User blog:Gracchus Mccarthe/Benson and Roister: Cleanup II

     As the SAS made their way back to the tower, Rex said to Cecil, “We’re all sad that Carl’s dead, but you seem to be taking it harder than the rest of us.”

     “I can tell you about it later.” the engineer replied.

     The soldiers went through the hole that had been made before to get inside the control tower. Since the lights were off, they assumed the power must have been out.

     “We can access the control room from the staircase in that direction.” Troh pointed out. It’s just past that next room.”

     “Stay back.” Gracchus warned. He fired a short burst through the door. The resulting howls and roars indicated the presence of zombies on the other side.

     A.J. kicked the door open and the soldiers cleared the room. They found the stairs Troh had mentioned and ascended them, felling the occasional zombie that happened to be in their way.

     When they reached the top, they went through a door and found another set of stairs. They led up to a door. Troh pointed at it. “That’s the one.”

     The soldiers went up the stairs and opened the door.

     The room was empty. “Where’s the commander!?” Ray wondered aloud.

     “Look!” Cecil pointed at a recording device that lay on the floor. “It’s on.”

     Rex picked it up and hit the play button.

     They heard Commander Morris’ voice. “This is Clayton Morris. Don’t know that anyone’ll find this, but oh well. The zombies are about to get in. I won’t go down without a fight, but if you don’t see my body, I’m probably a zombie now.” Then his speaking became rapid. “No more time to talk; they’re just about in…”

     Rex hit stop. “I really don’t wanna hear it.”

     A.J. grimaced. “We probably took him out on the way up here.”

     Cecil thought for a moment. “Hold on. If he didn’t go down without a fight, where are the corpses of the zombies that got in? There aren’t any dead bodies in here or on the stairs. Play some more of that recording, Rex.”

     Rex complied and they all heard, “Wait, it’s not zombies! It’s a soldier-” The recording stopped here, so Rex hit play again. “If someone finds this, I’ll be on the third floor, in the security room near the help desk.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “There you go.” Cecil said.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The five SAS filed out of the room and headed back to the stairs. They went down and walked through the door leading to the main stairs.

<p class="MsoNormal">     They descended to the third floor and found the help desk. “The security room should be somewhere- aha!” Rex shouted.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The SAS ran to the room and tried the handle. It was locked. A.J. knocked on it and asked, “Commander, you in there?”

<p class="MsoNormal">     Soon, the door flew open. Clayton Morris was there. “Get in here!” he shouted with urgency. “There’s a fire thing walking around out there!”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “We… already took care of it.” Cecil informed him.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The commander asked, “Is something wrong?”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Carl’s dead.” Rex stated flatly. “That thing blew up after it died. A piece of it hit Carl.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     Commander Morris looked down. “Sorry to hear that.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “I guess you’ll be needing a new medic.” someone declared solemnly. A soldier stepped forward and put his hand out to each of the five. “Sarck Harris.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     The SAS all shook Sarck’s hand.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Commander, do you know of any survivors in this area?” A.J. asked the commander in a business-like tone. “If there are, they’ll need our help.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Not here.” he said. “I got several reports from other parts of the base saying they’d been infected. And by the way, considering the situation, don’t worry about differences in rank. We go by first names for the time being. The closer we get as a squad, the more effective we’ll be.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Aw crud.” Cecil groaned. “We’re surrounded by zombies.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Are there any more infected around here?” Sarck asked.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “There could be-” Ray began.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Doubt it.” Cecil interrupted. “Just the same, I’ll do a bio scan for all organism types.” Cecil tapped a few buttons on the side of his helmet. “No infected within about four miles, but there is a group of three non-zombie people in that building over there. And of course the pilot and co-pilot are in the shuttle.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “You heard the man. Let’s go find those survivors.” Clayton ordered.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The seven of them headed downstairs and exited the control tower. The building Cecil had specified was only about 100 yards from the control tower.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “I’ll inform the pilots.” Rex said. “You guys go on ahead.” He ran to the spacecraft and knocked hard on the door.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The door opened, and Rex went inside.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Are you guys done out there?” the co-pilot asked. He placed a holographic full house on a table. “I win again.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Yeah, we’re done. And Carl’s done for.” Rex replied coldly.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The co-pilot apologized for being flippant. Then he asked, “”What now?”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “We found some people here.” Rex answered.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “OK. I’m coming.” the co-pilot said, and the pilot seconded that.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The three SAS disembarked the shuttle and walked over to the building where the other six had gone.

<p class="MsoNormal">     After entering, they saw a light that was on in a room down a hall, so that’s where they went.

<p class="MsoNormal">     Inside, Clayton was discussing what had happened with them.

<p class="MsoNormal">     According to the three, soldiers began acting strangely and hostile. They actively sought out others to attack. The three survivors had locked themselves in the room where they now stood.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Here’s the rest of our group.” A.J. said as Rex and the two others walked in. “Rex Benson and, uh… hm, I never got you two people’s names.” He chuckled.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “I’m Art Macton and this is Heather Zairviss.” The co-pilot said.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “And these three are Hicks Raxton, Dig Jordan, and Dehner Breck.” Clayton said. “There, now we all know each other.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     Rex pointed at Dehner’s rocket launchers and said, “I’m guessing you’re a demolitionist, based on your arsenal.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     Dehner nodded. He lifted one weapon, “Gebirgskanone for grouped up enemies,” he lifted the other one, “and Luftplatzen for bringin’ the heat.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     Rex shook his head. “Iiii don’t know what those are. Never seen ‘em before.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “A machine gun and a bazooka had a baby, that’s the Gebirg: a flamethrower and a bazooka had a baby, that’s the Luft.” Dehner explained.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “The story of your weapons births is touching and all, but we need to get back to the matter at hand.” Art stated. “This base is infested with zombies, and we need to get rid of them. If we can get a good ship for it, we can take them down much more easily.”

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Define ‘good ship’.” Hicks said.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “Something with guns.” Art replied.

<p class="MsoNormal">     “How’s this sound: Art and Heather can go look for a ship, while the rest of us work on fortifying the base.” Clayton suggested.

<p class="MsoNormal">     The others agreed that was a good idea. They left the building and split up.

<p class="MsoNormal">     Art and Heather walked over to a nearby hangar; the rest went to the control tower…

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