Eighth Survivor- Coop Part 2!

The story follows on from here, the story goes that a Marine Recon team is about to storm a building, to get someone out from the inside...

... There were people on the streets, some running, some seemed to be just wandering about. There wasn't time to think about them as we got to the door. It was unlocked, opened easily in my hands.

Weapon up, I entered the room, with the rest of the team following. The hallway we entered into was empty, there was rubbish strewn about the hallway, some doors were open, windows were smashed, and one of the lights swung free from the roof.

There was blood on the floor.

Not a little. A lot. You know how in all the cop shows, the smart cop says stuff like "there are signs of a struggle"? Let me tell you, there were signs of a big damn struggle in here.

We entered the hallway, two by two. Munch was with me, skinny for a recon marine, but he worked hard and was a likeable kid. We moved slowly down the hallway, finding nothing. We entered rooms, nothing. No signs of life, just rubbish strewn everywhere, signs of panic, and blood.

At the other end of the hallway was some stairs.

One set lead up, one set lead down. Munch and me headed up, the other two headed down. I don't know if it would have gone down any different if we hadn't split up. Can't think like that you know? It was about then that the comms died. Whatever we were bouncing our signals off had stopped working. We got to the top of the stairs, I swept left, Munch right. Nothing there so we moved out. We got around a corner when Munch started whispering "Coop... what the f..."

I turned and saw what he had seen, a single figure, standing in front of a doorway. She couldn't have been more than thirty, sensible clothes, sensible shoes, glasses.

Munch had his gun up, pointed directly at the figure. I called out to it, and the figure turned towards us. Behind it's glasses were two white eyes, no colour. Blood ran down her chin, ran down a wound in her arm.

The figure started to move. Its mouth opened and it let for a moan, quiet at first, but it somehow cuts you to the core. It is a sound that I still hear in my nightmares. She started to move towards us.

The figure moaned again.

Then there was a loud bang from the closed door next to us. By this time my gun is up too.

"Coop...." Munch pleads.

I had only turned around to look at the door for a second, when I hear Munch's M16 fire. Two rounds have hit the female figure directly in centre mass, two shots into the sternum. The figure drops.

I punch him in the back, "what the f.. man?", he doesn't respond, just staring down the sights at the figure on the ground.

It moved.

An arm first. Then both. Pushing itself up to it's feet.

Another figure came around the corner, just past the doorway she had been starting at. He started moving towards us too. Crappy suit, balding. a moustache Tom Selleck would be proud of. If it weren't for the blood stuck in it. It has the same staring white eyes as the female, locked intently onto us.

The banging on the door next to us continued.

The two figures start into a sort of a run, not an aimless walk like before, they head straight for us.

Bang, Bang, Munch's M16 fires again, hitting the figure again. This time they don't even slow. Overpenetration. Too much energy, goes straight through. I remember some History channel docco on it about why it made the AK so much better. Big, slow bullet makes for real dead corpses. Or at least, it used to.

Another figure appeared, and then another. I brought up my weapon, the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. It fired the same round as Munch's M16, but it sure fired a whole lot more of them. Munch was reloading as I opened up, cutting the first one clean in half and peppering the others with rounds. Short, disciplined bursts of fire. Just like we were taught. Just like every other time firing on the ranges, or in the 'stan. Except this time they got up. Even the woman who was clean in half. She dragged herself forward, glasses askew. Her dead eyes met mine, and if I had needed a piss before, I didn't now.

Munch lost it, it was too much. He stood up and ran. I hope he made it. I really do. All I know is that I never came across him again. If I didn't see him on my way out, that's a good sign, right?

Just me, with these shapes coming towards me. And then the box on my SAW runs dry. 200 round belt, gone like that (snaps his fingers).

No time to reload, so I pull my pistol, and begin shooting. I am trying to move away, trying to get downstairs.

The door next to me bursts open, a little girl crashes through. Her blue dress is stained with blood, bright orange hair and cold, dead white eyes. She was on top of me in a flash, trying to claw, trying to bite me. My pistol had gone skating across the floor, and I couldn't break her hold.

Automatic weapons fire returned- but not Munch's M16. This was less controlled, faster bursts.

The little girl's head exploded as she tried to bite me. Thank god I had my mouth closed.

I tossed the remains off me, and looked up to my savior. She was four foot nothing, wearing a bright yellow sun dress and holding a smoking Uzi sub machinegun. On her head was a Kevlar helmet, complete with peace sign and US flag.

"Are you here to rescue me?" She asked in a timid voice. Like meeting a stranger for the first time, or when ordering at McDonalds.

"Something like that" was the best I could do in response. "Sasha right? Where did you get the gun?" I asked.

"Yea.... it was from my friend.... he was here to protect me". The pauses in her speech were long and painful. She pointed at one of the bodies, a tall man, wearing a black suit with a shoulder holster. a radio earpiece hung loosely around his ear.

"OK Sasha, my name is Coop, and it is time we got you to your dad..."

We headed downstairs to find the rest of the team...

I apologies that this has taken so long in coming, I have been absolutely swamped with work, so sitting down on a computer to type was the last thing I wanted to do! It did however mean I got some good painting done, so there will be a whole heap of new Zees ready to go next week.

The bonus survivor is Sasha, the person who Coop is meant to be rescuing. Points to you if you know who she is, and where her name comes from. I don't think I made it very hard at all! The figure is a Wargames Factory plastic one (see I can use them for things other than Zombies, honest!), and is probably one of my favorite ones from their sets. I am sure I will wax lyrical about the Wargames Factory stuff in the future, so I will leave my comments on them until then.

In case you are wondering, this is how Zomb-Annie finally goes down...

Are Coop and Sasha safe? Well...

New Survivor Friday, see you then!

Chris