The Life After ATLAS

Sub-level Six

" Recording 5. My name is Delilah. The year is 2014, and we are at school, ready for the ergs. The caf and hallways are set for the competition. All schools are here.
St. Francis, E.L Crosly, us, and any other place in our region. My father, as you know, is in secret military services. He's working on a type of gas that is supposed to knock people out long enough for our soldiers to kidnap terrorists. However, it is still in production. It is currently killing people, distorting the mans physical image. My race is in a few minutes. I just want this to make the world news."
***
I wake up, strapped to a metal sheet, fluorescent light blinding me. I see a figure in metallic equipment, nonetheless an exo of some sort, clad in an all-black outfit. I blink a few times to adjust my eyes, and I see an Assault exo on the man's back.
"Where... where am I?" I ask him. He turns around, and I'm shocked by his appearance. He is part of ATLAS, no doubt, but his equipment is outdated. It's too old.
"Welcome to ATLAS, newbie," the man says.
"Your equipment," I start, but he cuts me off.
"We aren't New," he grins. "We are the Old and best."
My eyes widen. Now I'm stuck in a giant loophole.
"You're a New, aren't ya?" the man spits beside me.
"I'm someone you wish you were," I say. "Look, the war's over. We face a new threat. It isn't human. It's not alive, nor is it dead." The Old ATLAS Soldier laughs.
"What are they?" he asks, intimidation wanting an answer.
"Zombies." I look him sternly in the eye, not flinching under his gaze. He gets up, and walks away.
"Hey," I call to him. "What are you doing?"
"Fucking up your life," is his answer before he closes the door, and leaves me in silence. Dawn, baby, I think as I stare at the ceiling and choke back tears. If the dead got you, I am sorry that I'm not there to fend you off. I want to just go to sleep, to make the pain of Dawn becoming one of them go away. But I can't. The light keeps me awake, and the thoughts of Dawn are flooding in. I miss her. I miss her presence. I miss her in general.
*********************************
The alarm sounds. Dawn jumps out of bed, and goes to the closet where her exo stays, dusty from her last mission in Korea. She straps into the cold metal, hooks herself up and reboots it. It feels so weird for her to move around in it. Grabbing her IMR, she steps out the door, only to see Soldiers running at her.
"Ma'am," one of them says, his face concealed by the helmet. "Please, get back inside."
"But I-" Dawn doesn't get to finish.
"Ma'am, get inside."
Reluctantly, Dawn heads back into her room and takes off her exo. The Soldiers stand in the room by the door. There's ten of them, each equipped with a BAL-27 and a RW1. From outside her room, footsteps echo the supposed-to-be empty hallways.
"Let's go," she hears someone say down the hall.
"They're gaining!" another yells.
"Run, run!" a third starts away. Dawn hears the sets of footsteps run past her door, and a thump shook the floor a little. A growl is directly outside Dawn's door. It sounds like a dog...
"No, please no!" the man outside pleads, only to be followed by the sound of tearing flesh, and the shriek of pain.
"It's here," one of the Soldiers whispers once the noise dies down. Dawn swallows hard, a holds her IMR close. The growl sounds again, followed by a bang of the door.
"Hold the line," the Soldier at the front quietly says, his BAL drawn to his shoulder. The banging continues, followed by the sound of cracking wood. A face of a dog breaks through the door, except this dog isn't normal. It's eyes are gleaming yellow, it's fur no longer on it's body. It barks, and Dawn shrinks to cover behind the bed. Instead of a top and bottom jaw, the thing has three flaps, one going up, one opening to the right and the final going to the left. The flaps are lined with teeth, about five rows.
"Open fire!" a Soldier yells, and the sound of machine gun fire is almost deafening in the small room. The dog dies via a shot to the head. Overjoyed, Dawn lowers her IMR. But, the shrieks of something else kills her spirit. John, she wonders, scared. Where are you?
*********************************
KVA Sergeant Major Liam Gungery advances with his group of Mercenaries towards the last known location of an ATLAS Soldier's exo.
"Sir," Tracker Specialist Hannah Lypino says as she gets up from examining her wristpad. "The location is inside a building, seemingly heavily fortified."
"We can pull through," Gungery says, eyeing his old friend whom holds a MAAWS launcher. Jack Harper, Major in explosives, looks at his friend, and Liam knows that his friend's green eyes are looking him.
"Lypino, lead the way," Gungery orders. Hannah nods, and with her MK14 in hand, leads the group into the unknown. The shrieks all around scare everyone, but they trudge on, not one of the undead coming out to get them. As they come over a hill, a large black building came into view.
"Sir," Lypino says. "The signal is inside that building." However, not one of the KVA knew what this building was. Should I risk their lives, Gungery wonders as he stares at the unknown building, the black exterior and tall tower giving it the look of an old style haunted house. Shaking his head, Liam Gungery signals his squad to lay low and move silently. AK12 at the ready, Gungery runs to the wall, where his jet black outfit almost blends in with the building. Gungery looks up at the black bricked building. Tall, yes. However, he saw a blue laser, one similar to those at a high security prison. That's when he realized the large "A" a ways down the wall.
"Hutson!" Gungery yells, but it's too late. An alarm sounds, and a blue laser is pointing at the poor man.
"There!" a distant voice calls from the other side of the crater, and machine gun fire rips through the air. Hutson is soon riddled with bullets, bits of flesh and glimmering red blood spurt all around, some getting on the other KVA. After that moment, all hell broke loose. A mix of BAL-27 fire, HBRa3 and silenced AK12 fire tore through the once silent valley.
"Contact!" Gungery yells as a rocket, probably from a MAHEM, lands five yards away from his squad. The firefight continues, the KVA numbers thinning by the minutes. The ATLAS troops were advancing towards them.
"Sir," Lypino says, clearly afraid that the undead would come. "We have to break in the wall!" Gungery pauses for a moment, and looks up at Harper. Harper, already with the MAAWS on his shoulder, waits for his friend's command.
"Sir!" Hannah gets hit in the shoulder. "We have to do it!"
Gungery nods, and yells, "Everybody, pull out!" With that, all the KVA start running up the hill. One of the new Recruits is a little behind the group.
"There's something-" he gets tackled by one of the undead, his scream almost deafening. All the retreating Mercenaries stop, and in an attempt to help their friend, open fire on the dead thing, even though the recruit is already dead. No one sees the other zombies dash out of the forest. Great, Gungery thinks as he pegs one in the head, it's body making it do a 360 as it fell mid-jump. Now we have two fronts.
"Just fire!" he orders Harper to do.
"Sir, not all of the men-"
"I don't care, do it!" with that, something tackles Gungery to the ground, and he comes face-to-face with death. He feels a pain in his shoulder. He screams as the once-perfect grass underneath him is now covered with his blood, making it turn a blackish colour. He closes his eyes, waiting to hear the rocket fire. He hears the sound of a miniature cannon, followed by a whistle and the sound of a wall exploding. It's done, are his last thoughts as he feels his life slip away.
*********************************
An explosion followed by the blaring of an alarm wakes me. I try to get up and off the cold metal table, but the restraints prevent me. Dammit, I angrily think as I see all the scientist run away, probably to a fallout shelter somewhere.
"Hey!" I try to yell to get their attention, but it's no use. They all ignore me, even though I know they can hear me. I can hear distant rifle fire over all the commotion. Yes, I think happily. They're here to get me out of this hellhole!
I was wrong. It wasn't ATLAS. It was the KVA. The Soldier ran right past where I was being held captive. Shit, I sigh, knowing that the way out was blocked. Then, an idea comes to me. What if I play dead? I smirk, knowing they wouldn't take a dead man. After the one KVA, no one else came. No Old ATLAS, KVA, or undead. I begin to examine the bonds once again. The bonds on my arms are only holding my elbows down. I lift one arm to reach for the other, but my opposite arm slides under the table. I'm trapped. There's no way to escape. Sadly, the edge of the table is rounded, so there's no way to cut the belt. I hear footsteps. Oh, thank god, I think, but it's too late to act dead. Standing at the doorway are three KVA, looking in, knowing I'm the man. They all look at each other, then the door gets kicked in. Two of the three go around the room, looking for weapons of mine. The third, I presume is the Captain, walked over to my helpless being, and I know I'm about to die.
"Major John Olsteen?" he asks, his voice muffled by the mask. I look at him, not wanting to move or say anything.
"Good," he says. "Don't move," he commands as he raises the butt of his gun. Terrified, I try to raise my hand to stop it, but it didn't work. The metal crashes into my face, and I'm knocked unconscious, thoughts of a helpless Dawn flooding through me.
*********************************
Crying, Dawn stares at the room that was once neat. The once-beautiful blue painted walls were now stained with red and black, along with countless bullet holes and multiple scratch marks. The floor used to only have a few carpets, but now, those carpets are red with the blood of all the Soldiers, along wit bodies of both dogs and men. All the furniture that was left behind by her uncle is either broken or tipped over. All but the green leather chair she got Jonathan Irons a few years back. Chuckling to herself, she walks over to it, trying not to trip on any of the bodies that litter the floor. The chair is essentially spotless. No blood, no brains, no bits of flesh, no tears, no bullet holes. Dawn sits down, the cushion making her relaxed. She smiles, then frowns immediately. She looks down at her stomach, which has enlarged a little. Evan, she cries. Daddy might not be coming home.