Chapter 2.. considerably long

"Don't wet yourself Tallor. We just need to keep our heads and find out something to do with Jimbo over there," Alan said. PFC Hallery hadn't said a thing. He was white as a ghost and by anyone's standards, a nerd. He was only a PFC because of JROTC and failed his swimming and combative quals the first two times. Chris grabbed another shell for defense and everyone circled around myself and Jim.
"I've got a plan, hold him here like I am," I said to Alan. He was slightly apprehensive, but did as I asked. I went about my business, gathering the things i needed from the ocean. Mainly thick seaweed and a large shell for myself. I put the shell down near Jim and took some of my seaweed and restrained his hands behind his back. I did the same with his legs, then stuffed the remainder of the seaweed into his mouth and ripped my shirt. I used the shirt to tie a gag around his mouth so he couldn't spit the seaweed out and made him about as harmless as a declared, toothless, tiger.
"We are going to carry him to medical bay where the corpsman can get a look in at him. Then we are going to the MP to report the body and we are each giving him a statement. Trust me boys, if we do everything by the book this won't go against any of our careers." Everyone was reassured by my words and so the four of us carried Jim along the running path and back towards the base medical bay.


At the pace we were moving it took us two and a half hours to complete the seven mile course. I took a left and saw the bright red cross and the words "Sick Bay" on a sign next to it. Jim hadn't quit trying to break free from us and twice we nearly dropped him, but I figured having a plan on its own was enough to be a step ahead. We brought him into sick bay and it was when the automatic doors opened for us that we first realized something was wrong. No one and I mean absolutely no one, was in the building. It was as if they all knew we were coming with a mysterious problem and booked out so they didn't have to deal with it.
"Hello? Corpsman?" No one responded to my queries. Before I even let myself get caught in a corner I said: "Fuck this, we are going to restrain Jim and head to the range and arm ourselves, do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal, buddy," Chris said to me. The four of us brought Jim into the nearest room we could find with a bed and laid him in it. He rolled out of it at first, but I picked him back up and held him down while Chris and Alan grabbed restraints. Preston was leaned against a wall, staring at the floor.
"Listen to me! you might not have a combat MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) but you are a Marine and by god if something is actually going on and we need you, you will NOT be staring at the motherfucking floor do you get that?" I am not normally that ass-chewer, but I knew if this kid didn't snap out of his stupor our lives would be more at risk.
"Yes Corporal," he said. Chris and Alan returned and tied Jim down. He couldn't do a thing against the strength of the straps so we were secure in our conscience when we left him alone for the shooting range. We weren't tired because we had been walking instead of on our run so we booked it to the range. In under one minute we'd ran the quarter mile and we looking at a fine array of weapons. I picked out an M4 carbine and a 9MM Beretta, with several clips of ammunition for both. Chris and Alan were both partial to the M16 rifle and preferred the Kimber .45 sidearm. Preston surprised me when he grabbed an M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) and a 9MM Beretta as well. Next step was to hump our gear to the barrack so we could change into our BDU's (Battle Dress Uniforms) so we could be more efficient if we had to fight. At the time we got all of our gear situated I was confident. The reason was because if everyone was gone then we would hopefully not have to use the weapons we armed ourselves with. Yet this also presented a problem. We needed to find a corpsman or some kind of doctor for Jim, we couldn't leave him behind.
“Listen guys, I'm giving us an assignment. We need to find some kind of medical personnel for Jim and we need to find out where everybody's gotten to. Chris you're with me, we are going to go in one direction while Hallery and Schmidt go in another. We can't lose contact with each other, so Schmidt take a radio. You are in charge of where an how you search, you are team Sierra. I am in charge of Tallor so we are team November. Any questions?”
“Nah, we're clear,” Schmidt answered for all of them. We left out of opposite directions of the building and I put my earwig on:
“Comm check. Got yours in yet Sierra?”
“Yes sir, check in every five minutes or if under duress?”
“That's affirmative, keep your eyes open.” Chris and I walked through the obstacle course, raising our weapons to every crevice we came across, covering each other should there be a hostile or anyone at all. Past the pull-up bars and the large wall without a rope. The twenty foot behemoth was meant as a teamwork exercise, but all was empty in sight. We ran through everything until we got back down to the start of the PT course we had run earlier that day.
“Hey November, we've reached base housing. We are going to be going street by street house by house. We will find someone I hope.”
“Alright. We just got done checking the obstacle course so we will be on a run back your way. Stay frosty Devil Dog.” Chris and I turned the other way and double-timed our way down to Schmidt's position. Checking and rechecking everything on our way back as we still kept a good pace. We ran for a good while, but before we got close to where Alan and Preston were, we heard:
“Fucking hell! Contact!” Gunfire came over the radio. The volume of the gunfire made me wince. It had been a long time since I'd fired a weapon without earplugs in.
“November! Double tap didn't do shit, but Preston shot this guy in the head and he dropped.”
“My kill was also a severe head wound,” Chris put in.
“Bastard hopped out of a closet and he was, he was eating a woman. I think it was his wife.”
“Think? Bullshit he was tearing at her like a fucking... I don't know!” Preston yelled. I couldn't even comprehend what was going on. Everyone seemed to have taken off except for a man who decided to go cannibal on his wife? What in the blue fuck was happening? I couldn't take too much time to think because I quickly realized that like any combat situation, once you're in it, the why ceases to matter. The fact that you are there and have to survive is what counts. And survival was a definite on the priority list.
“What that fuck? She's getting up!” Alan's yell was quickly followed by two gunshots.
“Sierra what's going on, what's your status?” I asked through my earwig.
“We're fine, the bitch must have survived through getting her neck nearly severed by her late husband's throat, which until recently, I DIDN'T THINK WAS FUCKING POSSIBLE KALE! I mean what is going on here? I think we need to regroup and get the fuck out of here.” Kale could only try to understand why Alan had gotten erratic all of a sudden. Witnessing a man literally eating a woman, then watching that same woman rise and attack you was more than someone should have to absorb in a day.
“OK Sierra, stay in that house, we are coming for you.”
“What about Jim?” Chris asked under his breath.
“Have you seen people so far? I hate to leave him, but he is safest where he is anyway.” Without much more talking we ran as hard as we could to Alan and Preston's position. The new plan was to make a break for it and hope that we found people who weren't rabid. I wasn't sure where we'd go. Probably the freeway, if people were trying to get away from this disease they would take it and maybe they could help us out with information. It took us another twenty or so minutes, but Chris and I finally did arrive at the housing and saw the carnage inside. Alan and Preston both had blood on them, but not much. In the hallway connected to the living room I could see both bodies and they were drenched in their own blood. I looked in the closet where the rabid husband assaulted his wife and there were pools of blood in there. Walking back across the hall I saw keys on a wall hanger and picked them up. They were to the Dodge Durango outside.
“I think staying here is goofy we need to get out of here and see if we can't find anyone else in San Diego,” I said to them, reentering the living room. The three men following my lead merely nodded and walked outside. We all piled up in the car and I turned the ignition, but it refused to start.
“Come on you piece of shit!” I yelled, very frustrated. Then a moment after I yelled, the vehicle started and roared to life. I pulled out of the driveway and onto the street as if satan himself were chasing me. In what must have been record time I drove us to the gate and I wasn't surprised anymore when I found that it was empty. From the gate it only took me another ten minutes to make it to the freeway and what I saw there, did surprise me. It was nearly gridlocked with cars, but the cars in question were empty. I was able to snake my way around the empty vehicles somewhat, until I came to a person limping in the road. I stopped the car, shut it off, and with my weapon at the ready, exited the vehicle.
“Jesus that's Sergeant McKitrick!” I yelled. Sergeant McKitrick was usually the one in charge of us when we were on duty, but when I first met him I made the mistake of calling him Sarge. After knocking me on my ass so hard that I thought I broke my tailbone he made very clear that “Sarge” was an overused Army term that wasn't good enough for him because he was a Sergeant in the USMC. And that was what I called him for the rest of the time I knew him.
“Just cover me, I need to see if he is okay or not, he would do the same for any of us,” I said as I walked away from the vehicle.
“Sergeant McKitrick! This is Corporal Kale Newers! Are you feeling alright?” McKitrick turned his head to me and to my great relief, spoke.
“Newers? Thank my lucky stars for you, I don't know what is going on, but.... I shot Colonel Hanes in the head. It all happened so fast I don't even know, but a few hours ago I was cleaning my gear in the barracks and he walked in looking like he just went a few rounds with George Foreman. I asked him if he was alright and he scratched my torso, then bit me on the leg! I shot him with my sidearm that I only moments before put the clip into or else he'd have killed me! I have limped my way from there to here for the past few hours. What about you?” Before I'd even taken in the image of McKitrick shooting the well respected officer, McKitrick fell to the ground. I had seen this before with Jim so I kept my distance and surely enough a few seconds later I had Sergeant McKitrick running after me like I'd called him Sarge again. I hesitated for a moment, but luckily enough for me, Alan didn't. A single round penetrated McKitrick's forehead and eliminated the threat.
“Thanks,” I yelled over to him. His response was drowned out by what I can only describe as squealing. I looked past the car and saw at least fifty rabid people in the distance, running after us.
“CHRIS START THE CAR!” Chris switched to the driver's seat and tried turning the key with no luck. I booked it to the passenger seat and got in while Chris still fiddled with the ignition. I looked through the window and saw the rabid people getting closer, maybe thirty yards away.
“Open fire!” I yelled to Preston and Alan and open fire they did. Regardless of the bullets reigning on them, only some of them people fell. The ones unfortunate enough to take head shots that is. They were only maybe fifty feet away from us when I gave up on the car and said:
“We have to bail!” The four of us exited the the Dodge and ran down the freeway. I felt bad for Preston because he did not have the body of a machine gunner, but he hefted the large SAW and kept pace. I opened car doors while I ran, making them an obstacle that the rabid infected bastards had to negotiate around. I saw one man completely ignore the door and jump through the window and still not break his pace. We gained a pretty heavy lead on them over ten minutes and came to a point in the freeway where there was a very low overpass, maybe fifteen feet off the ground.
“We need to jump down here and get into the city! There are buildings there that we can fight from because running isn't going to work forever,” I said.
“Fuck that, we have a lead and we can lose these motherfuckers!” Alan yelled.
“Alan now is not the time to disregard chain of command! Now I have made the call because its mine to make and I think the best way for us to survive is to survive within the city rather than on the open freeway so is that understood?” Chris then walked past me and hopped off the freeway, when he hit the ground he rolled to relieve the pressure from his feet and stood.
“I think I understand pretty well!” he yelled up to me. Preston and myself both jumped off then and looked up at Alan to follow. He sighed, but did jump off the freeway, but when he landed he didn't roll, and I heard the unmistakable snap of his ankle.
“Mother of God!” he yelled out, grabbing just above his ankle with both hands. The immediate guilt I felt was like that I haven't felt before. I wanted to apologize, but it was a pretty pointless thing to do. Then I saw the rabid people looking down at us from above and they were about to jump as well.
“Shit we have to go!” I pushed Preston back from him so I could carry him myself. I figured if it was my fault he couldn't run with us, I would make sure he stayed with the group. “Fire your weapon, your fucked up ankle hasn't made you a vegetable!” As we ran past buildings, Alan opened fire on the rabid. I tried as hard as I could to outrun them, but with an extra 190 lbs on my back it was too difficult for me. Then out of nowhere, a large pink snake-like thing grabbed Preston and all I saw was a blur go by my peripheral vision. The snake-like thing to my immense shock was a tongue and it was attached what I am sure at one point in time was a person. Preston would thank God until his dying day forgiving Alan such incredible talent with his rifle though, because he shot four well-aimed bursts into the tongue and it let Preston go. Leaving his SAW forgotten he ran like hell to catch back up and when he was minus forty pounds he easily did.
“Fuck this,” Alan said and then he rolled out of my fireman's lift. He started picking off the rabid as they approached, and there had to be at least thirty still after us.
“Alan what are you doing, I can't leave you like this!”
“I'm not asking you to, but we can kill them all before they get here!” It was an easy decision to make, because when you have several hundred rounds and only thirty people chasing you, you are pretty much set. They each fell different, but died the same. The four of us were easily capable of dispatching the threat. I hadn't seen bodies on a street like this before though, least of all by my hand. It was a sobering sight to behold and I had to sit down.
“We faced thirty in a city of millions of people, we have to keep going,” Chris said. I nodded and stood back up immediately. I walked over to pick Alan back up, when a blood drenched tongue with visible holes in it, wrapped around him.

i please hope you all read this, JB and i know each other and he was on this site yesterday on my computer so when i posted this it was still signed in as him, not me.. point is ZIONMASTERBEN WROTE AND POSTED THIS AND THE OTHER HALF!!!! thanks

lol ill read it later....

Death no more wrote:lol ill read it later....

i hope you like it and can get over the lack of indentation between dialouge.. idk wtf is going on but i am spacing when i type it in

XD ben nice epic fail. However for future referance go to your first story and click edit on it to add in the next chapter, dont open a new thread.

JB wrote:XD ben nice epic fail. However for future referance go to your first story and click edit on it to add in the next chapter, dont open a new thread.

yeah no one could have failed in that syle cept me... and yeah will do that as well

Zionmasterben wrote:

JB wrote:XD ben nice epic fail. However for future referance go to your first story and click edit on it to add in the next chapter, dont open a new thread.

yeah no one could have failed in that syle cept me... and yeah will do that as well

Very nice, you have to manually space it out with the space bar to make indents, and double lines between paragraphs. The sarge didn't ave that much of a character his words seemed kinda dry... you need to make better words for you characters,AND MAKE SURE YOU MAKE A NEW PARAGRAPHS AFTER A NEW CHARACTER SPEAKS. Besides that it very good, ill read on btw i liked the cliff hanger.