Mad World

A single deafening bang, and the face of the freshly infected human their new addition had kicked down exploded, sending flesh and pieces of bone hurling trough the air as the 65 gram bullet plunged into the man’s face with nearly 8900 foot pounds of force, leaving a little crater in the concrete floor.

Abel popped his ears, than turned to the others. “Sorry about that. Not meant to use this at such short range.” He smiled, trying to hide the sadness he truly felt. In the last few months, he had accepted the fact that once a human got infected, there was no hope. Their slowly changing body became their prison, and the only humane thing one could do was put them out of their misery and hope they were accepted into the Kingdom of God.

Thou shalt not kill.

But this was not killing. These were acts of compassion. He had seen freshly infected being strapped down by their friends and family, in vain attempts to stop the virus, or what ever it was. But in the end, they always learned that only death could bring release. Not murder. Compassion.

Sade stared at the hole the man’s gun had made in fascination. Whatever he was packing was better then hollow points. How she dreamed of getting herself a case of those and a magnum.

“Sorry about that. Not meant to use this at such short range.”

Sade shrugged, cattle’s cattle she told herself. She’d been through worse and it made her somewhat desensitised.

“Oh well you get that…” Sade said with a shrug.

Trev slowly opened his eyes, he must have drifted off again it seemed to be about the only thing he could do given his situation. Clearly it hadn't helped his senses felt assaulted by constant banging; it hadn't felt like this when he'd gone to sleep. Then the announcement came over the tanoy.

A brute? Loose? That was when it clicked when his eyes snapped open and he turned to face the prison door. "Not a headache, not a ****ing headache!" he rolled off his cot trying to get away from the thing, all that was dividing them was a few pieces of steel and they sure as hell didn't look like they were gonna hold.

His hands were still cuffed behind his back and his movement was limited he kicked his legs trying to push himself backwards, slide into the corner. He pushed himself to his feet again pinning himself up against the wall as much as he could. Every bit of distance helped as far as he was concerned right now.

The event had certainly sobered him up. "No **** there's a brute loose really I didn't notice. Why thank you for locking me up in a prison cell Myer's." he muttered to himself. "Perhaps next time you could just throw me in the god forsaken pit and save us all the trouble of going through this."

Why was he talking to himself? He never used to do this. Nerves, that had to be it. That or a mental breakdown? That was possible right; he'd definatly gone through enough stressful life experiences to become vulnerable to it. What was he thinking who cared! Right now the chances of living through this to get such a diagnosis seemed low, right now he needed a solution but nothing was coming to him. He just locked on to the brutes hulking frame slamming into the cell, like an animal in the car headlights. His mind refused to think properly, nothing was been processed properly just raw emotions of fear. He could feel his body almost convulsing as he began to shake. This wasn't how he wanted to go.

"Anything but this, anything but this." he muttered. "SOMEONE ****ING HELP ME!!!"

Abel reloaded his weapon, double checked and then smiled at the small group that had gathered. “That wasn’t to bad, now was it.” Quick, painless, then again, they had outnumbered the infected two to one. Still, it never hurt to be cautious. “Can’t be far to the scientists quarters now. I reckon we…”

He was interrupted by a sound, something between a pained scream and an animalistic roar that caused a cold shiver to travel up Abel’s spine. A brute. Once you had heard that sound, you would never, ever forget it. And it was coming from the direction they were heading. Not good. Definitely not good.

“Sir, I suggest we leave the scientists here.” No time for soothing smiles or words of comfort. If they were going to take down a brute, they had little use for untrained personnel.

Sue had quickly made his way through the halls. He had eliminated some of the infected as he progressed, and now he stood at the top of the stairwell leading down to the jail cells... and the brute. No one who is has engaged one in by themselves has lived, as far as he knew, and he wasn't about to test the odds.

He heard some gunfire not to far from where he stood, and opted to wait for whomever it was.

Trev watched as the Brute literally tore itself apart trying to get to him. It was revolting, horrifying. To think that had once been a person and now... now its howling said it all. IT was something else, something that didn't belong in this world. He watched as it tried to grab him but he was to far away. He was safe... for now. He could feel the sight making him physically sick, tried swallowing back what was rising up in the back of his throat. It tasted awful, he couldn't keep it down he dropped down head in the toilet spilling his guts into it all the time trying to keep himself as close to the wall as possible as he choked and emptied the contents of his diet of heavy drinking that morning.

Why oh why did they have to leave him cuffed when he was in a cell, he was hardly lethal, far from it. He had a revolver in a holster that he was more scared of than anyone that would ever be on the recieving end of it would be. He'd had it for 3 months now and he'd barely even touched it, but god did he wish he could hold it now even if it would probably have minimal effect. He wondered if he was able to use it would he shot the brute or would he turn it on himself when the creature broke through, that had to be the better option didn't it? No one wanted to become like that, no one deserved to become that.

"I'll get them back to their rooms." Chris said. A little annoyed that a Chaplain would suggest leaving civilians, even armed ones, on their own. "Afterwards i'll try and take out as many as i can. I'm an SF engineer, I'm used to working alone anyway."

Chris turned back to the two doctors. "Lets go, I'll take point. Dr Chaud, i need you to watch our rear. Call it up if you see anything. Dr Knights, stand by me, i need to to lead me to your Quarters."

The group moved quickly through the hallway, weapons at the ready, alert for any attack. They stopped briefly at a junction, running into another soldier and scientist, then were on the move again, but the cold, feral, yet still indeniably human shriek of the brute echoed through the halls, stopping them all in their tracks. Corinne felt her stomach twist inside her, and her hands tightened on her gun.

The military chaplain suggested that the soldiers go on ahead to deal with the brute, but the blond soldier, Sergeant Emmerich, objected, offering to remain and finish escorting the scientists to their rooms. Some cynical part of Corinne couldn't help but wonder if it was really heroism, or just cowardice, if he didn't want to face the brute.

"Lets go, I'll take point. Dr Chaud, i need you to watch our rear. Call it up if you see anything. Dr Knights, stand by me, i need to to lead me to your Quarters."

Did it matter? He was offering to protect them, and would be left by himself once they were safe.

Corinne checked her gun over out of habit, then nodded. "Let's go, Sergeant."

The scream had echoed from the staircase further down the corridor. The brute. When the chaplain had suggested leaving them there, Vivienne had looked at him sharply and then looked past him, in the direction of her room. She had no intention of waiting in the corridor for the infected to find her. She would go there alone, she decided.

"I'll get them back to their rooms." Chris said. "Afterwards I’ll try and take out as many as i can. I'm an SF engineer, I'm used to working alone anyway."

Chris turned back to the two doctors. "Lets go, I'll take point. Dr Chaud, i need you to watch our rear. Call it up if you see anything. Dr Knights, stand by me, i need to to lead me to your Quarters.

That was a better arrangement. Vivienne stepped away from the wall, looking back down the corridor in the direction that they had come from. At least this way she would only have to watch in one direction, meaning that she could focus more. Potentially fatal oversights would be less likely.

"Let's go, Sergeant."

The remnants of vomit hung ungraciously from his mouth and he tried rubbing his face up against his shoulder to disperse it. The cruel reality of his situation was setting in the steel bars almost sounded like they were screaming as well now. A sign they would buckle under the pressure any minute now.

His hands fumbled ungracefully behind his back as he tried to pull out the revolver. He heard the velcro holder lift up and felt the cold steel in his hand. He could do this, focus. Slowly he pulled it out and tried manouvering it in his hand to get a firm grip on the... what did he even call that part of the weapon, he wasn't aweapon orientated person was it the handle, the butt, or was that a rifle? A pistol grip? He mentally barratted himself, how could he even let his mind drift to a trivial point like that right now. He fumbled trying to get the chamber to release. He'd been to scared to carry a loaded weapon. If he made it through this he'd change that because been in a situation like this unprepared was a far more horrifying and probably more likely situation than the gun going off and harming him.

He tried fishing around in a pocket to find the rounds. His hand closed round a handful of loose bullets and he produced them managing to drop a few on the floor as he tried to slip them in at the awkward angle. 6 rounds, he'd already dropped 3 he watched as they rolled along the floor further away from him next to the brute. Screw retrieving them.

Focus, don't rush. Who was he kidding how could he not rush any second now he was about to watch the steel bars give way and get ripped apart by the brute. He felt a bullet slip in. He'd done it he'd loaded the weapon behind his back, he tilted the weapon to close the chamber and heard the clang as it fell out and hit the floor. "IDIOT!" why did he move the weapon like that. Two rounds left at least he hadn't loaded them all. He carefully slipped another one in and then moved the second one in. That hadn't been to bad. Ok now he just needed to not tilt the weapon, let gravity do its work and try and close the chamber. DONE! He looked at the Brute as the first steel pole broke loose and flew into the prison cell. It's hand moved in more but still not enough it was to big to manouvere in yet.

How the hell was he going to do this, it was big enough and in a confined space it didn't matter he couldn't aim it would hit the thing. He twisted round and saw in a mirror just how stupid he looked, oh well if it did the job that was ok. He'd never fired this weapon before. Wasn't it meant to have some kind of kickback? Great he couldn't even support the weapon properly to fire it. Who would get the most damage done to him he wondered.

"Ok, just squeeze the triger Trev, Simple" he said to himself again. His finger curled round he pulled the trigger quickly almost scared to touch it for any longer than he had to. Click, there that hadn't been so bad, no kick back no noise... it hadn't fired. Why hadn't it fired? It had a cocking handle, thats what it was he slipped it back and heard the chamber rotate.

Squeeze and click. What now? That was it only 2 rounds in a 6 round chamber just keep squeezing till you get a result. Squeeze, click. Squeeze, click. Squeeze, BANG. The bullet exploded out of the gun nd he yelped loudly dropping the weapon as his hands were propelled back in a less serious situation it would of been laughable. He whimpered as he turned to see if he'd actually done anything. That hurt, that bloody hurt. Gun's were meant to hurt the one on the other end not the wielder...

Everyone just seemed to ignore the question Lonny asked. But after listening to them lay out plans, he could tell the group was in favor of saving lives. He fell in line as the Sergeant took control of the situation, stepping into a leader role and facilitating the escorting of the brains.

"I'm so glad you guys haven't turned. I had to kill Matthews down the hall...," he said before pausing.

His face went blank for a while. It was his first kill, and it was someone on his side. The experience was surreal. He shook his head and snapped out of his daydream to finish his account.

"He had the craziest look in his eye. I thought he was having a bad day, I didn't know he was gonna have that bad of a day, though. But it was him or me, I had to kill him."

Chris led the smaller group down the hallway and around the corner following the directions of Dr. Knights. As they made their way down the corridor two of the infected popped up from around the corners of an intersection that lay ahead. One was a middle aged man with disheveled, graying hair in plain street clothes, the other a short woman who'd managed to lose all of her clothing. Both their faces and hands were dripping with fresh blood. Chris fired well aimed shots at the woman since she was the closest, two in the chest and one in the face. Before she could drop to the ground, the man grabbed her corpse and, using it as a sheild, came barreling towards them, grunting loudly.

"F***!" Chris said, as he tried to get a clear shot. "Back up!" he shouted to the Doctors behind him.

Chris popped off a couple of shots as he took small steps backward, trying to shoot through the once-human shield. His efforts were in vain, the M9 wasn't powerful enough to penetrate. When it got close enough, the Zombie hurled the corpse at him with little effort knocking Chris back onto Dr Knights and they both fell to the floor. Before Chris had a chance to recover the Zombie was on top of him, furiously trying to bite at his face. Chris grabbed him by the throat, barely able to keep the snaps out of range, he didn't look it, but the infected man was ridiculously strong.

"Shoot it!"

Lonny watched as the Sergeant tussled with the zombie. He took a look at the corpse that it hurled at Sarge before its attack. The grunts and groans were barely audible in his ears as he studied the mangled dead weight. One zombie was capable of this. Not exactly the zombie he remembered reading about or watching movies about as a kid.

"Shoot it!"

He had forgotten that the zombie was still around. Lonny rushed the infected man and punched him in the kidneys a few times before bringing a haymaker to the back of its head. He pulled his gun out and dumped a few slugs in the body.

They made quick progress through the corridors. Then there were gunshots. Vivienne glanced over her shoulder and saw two of the infected staggering towards them.

"F***!" Chris said, as he tried to get a clear shot. "Back up!" he shouted to the Doctors behind him.

Vivienne turned around at the shout, in time to see Chris tackled by the body and one of the infected. He grabbed the attacker by the throat, holding him off as it snapped at his face. She aimed the gun, but the shot wasn’t clear. They were too close. Her hand shook, and her heartbeat crashed in her ears. The man snapped at Chris.

“Merde,” she said, moving to the other side of the corridor and trying to get a clearer shot.

"Shoot it!" Chris yelled.

The other man from earlier was circling around, looking as panicked as she felt. He attacked it physically and then fired off a few shots. The attacker twitched and grunted, snapping even closer to the sergeant and getting angrier.

She had to do something. Vivienne stepped forward and kicked the attacker in the face, hard. He jerked back and she aimed and pulled the trigger. The stance and grip had been wrong, and the gun recoiled. Even the shot had been hurried. The bullet had hit him in the chest, knocking back but not killing him. She briefly felt relief, but it quickly turned to horror as the man resumed trying to bite Chris. She crouched down, trying to get an angle where she wouldn't hit the sergeant. Then she aimed hurriedly and pulled the trigger again, closing her eyes and trying not to think about what she was doing.

Corinne directed Sgt. Emmerich down the hallway, in the opposite direction from the brute, and around the corner. It was a longer route to take to the dorms, but minimised the risk. Unfortunately it wasn't enough, as two infected lunged round from around a corner further ahead. Sgt. Emmerich was quick on the mark; the female went down with three bullets in her, but the male grabbed the body and used it as shield.

"Fuck! Back up!" Emmerich shouted, taking steps backwards. He was shooting still, but the gun wasn't powerful enough to shoot through the dead female.

Corinne stumbled backwards, raising her gun ... and hesitated. She had a clear shot past Emmerich, though whether or not her Jericho would be more powerful that his M9 she didn't know, but still her finger paused on the trigger. The infected might be monsters, but they had been once been human. Laughing, loving, feeling humans.

Could she really just callously, coldly shoot them?

Her hestitation was long enough for the infected to hurl the corpse forward. It slammed into Emmerich, who fell backwards onto Corinne. They crashed to the floor in a tangled heap, and then the breath was knocked further out of Corinne as the infected pounced at Emmerich.

Grunting for breath, Corinne pulled herself out from under Emmerich. The infected was distracted trying to bite at the soldier's face, so didn't notice her rolling away. She ended up face to face with the dead infected, staring into its blank, lifeless eyes. With a shriek she scrambled backwards to her feet.

Spinning round, she saw Emmerich was struggling with the infected. He had it by the throat, pushing its head back from his face, but was clearly straining. Corinne scrabbled for her gun, pointing it at the infected's back. And hesitated. Could she really do this?

"Shoot it!"

Emmerich's voice snapped her back into the moment. If she didn't shoot now, the Sergeant would die and the infected would be on her and Dr. Chaud. The other woman was already shooting, but her eyes were closed and the shots wouldn't kill it.

Corinne pulled the trigger.

He watched the woman fall back. Wrong view, he quickly focused his eyes on the zombie. On his back and hurt. Another woman fired shots at it, too. Then Lonny jumped on the zombie and let two more slugs loose in his chest before letting a few go to his head. Blood splattered in his face, but his main concern was making sure that the brains of the operation lived past this attack.

The zombie was motionless and Lonny got off of him. Panting a little, he walked over to the woman and offered her a hand up. After catching his breath, he spoke to the woman he had just heard speaking in another language. Hopefully this broad understands English.

"Are you alright, ma'am?"

When she realized that the gunshots were only corresponding with her own shots, Vivienne opened her eyes. The infected man was dead. She swallowed back bile at the sight of the bloody corpse. At the sight of what she had done to another human.

Chris was alive, rolling the body off him.

Vivienne stared down at the gun and felt a warm drop roll down her cheek. She raised a hand and wiped away the blood.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" he said, offering her a hand.

She paused. Now was not the time to think about what she had done. They were only a few corridors from her room. Before she knew what she was doing, she had accepted the mans hand and stood. She quickly retrieved her hand and wiped her cheek on the sleeve of her lab coat. Blood stained the clean material.

“I am fine,” she replied to him.

Vivienne turned away, putting her back to the group and looking back down the corridor.

See that wasn't so hard. One shot and it scarpers, don't know what the big deal about these things are anyway he thought to himself. Out of sight, out of mind if only that was the case he looked at the wall where the revolver casing had embedded itself, a clean shot at least.

"WOAH!" Trev jumped back tripping over his own feet as the Brute burst from the cell next to him, so much for getting rid of it. "Just shot it Trev, whats the worse that could happen. Answer? You piss the **** out of it." Didn't they employ military on this base to keep just this kind of situation from happening. Knowing Myer's he probably knew all about it and it was part of his twisted revenge on him, he looked around to see if there were any camera's wondering if he might be been watched like some kind of sick reality TV.

He darted around the cell, his breathing becoming heavier as he sought to avoid the Brute. He lost his footing once more and found himself crawling under the bed. Was it safe under here? WAS IT SAFE? What was he thinking of course this place wasn't safe, what a stupid bloody question. There the voices went again, constantly insulting his own thinking process maybe he'd do better if they weren't constantly taunting him. Safe under the bed? He'd soon find out. He could see his revolver laying on the floor where he'd dropped it perhaps he could get hold of it and the ammo while the creature was darting between cells?

"I take it that you haven't killed many infected before, right?" asked Chaos. "Please, from now on, don't think of them as humans, cause they're not. Everything that makes someone human, they're intelligence, morals, logic... it's all gone once they've become infected. If you really want to help them, then kill them."

The sergeant rebuked Abel for his plan, and than suggested he would escort the scientists. Not a good idea in Abel’s mind; that left just him, the Master Sergeant and the mercenary to deal with the brute. Three against one. Good odds in a normal situation, but then again, if you fought one of the hulking beasts they were about to face, he would have preferred the sergeant’s gun by their side.

They split up, the sergeant leaving with three scientists and a mercenary, leaving the now diminished group to deal with the menace ahead of them. They could hear gunfire all around them, no doubt other military personnel dealing with other infected. And then there was the roaring of the brute, down the hallway.

The Master Sergeant spotted the Operative first, and motioned them to lower their weapons. The man did not seem infected, but seemed to be waiting patiently, inspecting his M4. Abel walked over to the man, standing a feet or so behind the Master Sergeant as they walked over and saluted. “Abel Grey, Private First Class, sir. We heading towards the brute?”

"Shoot it!" Chris yelled as he felt Dr. Knights roll out from behind him.

Almost instantly he was surrounded by gun fire. Chris could feel the vibrations in the zombie's neck from all the shots to it's body. The slugs had no effect, it felt as if they were only making it stronger. Chris was covered in the creature's blood, and running low on stamina when Dr. Chaud kicked the beast savagely in the face, knocking it backward, giving chris a small but much appreciated break before it resumed it's attack.

Out of nowhere, the man they'd seen in the corridor a little earlier jumped on the creature's back and began trying to wrestle it off of Chris, shooting it at the same time. Chris just tried to focus on repelling the creature rather than worry about all the bullets flying around that cold potentially hit him and cause infection.

Seconds later the thick throbbing neck muscles of the creature went slack as gravity pulled the blood down through it's hair and onto it's face. Someone had finally shot it in the head. Chris threw the body off of him and lay on the ground gasping for air.

"What he hell just happened Doc?" Chris said between ragged breaths. "I thought these things were supposed to be braindead? It was smart enough to use her as a shield, and then as a weapon. And it was stronger than an ox."

“Abel Grey, Private First Class, sir. We heading towards the brute?”

Sue looked up and gave a eerie smile. "You are," he said calmly. "Or rather, he's coming to you."

Sue peeked down the steps that lead to the cells. "There's three cells down there. One has a person in there. The corridor next to them is about seven feet wide. Can't go down the steps. That's single file and that SOB will tear right through all of you. Can't throw a grenade down there, or else you'll probably kill whomever is locked up. Best bet is to lure the brute up here and then kill him."

He looked at the group and gave the same eerie smile. "Good luck."

Then he just turned and walked away.

"I take it that you haven't killed many infected before, right?" asked Chaos. "Please, from now on, don't think of them as humans, cause they're not. Everything that makes someone human, they're intelligence, morals, logic... it's all gone once they've become infected. If you really want to help them, then kill them."

Vivienne hunched her shoulders but kept her attention fixed on watching their backs. It was the swaggering scientist with the champagne, who obviously considered this whole situation one big game. Obviously convincing himself that they were less than human made it easier for him.

“After you have worked towards the chance of a cure, you consider death to be the only way to help these people?” she replied coldly. “I do not, so excuse me for not being so trigger-happy.”

"What the hell just happened Doc?" Chris said between ragged breaths. "I thought these things were supposed to be brain-dead? It was smart enough to use her as a shield, and then as a weapon. And it was stronger than an ox."

“The newly infected maintain the basic," she paused, "human instincts,” she replied over her shoulder. “The level of intelligence varies between cases.” She was silent for a moment and then knew she had to ask, “Did you have blood contact?”