Dead or Alive?

DAY NINE - 11:45 A.M.

After the chaos and "collateral damage" that occurred in Dallas caused such a massive outcry from the national news media, the government decided that the next time needed to be handled a little more delicately. My unit was tasked with evacuating Los Angeles before it was bombed, though describing the ragtag team of men assigned to me as a unit was a bit of a stretch. There were a few men who'd seen some actual combat, but most of my men had been grabbed straight from the ROTC. They knew their place and took orders well but when it came down to being able to take people down, to put them out of their misery before they turned they hesitated. No one was particularly excited at the prospect of destroying an entire city, but the orders were clear; evacuate the city before meeting at the rendezvous point for the detonation. This was how we came to be trapped in the centre of downtown Los Angeles, unable to do much more than hop from intersection to intersection without making much headway.

We were there to save people. At least the living. The Dead were to be executed on sight. The soldiers in my unit, about ten in all including myself, had all been dosed with an experimental vaccine that we hoped would provide some sort of immunity against the infection. Kind of like taking Cipro when you know you're going to be exposed to Anthrax, no promises were being made. Though in the end what we needed was a miracle. LA had already belonged to the Dead before we even got there and those left living had nothing left to lose.

Damn vaccine. Lot of good it'll do here anyways.

It seemed like a cruel punishment that had been bestowed by whatever almighty deity still resided up in the heavens far away from the pain and suffering occurring below. And the screaming. Oh, god, the incessant, terrified screaming as people writhed in pain on the streets and sidewalks. Some had been nearly trampled to death in the frenzy to escape; others lay broken after having been ploughed over by hapless drivers, the occupants so overcome with fear there was no room for humanity.

"Those people are trapped!" Boyle shouted, leaning in to make sure I could hear over the screaming. The fact that we were all masked under our protective headgear didn't help matters either.

I shook my head and sent another wave of bullets into yet another soulless fucker, stopping him dead in his tracks before he managed to tear into the frantic Indian man he was chasing. As the body fell, the man continued on without even so much as a backward glance.

Yeah, you're welcome, shithead.

"We have to help them!"

"We protect from a distance, Boyle! No physical intervention!"

Boyle scoffed and trained his gun back toward ever growing chaos.

This was hell. It had to be.

And yet, beneath it all was something even more terrifying. Several people, children, were crawling out from under the mangled undercarriage of a crashed car, their milky eyes latching onto anything that moved before hurriedly stumbling after them. No words exited their blood stained lips, only ghoulish shrieks and groans and the sickening squelch of blood and tissue. Whatever spark of humanity had once existed within them gone, I stood on the sideline and fired at those who drew near, increasingly aware of the finite amount of ammo I had left.

My stomach lurched when I watched as a young mother ran from the fray, one hand clutched to her neck in a useless attempt to staunch the flow of blood that cascaded from the gaping wound at her neck while the other held an infant to her chest before she ultimately fell to her knees, cushioning her baby's fall with her arms. Her eyes somehow found mine as she curled her body around the child, communicating the desperate pleas her mouth could no longer form. I don't remember how long it took the woman to reanimate; whether it was moments or minutes, it felt the same. I was grateful that I had my headgear to hide behind as a tear slipped from my eye when I saw the woman's limbs begin to jerk. Abject horror threatened to overwhelm me and I tried to shoot but my gun jammed. I struggled to free the chamber while the now dead woman leaned up on her elbows and looked down at the infant still beneath her. The child's shrill scream cut through the air when its own mother opened her mouth wide and shoved in the baby's whole foot, chewing on it happily like it was the world's most tender steak.