Left Behind

“Alright ladies, listen up. Fear is a four letter word. If you’re gonna piss your pants, keep it to yourself!” Her crew snapped to attention as she barked, her voice carrying sharply above the roar of the chopper. “Once we get out there, pick your shots. If I catch you wasting bullets I’m gonna skin ye when we get back. Move out.”

The team moved fast, affording only a brief second to check her gear one more time before she stepped out of the chopper. Her short crop of black hair whipped sharply in the wind as she rappelled down to join her team. She hit the ground running, with her team close behind. With it came the flare of her night vision, the heat signature of her team coming in and out of view as she blinked to adjust to the brightness of her display.

“Night’s still young, boys. Lets get in, get the job done and get out of here.“ Her comm-link came online as the static cut in and subsided.

Their pace slowed once they crossed the treeline. Caution was valued higher than speed while they cleared the perimeter from the forest floor to the tree tops. They hadn’t entered infected territory yet, but it was always better to play it safe. She stopped for a moment to trace gloved fingers over the jagged grooves carved into the tree. The deep claw marks on the territory and its vicinity, spoke volumes of the infected they would be hunting that night.

“We’re clear so far, but keep your eyes peeled. We’re not in friendly territory anymore.”

Minutes ticked as they worked their way deeper into the woods. Looking, searching for even a single flare of infected life and finding none. Until the sudden spray of bullets exploded from the far end of their line.

“Kinsley! What the FUCK are you doing?!”

Her words were accompanied by a scream that could only be from Kinsley and even more gunfire. Turning in his direction, she saw the smallest speck of infected heat flare and vanish behind the dense trees. Followed by another, and another….

“Oh god. Retreat to the bluffs, put something behind our backs and we can pick em off as they come!” She yelled as fear made a tight knot in her gut. “Fall back to the bluffs!!”

The group retreated under the cover of silver fire. The muzzle flash flared brightly in her night vision as gunfire made a broken beat in the silence of the night.

“This is Takagi. We’ve got a pack of infected advancing on our position. We’re badly outnumbered. We need back up. I repeat. we need -”

“Behind you!” It was all the warning she got. Turning mid stride, she caught the shadow just when it surged towards her. Leaping away, she skidded out of range of its claws as she pumped it full of silver and emptied her clip. Rolling to her feet and back pedaling from the beast, she loaded another magazine - it was her last. She watched it struggle for another second before a well placed bullet ended its misery. Adrenaline pumped a dangerous pulse through her veins.

The foliage thinned out and the ground dropped sharply away. It was only then, when another scream of death had echoed, that she realized only half of her men had retreated and cleared the treeline to back themselves against the cliffs.

“um… boys? how about that back up?” She fought down the wave of panic that set in when no answer came back from her comm-link. What happened to the other team? Why was there no answer? Were they on their own? Her thoughts were interrupted when a pair lunged towards her. They too fell under the barrage of silver, but the hollow click of the emptied magazine accompanied the howl of their pain.

“Fuck! Commander? What the hell is going on!?” The color drained from her face as she joined the rest of her team in the small clearing backed against the jagged line of cliffs. Dropping the gun, she drew her knives from their sheaths. Her face was bleak but steeled with the resolve to face her death. A quick assessment had told her that ammunition was scarce, and hope was nowhere to be found.

(OOC: Story Background, PM for interest)

The rotors made the chopper vibrate with their thrumming beat. He watched his men, glancing around from the center where he sat among them. Some cleaned their guns, others held them at the ready. There were only two of them who had a lot to do at the moment, the pilot and the member in charge of communication who was monitoring the feed from the other squad’s progress. The beauty of the clear night sky was lost on him and his team, as they were focused on the other team’s drop.

Blake didn’t much like not being able to do anything, but that was the military in a nutshell, hurry up and wait. He could still remember his first CO telling him that this job would be long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. He could fully concur. He wished command would let them drop and back Takagi’s team up. He had almost mentally thought of her first name, there was no room for that here though. He could not afford the distraction. He had to trust her to do her job. He always had.

“Lieutenant there’s something wrong.”

“What have I told you squirrel.”

“No names, no ranks, call signs only.” The young comm officer the aforementioned squirrel said sheepishly. The rest of the 8-man squad were remnants remaining from the war, and had served together for close to a decade now. However, their previous communications expert had died recently, victim to one of the cursed infected. This was what command gave them as a replacement. The team finding him annoying saddled him with the dubious moniker of squirrel.

The kid cleared his throat and tried again. “Owl, there’s a message coming in from Falcon. They’re in trouble.”

“Bring us in closer,” Blake snapped, the pilot responding instantly bringing the chopper lower over the bluffs near to where the other team had dropped. Having earned his call sign even before command, Blake was one of the team’s sharp shooters, and one of the best night hunters in the special op’s division. Eagle, the other sniper had the field glasses and was trying to look from the chopper down on the others. “Report,” Blake snapped.

“I can’t see anything, the trees just make them blurs of heat, sir.” Blake swore, he should have figured that was true. He wanted to set down but knew he could not without release from the platoon commander and he had a bad feeling that the weasel wouldn’t let them go to Takagi’s aid.

Blake’s fears were only confirmed as squirrel spoke up again, “Word from command, we’re ordered to retreat.” There was only silence in the chopper as eyes turned to Blake. Leopard, Cheetah, bear and Python all looking at him in turn. The ones who didn’t were the pilot, Duck, The sniper Eagle and squirrel himself. The rest of the troop that weren’t occupied knew what such an order meant to Blake. The stares almost seemed to dare him to disobey the direct order.

Not immediately doing so, Blake clicked on his own comm-link with a flick of his finger over his ear. “Control, this is Lieutenant Wilkinson, say again?” His irritation and astonishment over the order making him forget his own rule about no names. He took the time to shoot squirrel that said don’t even start with me, just encase the upstart sought to question him on using names when he had just been chastised for doing just that.

An irritated voice filled Blake’s headset, “You are ordered to retreat, pull out of there Wilkinson.”

“With all due respect commander, but are you out of your fucking mind? Lieutenant Takagi is down there you don’t honestly expect me to just leave Falcon’s team, do you?”

“I expect my squad commanders to do what they are ordered.” His voice was even and emotionless. Blake was honestly shocked that the barrel of his rifle didn’t bend under the strain as he white knuckled it to vent his spleen. The slimy bastard, so heartless.

“Who decided this.”

“Are you arguing with me lieutenant?”

“So, what if I am.”

“Don’t take away all of my options Wilkinson.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

Abruptly there was a beeping noise and the voice of Duck cut into the line. “Owl, our kill switch has been activated.” Blake frowned. That was not good news. It was built into all the hunting squad’s equipment. A failsafe against infection spreading back to headquarters. Unless he retreated the commander would blow them all over the mountain’s slopes.

Blake looked around at each of his men, 6 of whom had served with him for all these years, some even serving with him when they were still in school before they could even enlist, part of the junior military organization. He met their eyes one by one. Blake had 2 options, order his men to jump from the chopper, potentially leaving them just as trapped as Takagi’s unit with no backup, and or retreat. He could not condemn his men to die for his desire to go in and help her.

Finally, Blake clicked on his comm-link. “I’m pulling back, but the next time I see you I’m punching you in the fucking face.”

“Save it Wilkinson. Just get your ass out of there.”

“Aye commander.” The resignation in Lieutenant Blake Wilkinson’s tone of voice was evident to all of his men. The only one who seemed initially oblivious was squirrel, and even he couldn’t help but to notice as Bear reached out to lay a hand on Blake’s shoulder. Blake appreciated the consideration from his old friend, the big guy only wanting to show his support, but Blake needed to be strong, so he playfully slapped the hand away. “What are you on about,” Blake asked after clicking off his comm. “I ain’t no girl, let it go.” No one else dared to try as the pilot turned the chopper around and slowly guided them away from the infected lands and their abandoned comrades.

Beginning of the End

A gloved hand tapped the record button on her earpiece. It was a moment of clarity. Knowing full well that there was no hope of survival, backed against the bluffs. While it protected their backs, there was no chance they could hold off the pack without reinforcements. Scanning the treeline, Michelle Takagi picked out the heated flare of infected life and took a deep breath to still the tremor in her voice.

“Blake…” Her quiet voice was just loud enough for the mic to catch. “If you're hearing this, I'm sorry. I'll be breaking my promise. This is the end of the line for me baby. I just wanted to tell you, I love you and... good bye.”

She shut off the comm-link. Even if help arrived later, they would all be dead anyways. The pack would likely kill the last few standing. Those that were not killed awaited infection. Few survived the infection. Those that survived the infection… were better off dead.

“We all have loved ones waiting for us, that we want to go back to.” She picked her words carefully as she pitched her voice for her team to hear. “I’m not going to lie to you. We aren’t going to see them. We lost comms. There is no backup, and even if reinforcements find us, we are still dead. There is no chance of survival.”

She took a moment to let the grim news sink in before continuing “Right now, you have two options. You can run, and those wolves will run you down without mercy. Or you can stay to fight, and make what remains of your life count for something. Together we can put down as many of these bastards as we can. The more of them we eliminate, the less human lives they will prey upon.”

“The choice is yours.”

She left them to their thoughts in whatever brief moment of respite they had. The resolution in her stance telling them what her decision would be regardless theirs.


A howl echoed off the walls of the bluff. An unmistakable war cry.

A surge of wolves broke the treeline. Wolf was too elegant a name for their kind. A grotesque mixture of fur and claws on limbs more human than animal, but far more vicious than human. It took only a single bound for them to close the distance as the pair rushed towards her.

She held her ground. Keeping her center of gravity low as she braced herself for the impact that was about to come. She would never outrun them, but she didn’t plan to.

The open jowls of the first male closed around her calf and she let the beast bring her down. The knife in her right slamming into his throat as she let the fall of her body facilitate the killing blow. Falling back against the ground, she brought her left arm up to shield against the bitch that came at her throat. Sharp fangs had crushed against the kevlar in her forearm. The trauma plates taking the brunt of the damage but it didn’t prevent the fangs from sinking in.

Not that it mattered. It was only a matter of time before she too would fall. It mattered little whether it happened now, or a few dead wolves later.

Pulling her knife free from the first wolf, she drove her blade into the bitch’s shoulder. Silver burn soured the air as the wolf howled her agony and released her arm. The slash that followed, slit it’s throat like a hot knife through butter. The sound of it’s howl broken in a gurgle of death.

It was with effort that she kicked the bodies off. Her left arm throbbed from taking the brunt of the bitch’s wrath. Pulling herself into a crouch, she rose on unsteady feet. A dribble of blood seeped from the cracks in her armor, but it went unnoticed as adrenaline dulled the pain of her wounds.

“Come at me you bastards. If I’m goin down, I’m gonna make damn sure to take as many of you fucking curs down with me as I can!” Her chest heaved as she roared her challenge.

Blake could feel the eyes of his team on him. They had all seen his attempt to brush off Bear’s concern. No one else tried but it was clear that some of them wished they could, wished they could say something to their commanding officer. Blakes glare kept most of them silent.

“Are you getting any more broadcasts from Falcon’s team?” Blake asked aloud finally breaking the silence. Squirrel shook his head.

“No sir. There is interference. I thought it was the mountain and the trees, but it doesn’t quite feel like that.”

“Explain,”

“Almost like it has an electronic feel.”

“The infected would not bother with signal jammers, would they?” Blake’s question was half inquisitive and half rhetorical.

“Unclear sir,” Squirrel did not take a chance, and offered a reply.

The silence resumed, stretching into moments, and then the chopper in its path to gain altitude without resorting to the jet engines the chopper also had, came over the point where last contact with Takagi’s team had been observed. Suddenly squirrel looked up. “I have something Sir.”

“Play it.”

“It’s private sir,”

“What do you mean?”

“It is from falcon, to you directly.”

“Let me hear it.” Squirrel fiddled with some of his controls and Blake was listening to the voice of Michelle. The sultry tones of her voice he was used to were replaced by strain, and barely disguised fear. She was so strong. She was fighting to sound so matter of fact, so normal. It was only their 5-year relationship that allowed Blake to hear the strain underlying her words. He could not say he was as controlled as he heard the message, and then played it again, and again a third time.

One by one, his men looked away from Blake as the tears began to fall from an otherwise expressionless face. They all observed the unwritten code of their squad. You could only acknowledge the others tears if he said something about them, but until then you pretended not to see. Blake could feel the bite of his nails into his palm as he tried to hold it together.

Finally, Blake broke the stoic silence. “Can we get a reply through.” The expression on Squirrel’s face was mournful and apologetic. Therefore, Blake knew the answer even before the other replied in the negative. “But surely you could…” Squirrel did not say anything, yet Blake fell silent at the shake of the head.

“I can give you my equipment, sir, if you want to try something perhaps, I don’t know.” Blake could only shake his head. He was not a comm officer, he would not second guess the kid, even if he did see him as inexperienced. He knew the strengths of his team and none of them would know half as much as squirrel about comms. After the death of Crow, their comm officer who was truly a wizard, the Lieutenant knew he had to trust his subject matter expert, no matter what his opinion of him might be. Not trusting your people could get you killed. A commander had to trust a team member to do his job, or replace him. Personality conflicts aside, the kid seemed to know his stuff, even if some of the team hated admitting that.

“Don’t be silly, I believe you,” Blake snapped, as if to deny that the team questioned squirrel’s credentials all the time, the comment almost suggesting he always trusted the younger man.

“As you say, sir.” After this final exchange the group fell back into silence, lost to whatever thoughts they had. They all knew and were close to Takagi and her team. They would all be fighting demons at the other squad’s loss. However, for now they would all suffer in silence. The shared pain might come later over a pint or two, perhaps at a memorial service. For now, as far as the team was concerned, they were still on duty, and emotions for the most part could wait.