Piers Nivans
So Leon, Chris and I were on a team. Plus the other two saps that got assigned on to our group last minute, which was kind of a bummer cause I was looking forward to having a little quality time with the guys.
Before leaving, we exchanged a few words and greetings. Chris gave his little speech about how "No man is left behind" and how "we're all in this together." Sounds like a bunch of shit to me, but hey, we are a team after all.
Chris stood firm and took a glance at the demolished city. He took a deep breath and looked at each and every one of us.
"Alright men, today we fight to save everyone and everything we love. We've got to start out small, but sometimes small things have the greatest impact." Chris looked at the other two men that had just joined us. "Men, state your names."
The first guy was a tall, olive-skinned lad who had to be only like 21 years old. He had dark hair that sort of spiked up but not in an I'm-a-Jersey-Shore-Doucebag way.
"Hey guys, my name is Jason. I'm 22 years old and I have such a charming personality. What can I say?" I will admit though, the guy was pretty good looking.
"Alright, Jason, I can see you're going to fit in just fine with the rest of these jackasses." Chris said as he pointed at Leon and I. Leon gave a smirk and I nudged Chris' arm.
The other guy was a medium height ginger. He wasn't the most handsome type and he most certainly wasn't the friendliest soul I've ever seen.
"Tyler, age 26. Pleasure to meet you all." What an intro.
"A short and straight-to-the-point kind of guy, I like it. Glad to have you here, Tyler." Chris said with a warming smile on his face. "Alright men, for this operation we're going to find some infected people, I know you two newcomers aren't used to seeing things like this and that is okay, but you better get real comfortable with zombies real quick because you will be up close and personal with them." Chris turned over to the jeep's trunk and handed each and every one of us a bullet proof vest and a few boxes of ammo each. Leon strapped on his vest and glanced at me, "Let's get this show on the road."
Chris took the lead as usual, which I was fine with of course. I think I'd be a terrible leader to be quite honest. I may be able to take orders and I may be able to follow directions, but sometimes I just focus on the wrong things.
Screaming was at every corner, bodies were hitting the floor, and people were crying and running in each and every direction. It was awful. People running away from each other and some people were even getting really aggressive. We marched down the streets, Chris tried talking to some of the locals but nobody would cooperate. Everyone was in total chaos.
We had come across a little girl, she had to only be about eight years old. She had her hair in knotted braids and her dress was torn a bit. Leon ran right up to her and kneeled down in front of her; placing each of his hands on her shoulders.
"Hey, are you okay? Tell me what's going on? Where is your family?" Leon seemed pretty good with kids. I wouldn't be surprised if he and Claire would pop a few out later on. The girl was taking short, fast breathes. She was sobbing and each time she tried to talk she'd gasp for air.
"I-I-I'm okay, I'm just looking for my brother. Can you help me find him?" She said, wiping the tears off of her sullied face.
"Okay, sweetie, we're going to help you find him, okay? Now tell me your name." Sweetie? Leon looked too much of a prick to ever call anybody sweetie. I wonder how he talked to Claire.
"My name's Hailey, please help me find my brother. His name is Kevin and he has dark hair and lots of freckles on his cheeks." Leon stroked the girl's hair on top of her head.
"We're going to find your brother now, don't worry. You're going to be safe with us." Leon tucked his gun into the holster and lifted the little girl up. He started to carry her like she were a toddler.
"Hailey, my name is Leon, and these are my team mates, we're a part of a big organization called the BSSA and we're here to end all of this mess, okay?" Hailey started to sniffle. She was a cute little kid.
"Okay, thank you so much, Leon." Leon had looked at Chris.
"Let's find the girl's brother, maybe he can help us."
"Hailey, how old is your brother?" Chris said in a curt tone.
"He's 20 I think. He works in a lab and everything. I think I know where it is." Chris looked over at Leon and then back to Hailey.
"Okay I think we hit the jackpot. Maybe her brother can help us." Chris ran his fingers through his hair. "Everything's going to be okay, Hailey, don't worry." Hailey looked a little less scared, which is funny considering she was talking to Chris and he for sure doesn't have it in him to be nice.
"Thank you, sir."
"No, thank you."
We journeyed onward in hopes to find some lab building that Hailey's brother was in. Hailey told us about her family a bit and honestly, the kid's got it rough. The kid's parents died a year ago, leaving just Hailey alone with her two siblings, Kevin and a sister named Isabella who was apparently in some sort of freak accident or something. I asked Hailey is Isabella was still hot and she blushed. Chris shot a look at me and Leon was also giving me the death stare. Wrong time to think about hooking up I guess? Hailey was playing with the back of Leon's hair and asking him about a million questions.
"Leon how old are you?" Leon chuckled.
"Old enough to be your grandpa." Hailey laughed and put her hand over Leon's mouth.
"You're an old man Leon." Leon laughed even harder. I found it kind of cute in a way. I was actually gladder that she wasn't screaming her head off or something.
"Leon, what's your favorite animal?"
"Animal? Geez, probably a bear or something fierce."
"That doesn't sound cute at all."
"I know. I like bears because they eat little girls who ask too many questions." Leon started to kind of tickle Hailey's belly. She of coursed giggled and squealed like a little school girl but honestly you could tell the guys were liking it—it kept our minds off of the terror surrounding us.
Hailey pointed us in all sort of directions. We had been walking forever it seemed and Leon's arm had to of been tired by now. It was so quiet, it was really weird, considering just 20 minutes ago people were fearing for their lives and running around like chickens. It was so quiet you could hear our boots against the pavement. Weird.
We reached a tall, worn out building. It had looked like it suffered some damage from the recent chaos.
"This is where Kevin works." Hailey said, stretching her neck all the way up so she could see the entire building. "I think you need a key to get in though. Kevin always opened the doors with some kind of card." Chris sighed.
"So we need an ID card. Shit." He whispered under his breath.
"Hey, there are children here, Chris." I finally got a word in, I was a smart ass, wasn't I?
"Sorry, I just need to get us all in this building." He looked all around. The building was labeled 'Biohazard and Chemical Research Lab' how ironic and perfect at the same time. Leon put Hailey down and took out his gun.
"Hailey, stand behind me." Hailey quickly maneuvered behind Leon and he shot at the door's lock. Nothing.
"Looks like it isn't working, sir." Tyler spoke up, he didn't talk for the entire walk. At least we got a couple laughs out of the other guy, but nothing from Tyler. Leon looked back to Tyler.
"Thanks, I didn't notice."
"Sorry, sir, was just double checking." Maybe Tyler had the sarcastic personality. I liked it.
"Kennedy, Piers, let's try to kick the door down." Chris ordered as he slammed his foot onto the door. We all three used full force and still nothing happened. This surely was locked up tight.
"Leon, I think there's a back garage, you can try there." Hailey said just barely over a whisper level. Leon picked her up and we all relocated to the back where we had found a silver but rusted garage door. It was cracked up just enough for Hailey to crawl through.
"Hailey, squeeze through the crack and try to let us in." Chris ordered in a soft yet stern tone.
"But what if I get in trouble?"
"Hailey, you won't. If you don't, we might not find your brother and get you to safety." She nodded and carefully rolled under the crack.
"Hailey, are you okay?" She had been gone for over two minutes. Leon called her name again. "Hailey, are you there?" I guess his fatherly figure was stepping in. Leon looked a little nervous in all actuality.
We stood around for a few more moments waiting. Even I was starting to get a little tense. Where the heck did the girl go? All she had to do was roll under the door and open it up for us. Then, all of a sudden, there was a click and the door started to roll up. Hailey pranced out and headed straight for Leon.
"What took so long?!" Leon said, putting his hands on her shoulders. He kind of gave her a little shake.
"I had to find a key, I couldn't just open the door."
"Where in the world did you find a key in 10 minutes?"
"It was in someone's lab coat?" Hailey handed the key to Chris and Leon picked Hailey up again.
"Well guys, it looks like we got ourselves a little treasure hunter." I said, God I was so witty. The guys actually laughed and Hailey had a smile on her face, she must've felt important finally. We had rushed into the building. Everyone had their gun out except for Leon, he was carrying a child anyway. Wait, that kinda makes him sound pregnant. Moving on, we looked through each and every crack in the building, checking for survivors and any living dead. Leon stayed close to Chris for just in case purposes.
"Chris, I found a door here, it's locked. Do you think Kevin could be in here?" Jason called out. He wiggled the door handle and then pounded on the door. "Hello? Is anyone there? It's the BSSA, open up!" No response.
"Hailey, would your brother be here?" Leon asked her. Hailey nodded.
"He should be still working. He and his coworkers should be here." Chris pounded on the door himself.
"Open up! BSSA!" Still no response.
"Maybe no one's home?" I chimed in.
"Piers, knock it off." Chris and Jason both started to kick at the door, pushing with their combined weight, they actually knocked it off the hinges. There was a bunch of men and a few women, not so hot women I might add, in the room. They were wearing long, white lab coats and were all sitting huddled together underneath the table. Everyone had their guns pointing at the deathly frightened scientists, except for Leon of course.
"Please don't shoot! We're just trying to get away from it!" one of the female scientists said. What was 'it' exactly anyway?
"Ma'am, we are not here to hurt any of you. We're here for the exact opposite. Is anyone hurt?" Chris can be reassuring sometimes. "Does anyone have any wounds or is injured in anyway?"
"No one is hurt, we're all fine."
"Are you sure? Because I'd hate to have to find out the hard way if any of you are infected." Chris' attitudes could be quite the frightening ones. Leon looked around.
"Is Kevin here?" He asked. A tall, Caucasian man stood up; he fit Hailey's description perfectly.
"Yes, I am Kevin. Why?"
"I have something for you." Leon said as he walked over carrying Hailey.
"KEVIN!" Hailey reached toward Kevin. Leon handed her over to him and Kevin nearly had tears in his eyes.
"I thought I lost you. Why in the world did you wander off!"
"I was looking for help!"
"Well you sure did it the wrong way! I nearly had a heart attack, I've been worried sick! How could you do this to me?!" Kevin was practically screaming at Hailey's face. You could almost feel the tears forming in her eyes yourself. Tough break.
"Sir, this is not the time to worry about this affair. Do you know what kind of danger we're all in?" Leon asked.
"You think I don't know? You don't think I don't know what's going to happen to us all? We're going to perish, that's what the fuck is going to happen. We're all going to fucking rot and die. And there's nothing anybody can do about it. If 'it' doesn't get us, something else will. If the virus doesn't fill our lungs and blood stream, we'll die of hunger. There's no escape from this fucking morbid reality." Kevin's face got bright red and you could see the rancor in his eyes. Hailey started to cry, and wiggled right out of Kevin's arms and right back to Leon.
"Sir, you need to calm down. This is why we're here, to do our job. We're the BSSA and we have stopped every bioterrorist attack that has ever happened on this planet. Now from what I understand, you're a very important, smart man and you may be able to help us conquer this plague. The truth is, my men and I don't know much about it, but it seems as if you and your team have quite the thumb on it." I couldn't believe Chris could speak like he was so unflappable. Kevin on the other hand was irked. Honestly, I think he was more scared than anything. Chris and Jason tried calming him down. Tyler and I talked to the rest of the group. Leon walked around the lab trying to console Hailey.
"Do you have any idea what we're facing?" Some red headed, pig nosed chick asked me in a rude way.
"Nope, not a clue, I'm just here for the gore and guts." Don't I have a way with the ladies? She scoffed. I could tell this was bigger than any of us could fathom. I was pretty worked up.
What the actual Hell are we doing?