We secure the rest of the bathroom and make our way to the hallway where Apache and Vic are waiting for us. Kuppers motions that we took one down, Vic motions they found nothing in theirs. We continue down the hall and stop before the entry to the left and the last two doors to the right. Kuppers points to the two offices then to him and I, he then points to the dining room and then to Apache and Vic. They nod their approval, before we move off Vic takes my handgun and puts it back into my thigh holster and hands me his, which has something attached to the barrel making it look longer. He whispers into my ear. “It’s a silencer, makes the gun a little quieter, but not silent.” I nod my understanding.
They head out to the left, I turn and follow Kuppers toward the first office door. It was closed; I reached out and turned the knob then pushed the door open and step back giving Kuppers room to move in quickly. He returned fast and shook his head no. I followed him to the next one and I repeated the door entry. Kuppers moved fast, I heard a quick struggle and had to fight with myself to not look in, to protect our exit. I had to trust Kuppers could take care of himself. A couple of minutes passed and my curiosity got to me, I turned my head after checking the hallway one last time. I saw Kuppers standing there with his hand on his hips, a body was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. He looked over at me shook his head, he made his way over to me. He advanced toward the cafeteria and I followed him. We entered and stood against the far wall scanning the room looking for Vic and Apache. “They must’ve cleared this room and moved on to the kitchen. Let’s move up and see if we can help them clear it.” I nodded my agreement and followed Kuppers toward the kitchen doors.
Kuppers opened them slowly and entered, I followed him in. The kitchen was a bright white, and stainless steel, gleaming under the strong florescent lights. No shadows could exist under this glare, so we walked our way to the rear and came up on Apache securing the wrists of a woman, two men had already been put down. Vic was guarding the back door keeping his eyes open scanning the room. He waved at us as he continued his scanning. A door was offset next to him and to me looked like a broom closet. For some reason my gaze stayed glued to the door. I thought I saw it move a fraction and I raised my gun pointing it at the door. The door opened fast and I saw a knife appear going toward Vic. Without thinking I started pulling the trigger, putting 3 shots into the door. Vic moved quickly away and shot a glare in my direction. He then looked down at the bloody knife lying on the ground next to his feet.
Vic moved fast kicking the knife away and then opened the door revealing a small broom closet with a bleeding man lying on the floor holding his arm and shoulder. Vic covered the man while Kuppers went over and patted the man down, looking for weapons. Once done he drags the man out of the closet next to his friends. Apache removes a medic pack from her vest and tries her best to stop the bleeding on the man’s arm. Once done she secures him with zip ties.
Vic comes over to me and reaches out and removes the gun from my hands. I noticed my hands are shaking slightly. He put his hand on my back and pats me. “Good job Dan, thank you for the assist.” He removes a cigarette from his vest, lights it and hands it to me. I take it without thinking and take a puff off of it, feeling the nicotine wash over my body and relaxing me. I stand there and finish the cigarette, and then look at the team. They are standing around watching me smoke my cigarette. Apache makes her way to me and gives me a small hug. “I knew you could do it. Now just breathe and relax, the adrenalin needs to bleed itself out of your system.” I remove my own gun from its holster and motion for the team to move on.
I was fighting the normal guy inside of me that was telling me that I probably just murdered a man. I told it to go fuck itself, that if I hadn’t shot the man then Vic would be the one on the ground watching his life force bleed out. I know I wasn’t the same guy from last week, but I wasn’t sure who I had become or was becoming. I followed the team staying behind Vic again and watching the area around me. The gun was in my hands and raised in the air following my eyesight, anytime my vision came across Vic’s body, I would lower the gun barrel toward the ground and raise it again to point in its new direction. We made our way to the big white tent at the end of the camp and rendezvoused with Doc and his team again.
“Apache and Senshi, give us a rundown of what we are going to find inside and how to get in without using the front door.” Kuppers ordered.
Senshi took the lead. “We entered near the rear where there is an unguarded entrance. They guard the front door while leaving the rear wide open. Once inside we will come up on the zombie pens. To the left are the infected, to the right uninfected, but they are bound to gurneys and medicated, probably tranquilized. Further in the middle it is wide open, broken up with work stations where the personnel are conducting their experiments. Near the front is another pen where they put the newly infected, waiting for them to turn.”
Apache took over the briefing. “I counted 20 technicians, with six guards; two watching the front entrance, the other four patrol the pens and check on the newly infected. They also move the dead bodies after they destroy them out to the rear and throw them into the ocean.”
“Usually I would have one team at each entrance and work our way to the middle taking people down. But that isn’t going to work this time. We will work as one team, Doc and Cupcake you will take rear guard, next Senshi, Vic and Dan will follow behind Apache, I will take lead on this one. Let’s try and take some prisoners, but if someone points a gun at you, don’t hesitate to take them out.” Kuppers finishes, then points toward the rear of the tent.
We get into formation and make our way down the side of the tent. I make sure to continue my best to stay quiet, and walk the same way they are. The radio clicks on and Brian’s voice comes on. “Hold!” Everyone comes to a quick stop and drop to their knees. I follow their moves and drop to my knees pointing my gun up and out of formation. “We have movement from the rear of the tent. I count three, wait one, new count is five. They are all armed and making their way to the side of the tent you are on. If they continue on I will take out the lead, and then work my way down the line. But it’s gonna get loud since I don’t have a silencer.”
“Brian, Kuppers, we are going to fan out so we can put more barrels on the corner of the tent. When they reach the corner, fire one and lets us know how they react. We may be able to get to the corner fast and stop them if they try to retreat back into the tent. We can’t let them do that, or we will have a hell of a time gaining access. Senshi, Apache, be prepared to boogie fast to take them if they attempt the retreat.”
“Roger, looks like they are slowing down and taking their time. They stopped and look like they are taking time to talk it out. If I was you I’d send Apache and Senshi now. I can alert them to drop if I need to open up.” Brian calls out.
Apache and Senshi don’t wait for orders but instead take off running. Brian’s voice came over the radio just as Apache and Senshi were about 10 yards from the corner. “Drop, guns up, taking shot.” They throw themselves to the ground and raise their weapons, prepared to defend themselves. Since Brian is not that far away you can hear the shot shortly after he pulls the trigger. Two shots ring out in short succession. “Up, two down, the rest are taking cover. Their eyes are on the surrounding mountains so they won’t see you if you hurry. They are against the tent wall and look like they are thinking about running back inside.”
Apache and Senshi disappear around the corner and we hear four quick shots. “Team move up quickly.” Senshi orders over the radio.
We get to our feet and run quickly around the corner seeing Apache and Senshi, already entering the tent. We enter behind them and are immediately shocked upon seeing the pens. I hold my gun up looking left and right, looking for danger. Doc breaks off and moves up to Apache and Senshi, they take the left of the tent while the rest of us go to our right. We come across a work station where Vic and Cupcake take down the two technicians hiding by their computers. Kuppers and I continue on and come across another work station, this one drives me crazy with what I see. A young girl was tied down on a gurney as two technicians are standing there, one holding a needle and attempting to inject black liquid that looks like it came from an infected. They continue their motions as we come around the corner. I don’t wait and take two aimed shots, hitting the first technician in the chest knocking him back, blowing blood, bone, and pieces of lung out of his back and onto the coworker standing behind him. Kuppers moves in quickly, knocking the confused looking technician, still standing, down onto the ground and zip ties him quickly.
Kuppers looks up at me and nods. He regains his feet and we continue down our walkway, Vic and Cupcake catch up to us. As we come around a corner we see the last couple of guards with their guns raised pointing in our direction as six other technicians run for the entrance. Suddenly two shots ring out and the guards fall to the ground screaming out in pain. I look to my left and catch Senshi lowering his M4. We finish clearing our side and move toward the entrance, quickly trying to catch the fleeing technicians.
I follow the rest of the team as we run outside. The scene ahead mesmerizes us all. There are three helicopters coming in from the ocean turning sideways, the soldier’s inside aim their guns at the technicians. Our radios click open, “Oh yeah, hey guys, the cavalry is here.” Brian calls out.
“Apache, Senshi, and Cupcake, go secure those maggots.” Kuppers call out. He turns to me and puts his hand on top of my gun hand. He pushes it down slowly, “You can safety that thing and holster it. I think this is all but over.” He clicks back on his radio. “Brian keep an eye open, for any more of those Ridder guys. I have a feeling they know what just happened and I don’t believe they will just sit idly by.”
The helicopters land, and Captain Phillips, and his men disembark. They make their way over to Kuppers. The Captain and Kuppers shake hands and smile like old friends. “You need to see what they were doing inside, hopefully you have many more men and copters coming in. This situation is pretty bad.”
I follow them inside and walk over to the pens in the rear of the tent. One of the soldiers, following closely behind, turns and starts vomiting on the floor. I guess the scene and smell don’t quite sit well with him. “We need to interview those technicians out there and get the skinny on what they are doing, although to tell you the truth I think we figured it out. We just need to know who told them to do it, how many other places are they doing it in, and find out the real reason behind why they are doing it. I think we should let the detective on my team run the interviews.” Kuppers commented.
“I concur, my medics are on their way and will help with the survivors. I’ll have my guys take care of the infected. You guys have done enough.” Agreed the Captain.
“Dan, can you start collecting any papers, or files so we can go through them? There has to be some kind of intel in them to help us figure out this mess.”
“Anything I can do to help.” I walk toward the stations and start rifling through paperwork and files I find. I scan through them looking for memos or something to shout out to me about what’s going on. Most of what I find has medical jargon on it. I start piles of the documents clumping together the medical papers that I don’t understand, piles of hand written notes, and when I finally find it, memos or printed emails with orders on them.
Three long hours and five stations fly by and I have become the owner of some pretty big piles. Mostly medical documents. I’m starting to feel a little discouraged when I come across a file with a tag that says Zed Project. I adjust the shotgun on my back and sit down on a leather office chair. I open the file and start reading. “Holy Shit!” I say aloud. I click on my radio. “Kuppers, any way I can get you, Vic and that Captain to come into the tent and meet with me?”
“Roger, be there in five mikes.” Kuppers radios gruffly over the radio. “That means minutes by the way.”
I sit back and keep reading through the file, amazed, discouraged, and upset at what I find printed inside. I look up to find all three men looking down on me.
“You look pretty pissed, is that file there the reason?” Vic asks.
“This is sick and twisted guys.” I answer back. “According to what’s in this file, it outlines most of this little encampment and to a limited part about what’s going on with the zombies.” I hand the file over to Vic, close my eyes and start to outline what I had read already. “Seems that the Ridder Group, is working for a group called the Culling Initiative. This initiative for some yet unknown reason has unleashed the flu that started all this. Now I am paraphrasing what I read, but you will get the gist. So Ridder was hired to run four main mission components. One, disperse the flu into five airports on the east coast. Two, disrupt national responses and FEMA. Three, act as a security force for the main group of the initiative, which it doesn’t identify. Four, to run experiments on the infected and uninfected, in order to find ways of transmitting the disease and monitoring mutations. So to summarize some group calling themselves the Culling Initiative, hired a group of mercenaries to destroy civilization and stop us and the Government from helping and protecting the populace.” I open my eyes to find all three men in different acts of emotions. The Captain has a look of astonishment, Vic seems engrossed in what he heard and what he is reading. Kuppers has a look of intense anger and coldness on his face.