The First Scream

A red sun bloomed over the apocalyptic metropolis that was Heavens Gate. The infection was spreading. Several miles to the south...

Corporal Harper. Corporal Mike Harper. An officer of the West Town Police Department for only two short years. He lived on the outskirts of the city, about a mile from his precinct. Every morning, he would jog into work, as he took pride in his physical strength. A small service revolver lay taped to his left leg under his sock.

As one foot pounded on the pavement after the other, he calmly waved to some neighbors he saw. The closer he got to the city however, the less people were waving to him. The city had seen a plentiful amount of riots in the past weeks over the mayor's new tax plan. Occasionally, the riots had turned violent and the WTPD had been forced to end the proceedings with aggression. Mike Harper tried to put this in the back of his mind, but he could not. The WTPD logo typed onto his sweatshirt and hat made him an emblem of scorn, a target for all to see.

Harper glanced down at his watch. 7:10. He would arrive nearly twenty minutes early to relieve the night shift. Because of this extra time, he slowed down at a street vendor and bought a pretzel. A grizzled old man looked up and smiled.

"Hey, Mike."

"Hey Mr. S. Lemme get a pretzel and a coke please," Mike replied. He was grateful that no further conversation was needed, as the radio was humming quietly on the machine. He feigned interest in the report.

The announcer, however, was not saying something about the riots; "...Heavens Gate officials have not yet been reached for comment as to..."

"Here you go. Good luck today," said the kindly old vendor, cutting off the broadcaster. Mike Harper nodded his thanks. As he left, he saw other customers gather around the radio. In the distance he could swear he heard the constant thup thup of a cadre of helicopters.

***

It was another five minutes before Harper got into his station. Everyone inside was running madly around the office, trying to find this document and that weapon, all buzzing around busily. Officers were screaming into phones, shifting papers, so much so that the building was a picture of ordered chaos. Before Harper could come to any conclusions, Captain Barnet, leader of Mike's S.W.A.T. unit, rushed up to him. "Follow me Mike."

They began to walk down a maze of hallways and offices towards the lockers.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Sorry to rush you into this, but there was a horrible... riot... during the night, across the bridges," explained the captain. If you can even call it a riot.

"So? If it was so bad why wasn't I called in?"

"Landlines have been restricted to let our communications get through easier. Also, check your pager, maybe its out of batteries, Mike looked down at his pager, and it was indeed out of power. There's more..." the captain paused as they had to back against a wall to allow fully armed and armored officers to rush past them. "As you know, West Town is divided into a north and south section by the Platinum Bridges. As of this moment, the northern precincts have declared martial law. They are allowing no one to get across to either side of the city.

"Why in the hell..." Harper noted to himself that that sounded more like a quarantine procedure than martial law.

Captain Barnet held up his hand and ushered Harper into the prep room. It was now that Mike understood the urgency of the situation. Out of bed and into armor. He hurriedly strapped on his gear. Harper noticed that all lockers had been stocked with additional Kevlar layers, namely in the form of a thin Kevlar shirt, fore-arm plates, and leggings. Barnet continued his explanation. "A few days ago, Heavens Gate reported a problem with their populace. That was the official explanation we got from the officials. Soon after, military types started showing up. No news got to us about what the hell was going on, because the marines basically blockaded any kind of information that was being sent out of the city," he stopped talking for a moment to toss Harper some Kevlar leg pads. A moment of silence passed as Harper continued to get his gear together.

"Im still listening sir."

"Oh, right. Apparently however, the marines only prevented information from leaving the city. Something else got out too."

"What do you mean?" questioned Harper.

"At approximately 0400 hours, yesterday, an ambulance burst through the toll booths in the north side of town. The vehicle was from a Heavens Gate hospital. The driver was actually some sort of security officer. He crashed into North Sector Hospital, and came out of the vehicle holding a head wound we think it could have been some sort of animal bite. He ran to the back of the ambulance to open the doors. Now, we arent exactly sure what he saw in that ambulance, the security camera angles wont show it but whatever it was, it scared him shitless. He drew his firearm and fired fourteen rounds. A cop who was waiting in the lobby tackled him before he could use the last round on himself, and believe me, he wanted to. The cop had to break his arm to get him to stop. The whole time the man was screaming 'Kill me and get out of West Town while you still can,'" as Barnet paused, he looked at his watch. "Hurry up, the briefing is set to being in ten."

"I'm goin' as fast as I can, captain. And, believe me, Im trying to connect that story you just told me to the massive civil unrest north of us, but I can't," replied a slightly perturbed Harper. Barnet could give no straight answer at the moment.

"We have the security feed from North Sector Hospital, that whole escapade I told you about is on it. You'll see the connection by the end of the briefing."

"Why weren't any witnesses interviewed?" asked Harper.

He was now done putting on all of his gear. Captain Barnet checked him over and then led him into the briefing room.

"They're all dead," Barnet began to walk to the back room to speak with Lt. Daniels, but he paused to look back at Mike Harper and said, "Well at least they were."

Corporal Harper, shocked by his commanders last words, sat down without giving a response. "What the hell does that mean?" he thought to himself. He looked around the briefing room. It was rather large blue room with stadium seating. In the back lay a projector, and in the front was a huge white screen, which slightly offset the podium to the left of its large face. He was sitting on a seat on the left side of the room, which was already beginning to collect with a few groups of S.W.A.T. officers, also waiting for the briefing to begin.

"Harper! Oy! Harper!" cried a familiar voice, "Over here."

It was Garrison Poole, his unit's sniper. He was chatting with Elizabeth Izzy Stripes and Scott Sanders, also members of his unit. Mike Harper got up and walked over to them.

"Hey guys. Anyone know what the hell is going on?" asked Harper.

"Short and to the point started Sanders." Izzy smirked and stifled a laugh. Poole nudged her arm and she stopped.

"We were just discussin' that very topic. The situation I mean. Sanders here has heard some interesting rumors," said Poole. Harper noticed a sudden drop in the cheeriness of the conversation.

"They aren't rumors. Anyone here read anything on the news about anything that happened last night? Anyone?" Sanders' words carried with them an ominous tone. They only knew of the disturbances because Barnet had told them. "No wonder. Only seven police reports were filed last night. Seven about the riots I mean."

Harper became interested. "Weren't there about two hundred-"

"Two hundred and fourteen officers," interrupted Sanders, "seven reports were filed because only seven officers reported back. Only seven. Apparently, they were so shocked because of what they had seen that most of their logged in reports were just a few sentences long. Then, some army types showed up and brought a few of them from precinct to precinct, I don't know why. Maybe to brief the higher-ups."

"And how exactly did you happen to come across this information?" asked Izzy.

"I'm gettin' there. So I get here about an hour ago, I get my stuff on, and Barnet tells me why he had to wake me up, you know what I mean. One of those seven riot officers comes out of Chiefs office. He didnt look normal. He was hollow. His eyes sort of darted around. A nervous wreck. His hand kept on twitching to his holster, even though there wasn't a gun in it. He told me-" Sanders paused and shuddered as he remembered the look of horror upon the mans face. "He told me what happened. What he saw. The people he was there to control, were wrong. Something wasn't right about them. When the crowd didn't go down with tear gas, they kept on mulling on towards the riot line. He saw an officer hit one of the rioters with a baton, and the arm he hit snapped like a twig. After he bent down to help him, the guy freakin' bit him. Tore his left eye and nose off," Poole, Harper and Izzy all shuddered noticeably. "But it gets worse. The guy whose armed snapped, the one who bit that other officer? Well, he got up and started attacking again. So, the man who I talked to was forced to shoot him in the back and in the legs. Even that didn't put that thing down. His shots destroyed the body, don't get me wrong, even though they were 9 millimeter, but that thing kept on attacking. A head shot, which blew his head clean off, seemed to be the only way to put him down. Within a few minutes, everything was in chaos. After a minute or two, the officer who lost an eye and a nose started to act like one of the rioters, trying to bite at anything that moved." Sanders glanced at the clock. The briefing was set to begin in a minute, so he decided to summarize the rest of the mans story. "So that guy who told me all of this, one of the only survivors, said he had to sprint from building to building for almost twelve hours before he got back across the bridges. Apparently the- I don't know what to call them, just shuffle slowly, so they hadn't gotten near the bridges yet. Also, the guy said something strange before the military personnel had to take him to another precinct. He said that its some sort of infection that changes people. It takes away their rationale, their... everything. It just makes the infected attack the living. He said we might at well call the infected the undead. No soul, just hunger."

A moment of silence passed between the four of them. The room was now nearly packed. The rest of their squad had assembled on one side of the room, so the quartet sat down near the rest of them. Lieutenant Daniels, a confident, battle scarred S.W.A.T. leader strode into the front of the room as the lights dimmed. He was flanked by Captain Barnet and Captain Mullins, the leader of the other S.W.A.T. team. Lt. Daniels picked up a small device on the podium and pushed it. The white screen came alive with an image of North Sector Hospital, the one that the Heavens Gate ambulance had crashed into.

"Good morning. I would like to begin by saying that as of fourteen minutes ago, we lost contact with all facets of northern West Town personnel. Although some survivors may still be alive, any cameras mounted in cruisers and helmet cams show that the plague which hit Heavens Gate is slowly spreading throughout our citizens. Millions are feared dead, and our only choice is to aggressively defend the southern districts. Chief has given you all, the elite, the hardest job any man has been asked to do over the past few days," Lieutenant Daniels paused for a moment to let his words sink in. The room was deathly silent. The number millions echoed in their heads. "We have been assigned the task of re-entering the northern half of the city. We're going in."

Sanders muttered to Harper, "Short and to the point."

The briefing then began in earnest. Daniels clicked the button again and a few security feeds from the Hospital showed up on the screen. He zoomed in on a camera facing the main doors just as an ambulanced shattered the glass.

To be continued...

***


This first installment should set a few parts of the stage. Rest assured, there will be plenty of adrenaline filled moments to come, but I'm going to also build a structured story around those moments.

The next section will be posted by the end of the week.

Feed back in the form of criticism and/or compliments (what you would like to see, if you want more character depth, what you liked, etc.) is greatly appreciated! I receive all comments with an open mind.

This post has been edited by Jest3r on November 15, 2007 06:47 pm

This is pretty cool. But what do you mean by 'just as an ambulanced shattered the glass.'?

Um, wow. That's...that's pretty freaking long. I love long chapters. Gives me a good reading. Keep it up, excellent start.

Great read.
Please write another episode soon

this is some good stuff keep going!

to bert- read Barnet's speech again. the briefing begins with the security tapes from the hospital (previously recorded).

NEW CHAPTER POSTED BELOW
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This post has been edited by Jest3r on March 10, 2005 03:49 am

***

RECAP: The S.W.A.T. teams are watching the white projection screen, watching the events at the hospital unfold from the day before

Both S.W.A.T. teams observed the ambulance. After a wave of people had run away from the danger, the driver spilled out of the vehicle, and without missing a step, walked to the back of it and opened fire just as Barnet had said. A man sprinted towards the security officer whom had just been driving. Lt. Daniels paused the recording for a moment, "This is the unidentified officer taking down the suspect. He was forced to disarm him and carry him to the ER for the arm he broke and for the bite marks on his skull." He clicked the button and the tape continued to play. The officer, now being assisted by a few nurses, carried the wounded man out of camera shot. However, as Harper noticed, the man went completely limp just before he was fully out of view.

"Time is of the essence, so I will move forward to approximately two hours later," said Daniels as the white screen flickered and the time label at the edge of the monitor changed to two hours ahead.

The camera angle was the same. A few policemen were gathered around the crash site, marking spots of blood, noting the contents of the interior. Two orderlies, masked by the black and white of the security camera feed, had just lowered a stretcher from the back of the ambulance, which was carrying a black bag. After a minute or two, all of the officers who were marking evidence suddenly perked up. They looked no different from an animal sensing prey on the wind as they held their ears to their radios. Instantly, they all began to sprint out of camera view, towards some disturbance elsewhere in the hospital. A few people in the lobby buzzed for an instant in conversation, and then lost interest and went back to their tasks.

Two minutes of uneventful silence passed. "Lieutenant Daniels, sir, perhaps we should-"

"Patience, Captain Mullins," interrupted Daniels, "they need to see this happen." Mullins nodded gruffly and stood back at attention.

The white projector, now a flickering recording of a security feed, would not yet give up its secrets. A quiet hum began to buzz about the briefing room as the officers grew more restless. They wanted to know what was happening elsewhere in the hospital. An answer came. One of the police officers came running back into camera view. He seemed to be trying to shepherd the personnel in the lobby out of the door, but it was too late. His pistol aimed at some target past the monitor's view, and burst open with a flash of white light. A few of the people in the lobby huddled into a ball and just stayed still. Also, it seemed that whatever he was shooting at was coming into view. A herd of slow, bloodied, shuffling people edged towards the panicking officer. Barnet cleared his throat and said, "I know its hard to watch but pay attention. Watch the woman in the upper right corner of the screen."

A woman, dressed in all white clothes was huddled in the corner, near the scene of the crash. The herd of people seemed to swarm over the officer, and nothing was seen of him. The fate of the woman, however, was burned onto the screen of the monitor. One of the things began to tear and slash at her legs, and then slowly began to render flesh off of her. Her white clothes quickly became soaked in a blackish color, normally red had not the security camera been recording in black and white. It was the same color covering all of the other creatures, who were now filling the lobby. The color of blood.

After the creature seemed to have its fill, it lost interest, stood back up, and joined the rest of its kind. They were piling out the door now, filling the streets of West Town with their infected, hungry selves. Mike Harper estimated that as he watched them spill out the door, there must have been hundreds. The whole hospital seemed to have emptied itself. Several horrific sights filled the screen as the S.W.A.T. officers being briefed watched in awe, the worst of which being several of them had body bags hanging loosely off of them. The things had gotten into the hospital morgue.

The shocked yet confused silence which filled the briefing room was broken as Daniels clicked the button. Captain Mullins then stepped forward to give his part of the briefing. "Observe the woman. Her legs have been nearly completely eaten-" his face tried to hide the look of disgust upon it, "her neck has been torn wide open, along with most of her left side. Sir," he motioned to Lieutenant Daniels, who clicked the button again. A gasp came from an officer in the briefing room as the woman stood up, and began to shuffle slowly towards the door, just like the others. Despite missing nearly the left half of her body, and her bones showing through the skin on her legs, she had gotten up and walked.

Daniels ignored the awe of his teams. He continued with the briefing, trying to reignite a professional atmosphere. A calm hand swept over his greased hair as he looked briefly at the screen, then at his men.

"Listen up. Intel is limited. The plague seemed to sweep through the northern districts, so far as to within two blocks of the bridges at this moment. No one reported anything unusual because it seemed like a normal riot. The reports of break-ins and homicides tripled by early evening, thats when we sent the extra riot police. Needless to say, that was the biggest mistake we made. We are now under-manned, even though we called up all reserves and officers in the city. All other units have been assigned to hold off the hostile populace at the bridges. Any negotiators or negotiating attempts have been met with the death of another officer," Daniels walked to the side and clicked the button yet again. A few slides of the creatures were flashing across the screen.

Poole raised his hand and asked, "How in the hell did you get those pictures? Whoever took them must've been a foot away!"

Daniels nodded at the question. "Most are from two helmet cams that are still functioning within the northern districts. The helmet reads all life signs negative, but yet the images move. We can assume from this that the hostiles have in fact died. The thing our doctors cant figure out is why the primal urges to feed and the motor functions associated with feeding are still functioning. In any case, all who have died have quickly undergone reanimation within three minutes, as the security camera in the hospital showed. In addition with reanimation comes extreme aggressive, homicidal behavior. The subjects will use any means necessary in order to bite you. We are not sure why victims quickly die and reanimate, but the only thing we have to go on is that tape. Everything else is unofficial, but it is possible that the disease is spread through blood to blood contact."

Captain Barnet now stepped forward. "All assailants appear to have a similar visual appearance. To say the least, they are bloodied and incoherent. Most seem to suffer from a decrease in movement speed. As you can see from the images behind me, this seems to be caused by the crushing of the ankles due to the body weight. Apparently, the disease, plague, whatever, makes the subjects bodily defenses weaker, such as bones, tissue, skin, you get the point. Surviving officers from last night's riots," Sanders nudged Harper, who was sitting to his left. Sanders had been telling the truth, "have told us that even a nine millimeter will blow large chunks of flesh away. Despite that, they don't seem to go down unless heavy nerve damage is inflicted," Barnet looked over the crowd of blue. They all looked to him for more answers, but he could give none. Trying to save face he said, "I'm sorry. We hardly know anything else," he looked once at the screen, then back at the podium, and stepped down.

"Thank you Captain. Now that you have a basic understanding of the hostilities, the Chief has asked of you certain tasks. Captain Mullins team, this part is for you. Twenty one blocks away from Platinum Bridge 2, straight down the street, is Precinct Four of the northern districts. This is your mission sight. You will enter the building from APC, ground level. You will most likely have to bypass any barricades officers may have built around the doors, if there were any survivors. Once inside, your primary objective will be to locate the explosives contained in the basement armory. Secondary objectives are to locate the dispatch recordings for the past three days, and to evacuate any survivors you may encounter within the precinct. Extraction will be from the APC, secondary plan is extraction via helicopter, but don't count on it. We need those explosives to create choke points around the bridges, so this needs to be a dust and hump mission. Good luck." All of the men under Captain Mullins stood up and filed out of the room.

Lieutenant Daniels, after watching the last of Mullins team leave the room, turned to face Barnet's team. They could all see some sort of change come over his face. Daniels, previously looking confident and bright, now looked frustrated. Whatever the orders were, they must not be pretty, thought Harper.

"As you may have guessed," began Lieutenant Daniels yet again, "information is limited when regarding this phenomenon which has hit our city. No doubt all of you heard about the sudden blockade of Heavens Gate, and the sudden dispersing of this blockade. The time tables are just too damn close to be coincidence. As soon as the military blockade left, that ambulance came crashing into our city, and brought something with it. What happened at Heavens Gate is happening here. So, as soon as we noticed that homicides and break-ins were tripled in the northern districts, one of our dispatchers noted that one of the last bits of news that got out of Heavens Gate said that the crime rate had increased by a staggering amount. Chief decided to send a small, commandeered news helicopter out to the city, just after our own troubles had begun, to take a peek. It could not broadcast video feeds directly to central command, but they had video cameras on board. When the helicopter came back into radio range, they sent out this message;" He pulled out a recording device and placed it on the podium, hitting the play button.

"Copy copy, this is Correspondent 7, I repeat this is Correspondent 7- footage obtained, coming in hot to North Sector Hospital. Wounded on boa-hey! Get your hands off of --." The voice stopped for a moment, silenced temporarily by static. "Jesus, he tore Sams arm o- . Static. The signal now began to break up. A voice in the background interrupted the pilot, What the hell is that?" The first voice then frantically screamed into the radio, "It's a missile! I'm goin' low-hang on, brace for imp-." A massive shock ran through the device on the podium. The helicopter had obviously been hit by something, and had then crashed. However, the radio was still working. "What the hell get away! Sam! Sam its me-" a heavy burst of static. "Dear god s-body help us, they're ---." The static overcame the recording. A few muffled screams of the crew could be heard as Daniels clicked off the recording.

Daniels let the obvious speak for itself.

"Your primary objective is to locate the wreckage and collect all mission data. They were instructed to store the documents, tapes, and photographs they took in a relatively damage retardant box. infrared signals from a few of our choppers in the air indicate fires all over the city, but confirm the location of your mission site to be at the corner of 113th and 74th street. Thats only a block away from North Sector Hospital where the infections origins lie, so stay frosty. Secondary objectives are to locate any survivors within a one block radius, especially any from the helicopter team. Extraction will be via helicopter, which is also your entry vehicle. Any survivors are to be prioritized and evacuated in groups, but keep in mind your primary objective. Captain Barnet will brief you on individual dust off plans en route. Any questions?" he paused for a moment.

Private James Harrison, the newest member of the S.W.A.T. team raised his hand and asked, "Why are we going in by chopper if the last one in that area got shot down?"

"You wont be coming from a no-fly zone previously under quarantine by the military. Any more?" None were asked. "Good. God speed and good luck."

***

The entire team got up and headed for the weapons storage, which was just outside of the briefing room. Not a single word was passed between them. All of their training had involved taking down known thugs and criminals, not assisting in the control of a rapidly growing plague. The briefing was over, and now it was time to go to work, and get the job done.

All nine of them, nine including Captain Barnet that is, had their weapon of choice. Several members had brought personal weaponry, such as Harpers stub nosed .38 revolver which now lay in an ankle holster outside of his boot. The officer inside of the weapons storage handed out to each man or woman their weapons. Some had MP-5s, M-4 Tactical Carbines, and even an M-16 was handed out. Pistols of a wide range of shapes and sizes were also handed out. Pooles M-24 sniper rifle was in the APC already, but since this would most likely be a close ranged fight if hostilities broke out, he grabbed a silver SPAS-12 shotgun to carry. Corporal Harper had always preferred an M3 Tactical Shotgun, since he was always the one to enter a building first.

Extra ammo was also handed out and slid and packed into the vests and harnesses of the S.W.A.T. team. With everyone feeling slightly heavier yet better protected, they all filed into the helicopter waiting for them on the roof of the precinct building. The pilot gave a thumbs up to them as they sat down.

Harper, who was sitting in the door opening of the helicopter, clipped himself in and nodded to Izzy, sitting adjacent to him. He heard a familiar voice shout out from the back of the helicopter, just as the blades began to rotate, and the engines started to fire. It was Barnet.

"Give us but a sword today," he shouted enthusiastically,

"And we shall not fear tomorrow!" cried the whole team in unison. It was their unit's battle cry.

"Cocked, locked, and ready to rock." added Sanders.

"Amen to that," replied Harrison.

The helicopter blades began to rotate faster and faster. Dust swirled away from the helicopter as it began to rise. No one on the team knew what was waiting for them on the other side of the city. No one could possibly know of the horrors which lay in wait.

The stage was set.

To be continued

***

Please read through both sections of the story to fully understand what's happening.

Any questions, comments, and criticisms are, as always, greatly appreciated and welcomed!

Next installment will be coming soon...

This post has been edited by Jest3r on November 15, 2007 07:00 pm

2 things
1. if you made a book of this i would buy it
2. you should go professional....you will be fucking rich....you contend with stephan king....i am always checking for your updated chapters

this is really good cant wait for next chapter

UPDATES:

I need some reader opinions here:

*Before answering, please read the installments thus far*

1. Would you find this story more enjoyable/easier to read if I submitted shorter chapters?

2. Do you feel a general companionship between the characters? (not how you relate to them, but how they relate to each other)


I'd be happy to respond to all questions, comments, and criticisms.

NEW CHAPTER POSTED
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This post has been edited by Jest3r on March 17, 2005 09:51 pm

RECAP: The briefing is over, and the team is heading towards their objective.

The air pressed hard against Mike's face as the helicopter picked up speed. He could feel his rigging harness strain against the motion of the helicopter. His shotgun was stowed to the left of the door, ready to unhook at a moment's notice.

As he leaned back, he felt his ammunition bags against his back. Four Kevlar box-like sacks were strung around the back of his belt, each carrying sixteen shells. It was a lot of ammo for a single mission, but he wasn't about to argue. Over the rush of wind and the whir of the blades he heard Captain Barnet begin to shout out orders.

"Listen up!" he yelled, his voice combating the other sounds in the air, "The crash site is still burning, and we have confirmed that the mission data from that chopper is still inside. Intel shows us a gun store nearby is the only vantage point where we can lay down decent cover fire for first squad to get the package. First things first though, we gotta clear the store. I want a clean three second dust off, I'll take point. Harper, haul your ass behind mine. You're gonna have to blow out the locks on the side door. Next is Sanders, Izzy, and Davis. Corporal Adams, you, Alice and Harrison stick with Poole. Poole is carrying the supply bag and med kits, wear him like underwear."

A few chuckles were heard around the helicopter. Harper then heard a crackle over the radio in his helmet from the pilots; "We're crossing over the bridges now. Looks like either heavy fog or smoke."

The pilots were right. Harper looked between his dangling feet to see an intermittent grayish haze over where the bridges should be. He could also swear that he could see the yellow puffs and muffled pops of gunfire below, but the helicopter cleared the bridges before he could confirm anything. "Hang tight, it gets narrow around here. ETA in three minutes!" yelled the pilot.

***

The helicopter and the S.W.A.T. team within were now winding between the skyscrapers of the Northern Districts. Below them was a mystery, and around them was an enigma. The smoky haze covered the streets, but the tallest buildings still stood as monuments to the conundrum of the situation. It was so quiet now. Their only company was their own reflections on the shaded black glass of the buildings. Above the noise of the helicopter was only the hush of wind.

No sirens. No screams. No one.

"Rules of engagement!" Barnet began again, but paused as he had to grab on to the ceiling as the chopper hit turbulence, "Are to eliminate any hostiles matching those you saw in the briefing. Aggressive and initiative force is authorized at all times."

Barnet moved to the front of the helicopter to look out of the cockpit, looking for landmarks. He looked back at his S.W.A.T. team holding up three fingers and said, "Thirty seconds. Safeties off, charge and lock!"

Harper leaned back slightly and unhinged his shotgun from its stored position. All around him, his squad was doing the same thing. As he pressed off his own safety, he could heard the clicks and springs move into place as magazines were placed in various weapons and cocked. He quickly lay his shotgun across his lap and pulled his USP from its holster, cocked it, and returned it. Izzy unpinned his harness so he could get off of the helicopter quickly, and he did the same for her.

***

A dull bravado of tension filled the air as the helicopter descended lower and lower. Even as the blades of the machine blew smoke away, there was still no one visible.

A dull thud against the pavement sprung Harpers reflexes into action. He leapt out of the door of the helicopter, waited for a split second for Barnet to get in front of him. His training led him to not look back, and to focus on clearing the helicopter and doing his job. Only trust and confidence could tell him that his squad was running behind him in perfect order.

As soon as he saw the letters "B-A-R-N-E-T" flash in front of him, he began to sprint (the vests of each member on the team had their names or nicknames on the back of them). He looked down at his feet for a moment. They were pounding the pavement, shifting the weight of his fully armed self to their objective. The helicopter had lifted off by now, and all he could hear was a constant noise, the sound of jingling weapons and zippers combined with boots chafing the pavement and the huffing and puffing of the rest of his team.

Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, he saw an arm reach out. A dull moan could be heard, but he once again had no time to react. He kept on running behind Barnet, his eyes on his captain. Harper's radio in his ear crackled to life.

"Christ! Harper, behind you!" a burst of gunfire muffled by a silencer could be heard. The radio seemed to be picking up some kind of interference, so Harper could not tell who was speaking.

"Hostiles, to the right!"
"Contact made, Davis, Izzy, keep moving; Poole! Hurry your ass up!"
"What the hell is-"
"Behind you! Harrison, get--" a much louder gun shot coming from an un-silenced M4 Carbine drowned out the rest of the message.

A voice, the only one which Harper could recognize came onto the radio, "Keep your asses moving! Hustle up and clear the store. Move move move!" It was obviously Barnet, shouting out his order as he rammed his side up against the brick wall of the building. Harper, seeing this, put his shotgun to his shoulder and fired one shot to the locks, and one shot to the doorknob. Barnet rolled in front of the doorway again and kicked it down.

To be continued

***

Feedback is greatly appreciated and taken into consideration!

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NEW INSTALLMENT BELOW
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This post has been edited by Jest3r on November 15, 2007 09:09 pm

this is some good stuff we like!

This is good, I especially like the confused radio chatter between the squad; as for your specific requests:

1. Keep posting in long segments, it makes it far easier for you to write it in my opinion - when you do short ones, a lot of the time you end a section before its really been developed - then when you come back to it, you've forgotten exactly what you wanted to do afterwards.

2. The squad seem to have a good companionship between them; its more evident in the first post (maybe you could have a little more non-proffessional dialouge between them - i.e. "holy shit! You see that?" or just a little banter "Headshots?" "Yeah, that bit at the top of the neck genius" "Man you shoot worse than these things smell"

Shoot i wish my story were as good as yours =) keep up the great work!!!

***

RECAP: The team has landed near the crash site, but things got hot quickly. We join the team as they enter the gun store.

Corporal Harper pushed back the slide on his shotgun, ejecting the smoking shell. As he did this, he risked a look back. Through the gray haze he could see some members of his squad, still sprinting for the store.

Harper pushed the slide on his shotgun forward again, pausing for a moment to hear the reassuring click of the loaded shell being snapped into place. A slight roll to his left, and he was in the building.

The first man in the door always secured the center, the second man secured the left, and the third man secured the right. Harper stuck to his training, quickly darting into the shop and checking his corner. The front door and large display window had been covered with several large wooden planks. Bullet holes along the wall, incredible amounts of blood on the ground, and a small gap in a window told the story of what had taken place earlier in the day.

Suddenly, Barnet swung his M-16 to check a hallway, and let off a quick burst of fire. "Hostile down! Sanders, Harrison, get your asses on the roof and give us some covering fire. Mike and Izzy, on my tail! The rest of you secure this building! Move!"


"Poole, get that bag on the roof and break out the thermals!" cried Harper as he unrigged some of his outer armor. He, Izzy, and Barnet were going to make a run for the downed helicopter. "Poole? Poole! Where are you, you stupid shit?!" a rhetorical question, but he got a response none the less. It only added to the chaos of the moment.

"This is Poole, officer down! I need- oh god Adams is down someone give me some covering fire!" his speech was interrupted as his Spas-12 let out a roar of thunder. "I'll be right back Alice, keep moving!" Harper heard this on his radio and from somewhere in the smoky abyss just outside the door. They were close to safety.

Barnet, also taking off any excess gear he had, screamed to the rooftop so that Harrison could hear him. Harrison, I thought you were escort for Poole!

"He was right behind me sir. I heard someone scream but I had to keep moving!"

Back down on the first floor, the side door was kicked open once again as Poole crashed through it, his shotgun aimed directly behind him. He quickly threw the supply bag over to Izzy who was nearly toppled by its weight. She quickly ran with it to the roof to give Harrison and Sanders the proper equipment to see through the smoke. Seconds later, Poole dashed back for a moment into the smoke, and returned, guiding Alice and Corporal Adams behind him.

Harper was horrified to see that Alice had some bleeding husk of a man on her shoulder. "Easy man, you're alright, you're O.K." she said to him. The man, looking like the only thing holding him together was his Kevlar vest, only opened his mouth slightly. A thin stream of blood came from where his words should have been.

"Holy shit is that Adams?" said Izzy.

"Keep strippin' down, we gotta make a run for that mission data-" Barnet's response was paused as Poole helped Alice throw the horribly injured Adams onto the counter, his bleeding body making a sickening thud on the table as blood poured out from the seams of his clothing, "only carry one spare mag. Christ what the hell happened?"

Harper wondered why Barnet had to ask. Adams was now trembling on the counter, his hands trying to fill too many holes at once. A chunk of his left stomach was completely gone, and a gash on his neck seemed to cause the gurgling sound he made as he flung his arms wildly trying to stop the bleeding. In addition to this, it appeared that there were four scratches which traced down the front of his helmet, which eventually led into four cuts across his face. Even the dimly lit first floor of the shop would not hide the color red.

Alice, the trained medic of the group, ripped of her helmet and got to work to try and save him. Her hair matted with blood as she struggled with him. "Poole, hold him down, hes going into shock. God damnit this bandage wont hold!"

Izzy came running back down the staircase which led to the second floor and the roof. She pulled out a picture and began to study it.

Captain Barnet grabbed Harper by the shoulder and spun him around, breaking his trance on his wounded friend. "We still have a job to do, we'll get him out of here as soon as we get those recordings from the helicopter."

Harper nodded faintly, his only response was to load a few shells into his shotgun and cock it.

Barnet, pleased that Harper was back to earth, motioned to Izzy. "Confirm objective location."

Izzy looked up from a thermal photograph which must have been taken earlier in the day. "Crash site is approximately seventy-five meters down the street," she pointed to her left, "towards the road that the front door would normally open to."

"Affirm. Davis, get down here and secure the door after we leave, but get ready to open it again in a hurry. Alice and Poole have got their hands filled."

"Yes sir!"

"Captain! This is Harrison, building secure! Sanders and I are ready to lay down a nice cozy blanket, but it looks like you'll be sleeping with a lot of those baddies!"

"We always use protection. Ready runners?" Barnet looked at Izzy and Harper anxiously, yet only got a response from Izzy. Harpers gaze had wondered back to the horrid scene of Adams on the table. His neck and stomach wounds were wrapped tightly with bandages, which were quickly becoming stained with blood.

His arms were shaking more than ever now, beating the table in a horrible rhythm until they suddenly stopped their percussion. Alice threw away a bandage with which she was trying to clear his face with and checked his pulse. "Shit I don't feel it. Stand back Poole," she shouted. Her face was red with anger and blood. No one on her own team was supposed to die like this.

She breathed into his mouth and compressed his chest several times, uttering "One two three four..."

"Harper!" Barnet slapped him. "Harper, I said, are you ready?"

Harper only stared into the angry face of his captain and cried out "Sir yes sir!"

"Move on my command- O.K., go go go!!"

As Izzy and Harper chased after their captain, the shouts from Alice could still be heard. Thirteen fourteen fifteen, a hard breath into Adams, Damnit still nothing one two three

As the trio left the store, the wind blew away some of the smoke, the soft sound bringing a temporary moment of reprieve to their ears.

Harper shouldered his shotgun, ready for anything. Ok you bastards lets find out what the hell you are, he thought to himself. His mind was on the mission data in the destroyed helicopter, his finger on the brim of his trigger.

To be continued


***

I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Are you?

Questions, comments, and criticisms are, as always, appreciated!

I'll try and post the next installment as soon as possible...

This post has been edited by Jest3r on November 15, 2007 09:16 pm