist exiting a building with his hands tucking ammunition boxes into his pant pockets.
"What's with him?" I asked almost in a hush.
"His brother was with Pyut's team." At that moment all the answers came to me. It all made sense now, how he was acting. Along the whole way, Crucist began telling me Night Cat's story.
The bio warfare that lasted a good 6 years left the world with nothing less than an economic depression that ate the whole world at record low. Skyscrapers that once boasted a city’s success were now crumbled on desolate grounds. Nations that once stood as a hub for international trade were now left with nothing more than zinc roofs topping up wooden walls. People, once wealthy, were now roaming homeless scavenging food scraps all around abandoned cities. Governments were crippled, all of them, from the time the inflation bubble burst when they were over printing money to supply the war, to the time when the war was over and there was nothing to stabilize the economy with. What good is a country to the government when nobody can afford to pay taxes to finance the country’s overwhelming deficits?
Chris was born in a small village at the outskirts of Kuantan in a Malaysian coastal state. The post-war poverty around the Malay Archipelago was not so badly affected, as no direct war occurred at those areas. But because the rest of the world was badly damaged by the war, the worldwide depression pulled every other remaining nation down to extreme poverty. Within the states where Chris was from, many already resumed trading, but at very primitive scales. Money was still being used, but the barter system was a more widely accepted trading manner. Former tycoons, who’d before the war control the sugar or shipping industry within the South Eastern Asia, now operated sundry shops and food stalls. Poorer citizens now worked for them, bringing back a monthly salary of not more than half a kilogram of rice. Famine was a worldwide pandemic, killing millions every passing day. But the tropical and temperate weathers of Malaysia provided sufficient food for the people, in which imports of supplies were now inexistent.
Born in a family of a single struggling mother, Chris was the third of four children. His father went to war, and died before Chris was old enough to go to school. His mother worked many hours, from the break of dawn till the dead hours. The eldest, his sister, was already old enough to work, and had to dwell into professions that she hated to do the most, prostitution. ‘But it was the only way for us to earn enough money’, she had always thought. Chris and his two other brothers, were living with their aunt and grandmother, which had their own children and grandchildren. The aunt’s husband was from a rich family, so they’d have been living in the higher social classes still. His grandmother would not feed Chris and his two brothers if ever his mother did not provide her with monthly payments to buy provisions. Sometimes, they’d starve.
“Sam, it’s been 3 days since we ate. Mom’s not gonna come see us till the weekend,” Chris, now 10, was routinely walking back home from school with his elder brother.
“Don’t worry,” Sam, his brother, comforted him. “I stole some coins from Aunt Grumpy’s shop last night. We’ll go get something to eat, okay.”
In an instant, the weary eyes of that 10 year old boy glimmered with joy.
That day, they had two packets of white rice, sitting by the river near their aunt’s house. They’d happily swallow the rice and played in the river until the sun sinks behind the mountains. That day, they would forget all the hardship they had to go through, simply because they’d have each other. That day, Chris thought he was the happiest kid in the world, because he had the best brother in the world.
Sam was never any better at studying, so he was merely waiting to hit the age of 13 when he could be strong enough to carry rice sacks to make a living. Chris, on the other hand, loved studying. He’d go home each day from school, and read up on the topics before the school would touch on them. He believed in studying hard so he could make his family’s life better in the future. Sam saved the money he earned, and would buy Chris books and pencils.
“Don’t worry ‘bout me. You’ll make enough money for us in the future so we won’t have to suffer like this anymore.” That would always come out of the brother’s mouth.
I nodded in silence as we walked northbound following Pyut's lead. The stadium was already passing on our left side, lights shimmering from inside. Although the powerplant had been destroyed, there was still enough power in the city's battery plants underground to sustain light for another month. That was Boston City's promise to the people, that there'd be no power-outs forever. I guessed they were true. Forever can only be counted and agreed by people. Now that the power of the city outlived the people of Boston, the statement can only be true.
A part of the ringed stadium has been crumbled by something, maybe a large meteor or something. But no meteor hit this part of the world, or any other parts for that matter. What could've done something like that? From the crumbled side I could see pass the football field inside. There was a fire burning, and the fuel of it were.... bodies. Human bodies.
"It took them a while to realise what was going on in the city. The surviving ones had to burn the deads to contain the infection from getting to them," Pyut explained as we all turned our heads to witness the scene. Night Cat was of no exception.
"So what made him enlist into the Ghost Team?" I asked, still having my head directed at the burn site.
"His mom, sister and his little brother died. His sister was on her way to migrate to England with her new husband along with the mother and the little brother, when their plane was shot down."
"What? Shot down?"
A nod confirmed what I had already heard clearly from Crucist.
"He came into the force to seek revenge. So did his brother."
"And now they're still doing it?"
"Well, you could say that I kinda sorted them out a while back. That's when I heard their story."
We were already way ahead of the stadium now, with much less monsters to shoot at. There were alot of slower human-like ones, but Pyut urged us not to bother with those. It consumes too much ammo, and the heavy blood stench would lure the others to our position.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Night of The Dead- Chapter 10: Wave Two
" I placed supplies around the city. We need to get them, now that you guys are here," Pyut pulled out a paper map the size of 3 A4 papers together.
" We're currently nearing the south-eastern side of the city. There'll be an ammunition shop nearby, right before Central Park."
" How do you know we're coming?" Night Cat asked, already peeping down Pyut's city map. It was like any other civilian map, compeletely colored and tagged with landmarks all over. Above that were black crosses made by a marker pen over a number of buildings around the city. Obviously, the city council did not plan on tagging armories and medical supply stores in hope that an event like this would happen.
" You guys are here, aren't you." Pyut folded the map, and was already beginning to look for stores' signboards.
" We don't really need to stock up, do we? I mean, we only needed to go get the information disk or what ever is it that you used to store the information and leave," Kheez suggested, while checking the gauge strapped around his wrist to see the remaining gas available in his tanks.
Pyut made an abrubt stop, and turned to face Kheez. Kheez felt the uncomfortable atmosphere appearing suddenly, and raised his head to look forward. In front of him, a pair of eyes blared at him.
" I lost all my men throughout the week here. What you saw back there were shit loads less than what roams the city. And I hope that I do not have to start giving out orders to you guys." With that, he turned back to searching for signboards.
He lost all his men? He lost...... Sam? Night Car suddenly losthis cool and pulled Pyut to a halt in front of me. Pyut did not turn around. He stood there silent, as the rest of us were exchanging looks in confusion.
"I'm sorry, Chris. Things had to happen, and it happened."
"What do you mean, 'it had to happen'?! He was your best friend!"
Pyut turned, eyes engulfed in flame. "And that makes me feel any better?"
There was a silent moment with two pairs of eyes locked at each other- Night Cat's and Pyut's, and he turned back the other way, shaking Night Cat's hand off his shoulder.
" We're currently nearing the south-eastern side of the city. There'll be an ammunition shop nearby, right before Central Park."
" How do you know we're coming?" Night Cat asked, already peeping down Pyut's city map. It was like any other civilian map, compeletely colored and tagged with landmarks all over. Above that were black crosses made by a marker pen over a number of buildings around the city. Obviously, the city council did not plan on tagging armories and medical supply stores in hope that an event like this would happen.
" You guys are here, aren't you." Pyut folded the map, and was already beginning to look for stores' signboards.
" We don't really need to stock up, do we? I mean, we only needed to go get the information disk or what ever is it that you used to store the information and leave," Kheez suggested, while checking the gauge strapped around his wrist to see the remaining gas available in his tanks.
Pyut made an abrubt stop, and turned to face Kheez. Kheez felt the uncomfortable atmosphere appearing suddenly, and raised his head to look forward. In front of him, a pair of eyes blared at him.
" I lost all my men throughout the week here. What you saw back there were shit loads less than what roams the city. And I hope that I do not have to start giving out orders to you guys." With that, he turned back to searching for signboards.
He lost all his men? He lost...... Sam? Night Car suddenly losthis cool and pulled Pyut to a halt in front of me. Pyut did not turn around. He stood there silent, as the rest of us were exchanging looks in confusion.
"I'm sorry, Chris. Things had to happen, and it happened."
"What do you mean, 'it had to happen'?! He was your best friend!"
Pyut turned, eyes engulfed in flame. "And that makes me feel any better?"
There was a silent moment with two pairs of eyes locked at each other- Night Cat's and Pyut's, and he turned back the other way, shaking Night Cat's hand off his shoulder.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Night of The Dead- Chapter 9: Tarnished Hope
Crucist was out at the helipad, alone. He was a rather less talkative one, comparing to Night Cat and Kheez. I knew him even before we were in the military, dating back to the school days when we were 10. My father was on assignment for an oil rig company in Southern Arabia, and I was sent there a month later to join him. He had to have me migrated there, because the job was going to take years to complete. Working with oil rigs were a well paying job, because the demand for petroleum energy was off the scale as compared to the supplies the world could muster. Petroleum was fast running out, yet the world was not fast enough in adapting to other means of energy consumption. Synthetic white gasoline has been introduced at that time, but the price was still too high for more than half the world to afford.
I signed up in a school near where we stayed, and the first person I met sitting next to me, was a dark-haired kid who introduced himself as Mikel Raikov. We went on to be the best of friends, and we hung out alot after school where he'd show me around the city I was relatively new to. He was a bubbly fellow, with endless jokes to entertain and we could talk about anything or nothing at all. That was before the little political 'glitch' happened. War broke out between two giant oil rig companies, which ended up with high unemployment and low salaries as the new way to operate. Monopoly was never the way to go, as proven by Adam Smith. But because the political power of these multi-millionaires, the government couldn't contain their desires for wealth.
There were fights and demonstrations within the city areas which led to many innocent deaths. Mikel's family were razed in a terrorism attack in the city, killed in front of his eyes. They were going for his father, at that time a very hated person for his position in the oil company. A man held his crying head up as the rest of them sank multiple bullets into his parents and his 5 year old brother. That was the last I heard of him, until the day when I enlisted into the UWA's Ghost Team.
" Hey," I signalled my presence from behind him. He let out a slight nod without turning back.
I went on and sat beside him. The asphalt ground was still cold and clammy. I stared into the dark horizon, purple linings were already visible. Around the linings were still dark bluish textured lanscape.
" Do you think we could've done things differently when we were in the mission?" Crucist whispered.
" You mean saving the all the people we were supposed to save?" There was no answer, but of course. It sounded a little rhetorical.
I adjusted myself into a comfortable ball, wrapping my hands around my legs. " Maybe."
The sun was already creeping up from behind a row of hills and mountains, casting more and more purple and lighter blue shades to the lovely portrait we were both admiring. Being the team leader, I was more concerned about the mission failure than Crucist was. Not that my position was in jepordy, but the fact that I could not do anything to save the people we were supposed to save.
The explosion was followed by a stream of machinegun shots, both coming from the northern end of the junction. We started concentrating our firepower towards the northern side whenever possible, knowing already that it was not time to die yet. From behind the stack of falling monsters, was a familiar face. Standing to about 5'8 at height, the gun he was holding overwhelmed him in size.
" Pyut!" Night Cat immediately recognised him. I sighed a deep relief inside me, knowing already that I had accomplished two things at one time now: to find and save Major Pyut, and to get out of this place alive. Although I thought that the former was a little different situationally, now that he saved us instead.
The Major swung his hand thru and fro while having his gun slung by his side. Kheez made his way ahead of us, and lit his flame thrower again. Waving a massive stream of fire across the road, spreading to every approaching entity catching them on fire. A path was then opened.
" Go!!" Kheez moved aside for the rest of us to barge through. The mutated human-like monsters that were attacking us was already burning on the ground around us, while we tried to run pass them towards Pyut.
" Don't worry about them, just keep coming up. I'm gonna blow them," the Major commanded as he pulled out a string of explosives that seemed like cluster munitions. We increased our speed, and paced pass Pyut as he launched the chain of small explosives with a special weapon. He aimed high up in the air, facing the crowd currently coming toward us. Pyut pulled the trigger that ejected the explosives into the air, while the gun recoiled backwards. The chain of grenades flung into the air, entangling each other while landing down again within the crowd, exactly where Pyut intended them to land.
" Go go go!!!" Pyut did not even stay long enough to see where the explosions would land, he was already picking up his stuff and taking off northbound. Kheez blasted the Arclite at oncoming creeps, buying us more time to grab distance. I was already making a sprint forward, trying to catch up with the rest of them ahead. Crucist and Night Cat was currently clearing the monsters for the rest of us as we gained speed northwards. I turned around to find Kheez behind me. He was already packing the flame thrower over his shoulders and coming to me, when behind him I saw the chain of explosives landed and ignited. One by one, the grenades blew themselves up, lighting the sombre night with fireworks. Flying along the explosions were bits of scattering body parts and blood. I was taking my time, waiting for Kheez to catch up to me before I continue my run. The sound of tapping claws were heard suddenly, this time from an unexpected direction. It was close by. I threw my eyes at my left, swearing that the sound was coming from that direction, and saw a brown animal staring dead at me. It was pacing slowly towards me, its razor sharp teeth glowing from the darkness. At a distance of less than 2 feet away, the monster was already preparing to pounce on me. I desperately swung my gun over as I was looking at it taking the leap. It was taking too long, my gun. I couldn't make it in time to plant the end of my barrel into the animal. I forced a fall backwards to buy myself more distance, and before the animal reached me, a bullet slammed into it from my left. It fell lifeless next to me, and behind him was Night Cat pulling the lever of his gun to eject an empty shell.
From my right, Kheez held out his hand for me to pull myself up, while keeping his attention at the oncoming crowd. I took it and we ran up north to meet up with the rest of the team.
" We'll find the Communication tower to patch radio to base so that we can call for transport. Crucist.." I looked over to Crucist for his directions, when Pyut interrupted. " No. I can't go now."
Eyes were fixed at him now.
" Sir. My orders are to.." " To rescue 3 marines and 3 scientists, correct?"
I nodded in silence.
" They sent you guys here for information. I won't leave this place without that."
We were on the northeast corner of Boston City, already pacing at a more relaxed speed, trying to keep away from the monsters on the lookout for us. Rain was still pouring all over the city, but it was quiet now. Still, the sounds of gunfire and explosions were echoing in my head, confirming to myself that having Kheez around was nothing less than the most helpful.
I signed up in a school near where we stayed, and the first person I met sitting next to me, was a dark-haired kid who introduced himself as Mikel Raikov. We went on to be the best of friends, and we hung out alot after school where he'd show me around the city I was relatively new to. He was a bubbly fellow, with endless jokes to entertain and we could talk about anything or nothing at all. That was before the little political 'glitch' happened. War broke out between two giant oil rig companies, which ended up with high unemployment and low salaries as the new way to operate. Monopoly was never the way to go, as proven by Adam Smith. But because the political power of these multi-millionaires, the government couldn't contain their desires for wealth.
There were fights and demonstrations within the city areas which led to many innocent deaths. Mikel's family were razed in a terrorism attack in the city, killed in front of his eyes. They were going for his father, at that time a very hated person for his position in the oil company. A man held his crying head up as the rest of them sank multiple bullets into his parents and his 5 year old brother. That was the last I heard of him, until the day when I enlisted into the UWA's Ghost Team.
" Hey," I signalled my presence from behind him. He let out a slight nod without turning back.
I went on and sat beside him. The asphalt ground was still cold and clammy. I stared into the dark horizon, purple linings were already visible. Around the linings were still dark bluish textured lanscape.
" Do you think we could've done things differently when we were in the mission?" Crucist whispered.
" You mean saving the all the people we were supposed to save?" There was no answer, but of course. It sounded a little rhetorical.
I adjusted myself into a comfortable ball, wrapping my hands around my legs. " Maybe."
The sun was already creeping up from behind a row of hills and mountains, casting more and more purple and lighter blue shades to the lovely portrait we were both admiring. Being the team leader, I was more concerned about the mission failure than Crucist was. Not that my position was in jepordy, but the fact that I could not do anything to save the people we were supposed to save.
The explosion was followed by a stream of machinegun shots, both coming from the northern end of the junction. We started concentrating our firepower towards the northern side whenever possible, knowing already that it was not time to die yet. From behind the stack of falling monsters, was a familiar face. Standing to about 5'8 at height, the gun he was holding overwhelmed him in size.
" Pyut!" Night Cat immediately recognised him. I sighed a deep relief inside me, knowing already that I had accomplished two things at one time now: to find and save Major Pyut, and to get out of this place alive. Although I thought that the former was a little different situationally, now that he saved us instead.
The Major swung his hand thru and fro while having his gun slung by his side. Kheez made his way ahead of us, and lit his flame thrower again. Waving a massive stream of fire across the road, spreading to every approaching entity catching them on fire. A path was then opened.
" Go!!" Kheez moved aside for the rest of us to barge through. The mutated human-like monsters that were attacking us was already burning on the ground around us, while we tried to run pass them towards Pyut.
" Don't worry about them, just keep coming up. I'm gonna blow them," the Major commanded as he pulled out a string of explosives that seemed like cluster munitions. We increased our speed, and paced pass Pyut as he launched the chain of small explosives with a special weapon. He aimed high up in the air, facing the crowd currently coming toward us. Pyut pulled the trigger that ejected the explosives into the air, while the gun recoiled backwards. The chain of grenades flung into the air, entangling each other while landing down again within the crowd, exactly where Pyut intended them to land.
" Go go go!!!" Pyut did not even stay long enough to see where the explosions would land, he was already picking up his stuff and taking off northbound. Kheez blasted the Arclite at oncoming creeps, buying us more time to grab distance. I was already making a sprint forward, trying to catch up with the rest of them ahead. Crucist and Night Cat was currently clearing the monsters for the rest of us as we gained speed northwards. I turned around to find Kheez behind me. He was already packing the flame thrower over his shoulders and coming to me, when behind him I saw the chain of explosives landed and ignited. One by one, the grenades blew themselves up, lighting the sombre night with fireworks. Flying along the explosions were bits of scattering body parts and blood. I was taking my time, waiting for Kheez to catch up to me before I continue my run. The sound of tapping claws were heard suddenly, this time from an unexpected direction. It was close by. I threw my eyes at my left, swearing that the sound was coming from that direction, and saw a brown animal staring dead at me. It was pacing slowly towards me, its razor sharp teeth glowing from the darkness. At a distance of less than 2 feet away, the monster was already preparing to pounce on me. I desperately swung my gun over as I was looking at it taking the leap. It was taking too long, my gun. I couldn't make it in time to plant the end of my barrel into the animal. I forced a fall backwards to buy myself more distance, and before the animal reached me, a bullet slammed into it from my left. It fell lifeless next to me, and behind him was Night Cat pulling the lever of his gun to eject an empty shell.
From my right, Kheez held out his hand for me to pull myself up, while keeping his attention at the oncoming crowd. I took it and we ran up north to meet up with the rest of the team.
" We'll find the Communication tower to patch radio to base so that we can call for transport. Crucist.." I looked over to Crucist for his directions, when Pyut interrupted. " No. I can't go now."
Eyes were fixed at him now.
" Sir. My orders are to.." " To rescue 3 marines and 3 scientists, correct?"
I nodded in silence.
" They sent you guys here for information. I won't leave this place without that."
We were on the northeast corner of Boston City, already pacing at a more relaxed speed, trying to keep away from the monsters on the lookout for us. Rain was still pouring all over the city, but it was quiet now. Still, the sounds of gunfire and explosions were echoing in my head, confirming to myself that having Kheez around was nothing less than the most helpful.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Night of The Dead- Chapter 8: The Reception Party
Everyone of us were made to explain in detail the occurrences of that night to the higher authorities. Kheez was still in the room, expressing his piece. A day ago, Night Cat was seen by Crucist storming out of the debriefing room, furious. They couldn't handle us failing to complete our mission objectives. They couldn't handle us not being able to perform as well as they'd expected. But they were asking some other questions. Questions regarding that other party of Marines we encountered in Boston City.
" This sucks," Kheez motioned to me, on the other side of the hallway of the room he got out from. He gave a long sigh, and pulled out a cigar from his breast pocket. Cubancrafters. I could even remember the distinct smell of it lingering in my memories, back in my grandfather's old cottage by the woods. A fine 6 incher with a thick golden tag imprinting the brand. He then pulled out a black Zippo from his left shoulder pocket and snapped it open.
" These guys are definitely not happy with the way we worked."
" Now I know why Night Cat burst out of the room yesterday," Kheez mumbled with the cigar held in his mouth, and then dragged a long and heavy puff.
" So what did you tell them?"
" All of it. Everything they asked."
" You think they're suspecting us of something?"
Kheez played with the heavy smoke for a while, and his eyeballs rolled towards me. " For sure".
" I don't blame them. Those mercenaries did cause quite a havoc," I said.
The hallway was now dark. Only a few fluorescents were lit, causing a partitioned visibility along the corridor.
The thumping got louder. Night Cat was already closing in on us. His face looked awed somehow.
" Its huge, man! We need to start moving. There're at least 50 of them."
" What is huge? 50 of what?" Kheez was already nervously biting his cigar.
" I have no idea, but I bet they're the ones killing the people around here."
Kheez lit his Arclite up, but kept the flame at minimum. We were already unlocking the safety clips of our guns.
" Where are they coming from?" Crucist asked, already planning an escape route for the team.
" Everywhere. But I reckon we should get away from the huge thingy. He's coming from the southern end."
" Wow. So does he have a name, too?" Kheez let out a chuckle.
Night Cat gave Kheez a not-so-cynical look, and began digging into his lightpack behind him for another scope lens.
" Somehow I knew the flares we shot up are not all that good," Night Cat was already starting to whine.
From the fogged up distance, a constant tapping and crackling sound began escalating in volume. It sounded like long nails tapping against the tarmac; an enormous set of nails, this sound. All of us got our guns aiming at eye level towards that direction. It grew louder, the sound. I could already hear my own breath deepening, from the anticipation. We had no idea what anything looked like. All night Cat could picture were shadows moving around towards the garden, and nothing more.
The sound grew louder, as I adjusted my gun and await the arrival of the city's new hosts. Suddenly, the sound scattered. They're now coming from the other sides. The north, the east, the west. We're already being surrounded. I paced back from the team, taking aim at another road junction. Night Cat did the same, taking the east junction, and Crucist went for the last junction.
" I can't believe we're just gonna die like this!!!" Night Cat screamed out, and took his first shot. The roar of his gun ricochet pass the four buildings around us, and a copper shell bounced off the ground with smoke still coming out of it. Before the echo of the first shot subsided, another trigger was fired.
" They seem like lame and easy kills. But there's like a truck load of them."
I turned back to my junction, and was beginning to see the first few unveiling from behind the curtain of fog down the street. From the other side, Crucist was already firing away, letting out a stream of empty shells tapdancing on the ground. About a minute later, the group before me was already within my firing range. I switched into fire-at-will mode, and was taking down those things like they were dummies.
20 minutes passed. We were still firing at what seemed to be a never ending stream of monsters. We caught sight of them, alright. They weren't the ones that killed the people of Boston City. They were the people of Boston City. Lifeless zombies and mutated animals charged mindlessly toward us, one by one by one, and the queue did not seem to have an end at all. What was worse, was that the loud prominent thumping sound grew significantly louder now. We were getting worried. It was about time we planned for an escape route.
I turned to Crucist, and he was already looking for my eyes.
My ear piece crackled static, and Crucist spoke: " Guys. We're evacuating this garden. Start pushing the crowds further back so that we can get some room to group up at the top spike of the diamond."
Replies of confirmation repeated itself 3 times, including mine. We started boosting our firepower in hopes to clear a bigger area so it could buy more time to run for the top. Kheez's flamethrower was a rather short range firing weapon, so I had to back him up to get more clearance.
The thumping grew louder now. It was as if that monster was just beyond the end of the street. " We need to go now!" Crucist yelled out. With that, we started moving top. Kheez made the first move, while Night Cat and me helped keep the monsters behind him. Crucist placed his binoculars eye-level, trying to get a glimpse of what lied directly behind the fog just ahead of him. What he saw, awestruck him motionless.
" Crucist!" I called for him. I was already pouring my bullets in front of him, and my gun's Ammo Warning light illuminated. Night Cat and Kheez ran ahead to provide us cover, and their barrels were pointed at the stream of monsters from up top.
" Crucist! Come on, man! Lets go already!" Crucist suddenly regained consciousness and turned to face the rest of us. His feet began to work their way over to us, and when I was looking his direction, I saw what got Crucist petrified for a moment there. It was large, at least the height of a 3 storey building. It was..... I had no idea what words to put there, and thinking was not the thing I could afford at that time, so I turned and tailed Crucist toward Night Cat and Kheez.
" Its no use! We can't open a way from up here!" Night Cat said while he had his eye kept in scope. I looked for an alternative way to escape, but the crowd was already drawing in from all sides. At the bends of each junction, we couldn't even see the tarmac below the pursuiters. They were so cramped up it was simply impossible to have a path created without anything less than 10 minutes!
They were drawing near, and my gun clicked empty of ammunition. Shit! It'll take me at least 15 seconds to reload this gun, and we don't have that luxury. I pulled out my handgun and fired away, as I lowered myself and the gun to the ground to reload it with the other hand. It was as if we were already crippled.
As I was half way through my reloading, another gun clicked empty.
" Fuck!" I heard Crucist over the radio. This was it. 1 suppress-fire gun down was bad. Another Machine gun down, spelled death to us all. Inevitable death.
They clambered pass the curbs of the garden, and were already hot on our tails. We couldn't run any further up, as the crowd above were already unbreakable. We were already taking aim at animal type monsters jumping in at us, and Crucist was still reloading his gun.
From our completely broken spirit knowing for sure we'd die here, a loud explosion was heard all of a sudden. We all turned toward the sound and found it coming from the north street.
" What more do you have to show before you kill us?!" Kheez screamed out loud with his teeth firmly clenched, while trying to afford a few more kills....
" This sucks," Kheez motioned to me, on the other side of the hallway of the room he got out from. He gave a long sigh, and pulled out a cigar from his breast pocket. Cubancrafters. I could even remember the distinct smell of it lingering in my memories, back in my grandfather's old cottage by the woods. A fine 6 incher with a thick golden tag imprinting the brand. He then pulled out a black Zippo from his left shoulder pocket and snapped it open.
" These guys are definitely not happy with the way we worked."
" Now I know why Night Cat burst out of the room yesterday," Kheez mumbled with the cigar held in his mouth, and then dragged a long and heavy puff.
" So what did you tell them?"
" All of it. Everything they asked."
" You think they're suspecting us of something?"
Kheez played with the heavy smoke for a while, and his eyeballs rolled towards me. " For sure".
" I don't blame them. Those mercenaries did cause quite a havoc," I said.
The hallway was now dark. Only a few fluorescents were lit, causing a partitioned visibility along the corridor.
The thumping got louder. Night Cat was already closing in on us. His face looked awed somehow.
" Its huge, man! We need to start moving. There're at least 50 of them."
" What is huge? 50 of what?" Kheez was already nervously biting his cigar.
" I have no idea, but I bet they're the ones killing the people around here."
Kheez lit his Arclite up, but kept the flame at minimum. We were already unlocking the safety clips of our guns.
" Where are they coming from?" Crucist asked, already planning an escape route for the team.
" Everywhere. But I reckon we should get away from the huge thingy. He's coming from the southern end."
" Wow. So does he have a name, too?" Kheez let out a chuckle.
Night Cat gave Kheez a not-so-cynical look, and began digging into his lightpack behind him for another scope lens.
" Somehow I knew the flares we shot up are not all that good," Night Cat was already starting to whine.
From the fogged up distance, a constant tapping and crackling sound began escalating in volume. It sounded like long nails tapping against the tarmac; an enormous set of nails, this sound. All of us got our guns aiming at eye level towards that direction. It grew louder, the sound. I could already hear my own breath deepening, from the anticipation. We had no idea what anything looked like. All night Cat could picture were shadows moving around towards the garden, and nothing more.
The sound grew louder, as I adjusted my gun and await the arrival of the city's new hosts. Suddenly, the sound scattered. They're now coming from the other sides. The north, the east, the west. We're already being surrounded. I paced back from the team, taking aim at another road junction. Night Cat did the same, taking the east junction, and Crucist went for the last junction.
" I can't believe we're just gonna die like this!!!" Night Cat screamed out, and took his first shot. The roar of his gun ricochet pass the four buildings around us, and a copper shell bounced off the ground with smoke still coming out of it. Before the echo of the first shot subsided, another trigger was fired.
" They seem like lame and easy kills. But there's like a truck load of them."
I turned back to my junction, and was beginning to see the first few unveiling from behind the curtain of fog down the street. From the other side, Crucist was already firing away, letting out a stream of empty shells tapdancing on the ground. About a minute later, the group before me was already within my firing range. I switched into fire-at-will mode, and was taking down those things like they were dummies.
20 minutes passed. We were still firing at what seemed to be a never ending stream of monsters. We caught sight of them, alright. They weren't the ones that killed the people of Boston City. They were the people of Boston City. Lifeless zombies and mutated animals charged mindlessly toward us, one by one by one, and the queue did not seem to have an end at all. What was worse, was that the loud prominent thumping sound grew significantly louder now. We were getting worried. It was about time we planned for an escape route.
I turned to Crucist, and he was already looking for my eyes.
My ear piece crackled static, and Crucist spoke: " Guys. We're evacuating this garden. Start pushing the crowds further back so that we can get some room to group up at the top spike of the diamond."
Replies of confirmation repeated itself 3 times, including mine. We started boosting our firepower in hopes to clear a bigger area so it could buy more time to run for the top. Kheez's flamethrower was a rather short range firing weapon, so I had to back him up to get more clearance.
The thumping grew louder now. It was as if that monster was just beyond the end of the street. " We need to go now!" Crucist yelled out. With that, we started moving top. Kheez made the first move, while Night Cat and me helped keep the monsters behind him. Crucist placed his binoculars eye-level, trying to get a glimpse of what lied directly behind the fog just ahead of him. What he saw, awestruck him motionless.
" Crucist!" I called for him. I was already pouring my bullets in front of him, and my gun's Ammo Warning light illuminated. Night Cat and Kheez ran ahead to provide us cover, and their barrels were pointed at the stream of monsters from up top.
" Crucist! Come on, man! Lets go already!" Crucist suddenly regained consciousness and turned to face the rest of us. His feet began to work their way over to us, and when I was looking his direction, I saw what got Crucist petrified for a moment there. It was large, at least the height of a 3 storey building. It was..... I had no idea what words to put there, and thinking was not the thing I could afford at that time, so I turned and tailed Crucist toward Night Cat and Kheez.
" Its no use! We can't open a way from up here!" Night Cat said while he had his eye kept in scope. I looked for an alternative way to escape, but the crowd was already drawing in from all sides. At the bends of each junction, we couldn't even see the tarmac below the pursuiters. They were so cramped up it was simply impossible to have a path created without anything less than 10 minutes!
They were drawing near, and my gun clicked empty of ammunition. Shit! It'll take me at least 15 seconds to reload this gun, and we don't have that luxury. I pulled out my handgun and fired away, as I lowered myself and the gun to the ground to reload it with the other hand. It was as if we were already crippled.
As I was half way through my reloading, another gun clicked empty.
" Fuck!" I heard Crucist over the radio. This was it. 1 suppress-fire gun down was bad. Another Machine gun down, spelled death to us all. Inevitable death.
They clambered pass the curbs of the garden, and were already hot on our tails. We couldn't run any further up, as the crowd above were already unbreakable. We were already taking aim at animal type monsters jumping in at us, and Crucist was still reloading his gun.
From our completely broken spirit knowing for sure we'd die here, a loud explosion was heard all of a sudden. We all turned toward the sound and found it coming from the north street.
" What more do you have to show before you kill us?!" Kheez screamed out loud with his teeth firmly clenched, while trying to afford a few more kills....
Monday, February 13, 2006
Night of The Dead- Chapter 7: Terra Firma?
2nd Lieutenant Khezz sat there alone on one side of the long table, and the facing side sat four men, all looking at least 50 years old. The room was rather dim, save the green and blue lights emanating from the surface of the tabletop screen. The chair Kheez was on, was cold and metallic.
"2nd Lieutenant Kheez," one of them spoke, having his eyes locked onto a clipboard in his hand.
" Sir." Kheez lifted his stooped head to face the second man from the left of him. He had a worn out look, clearly from years of warfare. The flickering light could only cast momentary visibility onto their faces, shadowed their eyes from Kheez. The Exit sign from way behind him could not even shed the slightest illumination there.
" Your drop point was supposed to be the West point of Boston City, by the city stadium. Could you explain to us why you did not make the drop point?" The man moved the white arrowed cursor in the tabletop screen using a ball-like mouse, scrolling over to the designated drop point in the projected map of Boston City.
Kheez could already hear the commotion that night in the helicopter. it came so suddenly, the problem.
" The pilot was already signaling a Terra Firma in T minus 7 minutes. It was dark and it was raining that night. The fog did not help our flying that well. The co-pilot suddenly yelled that something large was coming our way."
" Something large? Could you detail this lare thing better?" The man on the extreme left asked. His voice hollow, almost chilling. He sounded a whisper, but the clarity broke through the room like a sharp knife. His face concurred to many years of military exposure.
" A bat. A very huge bat. We concluded that they were clearly going for our helicopter with hostility," Kheez explained.
" Your team abandoned the Gazelle after that?" he spoke again, the man on the extreme left of Kheez. Kheez nodded.
It was still crystal clear in Kheez's head. Ixate had called for the jump. The weather was too aggressive for all of them to jump together, so each of them took a 30 second jump gap time. They were to meet up in the middle of Boston City, in the diamond-shaped garden, as commanded by Crucist. As a result of this, they were scattered all over Boston City, in which a considerably long time was gone to waste.
" Communication was distorted from time to time. It took a little longer than expected, but we managed to regroup at the designated position."
" What happened to the two pilots?" The man second from left asked. All eyes were fixed on Kheez, he thought. He couldn't see them, but he didn't need to see any of them. He could guarantee it.
" Where're the pilots?" Crucist yelled as soon as he caught vision of me. I lifted both my shoulders, and we turned to yet another appearing figure. Kheez radioed over a negative answer as well. I turned to look around the buildings surrounding the diamond-shaped garden. Nothing Above ten story's, I thought. Then my eyes crossed Night Cat's barrel. He was already scanning the two pilots and possible hostilities from one of the buildings.
" Night Cat. Beware of your six. You're unguarded," I urged.
" I know what I'm doing," he replied, and static ended that conversation.
I turned to Kheez and Crucist now.
" Crucist and Kheez, you guys focus on the eastern and southern junctions from the garden. Me and Night Cat will take the other ones. The only way for us to rendevouz with the pilots is for us to wait here."
Three simultaneous replies of affirmation echoed in my ears, and we all immediately took our positions.
The night was dark and stormy. Fog was billowing across all parts of the city, limiting our visions by drastic proportions. 10 minutes had already passed. Crucist had already shot up 3 rescue flares in hope that the pilots would follow them to us. I rested my gun over my shoulder, and the other hand ran across my face, clearing rain water and sweat. The place was silent. Almost too silent. All ringing in our ears were constant taps of raindrop crashing onto the asphalt. The street lights were bright yellow. I could see every single droplet of rain streaming down. This is not working out, I thought. We cannot simply abandon our mission and wait here for two pilots we were unsure survived the landing.
" Guys.." I broke the silence that hung for almost 15 minutes now.
" Can we wait for a little while more? Say 5 more minutes? That'll round our time up to 20 minutes." Kheez turned to face Night Cat from a distance, and from his scope lens he could clearly see Kheez's middle finger.
" Ok. But we should already be getting into our mission soon. I don't want to lose more casualties while we're waiting here," I finalized.
The muting silence around was once again broken, a little before we were about to move out.
"2nd Lieutenant Kheez," one of them spoke, having his eyes locked onto a clipboard in his hand.
" Sir." Kheez lifted his stooped head to face the second man from the left of him. He had a worn out look, clearly from years of warfare. The flickering light could only cast momentary visibility onto their faces, shadowed their eyes from Kheez. The Exit sign from way behind him could not even shed the slightest illumination there.
" Your drop point was supposed to be the West point of Boston City, by the city stadium. Could you explain to us why you did not make the drop point?" The man moved the white arrowed cursor in the tabletop screen using a ball-like mouse, scrolling over to the designated drop point in the projected map of Boston City.
Kheez could already hear the commotion that night in the helicopter. it came so suddenly, the problem.
" The pilot was already signaling a Terra Firma in T minus 7 minutes. It was dark and it was raining that night. The fog did not help our flying that well. The co-pilot suddenly yelled that something large was coming our way."
" Something large? Could you detail this lare thing better?" The man on the extreme left asked. His voice hollow, almost chilling. He sounded a whisper, but the clarity broke through the room like a sharp knife. His face concurred to many years of military exposure.
" A bat. A very huge bat. We concluded that they were clearly going for our helicopter with hostility," Kheez explained.
" Your team abandoned the Gazelle after that?" he spoke again, the man on the extreme left of Kheez. Kheez nodded.
It was still crystal clear in Kheez's head. Ixate had called for the jump. The weather was too aggressive for all of them to jump together, so each of them took a 30 second jump gap time. They were to meet up in the middle of Boston City, in the diamond-shaped garden, as commanded by Crucist. As a result of this, they were scattered all over Boston City, in which a considerably long time was gone to waste.
" Communication was distorted from time to time. It took a little longer than expected, but we managed to regroup at the designated position."
" What happened to the two pilots?" The man second from left asked. All eyes were fixed on Kheez, he thought. He couldn't see them, but he didn't need to see any of them. He could guarantee it.
" Where're the pilots?" Crucist yelled as soon as he caught vision of me. I lifted both my shoulders, and we turned to yet another appearing figure. Kheez radioed over a negative answer as well. I turned to look around the buildings surrounding the diamond-shaped garden. Nothing Above ten story's, I thought. Then my eyes crossed Night Cat's barrel. He was already scanning the two pilots and possible hostilities from one of the buildings.
" Night Cat. Beware of your six. You're unguarded," I urged.
" I know what I'm doing," he replied, and static ended that conversation.
I turned to Kheez and Crucist now.
" Crucist and Kheez, you guys focus on the eastern and southern junctions from the garden. Me and Night Cat will take the other ones. The only way for us to rendevouz with the pilots is for us to wait here."
Three simultaneous replies of affirmation echoed in my ears, and we all immediately took our positions.
The night was dark and stormy. Fog was billowing across all parts of the city, limiting our visions by drastic proportions. 10 minutes had already passed. Crucist had already shot up 3 rescue flares in hope that the pilots would follow them to us. I rested my gun over my shoulder, and the other hand ran across my face, clearing rain water and sweat. The place was silent. Almost too silent. All ringing in our ears were constant taps of raindrop crashing onto the asphalt. The street lights were bright yellow. I could see every single droplet of rain streaming down. This is not working out, I thought. We cannot simply abandon our mission and wait here for two pilots we were unsure survived the landing.
" Guys.." I broke the silence that hung for almost 15 minutes now.
" Can we wait for a little while more? Say 5 more minutes? That'll round our time up to 20 minutes." Kheez turned to face Night Cat from a distance, and from his scope lens he could clearly see Kheez's middle finger.
" Ok. But we should already be getting into our mission soon. I don't want to lose more casualties while we're waiting here," I finalized.
The muting silence around was once again broken, a little before we were about to move out.
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