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[NiGHTMARE-Z]

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Thanks for reading everybody! I'll be around...








Hello everybody. I just completed a Zombie Novel called NiGHTMARE-Z. Now I am no professional author, however, I do have some experience in the world and incorporate this in my novel.

It is approximately 109,000 words and 473 pages. I will be posting parts of my book on this forum throughout the coming months for everybody's enjoyment. Feedback and criticism is appreciated. Like I said, it is very long and time consuming so I will have to post bits and pieces.

I only written seven chapters, however, these chapters are very long. Reason being, I intended on this structure because it was the best way I could break up each character's unique story. Now, a little background history on myself.

-Active Duty Army Sniper based out of Fort Hood Texas
-Three tours to Iraq
-One to Korea

The context in which I portray these characters are based off first hand accounts of many soldiers I came across during my time of service. I spent countless days and nights attempting to depict the true demeanor and every day life and personalities of active duty soldiers on the front lines and incorporated this within my novel.

In addition, I added the Zombie genre. Which doesn't get enough credit as it most rightfully deserves.

Now, for a hasty description of my novel so you, the reader, doesn't waste his/her time reading something you may not be interested in(I strive for the reader's interest and satisfaction in a story as I demand it as well).

This novel first starts off in Iraq during the last months of the war in late 2011. Two brothers whom are deployed together within the same battalion run last patrols and missions out of the country as Operation New Dawn comes to a conclusion. During this time, they notice strange things articulating around them and a rash of sickness swelling their ranks. One of the brothers goes on R&R back to Fort Hood Texas to spend time with his older brother's family.

That is when Z day is portrayed to the characters of the book with all of it's fury. In a nutshell, the younger brother attempts to race across the southern US to protect his brother's family while his older brother, abandoned in Iraq with his six man squad, make a desperate attempt to escape and make it back to his family once re-animation becomes common occurance. Both brothers are unaware of each other's fates.

I will write two more novels based off this universe in the future as I intend to make it a trilogy. The story is obviously too long to write in just one book. Oh, almost forgot one more thing. I will not post the prologue for it is only a long history of the Iraq War presenting causality figures, major operations and time lines. I put this in there because I wanted to set the mood for readers who are unaware of the facts and toll the Iraq war took on many people alike.

Well, enough said! Hope all of you enjoy the read!

CHAPTER 1
Something Strange

"Damn boy there must be something in the air I tell you what," jokingly states Trevor as he smokes a cigerette with his brother Andrew above a hesco barrier overwatching the night skyline of Basrah City, Iraq.

"You've got a group of some three hundred odd yahoos standing in a formation together with a constant indirect fire threat while listening to a bunch of officers preach to them about picking up trash and maintaining excellence," adds Trevor.

Andrew shakes his head in agreement.

"Lots of purple hearts and awesome stories when we get back," Andrew responds.

Both brothers are now chuckling together as they inhale their stale Miami cigerettes.

"All of this, is finally coming to an end my friend," says Trevor.

Trevor continues, "Then soon i'll be back with Joanne and the girls."

"Trev, are you forgetting someone?" asks Andrew.

"Come on Andy, you know that little hell raiser is always here with me. Far as I am concerned, we never parted ways. Me and him just hang out now on a different plain of existence. He needs protein anyway, something to toughen him up. Seperation does that to a boy," replies Trevor.

"Yeah Trev, it definately toughened us up, didn't it?" asks Andrew with an apparent sadness in his eyes.

"Now now, with what happened to mom and dad all those years ago was nobody's fault. Definately not yours. Sometimes, I think, god has a way of playing cruel jokes on us. You know what you got to do in return boy? Laugh," preaches Trevor to his brother Andrew as he places his arm over his brother in order to comfort him.

Trevor goes on to adds. "When you leave out of here for R&R in the next few days, I want you to pay a visit to your nieces and nephew in Killeen. They miss you very much and constantly ask about you."

Now suddenly acting like himself again, Andrew raises his head up.

"Yeah Trev, I got that. You know I just don't want to interfere with your business. I kind of want to keep my distance you know?" explains Andrew.

Now appearing irritated, Trevor snaps back.

"You never interfered with me or my family's business. You are our business and vice versa. If we don't have eachother, then what do we have?"

Trevor now staring at his brother in the eye, like he always does before he is about to tell you the way it is, continues his rant.

"We are all a family and nothing will ever come between us. What you and her sister had so many years ago was a mistake. Myself and Joanne get that. Put it in the past and sit your little behind down at the dinner table when Joanne makes us our first meal. She isn't mad at you and neither am I."

Andrew nods his head in agreement while remaining silent so Trevor can finish his peace.

At this point, Trevor goes on to explain, "You know all those years ago back when you, mom and dad were together and I was in Baqouba, I didn't call because I did not want to think about y'all. It wasn't because I didn't care, I just needed that space because of what was going on. Arrowhead Ripper was no joke. I created that space to protect all of you in case something happened to me."

"Mom and dad was pretty upset and worried. So was I. They heard about what your unit was going through on the news, back when it was really bad. When I told them I wanted to join, mom smacked me across the face and dad yelled at me. I told them I was going to do what I wanted to do and that it didn't matter what they said," explains Andrew.

Now a slight grin appears on Trevor's face as the two brothers fall silent in conversation for a few seconds.

"You definately were a little soldier. You wanted to do all that junk since you were a kid. I don't blame you for doing what you did boy. The path we choose is who we are. We were meant to do this garbage and i'm sure if they were still alive right now they would be proud of us. I'm glad I got you here on this tour," explains Trevor.

He pauses for a moment as his grin now begins to fade.

"Look bro, you have to promise me something. Whatever happens to me, not saying it will now, so don't get your panties all caught up in a bunch, but if something is ever to happen to me whether it's here, back home or I act a fool some how and get my own damn self hurt, I want you to promise me that you will always be there for Joanne and the kids," Trevor asks with a sense of importance.

Andrew begins to chuckle the moment his brother ended the speech. He now feels that his brother is becoming too overbearing at this point as Andrew now yearns to change the topic.

"Yeah, I know what you are thinking. It's not that. I've been feeling uneasy lately. You know, dreams. If you even want to call them that," Trevor adds.

"What do you mean?" Andrew curiously asks.

"Look, it means nothing, but I guess that I'll tell you anyway. The past few days now, I have had these vivid dreams of myself as an old man sitting on the porch watching my grandchildren play. You were there as well, but the only thing that didn't sit right with me, was the fact that you weren't. It was in a place that I have never been before and in a house I never could of owned. Makes no damn sense little brother. It worries the hell out of me," Trevor answers.

"Dreams are like rectums, Trev. Everyone has one," Andrew jokingly counters.

"The damn point remains. Are you listening to me? Might have to rough you up," Trevor warns with mischief in his voice.

"Come on man, why you got to put me on the spot like that? You damn sure well know i'll be there for them and you, whenever y'all need it. Let's change this subject. We are starting to act like a couple of fat chicks watching Dr. Phil," Andrew concedes as he begins to laugh at the end of the sentence. Trevor follows suite.

"So how much drinking are you going to get in when you land boy? Better drink enough for me and you both. Remember, start with the numerals and work your way all the way down to the end of the alphabet. Thats how I started on R&R during my first tour," boasts Trevor as he nudges him with his elbow.

He then goes on to add, "Oh and remember, wrap it before you tap it. Don't want you coming back and giving a land navigation class to your soldiers off your genitalia now."

The two brothers laugh it up for a short period of time until Andrew informs his brother about his new team leader position that he had earned only just a few days ago. Once he informs his brother of the good news, Andrew begins describing the soldiers he has appointed under him.

"Wow, guys coming in the Army now a days don't seem to know jack about infantry stuff anymore. Sometimes I feel like we're a dying breed, Andy. You know back in the day when you were in high school, guys like me, smart mouthing and such, got put into place real quick. My NCO's(non commissioned officer or Sergeant) made my life a living hell. Can't say I blame them for it, but heck, these new guys think they are entitled something. Only thing they are entitled to is training and a leader. Looks like you got them covered boy," exclaims Trevor as he lights up another Miami cigerette.

Trevor was always hard on his little brother, especially growing up. He never complimented him on anything. He also used to threaten him quite often about losing fights.

"Start a fight and lose, you won't want to come home because you'll get beat down twice," Trevor always used to tell Andrew. Those words always stuck to Andrew like paper to glue. Trevor always wanted his little brother to be tough. Their father was the same way, only he went about it in a fairly different way. Whenever both Trevor and Andrew got poor grades or smarted off to their mother, they would receive what their father would call an 'ass wooping'. Which would usually consist of punches to the face, getting kicked by their father while on the ground and thrown into multiple walls.

Sometimes looking back on this, as bad as it was, the brothers are grateful for their up-bringing. A man is molded as a child. If he is lied to, sheltered and treated like a king, he will get a rude awakening when he is grown up and realizes there are no jesters to entertain him and servants to do his bidden. The world is about grit, sweat, blood and tears. Their father wanted them tough as nails and thats what he got as a result.

He served in the Gulf War as a Scout. However, his career was short lived due to an injury which granted him a medical discharge. He tought his boys how to shoot at an early age, however, never intended for them to follow in his footsteps. He actually discouraged it. When he learned that his oldest son would be deploying to Iraq in 2004 and then participating in the Battle for Fallujah, he stayed up for nights on end worrying. As a result he developed a drinking problem. Once his oldest son came back the first time unscathed, the drinking stopped. It didn't only pick up again until Trevor deployed a second time to Baqouba and participated in Operation Arrowhead Ripper in order to kick out AQI(Al Qaeda in Iraq) from their self proclaimed Islamic capital.

Only difference between the first and second time, however, led to an even more destructive life style. Drinking throughout the day and throughout the night. Drinking as soon as he woke up in the morning before work. Even drinking before picking his wife up from her job, which led to a fatal accident which still haunts the brothers today. They seldom do speak of it. It's a time they want to put behind them and never think about again. Trevor blames himself for what happen. He figured if he just did not join the service, his father wouldn't have worried so much and put himself and his mother in that situation.

Andrew, however, delt the brunt of the burden. He was hanging out with his girlfriend on the night it happened and wasn't there to stop his father from getting behind the wheel to drive. Hours prior before they crashed, his father tried to convince him to stay home with him while his mother was at work. His father encouraged Andrew to stay home with him that night and eat dinner with him over a boxing match on TV. Andrew however, declined as he reminded his father of his prior engagment with another girl and decided to spend that time with her instead.

"Yeah Trev, i'm still trying to get this whole team leader thing down. It's weird having a say so in what goes on and what your guys do. It almost feels like I have children of my own. Were you nervous the first time you led men into combat?" Andrew eagerily asks his brother.

Trevor now with a serious look on his face, explains with conviction, "Just remember these few rules. Never tell them to do something you wouldn't do. Everything you do, is for them. Check them, mentor them, help them and reward them. If the circumstances permit, correct them and punish them. Leadership is built on trust, time as well as trial and error. Most of all, care about your freaking guys. I see all too much we got people in charge who don't give a damn. As far as the rest goes, it's on you. I won't get into any further details about this crap. You got to figure it out on your own man."

"Yeah I got you bro," replies Andrew. He also goes on to add, "Well I think I can manage that part. Although, I can't go any further than nature."

With a confusing look on his face, Trevor asks what he meant. Andrew lets him know the first week he becomes a team leader all of his guys get sick with the flu and get held up on quarters. He can't even take them out on any missions at this point because they are bed ridden.

Trevor laughs and calls it a testament to his future leadership. Andrew shoots back and says he learned from the best. After a few cigerettes later, something dongs on Trevor. Multiple guys in his company also came down with flu like symptoms.

"Damn baby brother, looks like we're going to have to be walking around in MOPP 4(Full chemical protective suit. Mask and all) soon. Must be a nasty bug floating around. I want it and I don't. Well, more like I want the quarters so I can get in some porn and movie time. All work, no play makes the Wilcotts dull boys," he jokes while standing up from his makeshift seat above the hesco barrier in preperation to hop down and walk back to his tent.

"You leaving so soon Trev?" Andrew asks as he follows his brother down the barrier which is only about twelve feet high.

"Yeah man, I got a counter IDF(indirect fire) patrol tomorrow early in the morning. Got to wake up at the butt crack of dawn and drive around in circles to counter them rocket boys," Trevor replies.

Trevor tells his brother that he will catch him tomorrow so they can eat dinner together.

"Catch you at chow tomorrow!" Trevor hollers as he walks off into the dark.

Andrew waves back.

.........................

The alarm clock goes off with it's annoying loud ringing sound. Bright numeric numbers read 4:00 AM. Andrew rises from his bunk. Still dreary and half awake, he steps out of bed to hit the switch in order to end the annoying sound of the alarm. He reaches for his personal hygiene kit and proceeds across the hallway tent to the prison style latrine that is provided for him. There, shoulder to shoulder with other members of his platoon in front of a sink and tiny mirror, he begins applying shaving creme to his face as he begins slicing away.

At this point, he pretty much lost count of how many times he shaved this early in the morning before PT(physical training). It comes natural to him, just like going to the bathroom. Over time, his face adapts to the constant motion of the blade applied to his once tender facial cheeks. They no longer bleed.

Once he gets changed into his PT shirt and shorts, Andrew applies his clear lense eye protection and road guard belt which wraps around his waistline. Standard procedure for a deployed soldier in a supposed war zone. Upon opening the front door of his tent around 4:30 AM he notices it is still dark outside which is quite common to be awake in during his Army years. As he stumbles towards morning PT formation, he hopes to wake up a little bit before he starts the morning run with the rest of his squad.

"Hurry up! Get in formation," orders one of the senior Staff Sergeant squad leaders of his platoon as half sleeping soldiers shuffle up to form up in their respective squads in order of position.

For such an early time in the morning, the weather still remains slightly warm and mildly humid. Andrew and the soldiers begin stretching out their legs and warming up for their five mile perimeter run around FOB Basrah(Forward Operating Base).

Prior to being called to the position of attention, Andrew notices new members of his unit coming down with the flu. Slight coughs here and there and apparent congestion of the nostrils and throat. As a result, he ignores it and tries to focus his mind on the upcoming run ahead.

Andrew's Infantry Platoon runs various daily missions throughout the Basrah province and is also still required to conduct Physical Training upon waking up in the morning. It is a measure implemented by his chain of command to ensure zero percent PT test failures in the upcoming month upon return to garrison at Fort Hood Texas.

Specialist Andrew Wilcott's platoon scope of missions are comprised of counter indirect fire patrols, QRF(quick reaction force for FOB Basrah. Meaning twenty four hour alert status. If any units out on patrol come under fire and need help or need additional assets, QRF responds to their location within thirty minutes depending how far away they are), PSD(personal security detail) for the Battalion Commander and STT escort operations(Small Transitional Teams. STT's are comprised of various high ranking officers who interact with the Iraqi Army and police. They meet with their commanders and figure out logistical needs as well as projects to improve their security and training. Another way to put it, they serve as advisors during this transitional time).

Lately, the work overload has been breaking the unit's back. It seems to Andrew that only a handful of people are carrying the weight of this deployment while the majority sit back, take their government provided vehicles to chow three times a day and get good sleep everynight while still some how managing to slow down the rest of the base's internet connections after Andrew and his men get back from a mission through massive needless downloads of music, porn and movies.

However, that is only the beginning of it. Another thing which bothers Andrew the most is the unit's ability to always schedule their patrols for Breakfest, Lunch and Dinner chow. Majority of the time, they go without eating. The remaining soldiers who work with Headquarters, usually fail to provide their comrades plates of food upon return from their missions. An issue which caused a fine line to be drawn within the company.

Everyday, Andrew grows more and more irate towards the inability of his unit to care about him and his colleagues. To add to the disgust, Andrew Company First Sergeant secured a government purchased Ford F-150 for himself and drives it around everywhere at his own personal discretion.

Even from his CHU(containerized housing unit) to the CP(Command Post) where his office resides. Might he add, the distance is only less than three hundred meters away. No one is even allowed to use the First Sergeant's truck.

One night, during the middle of the tour, Andrew and a few buddies of his aquired a full sized potato on their way back from the DFAC(dining facility) which they found residing in a dumpster within the perimeter. On their way back in through the gate en route to their tent, they had to pass their First Sergeant's row of CHU's where his living quarters resides. Andrew's First Sergeant always liked to park his government owned vehicle on the backside of his CHU so he does not have to walk far. Upon approaching the vehicle and after much resentment built up against his senior leadership, him and his buddies stealthily shoved that potato up the First Sergeant's muffler while others pulled watch.

"Sticking it to the man," Andrew would always say.

Another time, he snuck up behind the senior leadership's row of containerized housing units one night and cut the power cable to their internet box which housed all the land line internet connections. Seeing them in despair always cheered him up. His way of making things even in an uneven world.

Andrew's squad now begins walking in a file off to the front gate of their unit's compound within the base. Upon pushing through the breach, Andrew can feel the warm wind pick up againt his tired face.

Moments later, the squad leader gives his men the order of double time(run). For the first few minutes, like always, a decent pace was set as Andrew's body began to adapt to the strenous activity. Some of the sicker soldiers, however, began falling out of the formation within minutes of taking off from the start point.

Then, like always, the yelling starts from the NCO's(Non-Commisioned Officers or Sergeants). Also, the pace picks up to where Andrew is struggling to maintain his breatheing. This did not help to accomadate the soldiers whom were already left far behind.. They just continued to fall back even further.

"Let them be. If your vagina hurts, go ahead and fall out now or go to sick call so they can give you your vagisal," sarcastically states the leader of the formation as he continues to pick up the pace even faster after answering one of his soldier's questions in regard to the fall outs.

Andrew continues to keep up without faltering. Darkness still lingers as they continue on their run. Usually the sun doesn't come up until six or six-thirty AM.

The road they continue to run down skirts the perimeter of the FOB in a 360 degree fashion. It also parallels the fenceline, which is backed by C-wire and tank traps. Running on this road, you can clearly look out into sector and actually make out some of the neighboring villages of Iraq. Not the safest place to run all by yourself.

A few miles go by and the pace now begins to slow down a bit. Reason being, the leader of the formation notices something odd off into the distance.

"Hey guys look off to your left. Whatever that guy is on, I want a hit," jokingly states the squad leader while expecting a laugh in return from his subordinates. They oblige.

Andrew looks off and sees a shadowy figure of a man. A human outline stumbling towards the fence line they are on in the darkness. It is not clear how much of the man he can make out, however, it is a man nontheless as he appears to be drunk judging by the way he is walking. Last time he saw something like this on perimeter road was a few days ago with his brother, Trevor. They assumed that the previous man they saw was drunk as well.

Now bored, the squad leader decides to turn it around and head back so he can finish up the run in time for breakfest. Upon passing up his squad members which he left all by their lonesome, he orders them to turn around and fall back in to the formation. They follow suite.

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

"Stalker 5 redcon 1," Trevor reports over the radio as he continues plotting a navigational route on his blue force tracker inside the TC(truck commander) side of his MRAP(Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle.

"Stalker 6 redcon 1(Ready Condition 1 or meaning ready to go)," the platoon leader reports.

"Stalker 3 redcon 1," the third truck reports.

"Stalker 5 this is Stalker 9, take us out of here, over," the platoon sergeant calls from the last truck which carries the platoon combat medic.

Trevor proceeds through ECP(entry control point) Ritz and heads down the long straight away road passing Basrah International Airport to ECP Alpha which is controlled by the Iraqi Army. It is comprised of a series of serpentines, gates and manned checkpoints.

As Trevor's convey passes the airport, they notice a C-130 aircraft taking off. Back a few months ago, American forces would link-up with their Iraqi counterparts and conduct joint patrols. Normally, no American forces were allowed to roll outside the wire unilaterally unless it was a QRF mission or cleared by the Battalion TOC(Tactical Operations Center). However, these last few weeks of patrols are the exception. Trevor rolls through ECP Alpha leading out the convey of four MRAP vehicles to their respective sector.

"Alright Price, pick up your scan. I'll take near road you take far road. Remember, when I say bridge, you get down. When I say clear you get back up in the turret," Trevor reminds his gunner as they push through the clover-leaf like intersection and descend upon an off ramp leading onto a stretch of highway as passing cars race past the front of the convey.

Price covers the oncoming traffic with his M240 Bravo machine gun(7.62x51mm) as Trevor's lead truck merges onto the freeway steering clear of oncoming vehicles moving at a high rate of speed.

Trevor now addresses his driver.

"Hey Hunter, brother man, slow it down a bit until Stalker 9 calls and says that he has hit the hard ball," Trevor reminds again.

"Roger Staff Sergeant," Hunter jokingly responds.

Now smiling at his driver, Trevor goes on to address his driver, "That is Mr. Staff Sergeant Wilcott to you my main man. I love your work ethic, always going that extra distance to drain my hose. I tell you what boys, in the words of our fearless Battalion Commander, I remind you all, once again, there is definately without a doubt excellence in this formation," Everyone on the headset inside the truck begins to burst out laughing.

Trevor's convey now continues to head east at a high rate of speed towards the edge of the city of Basrah. Upon crossing their first bridge, not too far down the road, Trevor's gunner, Price, makes a startling discovery.

"Hey Sergeant check it out to the 2 o clock. Theres a body on the side of the road. Looks like he's been eaten," Price exclaims in a shocking tone of voice. This was his first time seeing a corpse.

"Looks like a pack of wolves got him. Better call this up," Trevor responds.

Once Trevor reports it over the net(radio), his platoon sergeant calls back and tells him to get in a herring bone formation(staggered vehicles on opposite sides of the road in relation to eachother) and take a short halt. Trevor follows suite.

"All Stalker elements this is Stalker 6, stay mounted. I am dismounting at this time with the interpretor to check the body out," the platoon leader orders.

All of the truck commanders acknowledge. After a few minutes pass by, the platoon sergeant decides to contact the CP and inform them of what they just encountered.

"What did it look like?" asks one of the dismounts in the back of Trevor's truck.

"Looked dead to us, Gilroy," Hunter snapped back with an attitude.

Then went on to add, "How about you just sit your little ass back there and look pretty. You talk too much," Hunter aggressively stated. Gilroy stays silent.

"He looks like he's been dead for awhile. He was definately rotting away. I could see his flesh falling off and such. I am pretty sure there was maggots on him. Also, you could tell he was bloated. However, just barely because there are chunks missing from his torso," Price described in order to answer Gilroy's previous question.

Hunter remains silent.

"Well whatever happened to him boys, glad it ain't us. I don't think it's a good idea walking up to that poor bastard. Too much carcaus open for an IED or EFP(Improvised Explosive Device and Explosive Formed Projectile). PL(platoon leader) shouldn't be walking over there like that. Especially seeing as how he is right between these two IA(Iraqi Army) checkpoints which are only around five hundred meters apart. I don't like it," Trevor caustiously explained.

The four soldiers in the back agree with him.

"I wonder if he's still warm," jokes one of the dismounts.

"Have a little bit of respect for the dead, Reagal. That's not funny," explains Sergeant Christopher Muniz as he sits in the back across from Reagal.

"Roger sergeant", responds Reagal.

"Stupid ass always joking at the wrong times. Need to focus on the task at hand. How would you feel if someone you cared about was out there laying on the pavement with a cracked dome piece?" angrily asks Christopher.

Sergeant Christopher Muniz been in the Army for awhile. He had deployed just as much as his squad leader, Trevor has. He is also a seasoned veteran of the Troop surge into Baghdad and fought to liberate Al Doura during the height of the insurgency in 2007. As much death as this man has seen, it would be impossible for one not to learn to respect it. He sees in these new private's eyes a lack of respect or acknowledgment of the grim reality of it. This angers him.

"I just don't see why the hell you would dismount to check out a corpse the IA left alone for what appears to be weeks. Doesn't make a lick of sense. We should just pull up to the next Iraqi checkpoint and tell the terp to fetch their own branches," Trevor interrupts apparently still allowing the PL's actions to bother him. Weighing the good and the bad in his mind for what his leader is doing right now. Trevor normally is very critical of what gets done around here. He always says theres a right way to do something and the stupid way.

A few minutes have gone by and there are no current sitreps(situation reports) over the radio from their platoon leader. Trevor decides to light up a Miami cigerette from his truck commander seat. As a result, Hunter, proceeds to give him 'the' look. Trevor reaches back into one of his utility pouches attached to his vest and hands him one.

Few minutes goes by. Price notices from the gunner's hatch a few armed Iraqi Army humvees hop the median in front of them and proceeds counter flow of traffic towards their position. Trevor informs his platoon leader on the ground about the approaching soldiers. As a result, their platoon leader acknowledges the transmission.

"Looks like they are chatting it up sergeant," describes Price to Trevor as the Iraqi soldiers talk to the platoon leader and his interpretor.

"It doesn't look good. The IA keep shaking their head and pointing the PL off the other way with their hands. I don't think they want us to do anything. It looks like they just want us to go," explains Price.

"Yeah that sounds about right Price. Need to get the hell up out of here. We can't bring the dead back to life," Trevor responds as he puts his cigerette butt out on the vehicle floor.

The platoon leader decides to walk off with his element and load back up on their truck.

"Stalker 9, this is Stalker 6, hey these IA guys can't give me a solid answer. They just told us not to even come near the corpse and to leave immediately. They said that they are taking care of it. Hit up Hellraiser Main(the CP) and inform them. We are charlie mike(continue mission)," the platoon leader transmit over the net with apparent confusion in his voice.

The platoon sergeant acknowledges the platoon leader's transmission and sends the sitrep to higher via radio.

Trevor tells his driver to take off and continue pushing to the sector they intend to patrol for the next three hours.

A few uneventful hours pass by while patrolling their sector for the day. Winding dirt roads which leads to Iraqi villages, back tracking roads which leads back to the main road they came in on and a few tiny bridges they had to cross. Another usual day, Trevor thinks to himself as he lights up yet another Miami cigerette.

However, a few hours later in the patrol, his platoon sergeant reminds the convey over the net of something strange. Something they have never seen before.

All the villages that they have passed, are now abandoned. Not a sign of life. Not even cattle or random packs of dogs you will occasionally see on patrols in Iraq. Everyone in the convey formed an eerie feeling once their platoon sergeant called it out. Seems like the rest of them did not pay any attention to it. Neither did Trevor or his gunner Price. All of the times that they have came into these areas before, these places were packed with life. Traffic jams, kids and adults were always out to stop and stare at the passing convey. Today however, nothing.

After circling around the neighboring villages for about an hour, the patrol comes to a halt in a field off the side of the road. All four trucks positioned themselves in a coil(360 degree security with all of the truck's backsides facing eachother) at the order of the platoon leader in order to sit and overwatch the target sector.

Another hour goes by. Then suddenly, a transmission over company net comes across.

"Stalker 6, this is Hellraiser main," the soldier on the other end transmits. The platoon leader answers.

"Roger. We have a scheduled flight within the next two hours for a CENTCOM General flying back to Kuwait. You are to stay in place and RTB(return to base) when Hellraiser 6(the company commander) gives you word," the soldier at headquarters informs.

The platoon leader acknowledges the guidance from headquarters.

Everyone on Trevor's truck yells out profanities and display their disgust as they throw their weapons down aggressively.

Some reach for their cigerettes while others begin packing a can of dip before popping one in into their jawline. Trevor lights another Miami.

"Yo Ringo, toss me up a water will ya?" Hunter asks as he reaches for a can of dip in his ACU(army combat uniform) pocket.

"Sure thing driver, just as long as you give me a pinch of that cope afterwards," Ringo jokingly asks with a sarcastic tone of voice.

Private Ringo is one of the dismounts in the back of the vehicle for Trevor's squad and is an M249 SAW(squad automatic weapon) gunner. He usually carries four two-hundred round drums on the front of his vest and a single one-hundred round drum attached to the gun.

Ringo is one of the soldiers who never complains about anything and is always very quiet. Usually when he says something, people listen. Trevor still believes to this day that Ringo has Yakuza connections, however, he can't seem to convince anybody. Ringo just gives a sharp grin everytime he hears about it. This stemmed in Trevor's mind from a drunk night back in Texas when the squad was drinking over Trevor's house. Ringo and Trevor had a heart to heart conversation over a bottle of Jack Daniels and a case of budweiser. Reagal and Price seemed to hit it off that night as well. A combination of smack talking and stupid jokes which annoyed most of the squad, entertained the two at the same time.

Price and Reagal just always seemed to be on the same wave length together and eventually turned into best friends.

Whether it was a night of drinking or barracks mischieve, one could always link both of the pair's involvment in it some how. Hunter just always seemed to be the loner type. The only type of conviction or meaning in Hunter's words always seemed to revolve around private Gilroy's stupidity or incompetance.

The two turned into worst enemies over a period of time. Hunter, would always get on to Gilroy about something he did wrong or should of done, then Gilroy would shoot back and try to defend himself or justify his actions. Christopher, their team leader, had to break up multiple fights between the two in the past. Both on duty and off duty.

Trevor always considers his team leader his right hand man. Which proves accurate for Sergeant Muniz's character. Christopher is a very competenant NCO as he genuily cares for his soldiers. Anything you tell this man to do he will get it done better than the results you expected it in. Over time, Trevor formed a personal relationship with Christopher and the pair became good friends. Prior to deployment, both of their families had a barbeque together and socialized for hours the night before they left for Iraq. Over the course of their deployment together it only brought the two that much closer to one another.

"Hey sergeant do you think we're going to miss chow?" asks Gilroy with a blank and lost facial expression.

"Quit your whining. We'll all eat when it comes time to eat. Focus on the goddamn task at hand. Why do I have to keep reminding you all of this," a now irate Christopher addresses.

"Whoah, hold up sergeant, I wasn't complaining any. You should know by now the bleeding vaginal section of the truck is where Gilroy sits," answers Reagal as he points towards Gilroy's face.

Gilroy, with a now embarassed and angry expression, puts his head down and emits curses under his breathe just enough where you can barely hear it on the headset.

"You got something to tell us retard?" asks Hunter from the driver's seat now looking back at him in disgust. Gilroy remains silent. The truck stays silent.

Yet another hour passes by.

Countless Miami cigerettes later, Trevor is only down to two left as he inspects his pack. That is when he notices multiple Iraqis stumbling across an open desert near the village he was overwatching in the backdrop. They seem to be walking in the direction of the platoon coil, however, it appears that they are very far away.

Trevor now has a confused look on his face.

"Damn boys," he tells his squad.

"Seems like everyone around here is getting alcohol except us. Look at those drunk bastards trying to navigate the sandbox. They look more lost than a stripper at a job convention," Trevor goes on to laugh.

Nobody really responds, except his gunner with a slight chuckle. Everyone else seems to be asleep. His driver wasn't paying any attention because he had his MRAP driver's side door open and was pre-occupied relieving himsef off the side of the vehicle with his belt undone.

Then suddenly, a beeping sound comes up on the net. The sound you hear just before a transmission is about to be sent out over the radio.

"Stalker 6 this is Hellraiser 6. RTB(return to base) at this time. I say again, RTB," the company commander orders over the net.

"Wake up boys. Time to go back and stuff our mugs with some hot chow," excitely proclaims Trevor.

The convey pulls out of the coil in the sand. Once all the vehicles are lined up on the road, they proceed to get into marching order as they head back to FOB Basrah.

[SteveD]

Good start,waiting for the next post

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

thanks man. here ya go........

Andrew yawns as he stands in line to have his platoon sergeant check his sensitive items(night vision device, weapon and assigned equipment) and tie downs on their weapons. The official name of this procedure is called 'Green Two'.

He still remains a little drowsy from the early morning run.

"Another apparent annoying green two," he tells himself as he walks up next in line and begins reading off his serial numbers to the man waiting with the master sheet of equipment.

As Andrew walks off back to his tent after reading off his serial numbers, he hears his squad leader call off something to him in the distance.

"Reminder, we have a Battalion formation tomorrow in the motorpool for end of tour awards at 1500. Don't forget," yells his squad leader.

Once Andrew is complete, he goes back to his tent area and scurries through some items he plans to stuff in his assault pack for the long flight to Kuwait, Germany, Atlanta and then ultimately, Texas.

Afterwards, he organizes his room then goes to find his brother for dinner chow. As he walks outside and starts walking through hesco barriers, tents and CHU's, he passes a few soldiers going about their business along the way. A few of them seem pale and sick like. He noticed two or three out of the eight he passed were coughing up something serious. He begins to realize that at this point more and more people are getting sick around him. Andrew is surprised that he doesn't even have a single symptom yet.

"Hey Trev, you here bro?" Andrew asks as he lifts up Trevor's hooch blanket covering his side of the tent in an aggresive demeanor.

Trevor is there seated in his blue air force 'aim high' logo chair with his headphones in watching the TV show Desperate House wives on his laptop.

"Trev man!" Andrew yells as he slaps his brother's shoulder.

Trevor is startled, then proceeds to pause his show and remove the headphones from his ears.

"These bitches are crazy man. Why can't I live on a block like that?" Trevor swears with curiousity as so many other members of the military decide to incorporate in their vocabulary.

Andrew noticed excitement in his brother's voice as he described the show. In effect, all Andrew could do was stand there in silence with a raised eye brow as Trevor rambled on about his show.

"Man are we going to chow or what? It's almost 1930, i'm starving bro. I have been waiting for you all day," Andrew explains as he tosses Trevor his clear lense eye protection and roadguard belt as Trevor throws his ACU top on for dinner.

On the way out of the tent, Trevor lights up another Miami behind Andrew's back as he begins walking. Andrew turns around, gives a face then decides to pull one out for himself.

"You know baby brother, if you ever married a girl like any of the ones on Desperate Housewives me and you may run into some problems on family outings," Trevor jokingly proclaims with a wide mischivious grin on his face.

"Yeah well if we were in the show Desperate Housewives I would expect my wife to do something like that to me with my brother. So in effect I would just have to return the favor to you," Andrew snaps back, frustrated with an empty belly and quickly smoking his cigerette.

The pair laughs. Once they are finished, they walk off through the gravel stained sand and across parked military vehicles up against the perimeter fenceline which secures their camp within the FOB. Upon arriving to the dining facility, they get their military identification cards cleared by one of the Triple Canopy Ugandan gate guards who guard the main entry control point. Once inside, they realize the lines are a mile long. As procedure goes, they file through like sheep to wash their hands in the communual sink only to file through another line to dry their hands off in a dyson airblade blower which is standard procedure for anyone who walks into the dining facility on FOB Basra.

After cleaning themselves, the brothers decide to wait in the hamburger line. They usually put up with the extra wait to receive a double cheeseburger which reminds them of when their mom and dad used to take them out when they were kids to a small town burger shack not too far from where they grew up. The burger joint was called Shakey's. Never would they ever taste another double cheeseburger like that again because they ran out of business not too long ago. The brother's parents were good friends with the owner and when his business went under he kind of slipped off the deep end. Nobody ever heard from him again after he had moved.

As the brothers wait and converse about how their day's went, they are startled by a sudden female's scream and a dining room chair smacking the tiled floor. The loud echo of it bounces around the building for everyone to hear. They quickly turn around to find out what the commotion is.

Seemingly, a soldier sitting down at the table eating his dinner just suddenly passed out and is now positioned face first into his plate lifelessly. Someone sitting next to him got spooked and ran off while dropping his chair on the way out. A number of soldiers rushed to the lifeless soldier's aid to lift him up and check for a pulse while others kept asking him if he was okay. No response.

"What the fu....," Trevor shockingly exclaims, but suddenly cut off when the soldier they were just looking at falls to the ground and begins going through convulsions. Appearing to be a violent seizure, his arms and legs push back and forth every which way on the floor striking various soldiers around him who were trying to help him.

One of the NCO's at the scene notice the afflicted soldier trying to swallow his tounge during the seizure. He attempts to place his two fingers in the victim's mouth to prevent him from choking. Another minute of struggle ensues while some yell for a medic and others sprint for their vehicles parked out front to pull around so they can rush him to the TMC(troop medical clinic) on base.

Once the troops come back with their vehicle parked out front they yell for the soldiers and NCO to load up the victim on the back. Right before they go to pick him up however, the soldier's seizure stops as the victim now appears to be dead.

One of the NCO's who tried to prevent him from choking with his two fingers, pulls his hand out of the soldier's mouth only to realize he is now bleeding. During the seizure the victim's teeth clamped down into the individual's fingers who was trying to help him. Everyone just now stood around the dead soldier in silence for a few seconds while one of the medics who was eating checks his pulse. He's still alive, I think. Just passed out he says. The group then decides to pick him up and take him back to the truck outside along with the other soldier who has just been bitten.

"What the hell just happened little man," a now worried Trevor asks his brother as everyone in the dining facility stares on upright in their seats.

"I don't know Trev," a pre-occupied Andrew answers as he stares on in disbelief.

Trevor then suddenly decides to push forward to the front of the line after it cleared out from the incident while Andrew follows.

"That must be the third weirdest thing i've seen all day baby bro," exclaims Trevor as one of the foreign dining facility workers slap a double cheeseburger on his plate.

"Yeah you ain't the only one," answers Andrew.

The brothers then decide to sit down and try to forget about their day while enjoying their meal and engaging in conversation other than what they just saw.

...........................

The alarm clock goes off with it's annoying loud ringing sound once again. Bright numeric numbers read 4:00 AM. Andrew rises from his bunk. Time to start another day he tells himself as he gets out of his bunk and gets dressed into PT's. One day left until R&R then i'll be able to sleep in until noon or 1700 he thinks to himself as he struggles to find his belt and other various items in the dark. Upon conducting his normal morning routine, he makes it to formation only to find out he will be conducting yet another squad run. Not surprising he tells himself.

Upon hitting perimeter road with his squad, the pace picks up. Now sort of exhausted at this point only after running a half mile to the start of the perimeter hardball road, Andrew begins to fall behind the rest of his squad members.

Day in and day out of running just seem to have worn him out. So he decides to go his own pace. A much slower pace as the rest of his squad continues to get visually smaller off into the distance the further up they pass him. As he is running, he notices the first guard tower he passed up is abandoned. This is unusual because the contracting company Triple Canopy, who employs Ugandans to provide perimeter and internal FOB security has not left the country yet.

He knows the Ugandan guards are still on contract and should be manning their post watching outward into sector. He blows this thought off though the further down the road he gets as he approaches a second guard tower a quarter of a mile out. As the five mile trail continues, he passes up an additional third guard tower which is also left abandoned. He now realizes the north eastern quadrant of the base is now left unsecure.

Andrew's squad has now seemed to hit their turn around point and are heading back towards his direction.

As his squad passes, one of the NCO's in the formation calls out to Andrew, "Pick it up speed bump!" the man yells as they run right by him.

Andrew pays him no mind. As he reaches the turn around point, he decides to stop and catch his breath. While leaning over, he notices yet another C-130 take off from Basrah International Airport which is connected to the base. He now counts eight flights within the past twenty four hours. Something he has never seen before. He decides to shake the thought off and head back to the start point.

"Stalker 5 is redcon 1," Trevor reports.

"Stalker 3 is redcon 1," another truck reports.

"Stalker 6 is redcon 1 at this time," the platoon leader adds.

"Roger. Push out to the gate Stalker 5," calls his platoon sergeant as Trevor begins his push out of ECP Ritz which is Ugandan controlled.

ECP Alpha is Iraqi Army controlled.

"Hey sergeant, where did the gate guards go?" asks Price from the turret of the vehicle as they roll through.

"Not a clue," Trevor responds without hesitation.

That seemed to be the question of the moment as they rolled down the long straight away strip which parallels the airport. As Trevor's vehicle passes the front entrance of the airport, Price positions his turret in the direction of it as they pass by. Trevor knew this because the distinctive metallic bumping sound the turret makes as it spins.

"Here's another odd question, sergeant," exclaims Price.

"Shoot," answers Trevor.

"Why are there hundreds of packed cars in line to get into the front entrance of the airport. Is there something we don't know?" Price curiously states.

Now curious himself, Trevor decides to call his platoon sergeant and inform him of the two out of place details they just noticed within minutes apart of eachother. The platoon sergeant has no direct answer for him. However, does inform him that the current flight taking off as they pass by is probably one crowded plane.

Trevor agrees.

Trevor's platoon is on patrol to yet another sector on the outskirts of Basrah city. However, not the same one as yesterday. After the platoon leader's debriefing to the commander yesterday after their mission regarding abandoned villages, the commander sent them out again to check out a few more villages to see if the demographics are the same as the others.

As the convey pushes down the main strip of highway to their objective area, they notice less traffic than usual. In addition, Trevor reported several abandoned Iraqi Army checkpoints along the freeway which is also highly unusual. The platoon leader decides to send these reports back to the company via radio.

Shortly after, Trevor's vehicle approaches the turn off from the freeway to their area they are to be patrolling which leads to a village near the Tigris river. As the convey pushes forward down the dirt trail which leads towards the isolated Iraqi village, they noticed abandoned bongo trucks along the way facing towards the freeway off the sides of the road.

In addition, Trevor noticed abandoned donkey carts. Also including various scattered mopeds. Upon entering the village, Trevor notices something strange.

"Stalker 6 this is stalker 5. Be advised, we've got three military aged males off to my 2 o clock on their knees facing eachother. Not sure what they are doing, however it looks likes like they all have some erradict movement going on with their hands and face. I'm going to slow down as we pass them so my gunner can get better eyes on. Over," Trevor transmits. The platoon leader acknowledges.

"Hunter, slow it down a bit up here. Just bring it down to a creeping pace. I want to see what these guys are doing," Trevor instructs his driver.

"I got you sergeant no problem," Hunter says with a curious look on his face as he stares at the individuals off into the distance.

The platoon sergeant then follows up over the radio and informs the gunners to keep their eyes open as a result. As Trevor's truck passes by the group of men off the side of the road, whom are all wearing man dresses, Price makes a startling discovery.

"Jesus Christ!" Price exclaims as his truck passes by the men.

"What! What is it! Come on boy, spit it out!" demands Trevor.

"Ser, ser, sergeant. those men are eating that dog. It's like we aren't even here. They didn't even notice us pass by," Price nervously explains.

Everyone is silent for a moment.

Trevor then busts out laughing.

"All stalker elements this is stalker 5, be advised, we got some hungry Iraqis off to the three. These cats are chowing down on old fido. Revenge at it's finest I tell you what," jokes Trevor over the net.

As a result, the rest of the patrol begins cracking jokes over the net and laughing.

"Stalker 6 this is stalker 9, hey, what do you want to do about this?" the platoon sergeant asks the platoon leader as if he was holding back from laughing.

"We all got to eat. Let em' be," answers the platoon leader in a dismissive tone of voice.

The patrol continues.

Price goes on to describe what he just saw close up to the soldiers in the back of the truck.

"So you mean to tell me that they didn't even look up at you?" asks Christopher.

"Hell no sergeant. I saw one of their eyes though. The man I saw didn't look like he had any pupils. Also, their skin looked really clamy and pale. One of them had scratch marks all over his face and neck. You couldn't pay me enough to dismount and approach them," explains a still shakened up Price.

Then Price asks Trevor a question about all the abandoned cars back there on the trail to the village. Trevor explains that abandoned vehicles in Iraq is not an uncommon thing seeing as how they don't have proper gas stations. Trevor then goes on to make the point that Iraqis are usually too poor to fill their tanks up. Sometimes a combination of just neglecting their gauges as well. This puts Price in a sense of ease and begins calming him down.

That's when Ringo chimes in, "Yeah but that still doesn't explain why this village is abandoned too," Ringo reminds. Trevor stays silent. Price begins getting all jittery again.

"Damnit. The ordeal in the DFAC last night then this. What the hell is going on? I mean, what a wild week," explains Price.

"Yeah Price is right, I almost shart my pants last night at the ice cream bar when home boy started acting like a dying fish. If I ever go into a seizure like that, record it so I can blog it on Facebook later," Reagal jokes as he pops in a pinch of Copenhagen Longcut.

Everybody on the truck, with the exception of Christopher, begins to laugh histerically.

"Yeah well guess what Reagal, you wouldn't be able to blog it on your Facebook because that guy died last night in the TMC shortly after. Maybe you should watch your damn mouth before I wash it out with my fist," threatens Christopher.

Reagal with a scared look on his face complies. Everyone on the truck including Trevor stops laughing. Then silence consumes the vehicle once again.

A few hours pass by on the patrol which concluded uneventful. Trevor led the convey through various trails connecting multiple villages only a few hundred meters apart from eachother. Not a sign of life in any of them, except with what they saw earlier upon approaching the entrance of the village. Trevor decides to take the convey back to base. Upon turning onto the freeway, Hunter kicks his speed up to 50 mph. Nice cruising pace Trevor compliments his driver as he lights a Miami cigerette for him, then one for himself for the ride back.

Trevor is the first one to pass underneath the bridge which leads to fhe front gate of FOB Basrah. Seconds after clearing it, his truck begins merging onto the on-ramp which leads to the bridge overlapping the main freeway they just came off on. Upon clearing the on-ramp, now with IA controlled ECP Alpha in plain view, they noticed yet another thing out of the ordinary.

Massive civilian crowds trying to push through the front gate against the Iraqi Army's consent.

Trevor warns the convey behind him and tells them to slow their pace down so they don't hit anybody on the ground. The platoon leader reports a potential protest to the CP. Trevor realizes quickly, that this is no normal protest. There are many screaming and crying children who must be no older than ten years old with their mothers who are in an apparent argument with the gate guards.

Some of them are on their knees appearing to beg while sticking their children up towards the Iraqi Army soldiers as an offering. Some of the husbands or fathers attempt to sprint through the gate on foot only to be met by Iraqi Army soldiers beating them down with their American issued M-16A2 Assault Rifles with iron sights.

The crowd, Trevor estimates, looks to be in the mid hundreds. As the convey creeps ahead, the now apparent desperate Iraqi civilians clear a path for them as they pass by so they do not get ran over. Many put their arms out while begging and screaming. Trevor notices some of their complexations doesn't look normal. Many are sick and some of them are throwing up on the sides of the road as this ordeal goes on.

"Better not dismount here. Might only incite more unrest. Let these IA dudes handle it. It's their job anyway," explains the platoon leader over the net.

All of the truck commanders acknowledge as they push through and witness more civilians suffer beatings from Iraqi soldiers trying to push past them. Trevor lights up yet another Miami. Hunter shakes his head. Reagal pops another dip in. Ringo sits there emotionless and stoic. Christopher continues to move his head around the back window trying to see the incident unfold. Gilroy appears lost and Price picks up his scan with his M240 Bravo machine gun due to the high potential threat of the crowd.

[Nancy1340]

Thanks

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

"Specialist Wilcott. You've got Mayor Cell detail tomorrow at 0500 hours. I need you to be there fifthteen minutes prior," reminds Andrew's squad leader as he passes out notes before a Battalion formation for end of tour awards in the motorpool.

All the soldiers in the Battalion seem to be hanging out smoking cigerettes and conversing while waiting for their Battalion Commander and Sergeant Major to show up so the traditional ceremony can begin. Afterwards, Andrew scurries the company groups for his brother. After some searching and weaving in and out of people talking, he spots his brother and proceeds to approach him.

"Hey bro, there you are. How you been man?" asks Andrew.

"Had a crazy freaking day baby bro. There is some crazy stuff going on around here and I don't know what to make of it. I am glad that you are skipping town soon. Maybe when you get back things would have gone back to normal," preaches Trevor.

Andrew is about to ask him what's wrong when the company First Sergeants begin calling their soldiers to formation.

"Get going bro, we'll talk about it later," orders Trevor.

Andrew complies and proceeds to walk over to his respective company. The talking has ceased now at this point as Andrew falls into line up with the other soldiers. With everyone now waiting at parade rest while remaining silent, they patiently wait for their senior leadership to show up and call the Battalion to position of attention.

Time goes by and nobody shows. The soldiers begin to grow impatient and start bending their knees so they don't lock up and end up passing out. Around thirty minutes later of pure silence and stillness, a Master Sergeant is noticed driving into the motorpool in a maroon SUV with a worried look on his face. He steps out and calls the First Sergeants over to him. Andrew observes their brief discussion from afar and studies their body language. Hoping they get this over quick and not come up with anything stupid for them to do. Like stand in place and wait for another hour.

While the senior leadership continue to converse amongst eachother, Andrew notices excessive coughing within the ranks. Few minutes pass by as he continues to study the leadership's body language, when the coughing throughout the ranks increase to a constant flow. One soldier in the back actually breaks ranks and begins puking every where. Everyone looks back and begins to laugh and joke about the sickly soldier's misfortune while they continue to cough as well.

Trevor notices on his side, everyone around him is starting to look clammy and pale. Like the Iraqi civilians near the front gate to the base who were begging for his help as he drove by them earlier ago. Also, coughing is rampant on his side as well.

Eventually, it begins to annoy Trevor to the point where he wants to say something. However, he does not. One soldier standing next to Trevor, whom appears to be a Private First Class, appears to be shaking badly as if he was cold and trying to keep warm. Trevor continues to notice the soldier going through some type of bodily cold sweat complex as sweat drips from his hair and ears.

Now a little bit worried for this soldier, Trevor leans over to him and whisphers, "Are you alright hot rod? Got to lay off the Hydroxycut boy."

The soldier turns to Trevor and looks him in the eye and responds, "I, I, I'm al, al alright Sergeant."

Trevor quickly jerks his head away from the soldier after looking into his eyes. Something about the soldier's eyes did not look right. His pupils seem to be fading away and turning a milky white color.

"God damn," Trevor whisphers to himself in shock as one of the First Sergeants, now complete with the meeting, walk up to the middle of the Battalion formation in order to address them.

"The Commander and Sergeant Major just got word of a last minute meeting they were to attend. They will not be present. We will continue accordingly," one of the First Sergeants inform.

He soon calls the Battalion to attention as one of the Sergeant First Classes scramble to push to the front of the formation for the company with the missing First Sergeant. All soldiers quickly snap to attention and sound off loudly with their unit motto. The First Sergeant then conducts an about-face(drill and ceremony movement) and awaits the acting commander of the formation.

To Trevor and Andrew's surprise, thinking they would see the Battalion XO(executive officer or second in command) post in front of the First Sergeant, they appear to notice one of the other Company Commanders pushing up the ranks to take charge and give the order to post. This confused many people to see a Company Commander take charge of a Battalion formation because there is always supposed to be an XO present in the absence of a Commander. Andrew at this point, thought to himself that this must be a real important meeting.

The acting Sergeant Major presents arms(salutes). The acting Battalion Commander returns in kind. Upon dropping his salute, the acting Sergeant Major for the time being follows suite.

Seconds later, the acting Battalion Commander takes one step forward, looks left and right, then yells the order to post. All the remaining First Sergeants in the respective companies fall out to the rear of their company formations as the Company Commanders push to the front. Upon assuming their positions, the acting Battalion Commander falls everyone out and tells them to form a horse shoe around himself and the acting Sergeant Major.

Trevor is some what excited because he is starting to think that these guys will give him an explanation of whats been going on lately. He is sadly mistaken.

As the Company Commander begins addressing the soldiers in the Battalion, it becomes apparent to Trevor and now even Andrew, that he is in way over his head. As he talks, his body language appears jittery. He slurs his speech and comes off as way too nervous even for a simple opening sentence to his soldiers.

He informs the group that from here on out, he will be assuming Command of the Battalion. His acting Sergeant Major will be the First Sergeant whom addressed them prior. He does not give any reason as to why it has come to this and goes on about enforcing standards, uniformity and cleanliness.

He attempts to give a motivitional speech regarding the execellence within the Battalion. He goes on to talk about smaller, illegitmate issues and motorpool safety. He does not even come close to addressing the reason for the sudden change in leadership. Shortly after he concludes his speech, he reminds everyone that the end of tour awards ceremony will continue as scheduled.

Everyone goes back to their respective company spots and begins to line up again. Once the Battalion is called to attention, the newly acting Battalion Commander give everyone the order of "Open ranks, march."

Upon execution of this order, each column in the Battalion formation either takes a few steps forward or backwards to allow walking room for any one person to walk by and pin their newly earned award on them. This ceremony will take awhile, especially to do every soldier for the entire Battalion. A group of five or six privates file behind the acting Battalion Commander and Sergeant Major struggling to hold all of the awards in their hands. The citations begin down the line.

As the citations are being read out loud, person to person for all to hear, the rest of the Battalion remains at position of attention without moving. Slight coughs as well as choking sounds consume the ranks. Once the leaders finish their 20th soldier, Trevor notices another flight leave Basrah international airport from afar.

He wonders if the Battalion Commander, Sergeant Major, Battalion XO and Battalion OPS Sergeant Major is on that flight. Nobody knows, he tells himself as he tries to seal his lips so he doesn't consume the germs of other people's histerical coughs around him. Shortly after, he notices Andrew at position of attention staring at him with a worried look on his face. Trevor knows what is on his mind and stares back stoically.

.............................

The alarm clock goes off with it's annoying loud ringing sound yet again. Bright numeric numbers read 4:00 AM. Andrew rises from his bunk. Time to get up and report over to the Mayor Cell for his last day of work call before he flies out on R&R leave. He goes about his morning routine as usual.

Once he is all dressed and ready to go, he walks out the front door to the tent on the way to where he has to report. It's only about a mile down the road and not a whole lot of people out in the morning darkness. On his way there, he hits a dirt road which is commonly traveled by vehicles. He notices off in the distance, yet another flight leaving out of Basrah International airport. He ignores it shortly after a glance.

Upon reporting to his detail at 0445, he is greeted by two Staff Sergeants and three Specialists. Another soldier comes walking out of the back room who appears to be a Sergeant First Class.

Moments later, the Sergeant First Class proceeds to brief them on what their tasking is for the day and tells them how long they will be doing it for. As he continues to talk, he continues to explain what type of uniform they need to be in as well.

"Great," Andrew tells himself as he turns around and walks back to the tent to pick up his helmet an vest.

His unit failed to inform him that he needed his mission essential gear because they will be assuming control of ECP Ritz due to the abandonment by the Ugandan gate guards.

One of the Staff Sergeants, upon receiving the briefing asks why they left the gate. As a result, the Sergeant First Class fails to respond with a substanial answer.

He assumes, however, that the security contract ran out due to the pending American pull out of Iraq. Andrew is out to assume the gate guard position with one other Staff Sergeant for the next twelve hours. Chow will be brought to them as coordinated prior, the Sergeant First Class tells them.

Upon returning back to the mayor cell, Andrew tosses his gear in the back of the civilian SUV and hops in the back. The Staff Sergeant who will assume guard with him is waiting in the front passenger seat while the Sergeant First Class hangs out behind the driver's wheel. Upon arriving to the gate, they receive a radio and a clipboard from the man in charge. The clipboard will be used to keep headcount of patrols coming in and going out the front gate of FOB Basrah.

Once the soldiers are in position and ready to assume the gate, the vehicle takes off into the distance.

Andrew and the NCO begin to engage in small talk after the NCO makes his radio checks with the TOC(tactical operational center). They do not have a guard shack to sit in nor a vehicle for support. They just have two cases of water off to the side, their gear, their rifles and a front gate pole which they have to raise and lower when conveys pass by. They are not allowed to sit down for the duration of the shift either as they were instructed prior to assuming the gate.

Some hours go by. Andrew counted two more flights land into the airport and fly out in a four hour time frame. Also, no conveys have came in or out as of yet. As the sun beats down upon them, Andrew decides to crack open his fifth water bottle of the day to consume.

That is when he notices a crowd off into the distance of some twenty to forty individuals walking towards him down the straight away strip of road which goes from ECP Ritz(where he is located) towards ECP Alpha(IA controlled gate).

As a result, he quickly alerts the NCO of what he is seeing approach the gate as the Staff Sergeant attempts to light up a cigerette in one of the bomb shelters provided for shade. The NCO walks out, alarmed at what he's just been told and observes the situation. As the crowd of individuals get closer, he decides to call up the TOC and inform them of the situation. They acknowledge on the other side and tell the NCO they wll be kicking out QRF(quick reaction force) to their location to assist and resolve the pending situation.

Now Andrew has the crowd in plain sight. As they get closer, Andrew and his partner take up positions behind some sand bags and prop their M4 Carbines up top for stable support.

Andrew notices that the entire crowd of people happens to be unarmed military aged males. One of them is also carrying an OD green backpack.

"What the hell is going on here Sergeant? These people shouldn't be here," asks Andrew as he looks down his ACOG sight at the crowd to paint a better picture for himself.

"I don't know either man. I don't know how they got past Alpha and the Iraqi Army up there. They could of let them in for all we know," nervously exlcaims the Staff Sergeant.

As the crowd looms closer and closer, they appear to notice that Andrew and the other gate guard has their weapons drawn on them. As a result, they begin to place their arms up in the air as they walk closer to display a non-aggressive approach. This puts Andrew and the NCO at ease for the time being until QRF arrives.

Upon arriving at the gate, most of the crowd stays back a safe distance with their hands up. Some of them are trying to ask something in Arabic but none of the soldiers can make it out.

Some are moaning and crying while others are coughing. One of the men, who appears to be the leader of the crowd, walks ahead of everyone now stopped and approaches Andrew with a backpack on him. Andrew points his weapon at him and tells him to stop.

As a reaction, the man calmy assumes a kneeling position with both of his kneecaps planted onto the pavement. His complexation seems to startle the Staff Sergeant on guard. He is a sickly looking man and is constantly coughing as well. This man is wearing a black t-shirt and torn up blue jeans. He is wearing sandals and has a checkered colored red and white scarf like apparrell around his neck.

While on his knees, he places his hands down and proceeds to pull the backpack off his shoulders. He then places the bag in front of him and slides it towards the gate in Andrew's direction by a few feet. He continues to call out in Arabic in a type of begging voice now with his hands still in the air.

The Staff Sergeant calls up a sitrep. The TOC instructs them not to go near the bag and to push back a safe distance until QRF arrives. The TOC also informs the NCO they will spin up EOD(explosive ordnance disposal) to check out the bag and to hold tight until they come on scene. The NCO complies.

Now waiting in their fighting positions, the crowd begins to grow impatient. Some sit down to rest while still keeping their hands up. One of them begins puking in the middle of the road. Some of their moans begin to grow louder and more frequent the longer they wait.

Ten minutes later, four MRAP trucks appear on scene just short of the gate. A few soldiers hop off while an EOD truck is seen racing up off into the distance behind them. One of the soldiers appear to be walking with an Iraqi interpretor.

As they approach the gate, the leader of the convey, whom is a First Lieutenant, asks the NCO on guard with Andrew what was going on. The NCO explains from his position while the other newly arrived soldiers begin taking up tactical spacing and positions in order to assist securing the gate.

The now curious Lieutenant tells his men to stay put and watch them as he walks up to the crowd with his interuptor. Andrew reminds the officer that EOD is on it's way and that they were told to stay away from the bag. The Lieutenant shrugs off Andrew's comment and approaches the men anyway.

Andrew realizes this is a very bad idea. As he observes the conversation between the group, the Lieutenant and the third party interpretor, some EOD soldiers can be seen walking up and beginning to inspect the bag. Andrew can over hear the Lieutenant yell back to the EOD guys that the bag is filled with RKG-3 hand grenades and that the group of Iraqis are insurgents trying to surrender to the US.

The Lieutenant then turns his back on the crowd and walks back to the bag's location. EOD unzips the bag and pulls out one of the hand grenades to inspect them. A few seconds later, the soldier places it back in the bag and walks back past Andrew's position to a bunker where one of the men begins laying out the hardware in order to get a count. The Lieutenant walks back there with him while the interpreter still outside the gate continues to talk to the group of men.

Andrew now counts around ten hand grenades laid out. These men are apparent Basrah hand grenade throwers which is a common enemy attack on American forces in the region. They usually hang out in crowded areas such as market places and busy intersections in the alleyways and wait for the last vehicle of a convey to throw it. Hardly ever does any real damage but is very dangerous for any gunner in the turret who could be exposed to the blast and shrapnel if he finds himself standing up too high.

Once the conversation is over between the interpreter and the group of men, the languist walks back to the Lieutenant and the EOD team. Andrew can over hear the entire conversation as he watches the men through his sights.

"These men are part of the Promise Day Brigades(a militant wing of Shiite cleric Moktada Al-Sadr). They claim that they have attacked many American vehicles over the past year in the city. They are also responsible for various rocket attack in the past three months. They are here to surrender to us," explains the interpretor.

The Lieutenant now has a dumb founded expression on his face.

"Why would they surrender to us?" the Lieutenant asks.

"Because of the afflicted," the interpreter proclaims.

"These men are here because of the afflicted. Nobody will help them. They have no choice but to surrender. They tell me, we have to take them into custody because we are enemy of US and have attacked many American soldiers. There is no choice but to arrest us they say," he explains as he looks back with a scared look on his face.

"The afflicted?" confusingly asks the Lieutenant.

The interepter shrugs his shoulders without an answer.

The EOD team stays in place along with the other security element while the Lieutenant walks back to his truck to get on the radio. Thirty minutes has gone by with no resolution. Eventually, the Lieutenant hops off his MRAP and walks back to the EOD team.

At this point, Andrew continues to keep his sights on the surrendering enemy.

Andrew notices the Lieutenant and the EOD team leader coversing amongst eachother. As a result of the conversation, the EOD team is seen repacking the grenades into the bag.

The Lieutenant decides to walk up to the NCO on guard with Andrew and explain the situation. As he does this, one of the men of the group still sitting down falls to the ground and starts shaking violently with an apparent seizure episode. The rest of the insurgents around him pick up and scatter to avoid the man in the seizure while running towards Andrew's position. In the heat of the moment, Andrew fires a warning shot in the air to discourage the group from moving any furhter.

All of them get spooked at the sound of the gunfire and turn around in the opposite direction to get as far away as they can from the man on the ground with the seizure as he continues to kick on the ground violently.

"Hey we just can't let these guys get away!" yells Andrew as he takes aim and readies himself to fire on them from behind.

The Lieutenant quickly stops him by placing his hand on Andrew's shoulder.

"That's exactly what we are going to do. We are not allowed to detain any local national who hasn't fired upon us," the Lieutenant explains.

"We don't have anywhere to put them anyway. Not our jobs anymore," he concludes in a calm voice.

From there, the Lieutenant places his radio hand mic up against his mouth and calls up his platoon sergeant.

"Kick out the medic, we got a kicker," the Lieutenant orders.

Andrew can hear a man on the other end of the hand mic acknowledge the transmission.
Few seconds later, Andrew sees a the QRF medic racing up to the location of the ill man.

Once the medic reaches the Iraqi's location, he quickly kneels to the ground as he takes his assault pack off and drops it out in front of him. Once the medic realizes what the situation is, he yells back to his platoon leader with an update.

"He's choking on his tounge. Bring me some bodies over here to hold him down!" the medic yells as he removes his gloves and proceeds to prevent the man from swallowing his tounge while placing two fingers into the afflicted man's mouth.

A few seconds go by until the man lies limp on the pavement. As a result, the medic screams out in pain as he leans backwards and kicks the lieing Iraqi in the side of his head in order to release his hand from the man's mouth.

The man now appears to be dead for his seizure has ceased. Andrew watches as the QRF medic crawls back over to him after falling back after the afflicted man bit his fingers while trying to prevent him from swallowing his tounge. The medic shakes his head. Few minutes later, some soldiers come walking out of their MRAP vehicles with body bags in their hands as the medic attempts to wrap his hand in order to stop the bleeding.

They bag him up and leave him there while they go back to the truck to report the situation up to higher. Around an hour goes by before anyone from the chain of command begins showing up to get the scoop on what happened. All while Andrew and the Staff Sergeant continue to pull their guard shift while having a loaded body bag to stare at in front of them.

As the first F-150 truck arrives with some high ranking individuals in it, Andrew notices the body bag beginning to move.

At first he can not believe his eyes, because the man inside was declared dead by a medic. He pulls off his sunglasses and wipes them down. Once he puts them back on, he continues to notice more movement. Slight movement it is, but movement nontheless. He reports this to his NCO.

"Don't worry about it Wilcott. Dead bodies twitch all the time, especially after they have just recently passed. Is this your first time seeing a dead body?" now with a concerned face the Staff Sergeant careingly asks.

"Yes I have. Two of them," replies Andrew with sadness in his eyes.

"Well then, I am sorry to hear that. Some twitch and some don't. This one is a twitcher. Try not to get spooked, okay buddy?" he responds.

Andrew decides to put his weapon down and come up out of the cover he received from the sand bag emplacement.

"Yeah roger, got it.", Andrew calmly replies.

Shortly after, the bag stops moving.

What a freaking day he tells himself as his replacements for the gate guard arrive in the mayor cell's SUV.

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

Trevor sits in his blue air force 'aim high' chair as all the other squad leaders, who are also sitting down in their personal chairs, await their platoon sergeant for end of day notes which gets put out by the company.

All of them have their notepads and pens ready. Upon receiving notes, the standard procedure is for each squad leader to gather their men together and deciminate information to eachother and inform them of the next day's taskings and purpose.

As they wait for their senior leadership to arrive, the men converse among eachother and crack jokes. Some of them talk about the recent events which has unfolded while others try to avoid it by changing the topic. Trevor stays silent while he still tries to contemplate in his head the entire situation and what to make of it. In addition to this, he can not seem to forgot that one soldier he talked to in formation with the akward eye color. That soldier did not look right to him.

Few minutes go by, then the platoon sergeant with the platoon leader comes walking in with their notepads open. They get between the squad leaders and begin putting out newly formed information to them. The platoon sergeant explains that the Battalion Commander, the two Sergeant Majors, the Battalion XO and their staffs had to catch a last minute flight to Kuwait for a meeting with other senior leadership regarding the pull-out situation in the coming months.

Trevor doesn't buy this. The platoon leader also informs his leadership that there is a bug floating around making guys sick. He explains that the senior care provider for the Battalion, who is an officer and also supposed to be the Army's version of an official doctor, says it is an apparent flu spreading around.

The platoon leader informs the men of how it spreads. For example, such minor things like not covering up coughs with your hands and sharing drinks. Trevor does not buy this either. A few more various notes were put out regarding their upcoming missions and times they will be conducting them. Trevor writes down all this new information in his notepad upon the conclusion of the meeting. Once the meeting is finished, the squad leaders stand up and gather up their respective squads.

Once Trevor gathers his men together, who were standing by outside in the hallway, he takes them out back for a cigerette while he deciminates information to them. All of them, especially his team leader Sergeant Muniz, hacked away at him for information regarding the strange things that been going on.

As Trevor begins putting out his notes, the squad becomes startled as gunfire out in the distance erupts. Small bursts here and there followed up by single shots fired. They are not sure where it is coming from, however, they believe it originated near the perimeter in the direction of the front gate. Trevor shrugs off the sudden sounds of the pop shots and continues putting out information.

He informs his squad members of upcoming missions and the lame excuse they got told about their senior leadership skipping town. He also informs them of the flu like symptoms everyone has been getting, which he applies his own theory regarding the matter and possible solutions.

"Look gents, we all know there is something fishy going on around here. They say it's the flu, but I ain't never seen any type of flu spread like this and make a man's eyes turn white. Whatever this is, it's spreading through shared drinks and the use of communual gym equipment. You got sweaty nasty soldiers who don't clean themselves using the gym equipment and not wiping it off. Then you got god knows how many more potential victims throughout the day as they share that same piece of equipment. I am not asking you all, I am telling you. From here on out, no one in this squad is to go to the gym. We need to start avoiding public areas like the PX(post exchange) and DFAC during high trafficable hours. You go anywhere, let me know so I can approve it," Trevor explains with a serious look on his face.

Everyone in his squad appears to be frustrated silently as they took it for a typical Army over-reaction incident.

"Quit with the damned poopy faces. Besides, PT is an outdoor event anyway. I know you all don't like this, but no one here is sick and I intend to keep it that way. Got it?" Trevor asks with conviction as he stares his soldiers down.

They all sound off with a sarcastic 'roger sergeant' in sync with eachother.

"Alright, now don't let me catch you goofing off. I'll have that ass," Trevor threatens as he walks off into the tent.

As he leaves, Gilroy starts complaining to himself with various cuss words. Christopher overheard this. As a result, Christopher begins to yell at him while making him do push ups. That is when Trevor walks back out the door and stops them as they begin to scatter.

"Hey that supply list you all submitted to your team leader, Price you are in charge of that. Got to start making you senior Specialists grow some hair on your nuts. Take that list up to the CP and get whats on it from the supply guy. When you're done, drop it off to your team leader," Trevor orders while pointing at Price.

"No problem sergeant, i'm on it like Chuck Norris on a can of whoop ass," Price humerously states. Reagal gives Price's joke his seal of approval as he places two thumbs up. Trevor walks off with a smile trying to hold back his chuckle. The gunfire ceases.

Price heads back to his tent area and proceeds to throw on his ACU top. Once he is ready to go, he gathers up his PC(patrol cap) and sunglasses.

As he walks off, he drags his weapon off the bunk and he heads for the front door to the CP. Upon entering the CP, he notices his First Sergeant and Company Commander, along with ten other NCO's staring at a monitor with a shocked look on their faces. They appear to be so pre-occupied with whats going on the screen, they don't even notice him walk by and proceed to slip into the crowd in the back.

Everyone is silent. Drawing full attention to the large monitor mounted on the wall. Price decides to take a look from the back. What he begins looking at is a live feed from the Battalion TOC's air scan high up in the sky overwatching Basrah City. What the monitor shows, is apparent riots in the streets unfolding in down town Basrah. He notices burning cars, people shooting automatic weapons at charging crowds and what appears to be women running with their children in hand being chased down by various assailants and then violently being consumed into the mob upon getting caught.

Pure chaos unfolding he tells himself as he slips down the hallway to the back room where the supply sergeant sits behind his desk playing solitaire on his computer.

"Hey sergeant, do you know what the hell is going on out there?" Price asks with a worried look.

The supply sergeant rudely ignores his question.

"What the hell do you want? Don't you see that I am busy?" the sergeant sarcastically asks.

Price submits the list his squad needs.

"I don't have all this crap, soldier. Get out of my office," the supply sergeant angrily orders seeming frustrated that Price distracted him from his game.

Price obliges and marches out the door and slips behind the group of senior leadership still observing the air scan feed with wide glooming eyes in silence. Price glances one more time at the monitor as he walks out the door unnoticed.

"Stupid worthless POG(person other than grunt)!" Price yells out loud in anger as he walks back to his tent to let his squad in on the news.

Once Price enters the tent, he goes directly to his squad leader Trevor. Upon entering Trevor's living area, Price raises up his hooch to let him in on the news. That is when he notices Trevor watchin Desperate Housewives on his laptop with his headphones in. Unaware that Price is there, he continues to watch as Reagal, his best friend, bumps into him after losing in a game of cards to other members of his squad.

"Hey bro you get us that list?" curiously asks Reagal as he glances at his empty hands.

"No bro, that deuschbag POG kicked me out of his supply room. Also, there's some weird stuff going down. They got live feeds of chaos unfolding in the streets on air scan. Our whole leadership down there is freaking out," explains Price as he walks up to his squad leader, still unaware of his presence as he taps him on the shoulder.

Reagal walks back over to where the card game was going on with members of his squad.

Trevor pauses his show and takes his headphones off.

"Man, I can't get over how crazy these women are. You know any girls like that Price? Oh yeah, did you get us that list?" Trevor asks as he glances over to Price's empty hands.

Gunfire erupts once again off into the distance.

Now ignoring it, Price explains to Trevor what happened. Trevor now, with a concerned look on his face, asks him if he told anyone about it.

Price, with a confused look on his face responds, "No I haven't Sergeant. Umm, I mean yes I have. Well sort of."

That is when other members of his squad burst in through Trevor's hooch.

All of them now surrounding their squad leader, ask what is going on.

Hunter with a bit of curiousity on his face, Reagal with excitement, Ringo stoic and Christopher concerned. Gilroy wasn't present because nobody invited him to participate in the card game. He usually just stays on his bunk and hogs up all the bandwith downloading all the Men in Black movies that been taking him all tour to download. Usually a few megabytes a day before he gets booted off. Running joke in the squad stands, he never even bothered to ask anyone if they owned the trilogy. At least eight people in the tent have those movies on their laptops.

Trevor stands up and tries to calm the panic.

"Y'all don't say nothing about this. Especially Gilroy, that boy will duke his pants. I'm gonna go hit up the platoon daddy and get some information off him. Don't be jumping to no damned conclusions or spreading the word. Got it? I swear, i'll ring all y'alls necks out!" Trevor threatens as he gets dressed to leave out the door.

"You think Sadr is trying to take the city back? It will be like 08 all over again and then i'll get my CIB(Combat Infantryman Badge)," an overly excited Reagal exclaims.

"I said shut the hell up!" Trevor yells as he walks out the door.

The gunfire stops.

An hour goes by while Trevor's squad waits impatiently and decides to play another game of cards. Reagal loses again. He then tells the group he has to go take a leak and walks off. Christopher gets a funny feeling after he's been gone for ten minutes and decides to go check the bathroom.

"Reagal, are you taking a dump?" Christopher asks to an empty bathroom.

Only his echo responds. Once he goes back into the hallway, more members of the platoon come walking out. They begin asking Christopher what the deal was.

Now angry beyond belief, Christopher yells at the top of voice down the hallway.

"Reagal, get out here now!"

Reagal comes stumbling out of one of the tents into the hallway engaging in conversations with more members of the platoon.

"Bear crawl to me you dumb bastard!" demands Christopher.

Reagal complies. Upon reaching the edge of his team leader's feet, Christopher tells him to start knocking out push ups while proceeding to yell at him. That is when the platoon sergeant, the platoon leader and Trevor comes walking in with even more concerned looks on their faces.

"Everybody gather around. Sure you all heard of what's going down thanks to Price," the platoon sergeant angrily states.

Price, now in the hallway because of all the commotion, places his head down in shame.

At that moment, Andrew walks into the hallway of Trevor's tent to tell his older brother what happened earlier when he notices a platoon meeting going on. He steps off to the side and out of the way so the platoon can conduct it's business. Trevor notices his brother standing there and puts his hand up signaling him to wait there until they are done.

"Listen up guys. I am going to explain something real simple here. We don't know whats going on right now. From what we know, it doesn't seem to be Sadr's militia. Just riots and chaos sparked from an unknown source and by an unknown group of peo...," the platoon sergeant explains as he is cut off by loud incoming sirens.

Everybody in the hallway scurries with a quickness down the passage way and out the back to waiting bomb shelters. Multiple loud explosions seconds apart can be heard off into the distance as they get closer. They all knew this because the closer they land to one's position, the more of the concussion you feel in the center of your chest. This was real close.

As Trevor and Andrew get outside on their way to shelter, they see some of the smoke of where it impacted off into the distance near the perimeter and around empty guard towers. All of the men huddle into one overhead bomb shelter reinforced by concrete and sandbags. A few more loud explosions go off not too far from their location. Andrew searches around inside the bunker for his brother to bum a smoke off of. After passing a few guys in their flip flops, he finds Trevor sitting down leaning up against the bunker wall lighting up a Miami cigerette.

"Hey bro, there you are. I ran out can I bum one?" Andrew asks.

Trevor hands him the one he just lit and reaches down in the pack for a new one.

"Freaking IDF(indirect fire) man. First air scan, then this. I'm never going to finish my show," whines Trevor with a funny looking facial expression.

The explosions stop as the apparent rocket attack is over.

"You and that damn show. I'm starting to worry about you man," answers Andrew as he kneels down on the gravel to take a seat by his brother.

Moments later, an announcment over the loudspeakers can be heard for all to hear.

"Remain in a hardened shelter due to the increased threat, all non-esstienal movement is limited."

The common announcement which gets broadcasted across the base when attacks like this happen which is routine on FOB Basrah. They must stay inside or near the bunker until the 'All Clear' message is broadcasted. This can usually take up to two hours.

Trevor looks at his watch.

"They got twelve minutes to be rolling past us. Three minutes has already passed," explains Trevor regarding the QRF's response time to incidents like these.

The standard is to be up and pushing out Camp Delta to ECP Ritz within fifthteen minutes.

Andrew agrees. Everyone in the bunker begins conversing amongst themselves as the platoon sergeant monitors his personal radio on company net to find out the situation regarding the rocket attack. The bunker is located on the backside of the tent which faces out towards a main road withiin FOB Basrah. It is blocked off by a twenty foot high fenceline reinforced with ditches on the ground and quadruple stack C-wire. Beyond that, there is a clear view of perimeter road and the fence line to include some Iraqi villages and open desert.

Now with an apparent grin on Trevor's face, "So boy how's your day going?" Trevor asks his brother.

"Oh my god....," Andrew responds.

He goes on in detail about his gate guard ordeal. A shocked looking Trevor, counters with his stories regarding the men eating a dog, the front gate showdown between the Iraqi Army and the civilians and the abandoned villages/checkpoints they rolled past.

After acknowledging both of their stories combined, it left them an eerie feeling and type of silence that couldn't be described by the pair. Andrew also brings up all the flight leaving out throughout the day and night. Trevor counters with what he saw in front of the airport. The brothers conclude something bad is looming in the air and they both don't know what to make of it.

"You better be on one of those damn flights tomorrow boy. Wish you weren't coming back either. Unmanned gates, insurgents giving up, men eating dogs and unguarded perimeters. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Oh yeah and the air scan ordeal. This is only going to get worse," Trevor preaches as he finishes his cigerette only to light up another one.

"Air scan?" Andrew curiously asks.

Trevor explains.

"Damn I want to stay now. Things start really picking up around here and I leave for two weeks," complains Andrew.

Trevor stares at him and shakes his head. QRF rolls by them with four MRAPS while everyone comes out from the bunker to start yelling at them while blowing kisses and waving middle fingers. Some begin yelling out sarcastic remarks like, "Save me" or "We hope you're infantry" while half the soldiers are shirtless and in their civilian boxers holding their M4 Carbines and PVS-14 night vision goggles.

Trevor looks back at his watch.

"Eighteen minutes. Man that platoon sucks," Trevor belittles after he takes a puff of his cigerette.

"I saw those guys earlier today. Their medic got pretty banged up and their platoon leader pissed me off," Andrew tells Trevor as he reaches into his pack for another smoke.

Trevor asks what he meant.

"Their medic got bit by a dying Iraqi while trying to save his life. He was bleeding pretty bad too just like that guy in the DFAC. Weird huh?" Andrew asks.

Trevor looks down to the ground and stays silent. Obvious thoughts running through his mind.

An hour goes by. It is now dark outside and QRF still has not come back yet. Reports over the radio paint a vivid picture though. QRF found the poo site(where the rockets were launched from) and found the rails with five more 122mm rockets still on them ready to go. There was a sixth on the ground just laying there, however, it was rigged to blow via pressure plate beneath the sand right behind the rail system. EOD discovered this and dismantled it. All the soldiers in the bunker listen on hoping they can get more information and hopefully hear the speakers sound the "All clear" message. However, still nothing.

Trevor and Andrew continue to converse when they hear a group of soldiers beginning to yell outside the bunker in a jokingly fashion. Some laughs as well. As a result, the brothers stand up from their comfortable spot and proceed to walk outside to find out what was so funny when they see five or six soldiers hanging out in front of the fenceline apparently making fun of somebody on the other side.

They approach the fenceline which is only around thirty feet away from the bunker. Once they push around the crowd of soldiers, they notice someone on the other side of the fence stumbling down the road. He appears to be a soldier with his weapon dangling from his front by his sling. He is wearing his roadguard belt and clear lense eye protection, however as normal as it may seem, this person is anything but normal.

His eye protection is crooked and just barely hanging on his face. He is stumbling slowly like he is drunk. In addition, he begins moaning very loudly. He notices the group of soldiers Trevor and Andrew is in and begins slowly moving towards their direction. Gunfire begins to erupt out in the distance once again. However, it seems to be closer this time. A few tracers fly by over the night sky and becomes visible for all to see. It seems to be coming from inside the base and burning out into sector.

As the soldier slowly approaches, more soldiers in Trevor's unit begins cracking jokes at the man. Trevor and Andrew could only make out his description because as he walked, he weaved in and out of the pockets of lights on the road. They only got a good view of him for three or five seconds at a time before he drifted back into the darkness.

As Andrew and Trevor observes on their side of the fence, Andrew wonders where all of this alcohol is coming from and where he can find some. He isn't sure if all these people he been seeing stumbling around are actually drunk, however, his sub-concious may be forcing him to think that way because there is no other way in his mind to explain it.

The loud speakers start up again.

"All clear. I say again, all clear."

The platoon sergeant orders all of his men back inside to pick up where they left off in the meeting. Trevor tells his brother that he will swing by his tent tonight before he flies out. Andrew decides to stay and see whats wrong with the approaching soldier on the other side. Trevor waves as he walks off.

Andrew reaches into his pocket and pulls out one of the Miami cigerettes Trevor gave him for later. He recently began chain smoking, a habit he picked up from his brother since deploying with him.

"Hey bro, are you alright?" Andrew shouts off into the darkness now all by his lonesome in the direction of the soldier.

Upon lighting up his cigerette, the stumbling soldier picked up his pace.

"Hey man, can you hear me? Need any help? What the hell is your deal bro?" Andrew continues to shout.

No response.

The soldier is now feet away from the fence line. Andrew has a clear as day picture of him now. Andrew drops his lit cigerette and steps back a few feet as the soldier begins beating on the fence and trying to stick his arm through to grab Andrew. The soldier begins moaning and letting off a human type growl. He has no pupils and his face is pale as snow.

"What the hell is your problem man!" Andrew shouts in disbelief.

The soldier now begins shaking the fence line while moaning even louder.

"Screw off man, you're on your own. Later," Andrew angrily tells the soldier as he leaves his lit cigerette on the ground while walking off back to his tent.

As he walks away he notices that the moaning has stopped. He decides not to look back and go about his business.

Upon returning to his tent, Andrew decides to change into his boxers and lay down in his bunk. He sets his alarm for 2 AM. He has to be up at the company at 3 AM to catch a ride down to the flight terminal. While laying down in his bunk, he stares up at the ceiling and thinks about his strange day.

The surrendering Iraqis, the other strange events and most of all, the soldier whom he tried to talk with and help out who just moaned and growled at him like he wasn't even human. Enough for one day he tells himself. He decides to close his eyes. Before he drifts into sleep, he can hear yet another C-130 flying overhead of his tent once again.

....................

A startled Andrew quickly snaps up from his bunk at the sound of gunfire. Not off in the distance this time. It seems to be only a hundred meters from his tent because it was so loud. He thought that he heard the rounds weeze by and caught the sound of the crack. As a result, he gets up to check his clock. It reads 2:31 AM.

Another pair of rounds are fired. This time he flinches. At this point, he doesn't know what to think. He goes for his weapon and walks outside in nothing but his boxers. He looks left and right down the hesco barrier surrounded corrider walk ways and sees nothing. He decides to go back inside and get dressed. The gunfire stops. Andrew begins packing some last minute stuff when he realized his brother never stopped by to say good bye. He figured that something might of came up and that he was busy. Either way, he could call him in Kuwait or send him an email later. He wasn't about to wake him up this late at night.

Once Andrew is all ready to go, he opens up the door to the tent and walks off into the darkness with his ACU assault pack on his back to turn in his weapon and catch his ride home. As he approaches the CP in the darkness in the middle of the dead of night, he doesn't look back.

end chapter 1

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

Can anyone tell me what they thought of the 1st chapter? would like feedback. thanks

[teachermom44]

Overall I like it. I'm waiting for the main character to be enlightened and "catch on" to the problem. The leadership of the soldiers seem to be stupidly annoying or obtuse (or that could just be how I feel about my "superior"! ) I'm just waiting for more, especially since I'm home sick again and am running out of stories to read.

[raggeldy]

Like what ive read so far, waiting for the more

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

I appreciate the feedback. Didn't want to keep posting if nobody was reading. Well then, here's the second chapter.

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

CHAPTER 2
Affliction

"Hey sergeant, can I get one of those Miamis you got there?" Hunter asks in a gentleman like voice as he drives his MRAP down a deserted desert one lane road northwest of FOB Basrah while on patrol.

Trevor gives him the look and responds, "How can I deny thee, my young wolf apprentice."

"Ahhh sergeant, I quiver with delight," Hunter jokes as he reaches over to grab one of his squad leader's smokes.

Price and Reagal at this point can be heard laughing over the headset. Gilroy remains silent as usual.

"You know man, the Army preaches so much about quitting smoking. The effects of nicotine blaz-a-blah. Yet, everything they make you do drives you to the ladder and drinking. I mean you really want to get guys like me to quit? Just allow me to finish my damn show(in regards to the current mission they are conducting)," preaches Trevor as he lights up a Miami for himself.

At that point Reagal chimes in, "Sergeant, you and that show Desperate Housewives is like Gilroy and thought process. You try to complete it, but something always gets in the way."

Price begins laughing uncontrollably and spits up all of the water he was just drinking at the time all over his M240 Bravo machine gun. The squad members in the back notices water dripping down from the turret.

Moments later, Gilroy snaps back over the headset and tells Reagal to "shut his mouth".

At that point, Hunter shoots back at Gilroy and tells him to pipe down before he pops a retard vessel. As a result, Gilroy begins swearing to Hunter and threatens to attack him after they get back from patrol.

Trevor steps in and stops the dispute.

"Everyone shut your damn mouths and let me preach. This is a one way conversation, kind of like the bible. I can throw down thunderbolts," yells Trevor over the headset.

Everyone shuts up.

Trevor tries hard to keep squad unity and order. He knows that he has a good group of guys, but sometimes he knows they can get at eachother's throats. His main problem child is Gilroy. This soldier always seems to get into the most trouble out of all the squad members combined. Trevor made a few attempts before to bring him closer, however, always ending badly with Gilroy slipping deeper into his own form of isolation from the rest of the group Trevor now tries not to speak to him or even approach him. Trevor feels if Gilroy does something wrong, he will snap and only help to further isolate him from the group. Christopher usually deals with him.

"Reagal, if you're going to talk smack about somebody, make sure you do it behind their back," explains Christopher over the headset.

Seconds later, Christopher turns to stare at Gilroy, "And for you, at least he talks his smack in front of you. Not behind your back. Stick up for yourself. Get your head up too, you make yourself an easy target," explains Christopher.

Gilroy raises his head up. Christopher notices some redness in Gilroy's eyes through his clear lense eye protection as if he was about to go cry.

"Your team leader is right, Gilroy. Hunter, How many damn times did I tell you, stay out of other people's business. Reagal, watch your damn mouth. We are a squad, I intend to keep it that way. If anyone is going to fight they are going to have to go through me first. So calm the hell down," Trevor demands with conviction and an apparent anger in his voice.

All three soldiers respond with a "Roger Sergeant" all at once.

"Now back to what I was saying. You know, I figure they wouldn't let me stay back from a patrol for one night to finish my show, however, I do believe if our senior leadership gave the show a chance and watched a few episodes they may just change their mi....," Trevor is cut off to the sound of a gigantic explosion.

The sound of copper metal and shrapnel pepper Trevor's side of the vehicle with the sound of loud significant metal on metal contact. As a reaction, Trevor kneels forward in his seat towards the driver as Hunter slams on the breaks. Price in the turret is seen face diving into the center cab of the vehicle for protection. Everyone in the back starts screaming profanities over the headset in shock.

At that moment, Trevor can hear the vehicle behind him sound off on the radio with "Contact IED(improvised explosive device or roadside bomb). Contact IED lead vehicle."

It's Trevor's vehicle that has been hit. Everyone on the truck felt the concussion shoot through their chests as their ear drums ring. Everybody in the convey begins flooding the net for status reports from Trevor to see if he and his squad is okay.

"IS EVERYBODY ALRIGHT BACK THERE! YOU HEAR ME! GIVE ME AN UP!" yells Trevor through the headset while trying to look back and see if anyone is hurt.

He can now see that Hunter is okay. Trevor checks his body to see if he's been hit or has any blood stains. Nothing. As Trevor waits for the status of his soldiers in the back, he notices his TC side window is filled with metallic BB's and ball bearings. The plexi glass stopped it.

"I SAID GIVE ME AN UP RIGHT NOW MUNIZ!" yells Trevor now growing impatient only as a few seconds have just passed by.

Price comes up on the headset and says he is fine as he gathers himself and decides to stand back up so he can scan the area with his machine gun for any trigger men. His turret shield blocked the shraprnel from hitting him.

"Everyone is good back here sergeant. Nothing came through. We are fine," reports Christopher as he pats every soldier down in the back to include the gunner so he is sure everyone is okay and not wounded.

Trevor keys the headset and informs his leadership with an update. They respond and ask if their vehicle can move as Trevor notices the third truck behind him push past them at a high rate of speed to cover front side security.

"Wait one," responds Trevor.

"Hunter, how's the vehicle looking? Can we still move?" Trevor asks as he anxiously awaits an answer.

Hunter attempts to move forward but nothing happens. He then decides to restart the vehicle. The engine cranks up but nothing happens as he slams on the gas pedal. Trevor nods his head with acceptance and keys the headset.

"This is stalker 5, be advised, we are immobile. Going to have to hook up," Trevor transmits.

The platoon sergeant and the platoon leader acknowledges and tells the gunners to pickup their scans and look out for secondary devices. As rehearsed and practiced before, the first vehicle backs up to the front of Trevor's. The platoon leader pulls up on the contact side between the recovery vehicle and the blown out one to cover the soldiers as they dismount and hook up the tow bars.

Hunter hits the switch to open Trevor's TC side door. Trevor waits in anticipation with his weapon ready for the door to open wide enough so he can hop out. His squad members in the back of the vehicle already begin getting off the truck and undoing the tow bars which are strapped to the sides of the vehicles. Once Trevor is off, Hunter closes his door and hops off as well. Hunter walks around the vehicle to check out the damage.

It appears two tires have been blown along with just part of the side skirt plates. Trevor's door is blackened and peppered with sharpnel. There is a pefect circular hole about three to five inches in diameter which only pentrated an inch or so into the armor on Trevor's door.

It was obviously an EFP(Explosive Formed Projectile). It obviously wasn't set into place far back enough from the shoulder of the road because it didn't have enough time to form. If it did, it would have pentrated through the armor of the vehicle and killed Trevor. Trevor observes the hole in shock while his men attempt to hook up the tow bars to the vehicle in front of them. Few seconds later he snaps out of it and begins walking up to the front of the vehicle to help out. As he assists Gilroy in lifting up a piece of the heavy bar, a startled Ringo notices something.

"Hey, what the hell is that?" asks Ringo out loud as a general question to everyone in his squad.

Everybody stops what they are doing and looks up. Trevor begins to drift off at the sight of something on the ground.

There appears to be a group of people off-set of eachother off into the distance. No more than five or six. They are so far away, the mirage is noticeable off into the distance. They seem to be walking towards the sound of the blast. The thing which startled the squad, however, is the fact that these people are walking out in the middle of the desert without a village or road in plain view for miles. It is almost impossible to make out their faces because they are so far away.

"Who the hell takes a stroll out in the desert?" curiously asks Ringo.

"Maybe someone who planted a freaking EFP thats who," exclaims Reagal as he looks up at Price, who still inside his turret scanning for potential threats.

Reagal points his buddy Price in the direction of the approaching individuals as he takes aim with his rifle. That is when Trevor steps in.

"Pipe down dumb ass. Look it was a pressure plate detonation that set it off," sarcastically explains Trevor as he unravels duel metallic plates attached to eachother in the ground.

Trevor then begins to tug on the wire which leads to the device but stops short of going off the road.

"Yeah i'm not going any further. Could be booby trapped," Trevor tells himself out loud as he keys his portable radio to send the report to higher. The platoon leader acknowledges. The squad begins going about their business hooking up their disabled vehicle.

Trevor stands there by the side of the road as he looks out into the endless open desert. He stares at the indivuduals off into the distance who slowly approach his position without emotion on his face. After a few minutes go by, the platoon leader calls him back and informs him that EOD with QRF are en route to their location.

Andrew walks off the back of the C-130 into the glimmering sun of Kuwait as it beats down on his face with his ballistic vest, stripped of pouches and his helmet over his head. Himself and the group he is with to fly home are huddled onto an awaiting bus which will take them to a part of the base known as Ali Al Saleem or 'Tent City'.

A place which holds soldiers inbound and outbound into theater and which is a last stop for anyone leaving the middle east. Customs and various different types of administrative paperwork is delt here as well. Upon arriving to tent city, the group along with Andrew are huddled into a tent for a briefing. There, they are told that they will be there for forty-eight hours. Enough time to turn in their equipment, fill out their leave paperwork and get their tickets issued.

Once Andrew completes this process, he scurries over to the internet center to hop on a computer and check his email. He also intends to send Trevor's family an email displaying his intentions to come see them as well as message Trevor to see how he is doing. Once there, he loggs onto his yahoo account.

What he notices on the front page of yahoo news in big bold letters is something strange. There is an apparent news story regarding reports of widespread sickness and illness. Mass histeria and riots seem to be breaking out all over the world, including Iraq.

Andrew quickly hops on his yahoo messenger to see if Trevor is online. Once he does, he notices none of his 250 friends are on. Not even the ones who practically live on their computers. He decides to go back to the report to do some more research. Much of it is vague, however pretty much all of the major European powers and the United States and Canada claim to have the situation under control and encourage people to go about their daily lives without panic.

Whatever these reports mean, is almost some what of a fantasy to Andrew. Some how the government, it says, believes this outbreak of the 'flu' is some how connected to these riots is beyond Andrew's understanding. He decides to take his mind off it and heads over to the USO to shoot a few games of pool and watch some movies in the recreational rooms so time can pass by before his flight. He was given a timeline of when to show back up with his bags to catch his flight which only happened to be a little bit over 48 hours away.

A few hours here and there, Andrew grows bored and decides to get some rest. The rest of the remaining days before he goes home consists of some gym time, loafing around and still trying to get in contact with his brother who still hasn't responded to his messages yet. Tent city also has a McCdonalds, which is Andrew's favorite fast food joint. He already ordered a Big Mac with large fries and a diet coke three times since he been there.

Since supply is scarce out here in the desert where he is at, the stores and restaurants don't get resupplied as much as normal fast food restaurants in the states. The day he tried getting his order they didn't happen to have any of the sauce which goes with the famed Big Mac hamburger on hand. Frustrating as it may be, it didn't bother Andrew. He was just happy to get some time to himself before he heads home.

When the time finally came for him to show up at the pax terminal with his bags, one of the cadre there made him and the small group he was flying with to lay their bags down and create a formation so information could be put out regarding their flights. To Andrew's disapointment, he was told his flight has been delayed for another day. The cadre informs his group to be back here at the same time tomorrow with their bags expecting to fly.

This frustrated many soldiers as they picked up their bags to walk it back to their tents in disapointment. Andrew figures he would use this other day of free time to himself to get some more much needed rest and try to continue to contact his brother.

Another day goes by, same results. He walks up to the formation area once again with the same group of people holding their bags ready to go. The cadre who shows up with a clipboard out of the pax terminal calls for another formation and addresses the group once more with the bad news. The cadre conducts roll call. Once completed, he informs them that their flight is delayed yet again by another day or so. Keep checking back in at these times everyday until one opens up is the instructions his group was finally given.

Six more days go by with the same results every day, same time, same location. Many soldiers, now beyond frustrated, begins asking questions. The cadre can not give them any real answers. Some start asking if the recent reports of world wide flu and riots has anything to do with them not flying. The cadre ignores their questions and reminds them that he will try to gather as much information as he can. Once he knows, they will know he explains.

Three more days go by. Still no response from Trevor. Andrew grows worried.

This time in the formation area, not only is the cadre there, but various other high ranking cadres as well. They tell everyone to gather around them so they can explain the situation. The group obliges.

One of the higher ranking members of the Kuwaiti R&R staff steps forward with a serious look on his face and begins to brief the soldiers.

"Alright listen up. You all are definately flying today. However, you must be aware of a few things. Most parts of the United States right now is going through a very complicated time. There have been reports, like you all know, of widespread sicknesses and riots in the streets. This has pretty much engulfed the majority of the country right now at this point. Our government has everything under control, however, remains in a high state of alert. You will notice beefed up security checkpoints in Atlanta Airport along with the presence of Natioal Guard troops enforcing security. If you are to come into contact with any of these riots or altercations with any groups inciting these riots, you are to avoid them at all costs and notify authorities. We are serious on this. A few days ago we weren't going to allow any flights out of the country back to the United States until the security situation has improved or until these incidents came under control. Most of the country is literally in a state of emergency. However, the President isn't willing to completely shut the country down. It simply isn't an option. Remember while on your R&R, to stay safe, make an effort to avoid crowded public places and definately by any circumstances do not participate or go near any of these riots or protests. Got it?"

All of the soldiers nod their heads with worrisome looks on their faces. Andrew doesn't know what to make of this. He doesn't ask any questions as he files into the building to start the process to go home.

"Excuse me sir. Would you like to try our in flight meal?" asks the stewardess as she tries to narrowly fit through the flight walk way with a wheeled tray of food and drinks.

At that point, Andrew was almost asleep in his seat. He rises up from his seat while shaking his drowsiness off and reaches for whatever plate of food the nice lady gave him unaware of whats in it but still willing to eat it. He takes a few bites, then reclines back in his chair and closes his eyes. A few hours passes by.

Andrew awakes to to the sound of a beep and the pilot's voice. Andrew raises up his chair and his tray. He then proceeds to buckle his seatbelt. The pilot comes up over the intercom and informs the passengers of their descent into Atlanta Airport and his gratitude for all the fighting men and women in the armed services. He also welcomes the soldiers home and wishes them a safe trip back to their families which ever flight or vehicle they may need to get there. Excitement now fills Andrew's veins as he is wide awake and grateful to be back on American soil or airspace. Some turbulence begins.

The flight begins descending through the clouds. Moments later, Andrew notices out the window from his window seat from above the rural landscape of the outskirts of Atlanta. He has a good picture of all the neighborhoods in rows and how the streets window for miles and as far as the eye can see. He begins counting swimming pools and rows of cars as they pass through the main roads from above. What he also notices is lots of smoke coming from various different houses spread out across each neighborhood he passes which shoots up into the sky hundreds of feet.

Hard to tell whats going on around those areas because of the smoke. As the plane gradually drops closer to the surface he begins noticing traffic pile ups for miles. Some cars in line are also burning. Much of what he is seeing now catches his eye but figures there is a logical explanation for what he is seeing. So as a result, he pays it no mind.

Andrew decides to turn away from the window and pull out a sky mall magazine. He likes these magazines because of all the neat gadgets in it which costs a ridicilious amount of money and is normally completely useless in everyday life. Good way to pass the time he tells himself. As he flips through the pages of merchandise, something dongs on him.

What he saw outside, was anything but normal. Nothing out there made any sense. In matter of fact, in all actuality, it looked like a warzone outside. He places the magazine back in the front of his seat and looks back at the window. That is when the pilot comes back over the intercom to address the passengers.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. I am sure you all noticed from the view of your window all the commotion going on in the city and may think how it will effect us landing there. I just got off the horn with the tower and they assure us everything is secure and safe for us to land. What you are seeing right now is a product of the violence incited by the recent rioting mobs which sprang up all all over the country over the past ten days or so. Do not be alarmed, there is plenty of security personnell and officials to ensure a safe landing and smooth process to any connecting flights within the US you may need to take. Again I thank you for riding World Airways and hope to have you back soon. Welcome home once again," calmly states the pilot.

Andrew continues to look on, mesmerized at the sight of what he sees. Many of the passengers on board begin nervously conversing to eachother. The plane now begins descending onto the airstrip.

What used to look like ants to Andrew now appear larger and larger by the passing seconds. Andrew can hear and feel the wheels deploy from the belly of the plane as it touches surface.

"I'm back," he tells himself with a grin on his face.

Some soldiers on the plane begin clapping while displaying their excitement to finally be home.

[raggeldy]

Thanks for chapter 2 really enjoying the story.

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

Upon arrival, the passengers scoop up their carry-on baggage from the overhead compartments and begin funneling off the plane while lined up flight staff thank them for their service and give their best wishes as the passengers pass them by making their way to the terminal.

Once inside the terminal, Andrew is met by a man in dress uniform claiming to be an LNO(Unit Liasion) and begins directing soldiers to a nearby wall to take roll call and accountability.

As Andrew approaches the wall as part of the line of soldiers front to back, he notices increased security measures taken in the terminal. There are various three man team police officer roving patrols holding shotguns and assault rifles.

Dog teams roaming around the premises and also what appears to be National Guard soldiers setting up mock checkpoints throughout the terminal while checking ID cards at random and scanning approaching passengers as they walk by with some type of device.

Another thing that startled Andrew, was the fact that all of the security personnell within the terminal are wearing face masks to cover up their mouths from any potential spread of germs. Some also wore latex gloves. The soldiers carried Protective Gas Masks on their side hips as well.

Andrew notices whatever device the soldiers and police were using at the checkpoint, it wasn't any type of metal detector. The device they were using was being placed up against passenger's eyes, followed by a bright flash like a camera.

Three to five seconds later, a reviewer monitored whatever screen was attached to the device and decided whether or not the passenger was clear to proceed to his or her terminal.

Andrew and the soldiers line up along the wall with their assault packs on their backs. A man wearing a police uniform comes to the front of the line with a tactical shotgun slung across the front of his chest.

He begins screening soldiers one by one, asking where they are going and if their destinations are approved are not. He also follows up by scanning their eyes with a similiar device Andrew saw the others using earlier on civilians. After twelve or so soldiers are screened and cleared by to the customs checkpoint and ticketing, Andrew is next in line.

"Hello Mr. Wilcott," the officer cautously states.

"What may be your final destination today?" The man adds.

"Killeen Texas, sir," responds Andrew with a weird look on his face.

"Alright then, good so far. Please open your eyes as wide as possible and do not blink for ten seconds," the officer instructs.

Andrew obliges.

As the scanner rips through Andrew's retina, he feels his eye balls and sockets begin to heat up. It is a very uncomfortable feeling he tells himself as he struggles not to blink. Once he is complete, the officer reviews his results, clears him through and wishes him a good day.

Andrew doesn't know what to think of this. This is something he never experienced before in an airport, especially a secured part of the airport. What was going on seemed highly unusual and no doubt in his mind has something to do with the reports on the news, his flight being delayed so long and also the commotion going on outside which he beared witness to as he was landing.

Andrew speeds up his walking pace as he passes people in the crowded terminal and approaches the customs checkpoint. As he approaches, he waits in a line with a few soldiers ahead of him as they get their tickets stamped.

As he waits, he notices the other lines with civilians in them are pretty long and most of the travelers seem impatient. Many are coughing as well and look sickly. As the soldiers get cleared through one by one and Andrew gets closer, loud yelling and screams break out from the civilian side of the checkpoint.

Apparently one of the passengers being screened began kicking and screaming one of the checkpoint agents as they hauled him away into a backroom. His family members, who were obviously with him are now crying and throwing items from inside their pockets at the guards.

One of the family members of the man whom was dragged away, actually threw a punch at one of the agents. The checkpoint guards proceeded to tackle him and haul him away as well into the same room as his family member.

Andrew tries to mind his own business as a spectator as he gets his ticket stamped and proceeds through the checkpoint. The sound of screams and the cries from the checkpoint begin to fade out as he walks further and further away.

He is now on his way to ticketing to receive his boarding pass for his flight to Texas. Luckily, the lines aren't as long as the ones at customs. As a result, he receives it with relative ease. Some of the airline employees were also very helpful in guiding him to a nearby Kiosk and assisting him with his flight information.

Too easy he tells himself as he walks through his final checkpoint to get back into the secured area of Atlanta Airport.

While in line, he begins unbuckling his belt and removing several metallic items such as his watch, his dog tags and his lighter as he creeps up in line with the others waiting. He removes his boots one step at a time as well and carefully places them in the tray which will be scanned on the convayer belt.

As he waits in line, he notices a woman around his age right behind him constantly staring him down. He isn't sure if she likes him or not, or is just caught up in the uniform. He decides to give her a slight grin as he glances back.

She returns the favor.

Moments later and a few steps forward in line, she taps him on the shoulder.

"So you're in the Army huh? Where are you coming from?" asks the young lady.

"Iraq," Andrew embarassily responds with a slight blush on his face.

The lady now looks confused.

"Really? Wow. I thought they like, pulled out of there years ago. Isn't the war over?" curiously asks the young lady with an apparent confusion on her face.

Wow, what a ditz Andrew concludes to himself.

"Yeah, something like that," Andrew politely adds. Nothing follows.

A few moments of akward silence takes place and yet again a few steps later, the young lady concludes her conversation with Andrew.

"Well then, welcome home and stay safe. God bless you," the young lady concludes.

Andrew thanks her for her generousity while feeling slightly embarassed. He always hates it when people thank him for his service. Andrew feels that it is just another job for him and that people go way out their way to show respect or feel the need to say something. This makes him feel uncomfortable as he just wishes to go about his business in peace.

Andrew finally reaches the TSA checkpoint and walks through the metal detector. Once he is cleared, he scoops up his items and begins putting all his stuff back on. Before he takes off, one of the TSA employees stops him and hands him an elastic germ mask to cover his mouth with.

"It's a requirement in this area. Do not take it off," the checkpoint guard orders.

Andrew, with an even more confused look on his face, complies.

After taking that new information in, moments later he glances at his boarding pass. It says he must go to Terminal C. He is currently in Terminal A. Andrew proceeds to the train which takes passengers to all the terminals within the airport.

While waiting on the lower level by the stairs for the train to approach, he is surrounded by many would-be passengers. The airport is packed today, like always. At least he isn't the only one with this mask on. Everyone in the terminal is wearing one, even the security personnell.

As he waits for his train, a few minutes go by while at least one patrol of police officers pass by them on foot with a K-9 on a leash. As the men pass by, Andrew notices a man in a business suit a few persons down from him fall to the ground and go into a seizure.

Everybody begins screaming and running off. The dog that is with the officers begins barking loudly like he wants to attack the man on the ground. That is when the train shows up. Some people who were just passing by, not even needing to get on the train, decide to hop on it with Andrew to avoid the man violently shaking uncontrollably on the ground. Once Andrew squeezes his way into the compacted train, the doors shut as he sees the police officers race towards the man. The train takes off.

Andrew now listens to the passengers in order to piece together what he just saw. He's been seeing a lot of seizures lately and none of it makes sense.

"Oh my god, is it here now? What are we going to do. I didn't think it would come this far!" exclaims a frightened lady on the train.

Many of the passengers are now panicing. Some of the small children are crying including two small boys whom clinge to their mother's hip. She attempts to calm them down by stroking their hair. The children are wearing Disney World T-shirts and Mickey Mouse hats. She desperately tries to comfort them by reminding them of their fun trip to Disney, the place they were just returning from

A random male passenger in vacation like attire adds, "This wasn't in any of the reports. Maybe that man was just sick. Nobody said anything about it coming here, so everyone just calm down."

"What the hell is going on here? Anybody want to fill me in?" Andrew asks a random passenger in the corner whom appears to also be frightened.

She looks up at him and tries to tell him something. That is when she is cut off by the automated voice on the train announcing their arrival into Terminal B.

The train then comes to a screeching halt while the automated voice drowns out and all the lights shut off. The train is now so dark you can not even see the front of your hand. Some of the passengers try to panically open up the doors without any progress. Screams of panic and cries begin to break out. A few of the passengers inside the train, are heard in the dark falling to the ground and shaking. Obviously another seizure case while some of the passengers still standing are hit in the legs by the uncontrollable violent compulsions emitted by the afflicted.

After futile efforts to open the doorway, many of the passengers begin ramming themselves into it and beating on the doors until it mericiliously slid open.

The train's exit way wasn't quite lined up with the boarding platform so the passengers had to squeeze out one by one between the wall of the tunnel and the remaining room to exit the door of the train. As they file out one by one, Andrew randomly asks out loud if anyone is going to help these people going through seizures on the ground. A few people warn him to leave them alone and not go near them.

His best bet is to get off the train now. Many just ignore his pleas and attempt to funnell through the crack of the doorway to safety. Andrew is one of the last to leave the train. There are only two others behind him, including the frieghtened lady he previously tried to converse with before the train wigged out on them. She keeps telling them to hurry up frantically as she pushes the man ahead of her ahead, which in turn bumps into Andrew.

Andrew can see where the exit is because the beam of light which shoots through the crack.

Andrew approaches and wiggles his way out, as he does this however, he notices the afflicted passengers on the ground stopped shaking. Upon entering the hallway he notices numerous bodies on the ground and blood stains everywhere.

Flickering lights down the hallways as far as the eye can see and broken glass everywhere. The rest of the passengers who escaped the train are already in shock and observing the situation.

Once the man behind Andrew finally escapes through into the hallway, he turns back to grab the last lady's hand to assist her out. That is when she begins frantically screaming and yelling for help. The man, who has her hand and is trying to pull her into the hallway, can feel her body being pulled back into the dark train.

Andrew sees this and runs up to help. As he tugs on the passenger, they both fall back empty handed. The lady still on the train, is heard screaming in pain until her screams are drowned out by gurgling sounds and the sound of life leave her voice. Everybody in the hallway now, even more in shock, begin slowly walking backwards towards the walls and the stairs which leads up into Terminal B.

Some of the passengers, around a group of thirteen to twenty, place their hands over their mouths in shock.

As Andrew backs away from the dark abandoned train, he trips over a corpse on the ground which seemed to be half eaten. As he hits the ground, buttocks first, he quickly realizes what tripped him. Startled as he was, he quickly stands up and attempts to wipe the blood off the bottom of his ACU pants while merging back into the crowd of the scared passengers.

The sounds of gunfire erupts above the stairwell. More screams can be heard. One of the men of the group decides to take a few able bodied males up the stairwell to further investigate while telling the others to stay put. The rest agree, along with Andrew who stands by and attempts to wipe the blood stains off of his uniform. One of the men who approach the top of the stairwell slowly, pulls out an XD .40 sub-compact pistol.

Everyone glares at him as he chambers a round. Knowing what people are thinking, the man turns around and looks down upon the group from the middle of the stairwell and informs them that he is an Air Marshall. Some show a sigh of relief, thinking they are safe, however, some know better and still realizes how grim the situation as one of the mothers attempt to stand in front of her children blocking them from the stairwell.

The Air Marshall brings his pistol to the high ready as he slowly aims down his sight to the top of the stairwell along with two other males behind him placing their fists up as if they were ready for fight. The sounds of automatic gunfire can be heard as well as semi-automatic fire. People upstairs can be heard screaming as they run by from above. Once the Air Marshall approaches the top of the stairs and can see what is on the other side, he slowly places his weapon down.

"Oh my god," he whisphers.

The other men in the group frantically ask what's wrong. The passengers down below heard that part. The Air Marshall then turns around and begins yelling.

"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! GO NOW MOVE IT!" the Air Marshall screams and hollers as he descends down the staircase trying to push the others down who are in his way.

Some of the passengers begin to panic once again while asking the man what the problem is. The Air Marshall continues to yell as he runs by them in the direction of Terminal A and baggage claim/ticketing upon reaching the end of the staircase.

A few members of the group decide to follow him. Others take off in the direction towards Terminal C. Some stay there in confusion, still too shocked to believe why they ought to begin running, especially with their luggage in hand. Andrew on the other hand, doesn't ask any questions and follows the guy with the gun.

A few other survivors also follow suite. As the group of passengers, including Andrew sprint down the hallway of flickering lights, some of the passengers who are with them attempt to carry their wheeled luggage. One of the mothers of the group, whom took off running the direction behind the Air Marshall, told her children who wore their Disney shirts to follow her, assuming they were right behind her.

When she looked back and noticed they weren't keeping up, she attempted to turn around to grab them, when the mob of screaming passengers running off in the opposite direction crowded in between her and her children in a frantic fashion.

Many of these people, who now came under attack by the assailants who descended down the staircase, were now engaged in a crowded frenzy of fighting and attacks which led to the children being seperated on the other side of the crowd.

The mother, who desperately shouted out to her children and tried to fight through the mob of attackers, was shoved by one of the survivors trying to escape back about ten feet where she fell to the ground and smashed the back of her head as she fell.

As a result, this put her into an apparant dazed and confused state. As she attempts to rise and regain her conscienceness, some people following the Air Marshall, along with Andrew lifted her up and frantically pursuaded her to follow them. It now became apparent to the group that the attackers within the crowd of passengers who were on the ground level, are now eating their victims alive without mercy.

As the blood bath ensued, the group takes off running along with the screaming frantic mother as she continues to look back for her children. Some members of the group, including Andrew, convince her while they are running that they saw her children run off in the direction they are headed which is towards the main terminal.

As a result, she believed them and proceeded to follow them. As they pick up their pace The Air Marshall glances back at a few more of the remaining survivors who are falling behind and frantically tells them to drop their 'damned' bags a second time.

Some follow suite, some do not. The ones who fail to heed the man's advice, begin falling way behind the group. The passengers, who are still left at the bottom of the staircase being torn apart, now begin screaming and hollering as they lay victim to bloodied assailants who don't even look human. Some try to reason with them while others begin screaming.

Andrew looks back and witnesses them be tackled to the ground by the mob as their flesh begins ripping from their body at the hand of the angried mob. Andrew does not know what to make of this. He decides to keep running with the Air Marshall in the lead.

Only a handful of passengers are now keeping up with Andrew and the Marshall. Andrew still has his assault pack slung over his back, however it is light weight and not slowing him down any so he decides not to take it off. As they sprint down the long hallway towards Terminal A, assailants begin storming out of passing bathrooms and neighboring staircases. A few of the attackers block the group's path. As a result, the Air Marshall takes aim while on the move and begins opening fire to clear a path. He does this quite well as he drops two to four assailants whom tried to come at them as they ran by.

"KEEP MOVING! DON'T SLOW DOWN THEY ARE RIGHT BEHIND US!" yells the Marshall as Andrew turns around to see the crowd behind him get larger and larger as they pursue them.

Many who decided not to scrap their luggage who fell behind, are now no where to be found. Andrew assumes the assailants got ahold of them as it slows the crowd down and distracts them from his group.

As they continue running, a TSA agents pops out of the bathroom with a metal pipe in hand ready to attack. However, as he came out of the exit so fast he bumped into one of the survivors of Andrew's group. Both of them fall to the ground violently. The Air Marshall takes aim to the man's head while on the ground and is about to shoot until the man begins frantically yelling obsencities due to the pain he endured.

The Marshall lowers his pistol and orders the TSA employee to stand his up and keep moving with the rest of them. The man asks no questions and follows suite. The hallway back to Baggage claim and ticketing is a long one. However, it seems like most of the assailants just so happened to be behind them.

There were a few to the group's front in which they tried to interfere with the group's path to terminal A, however, the Marshall took care of them quick with his pistol before they could get too close.

The ones who were feeding on some of the many corpses laid out all over the airport he ignored because they were distracted and not a threat. They did not even pay any attention to the group as they ran by.

Upon taking a corner, one of the members of the group who happens to be a flight stewardess, whom ditched her high heels about three hundred meters back, slid on a pile of guts in a pool of blood which was in the middle of the floor.

The group stops as she screams out in disgust. They run back to help her up as the mob quickly approach from behind, however, still maintaining a good distance away. As she gets up she begins screaming even more as she realizes the blood is all up in her hair and all over her backside.

The men tell her to keep moving and to not look back. Even an older lady in the group who is obviously physically fit enough and keeping up, tells her to quit being a girl and to move it.

The stewardess obliges without any sarcastic remarks.

The group picks up and begins moving again down the long hallway. For the time being, they seem to be in the clear as they approach oncoming signs reading 'Baggage Claim' and 'Ticketing'.

They realize it isn't far now. There are still dead bodies scattered all over the long strip of hallway and some being moved from one point to the other on the automatic walkways. It is a gruesome scene. Many of the survivors just try to ignore the dead as they pass by them running. Andrew included.

As they continue to move, the Air Marshall makes a comment to Andrew.

"You're in the Army, don't you have a weapon?" the man sarcastically asks.

"Only when they decide to give me one," Andrew angerily answers.

Andrew is now apparently angered at the man's inappropriate and needless comment.

"Mine is locked up in a connex in Iraq," a winded Andrew exclaims as he continues running along side the Air Marshall.

The Air Marshall doesn't respond. As he is in the lead, he suddenly stops and puts his arms up signaling the group to a halt. Everyone stops. The man begins raising up his pistol in a defensive posture and begins slowly approaching what now seems to be the beginning of the staircase and escalator to the main entrance of the terminal(baggage claim and ticketing).

What the group notices however, is a pile of three to five bodies laid out on the base of the stairwell, whom are obviously deceased and torn apart. What caught the Air Marshall's eyes however, is the fact that some of them in the pile began to move.

"What the hell is going on!" one of the ladies in the group calls out. Her apparent boyfriend, tells her to calm the down and be quiet.

"Hey soldier boy, are you seeing what I am seeing? Those people over there are dead. Look at them, their torsos and arms have obviously been eaten. Theres blood everywhere and they are now moving!" shockingly exclaims the Air Marshall.

"They can't be dead if they are moving," explains Andrew as he slowly approaches the pile with the Air Marshall by his side.

The TSA employee is on the other side of the Air Marshall holding his pipe up in a defensive posture.

To the group's horror, three of the dead bodies, obviously mutilated and ripped apart, begin standing up. Two of them begin looking around as one of them notices the survivors slowly approaching them. The one who noticed, as he stood up with an apparent laceration going through his torso, guts began to spill out as he stood more erect. He did not have any pupils either. The man proceeds to stare in the group's direction and yell out a horrific screetching noise from his mouth as he begins stumbling towards the survivors with his jawline wide open. The other two pick up on the third one and begin following him now noticing the obvious meal that awaits.

"Shoot these bastards!" yells Andrew to the Air Marshall.

The Marshall takes aim and pulls the trigger. Nothing happens.

"Damnit!" exclaims the Air Marshall as he quickly drops his magazine and goes for another one attached to his belt concealed inside his coat. He makes a quick reload, chambers the first round and opens fire center mass into the lead assailant's chest.

The fast approaching attacker doesn't fall down and keeps moving. Shocked as he is, the Marshall decides to aim for the assailant's head with two rounds. This drops the man instantly. Quickly catching on, he places two more well aimed shots into the heads of the other two which were right behind the attacker who just dropped to the floor lifelessly.

All three of them seem to be deader than before for they ceased to move. The panicing and now screaming mother, as she continues to look back for her children, begins second guessing the group's advice on her children. She tells them that she is going back for them. As she tries to take off, one of the older ladies of the group stops her by grabbing the back of her shirt and attempts to convince her otherwise.

"Hey, how do you know they aren't already up there?" she says as she points upwards towards the stairwell in the direction of more screams and gunfire.

"Stick with us, or else you will die!" the woman states with conviction and concern for the woman's life.

The mother, still shaking and now beginning to cry, nods her head in silence.

The group takes off on foot once more for the base of the stairwell. As Andrew moves, he picks up the Air Marshall's magazine he left on the floor as he then picked up a sprint to catch up to the group. They move around the pile of bodies and begin ascending the stairwell, again with the Air Marshall in the lead at the high ready scanning for anymore potential attackers.

As they get closer to the top, they can hear screaming and loud noises of running footsteps hitting the ground. Gun shots can be heard off in the distance, obviously from outside the front of the entrance to the airport.

Once the group reaches the top of the stairwell and into the main ticketing and baggage claim area, what they witness is something out of a movie. Sheer chaos ensued inside the terminal. Innocent people running every which way to safety as their bloodied, unhuman like pursuers chase them down.

Security personnell are engaged in combat outside the very entrance and can be seen taking cover behind burning vehicles as they shoot into crowds of individuals who are charging at them. Some of the attackers are fast and some move at a walking pace. The ones who decide to run are more successful in tackling their victims to the ground and ripping out pieces of flesh with their mouths.

The slower ones, stumble upon injured and crawling victims and devour them in groups. The group realizes they haven't been noticed yet in the mist of the chaos. They decide to push forward to the exit while sticking close to eachother and calling out some assailants to the man with the gun who rush their formation.

Those few are quickly dropped quickly with a round to the head by the Air Marshall's shooting ability and seemingly large supply of ammo he is carrying on him. As they push closer to the doorway, Andrew notices a Little League Baseball team caught up in the chaos trying to take refuge on the other side of the ticket counter by the conveyer belt for luggage.

Many of the assailants on the other side are devouring what seems to be their coach, judging by the uniform and lone single adult matching the children's jersies, along with various other children who attempt to sprint to safety only to be picked up by the assailants and eaten alive.

All Andrew hears now are the unbearable horrific screams of innocent children having their flesh torn apart by adults. Andrew, willingly knowing this could be a fatal mistake, would never forgive himself if he just let the remaining frieghtned children die. While almost to the exit with his group, he makes the final decision to do something about it. With or without the group after a few seconds of pondering the consequances.

"We can not just leave them there to die like that!" Andrew yells in a frantic, almost mad tone of voice.

Many of the survivors in the tight circulary formation, back to back while covering all sides begin yelling at him to come back as he breaks his spot in the formation and pushes some of the survivors out of the way to sprint over to the ticket counter.

"This guy is going to get us killed. Let's just keep going," one of the survivors in a business suit says.

Now, obviously not agreeing with the move, but taken over by conscience for the young, some of the survivors begin to follow Andrew as they come to the children's aide. The mother, some how believing her childeren may be with those other kids, follows Andrew without hesitation. The Air Marshall and the TSA employee follow suite while the lone man in the business suit stays behind and hides behind a Kiosk yelling at them and calling them crazy for going back there.

The Air Marshall catches up to Andrew only a few feet behind him and begins clearing a path to the other side of the ticket counter with his pistol dropping one cannibalistic assailant at a time. The remaining team members on the outside can not be saved, for they let loose their last screams before dieing of too much loss of blood or shock while they are surrounded and eaten by numbers of people.

Andrew comes across one of the attackers right before he jumps the counter and punches him in the face as he moves making the woman who came at him in a animal like motion fall to the ground. Andrew instantly hops the counter. Seconds later, followed by the rest of the group.

What Andrew sees on the other side of the counter are crying children, dozens of them hunkered down to the floor with their hands over their heads. Some of them are reciting songs they once heard in fear to drown out the horrific noise of people being slaughtered while others are crying for their mothers and fathers.

A few of them also have their hands over their ears while curled up into the fetal position trying to block out the sounds of gunfire, screams and people being eaten alive.

"Are you kids alright? Don't be afraid of us we are here to protect you. All of you need to come with us, okay?" Andrew explains in a polite, calm voice to soothe the childrens fears.

All of them remove their hands from their previous positions to a sense of hope. One of the children, who seems to have no emotional reaction to the entire situation, crawls up to Andrew and informs him of the location of the team's baseball bats still located on the conveyer belt in a large black duffle bag.

Andrew and the survivors quickly crawl over to the belt to find the bag and open it while one of the ladies attempts to comfort the children by telling them everything will be alright and patting them on their shoulders. The mother, who is searching for her children, frantically crawls up to each child on all fours to closely inspect their faces while calling out her children's names. None of the children are hers. Once Andrew finds the bag, he unzips it. What he finds are about a dozen aluminium bats which he passes out to the remaining group of survivors whom hopped the counter with him.

"Now you kids listen to me. Once one of us yells the word 'GO', all of you need to pick up and sprint straight for the exit okay? I am not kidding, you do nothing but run, GOT IT?" a now winded Andrew instructs to the children with a sense of seriousness in his voice.

All of the children fearfully nod their heads in agreement to what they were just told.

"On three alright people," Andrew tells his group of batters.

The Air Marshall goes to check how much he has in his magazine real quick before hopping the counter.

1.....
2.......
3!

Everyone hops the counter almost simountanisly. The Air Marshall takes lead once again, sending rounds into the assailant's heads one at a time as he tactically walks forward at the high ready. The rest of the group, armed with only aluminium bats, spread out, on line with one another and attack the assailants who are in a feeding frenzy. Each attacker is met with an aluminum bat to cranium as the group pushes forward to engage more of the assailants.

Some of those which dropped to the ground instantly, others not so much. The ones who attempted to get back up were met with more blows to the head until they ceased to move. This goes on for a few more minutes as the group pushes forward to clear a path to the exit while passing up various mutiliated children and the baseball coach, whom appeared to be dismembered so bad, all of his limbs were removed to include his head which was located a few feet from his neck.

Once Andrew and the group reaches the exit, Andrew yells the all clear word of 'GO' to the children.

Most of them pickup from the other side of the counter and run into the direction of the path that was just cleared while some took off in a dead sprint in the wrong direction back towards the embattled airport terminal the group just came from.

Once most of the children hit the sidewalk outside just about all of them scattered in different directions. Andrew noticed some of them instantly become spotted by more assailants on the outside and chased down while some took off into the clear.

That is when the man in the business suit who was hiding behind the Kiosk comes running up to link back up with the group. Nothing was said as they didn't notice him all that much with the exception of Andrew and the Air Marshall.

The child who informed Andrew about the team's baseball bats, decided not to run off into the distance. Instead, he decided to stay with the group. As a result, he began tugging on Andrew's leg and asked him if he could stay with them.

Andrew nodded his head in agreement. Once the group has lost sight of all the children, they proceed through the exits as a whole into the streets while the summer Georgia sun glares down upon on them.

Upon hitting the streets, they realize they are in the middle of crossfire between the security forces still holding on a little bit down the way. Many of them take cover behind some cars parked out front for departures as bullets weezed by over their heads.

Various explosions can be heard off into the distance at this point. Now unaware of what to do, the members of the group peak out from the other side of cover to find potential escape routes.

The TSA employee spots an abandoned airport transportation bus which has been slammed cab first into a light pole. However, still seeming operable. The man informs the group of what he sees. After some argument, they all agree to sprint across the embattled street to it's refuge.

Still unaware of the functionability of the vehicle, Andrew decides to go first in order to see if the bus can be turned on.

He tells the group once he finds out whether or not it will work he will proceed to sound the horn signaling them to cross the street to it's safety. Upon final agreement, Andrew picks up in a dead sprint across the street with his head and body attempting to stay lay to avoid passing gunfire.

The survivors have a clear view of him as he boards the bus.

Upon entering the bus, before entering the driver's seat, he can be seen from a distance by the other survivors stopping while staring at the floor of the bus, which is unseen to the survivors on the other side of the road observing him.

Moments later, he lifts the bat up into the air and begins pummeling what ever is in the center aisle of the bus. Andrew uses a few swings until he is satisified and is seen throwing the bat down on a nearby seat.

A few seconds go by, then, to the group's amazement, the sound of the bus's horn begins whistling through their ears.

The frantic mother, looks back to the entry way of the terminal for her children out of last minute desperation that she would see them come running out into her arms. The older lady in the group however, notices this and glares at her with a type of sadness in her eyes. She shakes her head towards the mother and places her head down in continued sadness before rising up and taking off in a dead sprint with the survivors whom are ahead of her crossing the road. The mother, begins crying uncontrollably as she picks up and follows behind the older lady.

end chapter 2

[bad_karma00]

Really digging this so far! Good action, and well described panic! Keep at it!

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

CHAPTER 3
Survival Of The Fittest


"Damn you Reagal! That was my last Rip It! How are you just going to come into my fridge and take my last energy drink out without asking?" angrily exclaims Price after returning from an all day ordeal down in the motorpool fixing up his recently blown up truck with the mechanics.

"Here I am, hard at work, busting my chops for the man, while you sit here playing Playstation and drinking up all my supply. Dismounts are lazy!" complains Price as he unslungs his weapon and takes off his ACU top.

"Come on boss man, you know i'm good for it. Whatever I take from you, I replace in threes. You know this just as well as I know this," counters Reagal with his feet propped up on Price's makeshift plywood desk while holding an empty Rip It can.

"On a lighter note though, how's our truck?" asks Reagal as he pauses his video game.

Price proceeds to sit by Reagal on the floor and takes the controller from him. He begins playing where Reagal left off.

"The truck is good. Had to scrap some parts for the engine off other POG MRAPS that has not been out on any missions. It took forever man. Those tires we replaced were heavy too. Good thing Hunter and Sergeant Wilcott got strong arms," jokingly adds Price.

He then goes on to add, "Yeah I pretty much supervised that operation. They were lost without my guidance. God, i'm so awesome."

Reagal lifts up an eyebrow in dissapproval. Price continues.

"We're going to need a new paintjob though. Can't get that shrapnel out. Sergeant was pretty lucky, if the EFP was spaced further back it would have had enough time to form and he would of been toast," Price now explains on a more serious note.

"Oh yeah by the way, how's my download going?" Price excitingly asks Reagal who was monitoring his computer for him while he was gone.

"Internet went down hours ago bro. Even some of the guys who came back from the phone center told us the phone lines are down too," explains Reagal.

"Ahh, did anyone die?" curiously asks Price as he continues to play his video game.

"Nah man, we aren't in any type of blackout," responds Reagal.

"Well I guess that is why all the civilians and higher ups high tailed it out of town. They signed a contract for six figures a year, none of that included no internet and phones," Price continues to make jokes.

"Yeah I hear that. This place is a freaking ghost town. Hardly anyone around here anymore except military and low level leadership. I wonder when the Battalion Commander and Sergeant Major is coming back," Reagal responds.

Price shakes his head with indifference.

"At least theres no more lines in the PX and the DFAC," counters Price.

Reagal suddenly changes his facial expression.

"Oh yeah man, I forgot to tell you. Go into the hallway and check the board," Reagal informs.

Price pauses his game and walks out into the hallway up to the platoon message board which members of the platoon look at for daily information and mission times.

Price glares at it as other members of his platoon start swearing as they walk away. The board reads that the PX and the DFAC will be closed indefinately due to lack of staff.

"What the hell is this!" Price yells.

"I'm out of dip," he whines as he walks back to his room.

"GILROY! Hey deuscher, wake your mug up!" Hunter yells as he flips open Gilroy's divider leading into his room while storming up to his bed.

Gilroy, laying in bed with his eyes closed, quickly snaps up at the sound of Hunter storming his room in anger.

"Where the hell were you supposed to be at eight hours ago?" Hunter furiously asks expecting a quick response the angrier he waits.

Gilroy shoots up from his bed and checks his alarm clock.

"My alarm didn't go off. I, I, I don't know what happened," Gilroy confusingly explains as he wipes his eyes off to wake up.

Hunter angrily rips his clock off the counter and checks what he set it for.

"See, dumb ass. There's your damn problem. You set it for 7 PM, not 7 AM. It was just me and Price down there the whole damn time fixing our truck. I know Sergeant said you had to help us. We really needed it too, but since you decided to be a lazy deusch and forget how to do common tasks, we had to do it ourselves. Sergeant Wilcott came down there to help us and he was asking about you!" Hunter exclaims as he smashes Gilroy's alarm clock on the floor and storms out into the hallway swearing out loud.

Gilroy acts like nothing happened and proceeds to get his uniform on.

"Damn Ringo, slow down. Going way too fast!" Christopher orders with a chuckle as he tries to sprint up behind Ringo while on perimeter road.

The pair decided to go running together to kill some time while their truck gets fixed. They decided to run four miles today. Ringo is a very fast runner. Actually, the fattest runner in the company. His time on the 2 mile run usually averages between 11:45 and 12:30. Christopher only runs in the meager 15 minute time block. As a result, Ringo slows it down to allow his team leader to catch up.

"Sorry Sergeant, wasn't trying to kill you or anything," Ringo states.

Christopher glances over as he catches up to see whether or not he was joking with him. However, like always, nobody can ever tell whether or not Ringo is serious or playing around for he is always stoic and mostly silent. The pair get in sync with eachother on the running pace and are now running shoulder to shoulder together about one mile into their run.

"So Ringo, I hear you got Yakuza connections. What's up with that? Were you ever in a crime syndicate?" curiously asks Christopher basing his questions off of Trevor's suspicion.

Ringo rolls his eyes as he's moving.

"Maybe I did, Maybe I do. Either way, none of it matters anymore. a lot of my family are Yakuza. However, I am here now. What does it matter?" Ringo asks with conviction and calmness.

"It doesn't matter bro. I'm just curious man. I mean, one minute you're yelling at lower enlisted and making them sweep floors, then the next thing you know, they know people who can take out your whole family as a result of a single phone call. Pretty bad ass if you ask me. Feels like the start of a movie," jokes Christopher as he begins going in and out of breath struggling to keep up the pace.

Now appearing annoyed and unwilling to go any further with the conversation, Ringo responds.

"Maybe we should do less talking and more breathing."

"Fair enough." Christopher concludes.

Another mile goes by as they reach the turn around point. The last quarter mile in, Ringo decided to pick it up to his normal pace, which was much faster than Christopher's. Ringo beat him to the turn around point by about two minutes where he stopped and stared off past the fenceline into the direction of the village adjacened to the base. As Christopher finally comes running up, he notices Ringo in a dead pause just staring in shock. Christopher asks him with a shortness of breathe what was wrong as he begins to slow down to come to a halt.

Ringo just points his finger in the direction of the village. Christopher turns his head and notices what caught Ringo's eye. The entire village seemed to be in engulfed in flames while spots of what appears to be Iraqi civilians trying to escape in mass groups. The two just stare in disbelief for a few moments until Christopher reminds Ringo they both have to get back to the unit and find out what is going on. The pair take off at a much faster pace than before on the way back to the tent.

Trevor sits in his 'aim high' chair as he runs a cleaning rod through the barrell of his M4 carbine with his head slightly down in silence. After attempting to pull the rod out from the muzzle with one strong jerk, he proceeds to change out his dirty square cotton cloth which was attached to the end of the rod and attempt another go around.

Moments later, he turns his attention to his upper receiver and begins to clean out his star chamber with a Q-tip while he tries to take his mind off his brother and the rest of his family. Trevor is upset that he could not see his brother before he left for R&R leave due the last minute mission which came up in the middle of the night.

His platoon was tasked out by their commander to conduct a perimeter sweep with their vehicles in the middle of the night for a couple of hours due to the abandonment of the guard towers and security personnell.

That is when the platoon sergeant walks into his living area with a notepad.

"Hey Wilcott. Round up the guys in the hallway, we have to talk," orders the man with a serious look on his face.

Trevor obliges while carefully placing his rifle parts down on a laid out rag. The platoon sergeant waits in the hallway while all the soldiers begin scurrying out of their rooms. Trevor rounds up his soldiers and informs others of the platoon meeting as he walks by them. Christopher and Ringo come walking in as well moments later covered in sweat from their run. Once everybody is there around the platoon sergeant, he proceeds to address them.

"Alright listen up everybody. I don't want to hear any whining or moaning out of any one of you. As you know, a lot of facilities are closing down here. Mainly because of the pull-out in the coming months. As we all know, we will be leaving here soon and this is only the start of it. I don't want anyone panicing at the sight of empty guard towers and ECP's. The contractors here and the Department of State Personnell are to assume control of this area in their little sealed off perimeter down the way. I know there has been a lot of confusion about whats been going on. Soldiers getting sick, rioting in the street and such. You all just got to know that has nothing to do with us and is solely IA and IP(Iraqi Police) responsbility. We all have to....," One of the soldiers rudely interrupts his platoon sergeant with a comment regarding security.

"Hey Sergeant, I think it's fair to say there is more going on here than just a pull-out. This Department of State you speak of is no where to be found. They all high tailed it out of here on the flights we've been seeing. We all know the Ugandan Triple Canopy soldiers weren't supposed to pull back from guarding the perimeter for another month. They just high tailed it out of here as well and left our towers and perimeter unsecure. There has to be more to what you are just telling us," the soldier concernly explains.

Now appearing agitated, the platoon sergeant responds.

"Don't you dare interrupt me again. Got it? What they tell me is what I tell you. I am not withholding information from anybody within this platoon. I am sure there are still Department of State officials here ready to assume, you just haven't been seeing them. As far as the security goes, the contract with Triple Canopy must of ended earlier than expected. Now to address the recent sicknesses and deaths within the unit over the past few weeks. Our chain of command decided to limit the unit's movement. We are now only restricted to our little living quarters, the company area and whenever missions arise," the platoon sergeant explains.

That is when he gives the signal to the platoon leader to hand him over a sealed box. The platoon sergeant takes it in hand and places it on the floor. He proceeds to pull out his pocket knife and cut the seal. Seconds later, he begins passing out light blue germ masks with the elastic strap for all to wear.

"Everybody and his damn mother will be wearing these for now on. Only exception is mission time. Nobody is allowed in the gym anymore either. The phone center near us is off limits as well. As far as the internet and phones going down, don't expect them to come back up any time soon," the leader explains as he passes out the germ masks.

All of the soldiers are frustrated by the news as it is easily noticable with their facial expressions. Their leader then informs them of an upcoming mission tonight after dark and to get the trucks ready an hour prior after receiving the thumbs up from Trevor regarding the status on his newly fixed truck.

"Also, I know we have a few bed ridden, sick like soldiers within our ranks. I've identified five. Squad leaders, let those guys know they are not to be going out. Escort them over to the aid station and turn them over to the company medics. They will be staying over at the TMC(troop medical clinic) for the next week across the FOB for monitoring and evaluation. More on this flu, it seems to be more than the name. It starts you off with cold chills and excessive sweating. Coughing follows and bodily aches. Once you are in the advanced final stages, you slip into seizure mode. Once you reach that stage, it is 100% fatal. Our unit Physician believes it is spread by saliva and sweat. Any type of direct infection into the bloodstream, speeds up and advances the effects of the sickness ranging between minutes to hours. This is some very serious stuff guys, don't play this off. Wear the damn mask and limit the whining. Also, limit your contact with other people just to your squad members and within the platoon. For the guys who share a room with our sick ones, you will be moving out right after this meeting," the platoon sergeant explains with an apparent uncertainity and fear in his eyes.

Genuine concern is expressed in his words, something which has never been shown before in this man. This led all the soldiers in the hallway to take what he was saying ten times more serious than on any other average day or situation.

One of the soldiers raises his hand to ask a question. The platoon sergeant lifts his chin in response.

"Is this happening only here or else where as well?" asks the soldier in a broken and worried tone of voice.

"I don't know. Nobody knows. I assume it's happening else where because a lot of the information we received was from outside sources helping us cope with this before we went black on communications with the outside world," the platoon sergeant responds.

Everybody now shakes their heads in disbelief. A few of the soldiers in the back call out a few words while another one asks what he meant by "black on communications".

To calm panic, the platoon sergeant proceeds to explain, "Now now, don't be freaking out. Systems probably went down for other reasons. Reasons we don't know of yet. Could be technical in nature or other. Soon we will figure this out and i'll let all of you know whats up. Until then, keep your mind occupied and focus on the task at hand. We still have to run our patrols and focus on the mission before we leave here. Are we all clear?"

Everybody in the hallway nods their heads in agreement. The senior leadership walks out of the tent.

The platoon seems to be at a point of unease now. Apparent confusion and fear fills the soldier's faces. Trevor, sort of still in a state of denial to the changing world around him, ignores most of it and goes about his business back to his room to finish cleaning his weapon.

He wants to be lost in thoughts of his family and his brother whom he dearly misses. Once he sits down, he remembers what he just been told. Those sick soldiers in his platoon need to be brought to the aide station. He stands up to gather some members of his platoon including Hunter and Ringo whom he found talking with Price and Reagal about Gilroy's incompetence and laziness.

"Hey, ya'll give me a hand with those bed ridden boys," Trevor orders as he walks into one of the sick soldier's tent. The group follows Trevor.

An hour passes by before they can actually get these soldiers ready to be moved. Most of them were so weak, they needed help getting their boots on. Trevor and his men had to help eachother lift them up and sling their arms over Ringo and Hunter's shoulders so they could assist each soldier one by one to the aide station. Their sick like coughs, complaints of aches and headaches only reinforced the soldier's fears of coming down with their sickness. They used a special like care and remained gentle to those afflicted so they wouldn't cause them anymore needless pain as they helped them walk.

As Ringo and Hunter helped one of the soldiers down the walkway once outside of the tent, the soldier tells them to stop with a sense of urgency while he gets to his knees on the side of a hesco barrier and begins puking up his lunch he had brought to him in bed hours ago.

Ringo and Hunter now stand behind him with a look of pity on their faces asking if the soldier was okay and if he needed any water. The soldier proceeds to tell them he is fine while choking on his on vomit trying to get the rest out of his esophagus. Trevor and Reagal passes up the group with another soldier supported on their shoulders by the afflicted's arms. As they pass by Ringo and Hunter, the soldier moans in despair while whisphering under his breathe a verse from the bible to achieve some type of comfort level to help him cope with his painful illness as he passes by the soldier on the ground still puking up his guts.

"Alright man, (continued coughing), I think i'm good. Please help me up guys," the soldier desperately pleas.

Ringo and Hunter quickly lifts him up and proceeds down the walkway to the nearby aide station.

Hours go by once Trevor and a few of his men drop the sick soldiers off. Many of the soldiers within Trevor's platoon begin getting dressed and grabbing their equipment to head down to the trucks in order to prepare for the upcoming counter indirect fire patrol. Prior to this, upon cleaning his weapon, Trevor laid in bed still lost in thought. Of course, he believes everything will be alright, however, his sub-concious feels a storm brewing. He can not shake this feeling of dread. Something which may be coming soon. This feeling he can not control and only wishes to be in his wife's arms as he watches his children play in the living room while sitting on his soft couch waiting for Andrew to swing by in his vehicle with meat and charcoal to barbeque.

[raggeldy]

Thanks for the new chapters! Really like the pace of the story, and how some just react some are in apparent denial and some slowly realizing something big is happening.

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

Thanks for reading. I appreciate the feedback.

[223shooteresc]

good chapter, thanks

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

Upon arriving to the trucks, Trevor's men already began to get the truck ready. They stock up on ice and water for their cooler inside the truck while Price mounts his machine gun in the turret and conducts radio checks with other vehicles and company net.

Hunter gives the MRAP windows a final wipe down and adjusts the rear view mirrors on the outside of the vehicle so Trevor can see the trucks behind him in the convey. Christopher checks his soldier's equipment for eye protection, night vision devices and various other standard pre-mission checks.

Gilroy stands there as usual smoking a cigerette and distancing himself from the group while Reagal and Ringo bring more water back to the truck. Trevor sits in his TC side seat while plotting a navigational route over his Blue Force Tracker(A navigational screen mounted inside the vehicle for the truck commander which displays a map of the current area and icons of nearby friendly forces updated in realtime).

Upon completion of their pre-mission routines and mission briefing delivered by their platoon sergeant, the patrol sends up their ready condition status by trucks and push out to conduct their patrol. They are on schedule as usual.

As they push through FOB Basrah on their way to the main ECP, they notice it now to be a ghost town. No more bus service running, nobody walking along the sides of the roads and no other vehicles driving by. The inside of the base now appears to match the outside as well, abandoned and empty. There are no Iraqi Army soldiers at the main gate nor are there any protestors and Iraqi civilians like there were before.

The skyline descends into darkness as the sun falls off into the distance. The soldiers inside the four vehicles proceed to mount their night vision devices to their helmets as the convey rumbles forward with the exception of the drivers.

Same story for the main interstate outside of the base, empty. The sector they are going to tonight is on the southern outskirts of the city of Basrah and mainly consists of nothing but open desert and one oil refinery. Some hours go by on their patrol without any incidents. Just your average boring patrol Trevor tells himself as he lights up his tenth cigerette of the convey as hours go by into the darkness.

Not a single checkpoint in this area or car has been found. For the majority of the patrol, everyone on Trevor's truck remained silent. Price would call out potential threats to Trevor as they drove by suspicious looking items such as tires on the side of the road and various trash piles, however, meaning very little. Trevor hardly responded half of the time. The squad, with the exception of Gilroy, allowed the days events to get the best of them. Even Ringo being his usual silent stoic self, displays remorse and sadness in his eyes for those soldiers whom he helped take to the aide station earlier.

None of them realized the gravity of the situation until they actually took the time to talk to those men and move them. Reagal expressed earlier before the patrol that he felt bad and wished he could of offered to bring them back more food when he had the chance. The others, just kept to themselves with their feeling. Trevor was the toughest of them all and just remained in a state of denial with comments such as, "they will be fine" or "just need a bottle of vagisil". The others, however, took a more grim approach. They viewed their ill comrades as the first shoppers in line at the checkout counter.

Not much needed to be said at that point tonight. After taking their last and final short halt which lasted only ten minutes, the platoon leader calls Trevor and gives him the order to head back to base. Trevor complies and has his driver pull a U-turn to get back on the main road. Ringo stares at Gilroy who sits right across from him as he sleeps without a care in the world. Ringo thinks to himself how someone can sleep through this and act like nothing is wrong. Ringo decides that he will start hating Gilroy and demonstrate it as much as possible when the opportunity arises.

Some time goes by until they reach the main clover leaf to the main gate of FOB Basrah. They push through the main gate which still appeared to be empty. Trevor grows angrier by the second as to why no American forces have secured these gates and begins to ramble below his breath.

None of his soldiers pay any attention and remain silent. Once they entered the second gate known as ECP Ritz which is the main entry to FOB Basrah, Trevor veers off to the right leading the convey through a series of narrow T-walls which turns into a fenceline. Once all the trucks are in and close together they stop and open up their doors to hop out and clear their weapons in the clearing barrels of any chambered ammunition, a standard procedure performed by American forces upon entering any base after a mission.

Gilroy and members of the squad hop out the back while the TC and driver side doors slowly open. The soldiers line up along the clearing barrels and begin dropping their magazines and pulling back their charging handles to catch their chambered round as it flies out their rifles. Gilroy is one of the last in line and impatiently waits for his turn while rolling his eyes.

By the time he is able to walk up to the barrel to clear his rifle, just about all the soldiers are mounted back up on their trucks as he is the last one left to go through the standard clearing procedure. Gilroy quickly walks up to the clearing barrel and begins the process. As soon as he drops his magazine, Gilroy is suddenly startled by a person's arm which shoots through one of the gaps in the dark fenceline trying to grab him frantically.

Gilroy's eyes snap wide open in horror as he takes a few steps back in shock. The man on the other side, which can barely be seen due to the darkness of the fenceline, appears to be growling and hissing at him. Pain stricken moans were also emitted from the man. Gilroy proceeds to look around to see if anyone is bearing witness to what he sees, only to find himself alone at this point. Still in shock, he decides to remain silent and take a step forward to the clearing barrel. He finishes clearing his weapon and hops back on the back of the truck while continueing to glance back at the arm through the fence which tried to grab him only seconds prior.

Upon entering the back of the truck and taking his seat, Gilroy goes to strap on his headset so he can inform his squad members of what just happened to him. Upon fastening the head strip and flicking his headset switch on, members of his squad including Hunter begin yelling at him and telling him he needs to hurry up.

"Man Gilroy, you move like you think, SLOW!" an aggravated and eager to get back Hunter exclaimed.

Gilroy pretty much ignores all the insults and yelling. He proceeds to address his squad leader with a sense of urgency.

"Hey Sergeant Wilcott, a man outside the fenceline reached through and tried to grab me while I was clearing my weapon," a still shaken up Gilroy informs.

Everyone on the truck falls silent in confusion.

"What?" asks Trevor.

Gilroy repeats the statement once more for Trevor. A few moments of silent occurs while Trevor ponders a response.

"Damn boy, he must thought you were cute or something," jokes Trevor as he tries to play off the incident.

A few soldiers on the truck begin to laugh. Hunter makes a follow up comment.

"He must of thought you were cute in that retarded sort of way. Kind of like a small puppy who isn't potty trained yet," Hunter says over the headset.

The rest of the soldiers on the truck begin cracking jokes at Gilroy while some told him that they think he over reacted or exageratted the situation some how. Price up in the turret was the only one who remained silent. Gilroy stays silent while placing his head down in shame.

As the convey rolls back to their secured area of the base, they scurry a long winding dirt trail which is about a fifty yards away from the perimeter fenceline. A secondary concrete road is between them and the fenceline which soldiers use to run on in the morning. As they push through, Price decides to make a comment over the headset after staying silent for awhile.

"Hey guys, looks like that wasn't the only person who thought Gilroy was cute," Price states with a sense of urgency.

Trevor, now confused, asks his gunner what he meant by that statement.

"Look off to the three o'clock along the fenceline," Price responds with concern.

Trevor slightly leans forward a bit and looks out his semi-shattered TC side window in the direction Price told him to look. Trevor witnesses the entire fenceline for as far as the eye can see shaking in a wave like pattern. He can also spot mobs of people on the other side through the evenly spaced out pockets of light which scurries the fenceline. The parts of the fence which have no light, nobody can be seen on the other side. However, it is apparent that there are people there due to the movement of the fence as it stretches out for miles.

It doesn't look like that fence will hold out for long Trevor tells himself as he lights up another Miami cigerette to better soak in the situation at hand. After some much needed silence and observation, Trevor decides to comment in order to calm his men down.

"Damn protestors man. They better not call us out there to quell it. I need my Desperate Housewives time," Trevor jokingly states.

Nobody on the truck responds or laughs at his joke.

"You guys believe me now?" Gilroy sarcastically states.

Everyone in the back remains silent while trying to peak out the plexi glass to observe the commotion outside.

"Ah, screw them," Ringo calmly comments as he makes no attempt to look. Remaining stoic and calm as usual in his seat.

Everyone on the truck remains silent the entire time once upon returning to their camp inside the base. Upon entering, they couldn't re-fuel the trucks because the fuelers didn't work that late. They would have to do it at nine o'clock in the morning. Once they park their trucks on line, the crew proceeds to clean out the back for any trash left behind. Also, communication systems are powered down and the machine gun up top brought down by the gunner and locked inside the truck after turning off all power as was standard procedure. Once everything was good to go, the soldiers walked back to their tent to go on about their business.

On the way back to the tent, Reagal reminded his Team Leader, Sergeant Muniz of the poker game him and the guys were supposed to play tonight across from Trevor's living area where Christopher sleeps. Christopher tells them to be in his hooch after they eat dinner chow. Everyone in the squad decided to throw down in the pot except Trevor and Gilroy. Gilroy retreats back to his living area and hides inside his computer. Normally watching movies or surfing facebook to take his mind off the place he is in and what recently just startled him.

Trevor decides to lay down in his bed with a poncho liner drapping down his bunk giving him some much needed privacy while watching his favorite show with his laptop sitting on his chest.

A few hours into the various episodes of Desperate Housewives, Trevor is only one episode away from the first season finale. He knows a man of his caliber shouldn't be watching a show like this, however, he can not seem to take his eyes off it. He is mainly hooked for unknown reasons he always tells himself.

Throughout the show, Trevor could hear Christopher and the rest of the squad across the hallway yelling and joking around in their card game. From what Trevor over hears, it seems that Ringo is winning so far. That seems about right because nobody can ever tell whether or not Ringo is lieing or telling the truth.

As Trevor watches on, comfortable and warm in his bunk, he notices through his poncho liner the outline of a person walk into his living area. He quickly removes his headphones and lifts up his bunk divider.

"Who is it?" an annoyed Trevor asks while looking up to identify the person's face.

It appears to be Gilroy standing over him looking confused.

"Hey Sergeant, I was just wondering what was going on for tomorrow," Gilroy nervously asks Trevor.

Trevor shakes his head in dissapointment.

"Damnit boy. That's what you have a team leader for. He didn't put any information out to you yet?" a now irritated Trevor asks.

That is when Christopher, whom overheard the conversation across the way, storms into Trevor's room and proceeds to yell at Gilroy for going straight to the squad leader instead of him.

"I know that I told you what was going on tomorrow. Did you bother to take notes?" angrily asks Christopher as he pulls Gilroy out of Trevor's room.

Trevor can hear the two talking back and forth as he proceeds to put his headphones back and unpause his show. Trevor can over hear some commotion going on Christopher's side of the room where the poker game is taking place. He can also hear Private Gilroy knocking out push ups in front of the rest of the squad in Christopher's living area while he sounds of the repetitions in cadence.

Some time goes by. Further into Trevor's show, he hears the sounds of apparent machine gun fire and various other small arms weapons going off within close vicinity of the tent. As a result, he is startled by it and rises from his bunk immediately pulling off his headphones without pausing his show.

He sits there and waits a few minutes until more gunfire follows. This time it is much closer than before. After the firing stopped shortly after, he lays back down in his bunk and places his headphones on his head once again. Trevor decides to rewind back to the part he missed which was only a few minutes behind where the show was currently at.

Once he gets to the end of the part he missed, he now hears loud footsteps running by the entry way to his tent. His living area is located right next to the main door of the tent which leads out to the main walk way of the camp. The sound of running soldiers or individuals grow louder as more begin to pass by him on the other side of his paper thin wall. He decides to ignore the annoying commotion and stick to his show. He is sick of being interrupted. Also the sounds of Gilroy being punished while doing push ups also ring through his ears.

Yet again, a few more minutes go by when he hears the main doorway to the tent slam wide open. The sound of an individual dragging his feet towards Trevor's section of the tent caught his attention. Low moaning sounds can also be heard. Trevor can overhear his men across the hallway jokingly ask the man from afar while they continue to play their game and dicipline Gilroy if he was 'drunk' without even seeing who it was. The man in the hallway did not respond while he began to open up Trevor's divider into his room.

More gunfire erupts on the outside once this happens. Now, ever closer than before. At this point it sounded like it was pretty much right outside the door. Everybody in the card game gets up from their chair with a quickness, including Gilroy as Trevor opens up his divider.

"What the hell do you want man!" Trevor yells as he aggressively opens up the hooch with his arm and looks up at the man standing over him.

What he sees frieghtens him as he scrambles to take the headphones off and stand up from his bunk while dropping his laptop in the process. The man standing over him appears to have blood stains all over his jacket and around his mouth. He doesn't possess any pupils and appears to have a mangled face as if someone bit chunks off of his cheeks. He is slouched over and begins moaning historically as his mouth opens as he stumbles towards Trevor.

"Whats wrong with you man? Get back! I said get the hell back or else!" yells Trevor as he reaches over to the top bunk for his assault rifle.

"Last chance guy, one more step and i'm taking you down!" Trevor threatens as he grabs his muzzle and lifts the rifle up with two hands as if it were a baseball bat.

The intruder ignores his threats as he approaches closer.

Trevor swings the rifle across his face. Butt-stock smashing right into the left side of the man's temple. The intruder instantly falls back and moans in pain. Appearing unaltered and not even a bit dazed, he begins standing up. Trevor strikes the man with another blow while he is on the ground to the head, this time stopping him for good. That is when the other members of Trevor's squad approach him to see what was going on.

"What the hell is going on in here!" yells Hunter.

Trevor shakes his head in disbelief as all of them stare at the mangled man on the ground beginning to twitch. That is when they hear gunfire going off inside the tent and rounds weezing down the center main hallway. Screams of other soldiers and profanities start to break out in different tent areas which are connected to the main hallway. Trevor slings his rifle and loads a thirty round magazine he uses for force protection ammo on the base where ever he goes. The other members of the squad, whom all had their rifles racked up against the wall on Christopher's side of the tent, quickly huddle over to their weapons and load magazines.

Trevor marches out into the hallway at the high ready to make sense of the situation as more gunfire erupts inside and outside the tent. His squad follows behind them as they charge their rifles and go red-direct(round chambered). Ringo pops open the feed tray to his machine gun and snaps on a nutsack followed by feeding the start of the belt into the tray and closing the lid.

Trevor takes aim down the hallway with his rifle. What he sees through his EO tech sight, in the center of his circular crosshairs, are a mob of local civilians in Iraqi attire(i.e man dresses, hijabs and turbans) feeding on a soldier in the middle of the hallway.

Must be a group of ten or twelve he concludes as they surround the lifeless soldier and dig deeper into the victim's stomach to rip out his guts and gastroul tract. He notices them eating the soldier's body parts while others bite into his arms and tear flash off his lifeless face.

"WHAT THE HELL! Get the hell out of here! I said get!" yells Trevor as he takes aim down his sight.

Most members of the mob engaged in their meal ignore Trevor while the others who are trying to reach over the crowd for flesh to feed on turn their heads and place their attention on Trevor.

Once they notice him, they begin charging him in a dead sprint. Trevor switches his selector switch from safe to semi and begins opening fire on them from down the hallway. He aims center mass on the first two and puts two rounds in them each as they drop face first to the floor. He quickly acquires the other three through his sight and places two more rounds center mass in each attacker. Once the last one drops, the first two he engaged prior to that slowly begin getting up as they moan and emit a terrifying scream.

Once they are fully erect, they continue to charge in Trevor's direction only not as fast as before. Now in shock, Trevor places three rounds in each center mass once again, expecting them to be finished off for good. The attackers drop once more. That is when he hears a single shot come from behind him. He quickly looks back and sees Christopher standing over the man whom earlier attacked Trevor with his barrel pointed at the man's head.

"He wouldn't stay down Sergeant. He's out for good now!" shockingly explains Christopher as he stares over the lifeless man.

Other members of Trevor's squad, now in the hallway watching down it and pulling security on the door begin to open fire on the crowd which is still feeding on the dead soldier.

"We need to get out of here now!" Ringo yells as he opens fire with his M249 SAW down the hallway in the direction of the feeding mob.

Ear drum busting bursts of machine gun fire litter the hallway from Ringo's one hundred round nutsack he loaded drowns out the sounds of other semi-automatic rifles going off in succession of eachother.

Most of the soldiers running around in the tent don't even have their ACU tops on or their patrol caps. Trevor and his squad frantically goes back into their tent to grab up some last minute stuff such as their ACU tops and patrol caps. Trevor weaves around the executed man laid out in the center of his living area as he exits for the hallway and gathers up the rest of his squad members.

"Everybody turn on your damn PEQ-15 lasers and head for the trucks!" Trevor yells as he wittnesses with wide eyes the assailants he just laid out earlier rise up again only to pursue the group.

Dozens more behind him follow as other soldiers down the hallway attempt to make a run for it, only to end up being caught in a crowd of cannibals and wrestled to the floor to be bit into like a piece of meat. Trevor's men, who are closest to the doorway make no hesitation and follow Trevor in a dead sprint out the doorway.

Once Trevor hits the walkway, he sees soldiers running past him while some are turning around to shoot in the opposite direction they came from. Trevor and his men follows these passing soldiers as they notice a mob of attackers racing towards them on foot on the other side moaning and screaming for bloody murder.

Hunter, the last man in the group, places his vis-aim laser from his PEQ-15 mounted on the top of his rifle barrel into the direction of the crowd and opens fire. Reagal and Price yell back for him to hurry up and keep moving. Hunter obliges as his red laser stays on and now lights up the ground as he runs with his rifle. As the soldiers run for their lives down the narrow walk ways to the truck line, Trevor begins panically recalling the situation to Christopher.

"I shot those bastards like six times in the torso and they kept getting up. What the hell are they?" a winded Trevor exclaims as he takes aim down passing corriders to cover him and his men's movement safely.

Christopher responds.

"I shot that one guy in the head once and he stayed down. I say we start aiming for the head, what do you think?" Christopher adds while following behind Trevor.

"Can't freaking hurt. What else do we got to lose. HEY EVERYBODY! AIM FOR THE HEAD!" Trevor yells back to the group as he continues running.

All the members of the squad frantically respond with the word "roger".

Trevor picks up the pace down the narrow corridors surrounded by hesco barriers. Once he reaches the end, from there is nothing but open gravel pits and military vehicles staged in their miniature platoon motorpools. Trevor is the first one to hit the open area when he makes a shocking discovery and comes to a screetching halt while slightly almost falling over as he slides onto the gravel rocks. Christopher catches his fall and lifts him back up.

Trevor's eyes are wider than ever now, along with the approaching members of his squad as they look off into the distance. What they see, are fellow soldiers in ACU's among the mobs of assailants chasing down soldiers and eating them alive. A few notice Trevor and the group with a fast twitch of their necks placing immediate attention on them as they run by. A few of them decide to head straight for the group while frantically screaming and moaning while others decide to continue to pursue the other potential victims whom continue to sprint to safety off into the distance.

Trevor and the group brings their rifles up and carefully places their lasers on the targets and begin unloading their magazines upon fellow soldiers whom now joined the frantic attackers. Some soldiers of the group still continue to connect with body shots resulting in some of the attackers dropping to the ground. Others, however, remained upright and kept pursuing the group until they were shot in the head by Trevor and Christopher.

Trevor figures now at this point, some body shots will drop these attackers, however it mainly depends on the individual's body size and type. The larger assailants would remain uneffected by body shots and keep pursuing as the thinner and smaller ones would drop to the floor upon being hit. In the end however, all of them who fell would only get back up again. Head shots permanantly puts them down for good.

"I SAID AIM FOR THE DAMN HEAD BOY!" Trevor yells back as he is seen by members of his squad placing well aimed shots with his PEQ-15 laser on the heads of the charging attackers.

His men begin to catch on and start aiming for the head as well. Once the group clears a path, Trevor takes off while his soldiers follow behind him. Just about all of them shooting as they move. Some attackers got to close to comfort and were put down my Ringo's M249 SAW with cyclic bursts. As they approach their parked MRAP, RIngo takes up his position behind the back door of the vehicle and provides cover for Hunter as he frantically searches his pockets for his key.

"You better have that damned key!" yells Trevor as he grabs Gilroy by the shoulders and throws him to the ground to clear his path to fire at a bloodied soldier who tried to tackle Gilroy from behind.

"I'm working on it! I'm working on it! I know its here give me a minute!" a panic stricken Hunter exclaims as he is on the steps of the back door trying to find his key for the padlock while Reagal and Price stare on nervously and expend a few rounds off into the distance in self defense.

Hunter finally finds the key as he rips it out of his bottom right leg pocket. His hands are jittery and shaking as he attempts to unlock the door. He is so shaken he almost drops the key all together.

"Hurry the hell up dude!", yells Christopher.

That is when Hunter gets the padlock open and dives into the back of the vehicle face first. All of the soldiers follow behind in a file quickly shoving eachother in panic. The last guy on the truck, Ringo shuts the door behind him and engages the combat lock from the inside with his foot while his back is to the floor of the truck.

"Oh hell no!" a fear ridden Hunter exclaims.

"I didn't turn on the power switch outside below the battery box!"

Everyone on the truck in the darkness glares at him in silence.

A split second passes, then Ringo calmy chimes in. "You're good bra. I flicked it on the way to the door," Ringo smoothly states as he is lieing down on his back still trying to catch his breath.

Everybody on the truck displays a shy of relief. The soldiers, now secure inside the armored vehicle with all doors securely locked proceed to throw on their vests with their personal kits attached. Hunter and Trevor crawl through the gunner's platform and proceed to take seats within the cab as the soldiers in the back continue to wrestle to get their gear on. Hunter powers up his gauges and switches while Trevor throws his headset on and powers up his BFT.

Price turns on the radios and preps his M240 Bravo to be thrown up in the turret. Before he opens the hatch up, he stops and asks Trevor a question.

"You think it's a good idea for me to get the gun up sergeant?" nervously asks Price. Trevor nods his head, then goes on to add, "Make sure you take your rifle up there with you in case they jump on the vehicle."

Price reluctantly complies.

Once everyone is kitted up and dons their headsets, Christopher asks Trevor what their next move is. Trevor tells Hunter to push out to a safe area. Once there, they will monitor the company net to receive updates on the situation and go from there. Some members of the group such as Reagal and Gilroy don't think that it's a good idea.

"We just can't leave here sergeant. What about everyone else? We will get in trouble if we abandon them!" explains Reagal.

Gilroy agrees.

Now upon catching his breath, Trevor responds.

"We aren't abandoning nobody. Outside isn't safe right now. The streets ain't fit to be on. We need to secure ourselves first before we can help ANYBODY!" Trevor frustratingly states.

Once putting it that way, everyone agrees, especially Ringo.

"I was with you from the get go sergeant," Ringo adds.

"Yeah, we barely made it the entire two hundred meters out the tent to our vehicle. What the hell are those things, sergeant?" curiously asks Christopher in a broken voice.

"I don't know man. I know they only die when you blow their brains out. I know they eat you. Other than that, i'm not sure what the hell is going on," Trevor explains as he watches the chaos unfold through the thick plexi glass of the cab window.

He then goes on to add, "All I know now is, it is now survival of the fittest."

Everyone remains silent.

A few of the assailants outside, picking up on the sounds of a starting vehicle, begin to draw their attention over to the engine. Many members of the mob begin making their way over to Trevor's vehicle as Hunter attempts to take off but can not. The truck doesn't move as he depresses the gas pedal.

"You left the damn chock block down didn't you? Floor it boy!" yells Trevor in disgust.

Hunter slams the gas and turns left and right with his wheel until he is able to drive over his chock blocks. As the MRAP pulls out of it's parking spot, Hunter runs over a few of the charging assailants as the chock blocks attached to chains drag behind the truck. The group pushes out the gates of their compound and heads for ECP Ritz as chaos unfolds in the streets before their very eyes.

As they move along, they pass burning F-150's on the side of the road with soldiers jumping out of them on fire frantically rolling around and sprinting as assailants hop on top of them to attack. Some joggers are seen off into the distance sprinting for their very lives as mobs of people tail them, then suddenly being hit by oncoming cars trying to escape the carnage. While this is all happening in front of Trevor, he begins calling the company headquarters and his platoon sergeant over both frequencies. No response.

"Continue pushing out the gate. We need to find some open desert and wait it out there until we get word to come back," Trevor orders Hunter as he reaches for a Miami cigerette to light up and smoke. Everyone in the back asks for one, including Hunter.

"Damn boys I only got ten left. Here you go," Trevor passes them out reluctantly and continues to call his platoon sergeant in order to get a response.

The rest of the soldiers in the back check their dip cans. Most of them only got half a can left.

Gilroy, remains in his sit with his head down looking terrified. Ringo pats him on the back and tells him to calm down as they push outside the gate and head for open desert. Gilroy remains silent with an apparent look of shock on his face as he breathes heavily.

"They were just eating those people like they were food," Gilroy states with fear and uncertaintity in his voice.

"Yeah man. I've never seen some stuff like that before. They weren't human. They didn't even have eyes," Reagal responds to Gilroy's comment.

Price in the turret continues to scan the road up ahead.

"Everything looks clear from up here. No people. Looks like everyone is on our base," informs Price as he spins his turret to the six o'clock position and looks back at FOB Basrah and sees flashing lights of explosions and tracers fill up the horizen.

"They definately's weren't insurgents. There were even some of our own guys out there attacking us with those mobs," adds Hunter as he drives with one arm and takes puffs from his cigerette with his other.

Trevor, now growing more uneasy and anxious. Keys the platoon net and calls out for Stalker 9, his platoon sergeant. No response.

"Come on Lipcott. Answer the damn net!" a weary Trevor exclaims to himself. Moments go by, nothing.

The truck is now in a dead silence. The soldiers are trying to take in the situation one bit at a time in their own way. Gilroy seems to be getting worse as Ringo is the only one to notice.

As the lone MRAP pushes through the Iraqi darkness at night down the freeway, they pull off onto an abandoned dirt road which leads off into the open desert about a few hundred meters off. Once they find their spot, they decide to park and wait. Trevor continues to call up other stations and get an update. All have failed. He switched his frequency to Battalion net and other various company nets and all led to the same result. Out of desperation, he decides to put his company net back on. After a few minutes of silence and a few cigerettes later as they wait in the darkness, someone keys the hand mic on the other side starting off with the significant beeping sound every transmission has before it emits over the headset.

Everyone's eyes grow wide as they lean forward to hear what is about to be said over the net. All they receive, is brutal and mutiliating screams from the other side of headquarters. The sounds of gurgling and painful moans can be heard as people on the other side scream for their lives. This was the final straw for Trevor. The hand mic on the other in cut in and out. Everytime it came back on, the screams were louder and so were the moans.

Trevor decided right then and there, there was no turning back. No going back there. They had to move on.

Coming to this realization, Gilroy, who sits in the back all in his lonesome, begins crying frantically and out of control. Tears run down his scared blood shot eyes as he releases moans of sorrow and fear. Everyone in the back stare at him in pity until Ringo smacks him across the face. Gilroy calls out in pain and falls off his chair into the ground while the MRAP seat instantly rises up to it's non-used position upon Gilroy falling off it.

"Control yourself Gilroy!" Ringo yells with convication at Gilroy as he hops on top of him and stares him into his eyes.

Ringo begins to wipe the tears off Gilroy's face with his tactical hard knuckled gloves and lifts him up to place him on the seat. Gilroy suddenly stops crying and remains silent. Hunter, hearing the incident unfold over the headset while in the driver's seat, emits a sinister grin while shaking his head.

Trevor sits in his seat in silence trying to decide what to do. He stares at the map on the BFT as a thought crosses his mind. Moments pass as he suddenly begins nodding his head in acceptance.

"Yeah....yeah," Trevor tells himself as he leans forward and pulls the stylus off the BFT monitor.

He begins carefully plotting a navigational route from his location. Hunter constantly leans over trying to make out what he's doing on the screen when Trevor comes up over the headset to talk to his guys.

"Okay guys. Check this out. We know what's going on back there. We can not establish communications with anyone from our unit. Knowing what we saw, and just barely making it out of there. I say we head for Kuwait. Our best chance right now, is to go to Camp Buehring where there are many American forces still left," explains Trevor in a tone of voice which carries hope.

He then goes on to add, "It's all about survival now. I don't want to risk going back there and getting caught up in that again. Whatever is going down here, i'm sure they are tracking it now in Kuwait. We need to get over the border to safety and link back up with friendly forces. You all in?" asks Trevor.

Everyone on the truck shockingly agrees. They can not believe what they are about to do, however, fully aware that it has to be done if they are to survive. Upon coming to the agreement, Trevor finishes plotting his route.

"Alright I got a route down to Kuwait. I never exactly driven to Buehring from Iraq, however, I got a pretty good idea how to get there. This map will help us out greatly. It can't be that hard. Hunter ,lets start moving.", exclaims Trevor.

Hunter obliges then reminds Trevor they are only on a half tank of gas. Trevor shakes his head in dissapproval while ignoring the question.

"We'll figure it out later. Let's get moving bro. It's now or never," Trevor states as the MRAP's headlights turn on and light up the night desert.

The truck begins rolling down the trail back to the main freeway. Upon hitting the main route, they pick up their speed and head south to the border of Kuwait.

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

"Once we get to the village of Safwan we'll come across the border crossing into Kuwait. There should be border patrol guys there on the Kuwaiti side. We'll see if there is fuel there as well. For now lets just worry about getting there," Trevor adds as the MRAP picks up speed to 50 mph.

As the truck moves down the dark lonely Iraqi freeway, akward silence fills the truck for about twenty minutes. That is when Trevor breaks the silence over the headset in a loud voice.

"Damnit. That means I won't get to finish the season finale of Desperate Housewives. Guess it wasn't meant to be, huh guys?" jokes Trevor.

Some of the guys on the truck involuntarily bust out laughing effectively breaking the ice of the grim situation. Price can be heard chuckling from the turret. Gilroy still remains silent. Ringo stays stoic as usual. Reagal is laughing uncontrollably. Christopher is chuckling as well while Hunter smiles and concentrates on the road.

Some time passes by as they are on the road. They do not encounter any vehicles passing by them or foot traffic. The road seemed dead. Just like everything else in this country, Trevor concludes to himself as he continues to chain smoke as the truck moves and Price continues to scan up in the turret. As the truck comes closer and closer to it's desintation, now about only a few miles from their turn off into Safwan, Price notices bright lights off into the distance as their truck heads right for it.

He calls it down to Trevor, as Trevor tries to make out where the lights are coming from off into the distance. As they approach closer, they begin noticing what is on the other side waiting for them. Price identifies four Iraqi Army vehicles parked across the road setting up a blocking position.

"What the hell is this," nervously calls out Hunter as he slows the truck down before coming to a complete halt due to the road being blocked.

Trevor identifies at least seventeen Iraqi army soldiers standing by the truck, manning machine guns on the back and in the turrets of their humvees. The Iraqi soldiers put up their arms and display a fist in order for the single lone MRAP to stop. Hunter stops the truck while the soldiers on board decide what to do next. The Iraqi Army soldiers now have their weapons drawn on the vehicle and are giving hand and arms signals for them to dismount the vehicle so they can be taken into custody or so they can interrogate them.

As the Iraqi soldiers continue to rant and wave for the soldiers to hop out of their truck, the group contemplates their next move.

"Sergeant, what do we next?" nervously asks Price as Reagal leans over to the cab to see whats going on.

At that very moment, Reagal decides to weigh in, "I think they want us to get off the truck. Screw that!" exclaims Reagal.

Trevor tells his driver, Hunter, to turn on the vehicle spotlight and shine it on the Iraqi soldiers. Once he did this, it only made the soldiers angrier as one of them fired warning shots into the air before pointing their barrels back on Trevor's vehicle.

After the shots rang out, Gilroy brings the hand mic down to his mouth and adds his opinion.

"I think we should get out and give up. They can help us," exclaims Gilroy with confusion and fear in his voice.

Christopher snaps back at Gilroy, "Shut the hell up moron. We're not getting out of this truck!"

Ringo stares at Gilroy and shakes his head in disgust.

"Hey Sergeant Wilcott, in my humble opinion, if they don't move, I say we make them move," boldy states Ringo.

"Exactly what I was thinking boy. I like the way you think. Hey Price, you red direct up there with that M240 Bravo?" aggresively asks Trevor.

"Negative Sergeant," Price nervously exclaims.

"Get cocked and ready to rock," Trevor orders.

"Hunter, start creeping up between the gap of the two vehicles and push them out of the way so we can clear it. Price, if they shoot at us, reign some fury down upon that ass. Got it?" Trevor instructs as he braces himself for contact.

Both soldiers respond with 'roger' as Hunter begins creeping forward. The sound of the bolt of a machine gun is heard cocking back while the charging handle is returned to it's forward position and being placed on fire as a nervous Price takes aim.

Once the trucks move a few feet, all of the Iraqi soldiers begin frantically yelling and signaling for the truck to stop. Their last minute pleas go unheeded. One of the gunners on the Iraqi trucks begins opening fire with his weapon on cyclic into Trevor's cab window.

The thick plexi glass stopped all of the rounds dead in it's tracks. Price returns fire now as all of the Iraqi Army soldiers begins opening fire on the truck and duckin for cover.

Hunter slams the gas pedal down and roars right through two of the Iraqi Army vehicles nearly crushing them.

Trevor's vehicle makes a clean cut through as Price continues mowing down the soldiers with his crew served weapon from the turret. As the MRAP pushes through, Price is seen from the back spinning his turret around to the six o'clock position while his legs move to the other direction continueing to shoot.

Trevor could only count two soldiers that Price killed. However, upon ending the engagment as they drove off into the darkness without being pursued, Price claims he killed five more after punching through. Price begins kicking away the brass and links which fell from his turret into the cab to make room for himself to stand. Everybody in the back, with the exception of Gilroy, are cheering and yelling for joy while calling Price "a straight up killer".

"Damn boys. Good shooting and good driving. Ya'll admit it now, couldn't of done it without my boyish good looks too," a now relieved Trevor jokes as the MRAP races towards the outskirts of Safwan, near the border of Kuwait.

Price seems proud of himself as he stays silent and tries to downplay the incident. Everyone was proud of him because he performed well, even under fire and when the bullets were weezing past him and his turret shield. He still stayed there so he could defend the truck and return fire without dropping down.

Trevor's vehicle continues rolling down the road with impunity as it approaches the off ramp into Safwan. Trevor notices burning houses and smoke trails filling up the sky towards the horizon of the village. Looks like the chaos reached here as well he concludes to himself as Hunter turns off the highway leading into Safwan.

As they roll into the edge of the town, Trevor orders Price to hold his fire unless absolutely necessary. The need to conserve ammo and not draw attention which is more important than racking up some kills is stressed to the rest of the squad by Trevor.

Price acknowledges Trevor as Hunter weaves around burning parked cars in the middle of the road leading into main downtown Safwan. The soldiers in the back of Trevor's truck look out the windows as it glows with light from the engulfed burning houses around them. As they look out and Hunter continues to maneauver around more vehicles in the road, they notice mobs of people surrounding victims on the streets.

Admist the chaos, Trevor and his squad also notices the locals fighting over body parts which have been ripped out of victims such as arms and legs. The gory mess is a despicable sight to see as everyone in the back turn their heads with the exception of Ringo.

"Damn, it's like a buffet out there!" Ringo says to the rest of the group from the back of the vehicle.

His comment was met by blank stares.

As they slowly move down the road and try to push through the downtown area to hit the border crossing, they pass a nearby Mosque. Random civilians are seen running across the street in front of Trevor's truck, however there is no way to be sure if they are still alive or one of those 'things' out there.

For the majority of the time they spent on this road, they remained unnoticed to the people outside who were caught up in their own feeding frenzies or chasing down victims on the street until the nearby Mosque's speaker system begins going off with a man speaking Arabic. It appears to Trevor's men that the man on the loudspeaker is a recording of a Muslim prayer, which is so loud it echos across the village and even to the outskirts of the surrounding area.

Right as Trevor's vehicle passes the front door to the Mosque which is right next to the road they are on, the doors to the Mosque slam wide open. Hundreds of people begin spilling out of the front entry way into the street in a dead sprint screaming and moaning as if they were in horrorifc pain.

The mob set it's sights on Trevor's vehicle as the loud noise of the MRAP's engine passed the door. They begin charging the truck while Trevor yells to Hunter to speed it up to avoid the crowd. A few members of the frantic screaming crowd attempt to jump up the side of the vehicle in order to grab Price.

Some are successful and met with a gunshot to the face by Price's assault rifle. A few more hop on the hood of the vehicle as Hunter begins to pick up speed. Price quickly opens fire on them into the chest knocking them off the vehicle with a quickness. As Price looks back, the bodies he shot off the truck dissapear into the crowd behind him right after they stood back up after recently been shot at close range.

Once Hunter clears the last of the burning cars, he picks up his speed and leaves the frenzied mob of people back in the dust.

Reagal, continueing to lean over into the window to look out and observe the situation, comments.

"It's chaos out here. Like the end of times. Hey guys do you think it's going on everywhere?" a curious Reagal asks Price and others members of the group as he looks on out the window in horror.

"Who knows. Don't worry about that right now. Keep your mind focused on getting the hell out of here," responds Trevor as he talks back into the headset and observes the road up ahead for any potential dangers.

Everyone is now silent as Hunter and Trevor ponder their next move as they push forward.

The truck now appears to be approaching the entry way of a large compound with lots of semi-trailers and large trucks parked outside. Obviously, the main entry point into the secured area is abandoned with the gates wide open as bodies littered everywhere are in plain view for anyone to see.

Trevor and Hunter notices the long lines of abandoned big rig trucks who at one time was waiting to get scanned through an X-ray machine. This is the main indictator of how close they are now to the Kuwaiti border. As they push deeper into the compound, they notice mobile trailers which were used as offices for the staff who worked there scattered all around the now narrow road they are driving on. They follow the road up a ways as they pass dead bodies in the street.

Not a lot of activity here at this point compared what they have just passed through only a mile or so down the road. Once the narrow road ends, it led them into a walled off compound where large black GMC SUV's are parked in VIP parking areas.

Hunter reminds Trevor of how low they are on fuel. They would not be able to make it to Camp Buehring on the tank they are currently on. Trevor decides to pull the vehicle up to the SUV's which are parked by the VIP area while they assess the situation. Price informs his squad members in the back of what is going on during this time.

After much chatter amongst the group and different options being verbally weighed, Trevor makes up his mind based on Christopher's suggestion. This includes him and Ringo dismounting the vehicle while Price pulls security for them from the turret as they search the nearby SUV's for keys.

If they are able to get one of those vehicles up, as well as acquiring a new vehicle with enough fuel, they would crossload all of the important equipment they need and just hot bed off the new ride. The group comes to an agreement and decide this is the best course of action as time for them to hitch a new ride is still possible before the mob whom chased them from the Mosque catches up to them.

Price picks up his scan in the turret as Ringo and Christopher braces themselves while Reagal opens the door for them upon receiving their ready nods.

Ringo and Christopher hits the parking lot running with their weapons up pulling security. Ringo follows Christopher and covers his back as he checks the doors of the parked SUV's. The ones which were locked, he avoided and went on to other vehicles to see if they were open to save time. A few vehicles pass by as Christopher ends up with a fruitless search and no results. Now appearing agitated, a frustrated Christopher begins knocking out some of the windows of the locked vehicles he passed up. Ringo tells him to quiet down and head for the last vehicle in the lot which he overlooked once his aggression set in. Christopher obliges and runs over to the vehicle Ringo pointed out.

Upon approaching the driver's side door, Christopher opens it only to step back a few foot in shock as he bumps into Ringo whom continues to watch his back.

"Whats wrong man?" Ringo nervously asks Christopher.

"Nothing, don't worry about it." Christopher responds.

Christopher came across a dead body inside the driver's side of the cab leaned over head resting on the wheel. The man has a pistol in his hand and an apparent gunshot wound to the side of his head. He obviously took his own life. Ringo now glances back in Christopher's direction noticing now what he had found. Ringo decides to ignore the corpse and continue pulling security for Christopher.

Christopher begins searching the dead Iraqi soldier's pockets. After a thorough search, he ends up finding the keys to the vehicle. As a result, he grabs the dead driver by his hair and throws him out the vehicle to the pavement while entering the driver's seat.

He nervously jiggles the keys as he attempts to quickly find the right one to start the vehicle. Once he does, he sticks it in the ignition and starts it up. To his surprise and joyful cheers, the vehicle's engine fires up.

Christopher inspects the gauges and notices the fuel tank is on full. This is just what the group needs to make it down to Camp Buehring, Kuwait to safety. He quickly hops out and tells Ringo they are in the clear as they sprint back to the MRAP and bang on the back door. Reagal opens it eagerly asking them if they found a ride as they hop in. Upon hearing the good news, Hunter turns off the vehicle while the rest of them begin egressing the truck and grabbing all of their important equipment such as extra ammo, some minor food and water. They begin transfering it over to the new vehicle once Christopher showed them where it was located.

Upon piling their equipment and supplies into the back of their newly acquired SUV, Price breaks the machine gun down and props it up in one of the back windows of the vehicle while placing his extra canned ammunition beside the door. Ringo decides to prop up his M249 SAW on the other side window of the back door as Christopher and Reagal hop in the very back of the vehicle to take up rear security.

Gilroy now sits in the middle between Ringo and Price. Trevor takes up the front passenger seat as obviously, Hunter hops in the driver's side seat and begins backing up. Everyone in the truck is now excited and grateful to find a functioning vehicle which can hold all of them and their equipment. Trevor directs Hunter to follow the road out of the walled off compound inside the truck stop and to head for what appears to be a border crossing only a 1/2 mile down the way at the end of the facility.

It becomes apparent to Trevor that this is the border crossing into Kuwait because the fenced off area has one entry and exit adjacened to eachother. Also there are guard towers with Iraqi flags propped up on them. These were obvious signs.

As their SUV approaches closer to the crossing, they continue to pass even more bodies scattered amongst the facility. Most of them obviously ripped to pieces and mutilated without mercy. The stinch of the dead finds it's way into the vehicle through the open windows. As a result, most of the soldiers begin covering their noses in disgust with their gloves and their tops.

Once the vehicle passes through the border crossing, they find a road which leaves out the facility and heads straight down to another checkpoint with towers, gates and fences. It only seems to be about five hundred meters away from one checkpoint to the next. All that surrounds the lone road is open desert. As they push forward at a high rate of speed to safety, Trevor now notices the visible Kuwaiti flags flying in the air on the other side. The men begin cheering for joy as they crack jokes at eachother and demonstrate shies of relief.

That is, until they are only now a few feet away from the gate. What they discover, is what they saw on the Iraqi side as well. No one manning the towers or the gate. Dead bodies scattered everywhere at the base of the towers and the gates. It now becomes apparent to the group, as their cheers of joy fade and the look of dread becomes visible on their faces as they retreat to silence, that the long hard road to safety is going to be a longer one than they had anticipated.

Trevor tells Hunter to pick up his rate of speed. It's all about survival now the group concludes to eachother as Trevor reaches down into his pocket and lights up his last and only Miami cigerette.

end chapter 3

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

CHAPTER 4
Knowing Is Half The Battle

Gunshots began to ring out in the street as the rest of the surviving members of the group sprint across the roadway to the awaiting safety of the bus Andrew secured for them.

One of the older ladies of the group, has the child from the little league baseball team whom were attacked in the terminal not so long ago in her arms as she makes her way to safety in a dead sprint to the bus. Automatic fire weezes by in all directions of the survivors as they move in a file.

Some zig zagging on the road and screaming in sheer panic of being shot and left to die in the center of the street. Upon entering the bus while yelling at Andrew to take off and get the bus moving, the Air Marshall, whom was the first to enter, trips over a brutally beaten corpse laid out in the middle of the aisle way. The body is of a man whom seemed to have his head beaten in with a baseball bat. Brain matter, blood and tissue from the man's head appeared to be scattered all over the floor and on the seats and windows of the bus.

Once everyone safely enters the bus, Andrew attempts to close the front door. However, never driven a bus before and not being familiar with the basic operations of it, he frantically asks for help from one of the survivors.

The TSA employee orders him to move out the way and hops in the driver's seat as Andrew retreats back to one of the passenger seats of the bus. The door instantly closes within seconds of the man entering the seat. The TSA employee slips the bus into reverse and begins backing out as rounds begin impacting the bus from a distance. Various windows are shot out as stray bullets ripple through the vehicle. All of the passengers, including the older lady, go straight to the floor instantly for cover while she attempts to shelter the small child beneath her.

Once the bus has enough room to move forward, the driver instantly takes off down the street in the direction of the shooting.

The TSA employee instantly yells for everyone to hold on as he sees multiple police cruisers blocking the road a few hundred meters down from his location while assuming that is where the gunfire originated. There also appears to be a mob of people in front of them attempting to storm the barricade as the police officers behind it continue to open fire.

The driver decides to ram right through them. Just before impact, he notices the police officers dodging out of the way of the bus which has rammed their blockade. In the process, the TSA employee plowed right through the middle of the mob crushing many different potential attackers or innocent civilians. There was no way of telling.

Upon ramming the blockade, pushing through the violent blood thirsty mob and surviving a volley of fire, The bus has broken through to safety.

The Air Marshall asks the driver if they are in the clear as he raises his head up to poke around from the center of the aisle right next to the beaten down corpse which lies in the center of the bus. The driver nods his head with a look of shock on his face and decides to stay silent. The Air Marshall, now taking a seat, yells to the remaining survivors that "the coast is clear".

Everyone rises up from cover and tries to get comfortable in their seats. All of them now, proceed to stare out the window in awe as they witness the chaos unfold in the streets.

As the bus pushes on, the TSA employee who is behind the wheel informs the group he is headed for the freeway in an attempt to get out of down town Atlanta.

Nobody really seemed to pay attention to him as their eyes laid glued to the windows. What they see are people running in panic for cover. Women trying to start their cars up in panic while mobs of attackers smash through their driver's side windows and rips them from their seats into the street.

Burning cars and car crashes in the middle of intersections. Assailants chasing innocent victims as if they were food and ripping into their flesh with their bare hands upon catching them. In addition, the survivors notice some civilians with privately owned weapons running down the street shooting anyone in sight who comes close to them. There appears to be an attacker on every corner and someone running away from that person. All of the attackers are from all different types of ethnicities and ages as well.

"Oh my god! There are children in that group of people eating that poor man alive!" yells the flight stewardess in horror as they pass the front of a daycare center.

What she saw was coming from the playground on the side of the building as the bus passed it up. Everybody is now shocked and frieghtened. Nobody knows what to make of the situation and are shaking uncontrollably, including Andrew.

The Air Marshall has decided that he has seen enough. He releases his magazine from his pistol grip to inspect how many rounds he has left. He then turns his hand to his back belt buckle through his coat to check how many pistol magazines he has remaining. Upon becoming aware of his remaining round count, he stands up from his seat and grabs on to one of the poles in the center aisle.

"Alright listen up people. Now I don't know what the hell those things are, but if we are to survive, we better stick together," states the Air Marshall as he overlooks the group.

As he was about to continue, he is interrupted by one of the survivors.

"Now wait a damn minute. I'm not sticking with anyone! I need to get to Oklahoma and meet up with my associates," rudely interrupts one of the survivors who is wearing a business suit which is covered in blood. Parts of his suit are also slightly torn apart. Another passenger follows suite.

"I have to get back home to Seattle. I'm a nurse at a hospital and can't be late or not show up, they will fire me. I need that job too, it's my career. If I lose it I won't be able to pay my bills," exclaims one of the female survivors as she stares on at the chaos outside her window.

The Air Marshall looks on waiting for anyone else to add their opinion. He notices the mother in the back of the bus still crying and weeping for her lost children. In pity he places his head down and stays silent for a few moments. Andrew decides to chime in right then and there in the Air Marshall's defense.

"Do you all see what is going on outside? I am pretty sure this isn't the only place. Whatever is going on, everything has now changed. If we split apart then we will be left vunerable. Whoever these attackers are, they are women, men and children. It can happen to anyone. If we are to survive we need to stick together until all of this gets sorted out," Andrew proclaims.

The older lady, who is cradling the small child in her arms as she sits in her seat, makes a statement.

"I agree with the young soldier and the Air Marshall. There have been reports of this kind of chaos going on all over different parts of the country. The TV said it wasn't happening here, but that was only a few days ago. Now look whats going on. We have to work together. By the way, my name is Linda. Linda Evermoore," exclaims the older lady.

Andrew decides to introduce himself to the frieghtened group followed by a slight head nod in agreement with Linda. The Air Marshall decides to follow suite shortly after and introduces himself.

"My name is Riggs Donnovan. Just call me Riggs. Whats your name boy?" asks the Air Marshall while leaning over to the small child they just recently saved not too long ago while scruffing the top of his head with his hand.

"Andrew Wilkinson. I am ten years old and some day going to join the Army!" exciteingly responds the child.

"It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I was wondering though, do you know what happened to my friends? You know, my friends on the team?" curiously asks the child.

Andrew and Riggs look back at eachother trying to figure out something polite to say. Linda realizes what he is asking and begins stroking his head as she makes him rest on her shoulder.

"Oh kiddo, you know what happened back there was pretty serious and unexpected......," Linda is now cut off by the mother in the back walking up to the front of the bus as tears run down her eyes.

"THEY ARE ALL GONE! ALL OF THEM! SO ARE MY CHILDREN. WE LEFT THEM THERE!" frantically cries the mother as she takes seat in a new area of the bus and weeps as she leans up against the window.

The boy, now realizing what fate may have came to his team mates and friends, looks back over to Linda.

"They are all dead aren't they? It's okay, you can tell me. I am going to be a soldier some day, just like Andrew," bravely states the child with a sense of acceptance in his voice as he looks over to Andrew in an admiring fashion.

Linda appears shocked along with Andrew and Riggs. The bus driver looks back as if he was going to make a comment, but stopping short of something to say.

The stewardess, now looking heart broken, attempts to introduces herself.

"My name is Tammy. I agree with all of you. We need to stick together. The only attachment I have is my fiance who lives in France. I don't know if I will ever get back to him now," the stewardess explains as her eyes begin to water with tears.

The business man in the suit rolls his eyes while folding his arms together sarcastically.

Andrew and Riggs stare at the man being insensitive to the stewardess's plight.

"My name is Mr. Lyons," the man sarcastically states.

Now Linda turns back and begins to glare at the man in disgust.

"What? Alright fine. Randall Lyons. Are you all happy now? Don't see how this really matters," the business man sarcastically states without displaying any emotion.

Upon entering the on-ramp of the expressway and mainly clearing most of the commotion and chaos outside, the TSA employee whom is in control over the bus, over hears the conversation between the group. After becoming angered at Randall's comments, he instantly stops the bus in a dead halt just short of the freeway.

Upon the bus coming to an immediate halt, the doors swing wide open. The TSA employee demands that Randall and whoever wants to take their chances outside can go ahead and walk off the bus.

Everyone in the back remains silent. Without receiving a response, the driver proceeds to get up from his seat and grab Randall by his collar while dragging him out of his seat towards the door.

Riggs and Andrew interfere and break the driver's grip of Randall's collar.

"What the hell is wrong with you man! Slow your damn roll!" yells Riggs as he pushes the driver back to the seat while he is yelling and threatening to punch Randall across the face.

Andrew keeps Randall secure in his seat in fear of retaliation, however, Randall does nothing.

Riggs defuses the situation by talking to the driver and explaining to him how confusing and stressful the situation is right now. He persuades the driver to sit back in his seat, close the doors and to drive off.

The TSA employee complies while commenting under his breath.

Once on the road, the driver begins explaining his plight.

"Man, I was supposed to get off work in a few hours and see my girl. I had everything planned out, even reservations," the driver exclaims.

Andrew and Riggs look on in silence waiting for the man to go on while Randall begins shaking his head in his seat.

"Whats your name man? I think it's fair that we get to know each other. What you think boss?" asks Riggs displaying a friendly and inviting demeanor to the angered TSA employee.

"My name is Dwayne. Dwayne Hearst. Just another name in this messed up nightmare," sadly explains the man as he merges with oncoming traffic which is traveling well over a hundred miles an hour trying to escape the city.

"Well Mr. Dwayne Hearst, glad to meet you. Where is your girl at right now? Maybe we can go get her?" offers Riggs in a comforting tone of voice to calm the man down.

Dwayne begins shaking his head in disagreement.

"Nahh man. She lives in downtown Atlanta. Right where all this chaos is going down. While we were just barely surviving back there, on the road I sent her multiple texts and even called her phone. She didn't pick up. I can only expect the worse," Dwayne sobs as he passes traffic at a higher rate of speed.

Riggs and Andrew look at eachother with worrisome facial expressions.

"I want to go find her, however, I fear the worst. If I go looking for her, I know what I will find. I don't want to see her like that. She works at that damn day care we just passed up man. I think that I saw her lieing on the pavement as we passed by. There is no way of telling. Man, I just don't want to know!" yells Dwayne as tears begin to drip down his eyes.

Riggs sits down in the aisle beside Dwayne as he places his head down in sadness.

"I am sorry Dwayne. Just don't think about it. Don't ever think about it," a concerned Riggs advises in a desperate attempt to solve everyone's problems.

That is when one of the males of the group, whom mainly remained silent the majority of the time, sitting beside one of the silent females of the group with his arm around her comforting her, rises up from his seat and marches down to the front of the bus behind Dwayne's driver seat.

"Listen up 'bro', you need to slow your ass down before you get us all killed. I'm not about to put my fiance back there in even more danger! Got it?" orders the man with an apparent aggresive posture as if he was about ready to attack Dwayne.

Riggs rises up and places his hand on Lance's chest.

"Not a good time, brother."

That is when Dwayne looks back at the man in anger.

"Sit down before you get put down," Dwayne threatens as if he's got nothing else to lose.

The man standing up, wearing a blue Florida Gators jacket, begins yelling at Dwayne in defiance as he slaps away Rigg's hand.

As a result, Riggs and Andrew attempt to subdue the man back to his seat where his fiance resides.

Explosions down the freeway off into the distance can now be heard and seen in the direction they are headed. Dwayne quickly hops the median and turns around in the opposite direction while slowing down rapidly as the rest of the passengers clinge to dear life in an attempt not to go flying to the front of the bus. Hundreds of cars can be seen down the opposite direction they were headed just moments ago slamming at high rates of speed into a vehicle pile up.

More explosions are observed as multiple cars are seen flying up into the air. Many of the passengers shy in awe and make comments in shock.

Once Riggs and Andrew get the angered man back in his seat, Andrew looks at the man's fiance and apologizes for the aggresive demeanor they took towards her man. She shakes it off and thanks Andrew. Her fiance glares back at her in anger. Riggs sits in the seat across from the man and tries to reason with him.

"Look, the driver obviously isn't in his right mind right now. You need to give him some space. What's your story anyway? I need you to calm down so he can calm down and we can all sort this mess out some how," Riggs reasonably explains in a calm and cool collective manner. The man, now appearing slightly calmer, introduces himself.

"My name is Lance. This is my fiance Tabatha," the man explains as his fiance waves her hand up into the air greeting them.

"We were on our way from Florida to New York to see my family. I was going to introduce my parents to Tabatha and inform them of our upcoming wedding. This ruined everything," the man explains while trying to establish himself in a hardened demeanor.

The flight stewardess, Tammy whom is sitting in the seat right in front of the couple, leans back and chimes into the conversation.

"Glad to meet both of you. You both look like a wonderful couple," Tammy compliments while grinning at them and suddenly staring back at Riggs in an akward fashion.

Riggs ignores it.

Dwayne yells back to the passengers as they are driving, informing them they are in the clear for now as more explosions are heard back from the way they were going. Oncoming vehicles on the other lane are seen quickly swurving off the road into the bumpy grassy median to cross over and follow the bus after noticing the destruction up ahead.

"That punk bastard better not get us killed on this road. I'll go right over there and knock him out!" Lance boasts with his arm over his fiance.

His fiance nods in acceptance while trying to convince him to stay seated.

"Your girl is right Lance. Better calm down. There will be no fighting amongst us. Any differences we have with each other save it for later. He already got us out before, let him do his thing," Riggs advises.

"Hell no. You don't tell me what to do. You're just an old man anyway, i'll roll you up if I have to. So just back off," Lance threatens as he stares at Riggs in the eyes.

Tabatha now shaking her head and staring back outside the window trying to ignore the situation.

Andrew now steps in and places his hand on Lance's chest stopping him from leaning forward closer to Riggs.

"Listen up brother, you want to throw down, we can throw down. You'll have to get through me too. So take your ivy league ass back to your seat and shut the hell up before the both of us shut you up!" yells Andrew as he stares Lance right into his eyes.

Lance quickly breaks eye contact and stays silent. Tammy now quickly turns back facing the front of the bus trying to avoid the situation.

Riggs ignores the incident and walks down the aisle to the mother all in her lonesome. She has stopped crying at this point, however, still appears to be weeping for her lost children.

One of the other ladies on the bus, approach the mother at the same time Riggs did once she saw Riggs heading over to her location. The lady beats Riggs to the punch.

"Hunny, please calm down. You can talk to me about it. I am so sorry for what happened to your boys. I am here for you," she comments in pity while trying to put her arms over the distraught mother in comfort.

"My name is Audrey. We can be friends if you want," the woman adds.

The mother leans closer into the woman's arms in a submissive fashion and begins crying some more. This time even harder than before. Riggs stands over here with an apparent sadness in his eyes and moving his head back and forth. Andrew walks to the back of the bus to be part of the conversation right as the mother begins talking.

"My boys. Oh my god my boys......," the mother weeps.

"It was my youngest's birthday. I took both of them to Disney World for his birthday. Oh my god they were so young. They did not deserve this. I just left them.......," she explains as tears drip down her eyes while her face changes color in despair.

She is now resting her head on Audrey's lap as Audrey strokes her hair in comfort with a look of concern on her face.

Both Riggs and Andrew are lost for words. They do not know how to approach this, however, they feel the need to introduce themselves regardless. The mother thanks them for their kindness and returns the favor.

"If it really matters anymore, my name is Cynthia," the desperate mother responds.

Andrew, realizing progress at this point, proceeds to ask her what her children's names were.

"I had two beautiful boys. Their names were Thomas and Ben. I called them my Tommy and my Benny. God I love them so much. I wish that I died there with them," Cynthia comments in despair.

Audrey begins shaking her head while telling her she has to move on and be strong.

"Life is important and you need to treasure whatever of it you have left. Are you married?" Audrey intrudes while trying to comfort Cynthia.

Cynthia just stares at her for a few moments until she responds.

"My husband is always away on business. He is a very important man. He doesn't love us. He cheated on me countless times. Now I just deal with it and let him go about his business. He couldn't even be there for Tommy and Benny's birthdays," Cynthia explains with apparent anger in her voice and watery eyes.

"He wasn't in the airport at the time. He is in Massachusetts right now," she goes on to add.

"Before we left Florida I heard on the radio during the bus ride to the airport that state was under attack. Just like this one now," states Cynthia.

Audrey and both of the men all look at eachother in shock. Andrew asks Cynthia if that was the only state the radio reported under attack. She tells them there was a laundry list of states named off. Well over thirty to thirty-five states in the union reporting widespread chaos and panic in the streets.

Now extremely concerned, Riggs pushes to the front of the bus. Dwayne asks him what his deal is when Riggs hits the power switch for the radio.

He begins switching the dial and flipping through stations in order to find the news or any type of emergency broadcast station.

"You know I was just thinking about that," Linda comments.

As Andrew passes Linda and the boy, the little boy grabs Andrew's arm bringing him to a dead halt. The child looks up at Andrew's face with excitement in his eyes.

"So you're a soldier too huh? I'm going to be one some day, just like you. Tell me about the Army!" the boy demands.

Andrew lowers himself to the boy's level and promises he will another time.

"I got it! I got it!" Riggs shouts as he tunes into a station sending out a broadcast.

Everyone on the bus huddles up to the front to listen in including a distraught Cynthia and Audrey.

Dwayne slows the vehicle down so he can pay attention to the ongoing broadcast. Riggs puts up his hands to instill silence on the bus.

Minutes go by as they listen on to the emergency broadcast station. What they hear, is something of disbelief. None of them can believe it at the moment. As they listen on, the radio informs them of all the states under chaos and widespread attack by loved ones, police officers and average everyday citizens.

These announcements turned out to be so shocking, some of the passengers on the bus refused to listen to it and went back to their seats such as Randall and Lance. Tabatha decided to stay and listen on against Lance's orders.

"Wow. The dead coming back to life. The military being mobilized to all major cities. Seizures inflicting death, then reanimation. This is something out of a comic book," exclaims Riggs as he listens on.

Andrew tells him to shut up and listen as the man on the radio begins listing off safe states and cities with military protection and refugee centers.

The panic inside the bus begins to grow as the grim reality of the situation becomes more apparent. Once the broadcast stops, disbelief and anger grows within the group.

"What they are saying is bullshit!" yells Randall in denial.

Lance agrees.

Riggs and Andrew start talking amongst eachother in private.

"You know the only states the broadcast said was safe is Texas, Alaska and Montana. The closest one is Texas. Fort Hood is a safe zone they said," Linda states as she places her hand over the boy beside her.

"Yeah, but do you know how far that is? We are in Georgia. We'll never make it!" a worried Tammy adds.

Lance agrees with Tammy and reminds them of his intentions to make it to New York.

Dwayne adds his opinion as well, "Yeah we are in Georgia you dumb chicken head. This place is also under attack by those 'things' out there. Anywhere we go here, it isn't safe. If the emergency broadcast station is telling us where safety is then we need to go to it!"

Riggs rises up from his seat during the argument and sides with Dwayne.

"He is right. Our strength right now is each other. There is no where to go around here or anyone to help us. Did you see how well the Atlanta International security forces handled that situation? They are all probably dead by now. They were packing some serious fire power too. Whatever those living or dead things are out there, they aren't human. I shot them multiple times in the chest and they did not go down. The radio says we have to aim for the head. It is the only way to put them down. If we split up now, we are all dead. We need to make a decision as a group and go through it together. Where ever that may be. I say we go to Fort Hood Texas," Riggs preaches as he looks on to the group.

Everyone in the group begins talking among themselves deciding the best move for them. Andrew, after giving it much thought, realizes he has no choice in the matter. His brother's family is located there and that is where he is going regardless. With or without the group. He made a promise to his brother and he will honor it whether it meant his life.

"I'm with you Riggs," Andrew states without letting the group in on his own reasoning for staying.

"Count me in Mr. Air Marshall," Dwayne sarcastically states.

"Shit, I got family in Texas anyway," he adds.

Randall, appearing afraid as he glances out the window to the freeway, observes a mini-van crashed on the side of the road with a family of five laid out dead onto the pavement while a small little girl is eating away at the legs of one of the deceased adults face first on the pavement.

Shortly after the bus passes the scene, he begins to over-heat. Sweat drips down his face as his heart pounds away inside his chest. It appears to be a possible panic attack which was triggered by the horrific sight he just laid eyes upon for a few seconds. As a result, he reluctantly makes his decision to stay out of fear of being alone in this new dangerous world.

The rest of the members all agree to head to Fort Hood Texas where military protection and a refugee center is guaranteed. Lance appears to be the only one still against it after arguing with his fiance over going to New York.

Tabatha pretty much makes it clear to Lance she will go with the group regardless of him staying or not, which infuriated him. After telling Dwayne to stop the bus, which Dwayne quickly obliges, Lance stands up and proceeds to walk out the door on the side of the road.

"Screw all of you!" Lance yells as he walks out the door and begins strolling down the shoulder of the road.

Tabatha, his fiance, quickly runs off the bus and follows Lance yelling and screaming at him to come back while beginning to cry. Lance stops dead in his tracks once he hears her sobs and moans from a distance.

He places his head down while the simmering Georgia sun beats down upon his young face. He takes a few moments to think about his decision and then decides to turn around back towards Tabatha. At this point. Riggs is outside the bus with his pistol drawn pulling security against any potential attacker that may come out of the woodline while Andrew has his trusty baseball bat in hand. Audrey and Dwayne commence to dragging the dead body out of the center aisle of the bus into the shoulder of the road to clear up the already horrific stench of the bus.

Tammy was supposed to help at first, however quit after breaking a nail and getting some blood on her already bloodied flight dress.

"Babe, do you really think we should go with these deuschbags?" asks Lance as he approaches Tabatha.

Riggs and Andrew observe the conversation.

"I'm not a deuschbag," Riggs tells himself out loud right beside Andrew.

Andrew raises his eye brow in contempt.

Tabatha submissively nods her head in a type of defiance.

"They are all we have right now. I don't even know how we would be able to reach New York on our own. Even if we had the means of getting there it is too dangerous. Not even including what is going on there right now. Baby, please listen to me," Tabatha pleads as she gets to her knees on the pavement and begs her fiance.

Lance reluctantly approves and helps her back up. The two of them walk back to the bus as Dwayne and Audrey toss the beaten corpse down the decline of the shoulder. The body is seen rolling down the grass disappearing into the bushes which make up the woodline. Tammy looks on in disgust while trying to wipe her hands off with the padded seats of the bus.

Once Tabatha and Lance enter the bus, the rest of the group follows back on. Dwayne gets back into the drivers seat and takes off down the road.

"So it's agreed? Fort Hood Texas it is?" Riggs asks the group.

Everyone nods their heads with the exception of Lance. Andrew glares back at Lance and the both of them make eye contact for a few moments. That is when Dwayne butts in.

"Yeah that sounds great and all. Don't mean to interrupt you all's bonding time, but we need maps, fuel, guns, food. We got nothing right now. Half of us lost our damned phones in the airport trying to escape and im on quarter battery life. My iPhone won't be giving me directions for long," Dwayne concernly states.

Riggs and Andrew both agree.

Riggs instructs Dwayne to drive about thirty miles out of the city before they pull off to a rest stop. There they will refuel, gather supplies and acquire the maps they need for the long journey ahead to the safe zone at Fort Hood. Andrew makes it clear to the group that they are looking at a twelve hour drive if it is non-stop. That is how long it took him to drive from Fort Benning Georgia to Fort Hood Texas after he first got out of basic training. The group acknowledges the advice along with Dwayne who says the bus can go about another fifty miles before refuel.

"We are in the clear for now," Dwayne informs.

While the bus is rolling along, Andrew has time to get to know some of the people better. Especially Riggs who sparks his interest. a lot about this man, reminds him of the military. His verbal terms, the way he sways a weapon and his overall demeanor. According to Andrew, he could of sworn he heard Riggs use the acronym 'FUBAR' multiple times.

Andrew approaches Riggs and attempts to engage him once more in conversation, however, this time being personal.

"Hey man. I got a few questions for you if you don't mind?" asks Andrew as he sits next to Riggs while he attempts to wipe some of the human flesh off his ACU's.

Riggs welcomes him politely.

"You ever spend any time in the service? I saw the way you use a gun. I know you're an Air Marshall and all, however, I also know they just don't hand that job out to anybody," explains Andrew as he searches his left leg ACU pocket for a can dip.

He packs the can, opens the lid and scoops up a big fat one to throw in his lip.

"Yeah man I was. I was S-1 back when Clinton was in office," Riggs states as he stares off into the distance.

Andrew's jaw drops in disbelief.

"I don't believe that. You lie," claims Andrew.

Rigg's eyes tell many different stories as he appears to be deep in his memories now of that time.

Andrew, now feeling uncomfortable being in the presence of someone more experienced and more elite than him regarding military service matters, proceeds with his questions.

"Were you ever deployed and if so, how many leave packets did you conjure up?" asks Andrew fully knowing this man has probably fought all over the world. He decided to play dumb.

Riggs looks back at him with a smile.

"Yes I have been. I was in Bosnia during the genocide making my First Sergeant's coffee. I was also in Kuwait during the Gulf War, typing up school packets for the Battalion Staff. That time is far behind me now and I will never speak of it again due to the excessive paper cuts that I endured. Sorry."

Andrew shakes his head while laughing histerically.

Andrew goes on to explain that he just wanted to know what type of experience was in the group and who he could depend on if something bad was to happen. Andrew goes on to change the subject and asks about the man's personal life and family.

Riggs, now with another apparent sadness in his eyes, tells Andrew his wife died many years ago just before he got out of the military. He has no kids and been alone the entire time. That is "the way it should be", Riggs explains.

Andrew, now feeling that he has gone too far, retracts his other questions. Riggs on the other hand, has some questions of his own.

He goes on to ask Andrew what he does in the military and how long he has been doing it for. Andrew tells him about his brother, Iraq and his job in the service. Riggs is a bright individual, he figured out that Andrew's brother lived near Fort Hood with a quickness.

He also realized his reasons for quickly deciding to stick with him and the rest of the group. At this point, in a world gone mad, Riggs figures he found a man whom he can trust. That was good enough for him.

[223shooteresc]

thanks for the new chapters

[NiGHTMARE-Z]

Linda is worried. She is worried about what lies ahead. She is worried about the group as a whole. She feels that she needs to reach out to Cynthia and comfort her in her time of need. She also wants to get to know Tabatha a bit better after witnessing the argument between her and her fiance. It appeared to her, that Lance was so angry, he was about to hit her. However, realizing there are other men around, he would refrain in fear of retaliation.

She feels that she needs to engage Tabatha and try to help her with her deep seeded problems she may possess. That is the thing with Linda. She loves to help people. So naturally she made the decision, when Tabatha is alone she will talk to her.

Tammy stares outside the window as she begins biting her nails uncontrollabley. The pure thought of the entire situation at hand is beginning to weigh down upon her. She watches the burning cars on the other side of the median as she passes by.

Some people are walking on the side of the road trying to frantically hitch a ride. Some even with small children. Dwayne passes them without a second thought. Soaking all of this in is beginning to make her feel like she is drowning. She decides to take her mind off it and starts looking around the bus for someone to talk with. She notices Riggs, now finished talking to Andrew sitting by himself all in his lonesome. She stares at him and begins studying him. She already realizes that she is some how attracted to him, however, against her will fully knowing she is an engaged woman whose fiance is all the way across the world.

She thinks of him as it begins to sadden her even deeper. She wonders if she will ever see him again. As a result, she decides to stay quiet and mind her own business.

Cynthia asks Audrey if she can be alone now. She thanks Audrey for all of her help and that she feels a little bit better thanks to her. As a result, Audrey walks over to Andrew who is now leaning up against the window of one of the seats all by himself. He is lost in his thoughts. Trying to make sense of everything that has happen.

Before Audrey walked up to him, he began thinking of his time in Iraq and all of the warning sides that were right in front of him. The seizures in the DFAC, the sick insurgents surrounding him at the gate and the man whom was grunting and groaning at him across the fenceline. It all makes sense now the more he thinks of it. He also realizes that his senior leadership was lying to him and his men the entire time. He also begins thinking of his soldiers and his brother still back in Iraq and wonders if they are still even alive. That is when Audrey sits down beside him, smiling.

"Hey Andrew. How are you?" Audrey asks with concern on her face.

Andrew shakes his head and gives a thumbs up.

"Yeah me too. How else are we supposed to feel? Some pretty wild stuff going on out there right now you know? You're a soldier though. You should be prepared for this type of stuff," Audrey boldly states.

"Ha, yeah right. I was never trained on how to deal with the dead walking or whatever the damned radio said. Thanks for the compliment though," Andrew jokes.

As a result, Audrey begins laughing.

Moments later, the child on the bus approaches Audrey in the aisle. He looks at Andrew for a brief moment.

"My name is Andrew too. I am going to be like you some day!" the child states with laughter.

This puts a smile on Andrew's face and makes him feel slightly uncomfortable.

"See looks like you have two fans now. Your fan base is growing soldier boy," exclaims Audrey as she studies Andrew.

A few seconds of silence passes as Andrew begins to blush.

While the boy is occupied in conversation with the two, Linda decides to walk over to Cynthia and have a word with her. Linda approaches with caution, not sure of how Cynthia will react to her due to the fact she sort of lied about the where abouts of her children in order to protect her. Linda decides she needs to set the record straight so there is no more animosity between the two.

Linda takes the seat next to Cynthia, whom stares out the window all in her lonesome obviously deep in thought. She has now stopped crying and weeping. It is apparent she is doing a bit better than before as now may be the right time to approach her. Now or never Linda tells herself as she formally introduces herself personally to Cynthia. Silence follows.

"Hunny I want you to know something. I only said those things earlier to save your life. You couldn't have stopped what was going on. It was too dangerous. I didn't even know you back there and I didn't want to see you throw your life away for a lost cause. I am so sorry hunny....," Linda states with a look of regret on her face. She awaits Cynthia's response impatiently.

Moments pass until Cynthia addresses her.

"My children were not a lost cause. It was my right to die for them. You robbed me of that," Cynthia sharply states with a look of anger and despair on her face. Linda appears shocked by her response.

"Again I am sorry. I hope you find it in your heart some day to forgive me. I will not bother you again until you want to talk to me about it. I am here for you hunny. I promise you that," Linda promises as she rubs the pain stricken woman on her shoulder and walks off back to her seat to over watch Andrew play with his new friends.

Cynthia stares her down as she walks away.

"Aunt Linda, Aunt Linda. My new friends are awesome!" Andrew states with excitement in his eyes.

"The man is a soldier, like I will be some day and the girl is a nurse! The both of them say they will train me some day so I can fight and heal! What do you think?" Andrew goes on in excitement.

Linda hugs Andrew with content as a response. She tells him that is wonderful and he will grow up to be a very resourceful young man someday. Linda, knows this boy is strong willed and eager to help in any way he can. She fears however, the time he will ask for his mother and his other family members. She will not have a response for him when that time comes.

"Yo Riggs, we got something. What you all think of this exit?" Dwayne alarms the group as he slows down the bus so the group can read what the warning sign to the upcoming exit says.

Riggs and Andrew lean closer to the right side windows of the bus to observe the sign.

"How long have we been going for man?" Andrew asks Dwayne.

Dwayne informs them they are around forty-five miles outside of the city. If they are to re-supply, it has to happen now. Riggs expresses to the group his bad feelings about the operation, also reminding them how dangerous it could be with the ongoing chaos. While Riggs and the rest of the group are weighing their options, Randall contemplates an idea.

"Hey guys I have a question for all of you. Doesn't Wal-Mart sell guns and ammunition?" Randall asks with a sense of calm in his voice.

Riggs and Andrew stare back at eachother with an apparent bright lightbulb shining bright in their eyes.

"Yes they do. There is also a Wal-Mart not too far from that gas station slash plaza whatever the hell you call it," Lance reminds judging off the signs he just studied.

The rest of the group agrees if they are to make it to the only closest safe zone in the southern United States, they are to stock up on some serious supplies and weapons.

"Yup, we can obtain fuel cans, food and much needed ammo for the journey," Riggs agrees as he taps Dwayne on the shoulder and gives him the thumbs up to pull in.

As the vehicle ascends up the on-ramp at a creeping pace, the men of the bus go to pick up their baseball bats in preperation. Riggs draws his pistol out in the open and now holds it in his hand. What they see off into the distance is an abandoned gas stationed followed by a gigantic Wal-Mart supercenter in the backdrop seperated by a sea of asphalt which is used as a parking lot.

Just about the entire parking lot appears to be emptied out with the exception of a few vehicles still parked there. Shopping carts are scattered all about with apparent blood stains on them as well. Many bodies also linger all about and at all ends of the parking lot leading into the store.

"We need to go for the gas station first, it's closest. Hopefully the pumps are still on," exclaims Audrey as she picks up a bat from behind one of the seats.

The rest of the group agrees. Riggs tells Dwayne to pull the bus up to the pump. Riggs goes on to instruct the group.

"Myself and Andrew will go check out the store. All of you stay here and keep watch. If someone spots one of those things or anyone else, yell for us and we will double time back. Got it?" Riggs exclaims.

Everyone agrees with the exception of Dwayne and Lance.

"Why the hell do I have to stay here man? What makes you leader?" Dwayne disagrees in frustration as it is directed towards Riggs.

Lance interferes in the argument and backs up Dwayne.

"Because I am the man with the gun. You are the driver. Lance, your fiance is sitting right next to you. Must I go into further detail?" a now impatient Riggs explains.

None of them respond. They proceed to take their seats and keep watch.

"Come on, lets check this out," Riggs tells Andrew followed by a wink.

Andrew raises his bat in self defense as Riggs takes lead with his pistol at the high ready. They cut across the pavement into the entry way of the store caustiously in a file as Riggs gently opens the door with his right foot pushing into it.

Both of them enter with impunity as they clear up and down the aisle ways and check the back rooms leading into the garage. Nothing is found. Andrew walks back to the bus as the group watches on. Riggs hops the counter and activates the pump for dispensing. Once he does this, he walks back outside to link up with the rest of the group.

Andrew fills up the bus while Riggs keeps watch.

"This is good. Now all we got to do is hit that store and take what we need. Try to get as many fuel cans as possible then bring them back here to fill up," Riggs explains.

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea. We are going to have to bring more people into that store though, just not going to be us," Andrew adds.

Riggs nods his head in agreement.

"Yeah thats what i'm worried about though," he nervously adds.

Andrew smiles. The pump now stops. Andrew shakes the remaining drops of fuel out of the pump and places it back on its rack. The pair mount back up while Dwayne starts up the bus.

"Looks good so far. Got a bad feeling about that super center though. We're going to really have to be on our toes here guys," Riggs adds as the bus moves slowly out of the gas station parking lot and turns into the Wal-Mart parking area.

Tammy tells Dwayne to take the perimeter road which goes around the parking lot to avoid the bodies. She does not want to see them close up.

Dwayne obliges.

Andrew turns back to the survivors on the bus and addresses them.

"Who is going with us in there to gather supplies. We need to keep some back to sound the horn if something is going down. We also need some people to help us pull security and carry supplies back," Andrew informs.

The bus is now pulled up to the front entry way of the store and remains parked with the engine running.

Randall is the first one to volunteer to stay on the bus with Linda, the child and Cynthia. Everyone looks at him as if he was a coward, however, agree to it. Dwayne volunteers to go inside, however is stopped by Riggs because he argues someone needs to be on the wheel at all times and he obviously knows how to operate the bus well.

This angers Dwayne who argues his help is much needed in there as well. Riggs ignores it as Dwayne gives up and remains behind the wheel. His frustration grows. Lance decides to go along with Audrey. Tammy doesn't respond which leads everyone to believe that she is staying.

Tabatha attempts to go with Lance until he orders her to stay there out of fear for her safety. She unwillingly complies after a brief argument. Riggs tells everyone they will do about two or three trips. If anything goes wrong, honk three times and the group inside will go sprinting back to the bus.

Once the teams are set, the scavanger group which consists of Riggs in the lead, Andrew, Lance and Audrey armed with baseball bats in the back walk off the bus caustiously. The scared group which remains on the bus overwatches their every movement as their fears of being split up grow into near panic.

As the group approaches the front entrance, they notice windows knocked out, automatic doors locked into position due to dead corpses blocking it's path. The horrible stench of death fills the air. Lights are knocked out inside along with broken glass everywhere on the ground.

Once they enter the front door, they notice a thick pile of blood filled with various human organs laying in the middle of welcome center as they walk in.

A blood trail leads away from the pool of blood as the group slowly approaches it. Riggs takes aim in the direction of the gory mess when the group notices that it forms a trail. Upon clearing the adjacened walls which obstructed most of their view of the store, they now have full view of all the check out counters and most of the sections of the store.

The blood trail which leads away from the pool of blood and various organs scattered about leads all the way past the last check out counter down the hallway, which started at the first checkout counter near the group's position. Riggs is unaware of where the blood trail leads because it curves on the backside of the last checkout counter into the rest of the store.

"Oh my god. Should we follow it?", Audrey fearfully asks.

Riggs shakes his head.

Andrew says no.

"Lets just keep our eyes on the prize. Get what we need and then get the hell out of here," Riggs exclaims as he picks up the pace and heads straight for the sporting goods section of the store.

Most of the store seems to have been ransacked and destroyed. Items are displaced everywhere as products have been knocked off the shelves onto the floors. Clothes are also ripped down from it's hangars as well. In addition, a large portion of the food has been cleaned out as well.

The group comes across various scattered body parts in the aisle ways such as limbs and teeth. It is an apparent gruesome scene. They ignore what is around them as they focus on the task at hand.

Riggs tells the group to stay close together and not to seperate for any reason. Andrew comes across a shopping cart on the way to the sports section. He begins rolling it in the direction of the group as they move. As he moves, he crosses paths with a shelf of TV series on sale. He notices season five of the show Desperate Housewives and it reminds him of his brother.

Just before reaching the sporting good section however, they pass the infant/toddler section of the store. Andrew notices a baby carriage left abandoned. He only has view of the backside of it and notices there are specs of blood all around it. He decides not to inspect it and continues pushing along with the group ignoring the obvious gruesome scene.

Once Riggs reaches the counter of the sports section, he notices many of the shotguns still left intact in it's case. Riggs and Andrew decide on what they want and attempt to open up the glass windows.

Once they realize it is locked, Riggs tells the three to step back. Andrew tosses him his bat while Riggs tosses Andrew his pistol. The aeriel exchange is quick and effective. Riggs begins beating in the glass window display cases with ease. Usually taking them out on the first two swings. Once enough are openeed, the group tosses their bats into the shopping cart. Lance finds various rifle carrying bags and cases and throws it on top of the counter. Riggs tosses each survivor a shotgun or rifle as Andrew asks what caliber they are going for.

"12 Gauge and .308 will do," Audrey states as she begins familiarizing herself with the weapons she will be carrying. Riggs asks her if she and Lance knows how to use these weapons. Lance doesn't seem sure, however, Audrey gives him a blank stare and tells him she has been shooting since she was a kid.

This made Lance feel inadequate. Andrew begins running his arms across the shelves tossing down boxes of ammo into the shopping cart. He also goes for slugs as well. Once Andrew tosses in almost fifty boxes of ammo into the cart, he rolls it up to the counter where the rest of the group resides loading shotguns and rifles into carrying cases.

"When the hell did Wal-Mart stop selling pistols?" Andrew frustratingly asks.

Audrey laughs at him as she loads the weapons into the cart.

"Hold on a minute. I didn't see that earlier," exclaims Andrew appearing shocked.

Riggs and Lance asks him whats wrong.

"That AR-15 right there. I'm definately taking that," states Andrew.

Riggs tells him to hurry up.

The AR-15 he sets his sights on has an iron sight flip up sight with an apparent rail system on the barrell and a collapsable buttstock. No other apparent attachments are present. Andrew notices there are only two magazines next to it. He also proceeds to rip the tag off it and inspect it for caliber type. Once he does this, he quickly runs back over to the ammo shelf nearby and searches for any remaining .223 caliber rounds.

He notices there is only a few boxes left. He quickly grabs them and begins loading the magazines which he obtained. The group is almost done loading their weapons as Andrew finishes loading his two magazines full of .223 caliber ammunition.

Once he does this he grabs one of his synthetic mossberg shotguns. He loads five in the tube and chambers one followed by slinging it across his back. Andrew decides to carry the AR-15 at the low ready.

Once the group is loaded up, they swing over to the auto section as Lance is now rolling the cart. All of them are pulling security at the high ready covering every aisle they pass as they move. On their way to the auto zone section to grab additional 15/40 engine oil and gas cans, Audrey notices the blood trail from before. Only this time is from the last checkout counter leading into a different section of the store.

She informs the group. Once this happens, they tell her to ignore it and keep moving. This apparent blood trail she keeps coming across is obviously starting to make her uneasy. It appears fresh and only recently established. After a minute or so goes by however, she is able to block this out of her mind.

Upon reaching the auto section, to the group's dismay, they notice there is no oil to take with them. Riggs tells them he didn't see any at the gas station either. Also, they notice there isn't very many fuel cans left either that they can take with them. Only four to be exact as they are not anywhere close to being what they need. The group throws them in the cart anyway.

"One more stop. Food section," Riggs orders with a sense of urgency as they turn around and double back to the location they just came from.

Andrew reminds them of a map they will need to acquire on the way out. Riggs informs him, however forgetting to tell him earlier that he acquired an Atlas map book of the American southern states just before leaving the gas station. This relieved Andrew. Riggs appears to be on his game and thinking about these things. Andrew realizes that Riggs already earned his respect and established himself as a person who can be depended on and listened to.

As the group keeps pushing along and watching their flanks and rear, they come across the frozen food aisle. Once reaching this section of the store, they come across the blood trail once again.

The group now realizes that they have to go into the direction of the blood trail and face whatever it may be waiting on the other end. They all get on line with eachother with the exception of Lance who watches their rear and rolls the cart forward slowly. They are now all positioned at the high ready once again and are slowly following the blood trail to the section it leads to in order to gather the rest of their supplies.

Once they reach the end of the aisle and turn the corner, the end of the blood trail is spotted. What they see shocks them.

There appears to be four Wal-Mart employees, blue vests, red shirts, name tapes and all, gathered around one half eaten, devoured obese man laid out in the middle of the hallway by the frozen meats shelf. They are digging into his torso and quickly returning the meat that is collected up in their hands to their mouths in order to digest it. One of the other employees, appears to be gouging the corpse's eyes out as he presses in deep with his thumbs to extract the overweight victim's eyes balls out for consumption.

Riggs has his arms up, in a way shielding the rest of the survivors to his left and right, and whisphers to them.

"Slowly back away for the love of god. Do not make a sound," a wide eyed Riggs whisphers.

Audrey is now in a state of panic. She begins opening fire on them with her shotgun without warning. Right when she does this, Riggs and Andrew both yell the word "NO" at the same time.

Lance begins opening fire as well. Riggs and Andrew seemingly having no choice, opens fire in order to put down the attackers who now know of the group's presence.

"What was that!" Tabatha yells as she shoots up from her seat on the bus.

Everyone on the bus, now startled by the loud popping sounds coming from inside.

Linda tells the people on the bus that it sounds like gunfire, similiar to what they heard at the airport. Dwayne, sits in his seat restless wanting to go inside and help, however realizes his job by the wheel is more important. Randall stays comfortable in his seat as he looks back and forth to the other group members for comfort. Tabatha, who is now standing in the middle of the aisle, happens to be standing right in front of Randall whose seat is located closest to the side of the store.

"We need to go in there and find out what's going on. Oh my god Lance. Please, someone come with me?" Tabatha pleads as she stares through the bus window in the direction of the entry way of the store.

While she says this, Randall appears to be glaring outside the window in the opposite direction towards the parking lot side of the bus.

He remains silent, however, begins moving his lips as if he was trying to say something to the rest of the group. Nobody notices this except Tabatha. What Randall notices behind Tabatha, are the apparent bodies of the deceased, who appeared dead and lifeless as they drove in to the front of the store, now appear to be rising up as if they had just awakened from a slumber. There are too many to count as Randall begins to slur his speech in panic. After noticing this, Tabatha turns around to see what Randall is looking at.

Once she does this, as a result, she places her hands to her cheeks and begins frantically screaming in horror. The gunfire now stopped.

Everyone on the bus now draws their attention to the parking lot. The bodies are now attempting to stand erect and approach the bus as all of their pale white eyes stay locked towards the bus's direction without ever turning away for a moment.

"Holy shit. They are looking right at us!" Dwayne yells as he begins frantically honking the horn located on the center of the wheel.

Some of the bodies which are located further away now appear to be in a dead sprint for the bus. Others are walking towards Tabatha and the group of survivors. Dwayne continues to sound the horn desperately hopeing the others will come out in time.

"If they aren't out in thirty seconds, i'm taking off!" yells Dwayne.

Tabatha and other members of the group yell at him and tell him to wait. Randall encourages Dwayne to drive off now, the people inside "are probably already dead" he says.

At that instance, Tabatha smacks Randall across the face. Tammy leans over and threatens Dwayne.

"If you take off I will beat you across the head with this bat right here. You wait, got it?" she threatens in a low and promising voice. Dwayne turns around and tells her to sit down.

"I'm going to do what I have to do. These things are getting closer. Damnit, hurry up!" Dwayne yells as he begins to lose his calm and continously sounds the horn.

A few moments pass, Dwayne brings the vehicle from neutral to drive against the rest of the group's frantic threats.

At that point, Dwayne proceeds to place his foot on the acceleration pedal. Right before he depresses it, Riggs along with the other three come storming out of the entrance. Lance appears to still be pushing the cart full of supplies. Tammy and Tabatha quickly wait by the door as Audrey and Riggs storm onto the bus. Andrew turns around and helps Lance pick up the cart as they take off in a dead sprint for the door. They yell for everyone to clear a path as they charge right onto the bus and throw the shopping cart down filled with supplies and guns down on the floor.

The shopping cart loses balance and falls over on it's side, as a result, all of the items fall on the ground. Dwayne begins yelling for joy as he immediately accelerates and plows right through the crowd. Once he does this, multiple people are hit and splattered onto his windshield. He proceeds to use the water and windshield wipers to clean off the blood and bodily tissue obstructing his vision.

Riggs tells him to just hit the freeway as they will find another gas station down the road. Dwayne complies as he exits the parking lot at a high rate of speed and takes a sharp turn to hit the off ramp exit to the freeway.

Lance immediately goes running into Tabatha's arms as she begins to sob and cry. The small boy, taps Andrew on the shoulder from behind after he sat down to rest. Andrew looks over.

"That was pretty bad ass Andrew two. Nice job!" the child says.

Linda immediately gives him a look of dissapprovel.

"Baby, how did you learn to talk like that!" Linda complains.

Andrew smiles and tells Linda that "boys will be boys".

Linda appears upset.

"Hey now kiddo. I was born before you. I think we should leave numerics out of this. How about I call you young Andrew and you call me old Andrew? I mean, we do have to share this name. I am willing to do that for you because I like you so much!" Andrew exclaims as he puts his hand out to shake in agreement.

Young Andrew obliges and shakes his hand in return.