July 5th 2024
I awoke in searing pain, my eyes covered by some bloody rag
"Calm down son, you're safe here."
"Doc, this is a bite..."
"Well shit kid, I guess we might as well just put a round through his skull then, y'know, because the cure isn't a just over that hill!"
Someone tore the blindfold from my eyes and I saw a weathered man, about 45 maybe, I'm not sure. He sure had a leathery looking face with eyes that had seen horrors beyond my imagination. He pulled me up to sit on the wooden table I had been laid on. My stomach seared with pain. Looking down I saw a bloody mess and a nasty looking green scab in the middle.
"Come on, we'll get you patched up some more."
"Ali-"
"She's safe in the infirmary, she will be up and running in a week or so."
"So, the cure?"
"It's in Krasnostav, a mile north west."
"So someone decided to help our sorry asses huh."
"Hell no, the military came to shoot us, the motherfuckers"
"And how did you retaliate?"
"We have plenty of ammo left, lets say"
"Hu-"
This was followed by a series of painful racking coughs, causing me to collapse.
"Come on."
He hauled me up onto the infirmary bed.
"So how long have I been out"
"Couple months"
"Jesus Christ! Why didn't you give up?"
"We were persistent, lets say"
I was deafened by a subsonic crack of a round passing by my ear, almost instantly the entirety of the group reached for their weapons and returned fire in the general direction of the shot. I was tackled behind a rock and had my trusty Colt pushed into my hand. I sat their, listening to the yelling and constant gunshots. One of the younger kids dropped behind the same rock as me, blood soaking into her shirt. She gave a panicky look and handed me a bandage and her rifle, then fainted from blood loss, presumably to die later. I applied the bandage to my wound and pulled it tight, screaming in pain. I stood and aimed out of sheer rage for the kid, ready to kill anything that popped into sight. I shot at about 3 moving targets on the hill, and one seemed to fall and drop his gun. As the rifle gave a click I let my weary legs drop me back behind the rock.
"Hold fire!" I heard the Doc yell over the shots. The firing ceased, and a skinny guy sprinted out to another rock about 75m in front of us. He made it and no shots were fired. He then ran back and confirmed the kills.
"Shit, Amy!" Someone said looking over at me and the kid.
"She's gone" I replied, checking her pulse
"Fuck!" he screamed to the empty valley, listening to his helpless echoes. He slumped to the floor and dropped his head. He stayed there for a moment and I surveyed the scene, crumbled rock barriers and shell casings scattered around. Blood smears and bullet holes in the medical containers, probably destroying anything inside.
"What happened?" I shot at a woman.
"We were attacked, most probably by some clan wanting our stronghold and gear."
"So that might not be the last of them?"
"No." she replied, digging at a hole in the wall. "Blood smeared rounds, used by some crazy group who terrorise lone wolves in the big cities. With about 7-10 members"
"And we shot about that number?"
"Yep" she replied. I breathed a sigh of relief and pulled myself over to the body next to me. I closed her eyes and felt a pang of guilt, they shot at me first so im assumed that they were after me, despite what the woman said. We proceeded to have a funeral for Amy and the guy who was devastated by her death wasn't seen for weeks after that, we then found his body hung in a wood not too far from us.I visited We spent a lot of this time formulating a plan to get to the cure, what had to be administered before 4-5 months after a bite. And I didn't have long left. After finalising our plan we gathered resources and ammo for a full assault with at least 12-16 people, all armed to the teeth.
The entrance went smoothly, we fanned out and approached from the west, south and south-east. The airfield was of no concern to us, and we left it. Firing at a stationed guard, i watched him sprint away with fear, dropping his rifle as he did so. We were attempting to kill as little people as possible. We knew that the alarm wouldn't go off as not to attract zombies to the city. As we passed the gate one of our men was shot through the leg by what sounded by a .22 pistol. I was assigned medic so i called for covering fire whilst grabbing the guy and hauling him behind a barracks building. I put a tourquinet over his bloody wound, and pumping out sweat as i worked as hard as possible to get him ready to at least get up to the roof and provide covering fire for us. I stabbed a morphine injector into his leg, wincing at his cries of pain louder than the deafening gunfire. I waited a couple minutes, firing in the general direction of AK shots. He gave me a pat on the leg and i got into a position to help him up. He climbed over me and i passed him his rifle. Nodding an issue of thanks he turned and started firing full auto at the guards. With them suppressed our team moved up through the barracks and flushed them out with some grenades. Once they were dead or fleeing we managed to get into a position to secure one of the buildings needed to storm the hospital, where the cure was being held. Shaking with cold, one of the guys threw a jacket at me. Nodding a thanks i zipped it up and slid a pair of gloves out of the pocket. My hands started to shake less, meanwhile i reloaded my M4 and gave it a movie style cock, yanking the charging handle back and letting go. We came under fire only to yell at our mock 'Alpha' that we were on "the same fucking side!" They approached us and breathed a word of apology, and started on our next plan of action.
