Dead Retribution

Dead Retribution Ch 1

My name is James Baron, and what I am about to tell you is not for the faint of heart. You see, I have been inflicted by a strange and horrifying condition. How I came about this was mainly due to my career. I work for a company known as Epidemic Neutralization Department, or E.N.D. It's main function is to contain and eliminate diseases before they spread and cause havoc amongst the public. I work with Hazmat Team 7, one of thirteen teams that handle the most dangerous situations. The leader of our team was a man by the name of Roger Derius. The second in command of the team was a dark skinned man called Eric Duranov. The tech expert of our team was a Hispanic man named Carlos Santillo, but we usually called him "Hombre." The two medics of our team were myself and a woman named Lisa Berringer.

Our assignment was at a secret weapons manufacturing plant known as Hephaestus Weapons Inc. It was so secretive that it housed all of its workers in an apartment complex on the same grounds as the factory. Apparently, the employees were never allowed to leave.

We rode to the site on our helicopter, and on the way, Roger explained the mission to us. He booted up the presentation screen (In case you were wondering, these were used when generic computers became unpopular with the business world) and began speaking.

"Alright, I'm sure you are all wondering what the situation is, well, the reason you have not been told yet is because of where we are going. The Hephaestus Weapons company has many secrets and we could not risk the possibility of curiosity seekers finding out about this.

"About a week ago, E.N.D. received video footage of what we believe to be a serious case of a mind altering disease. Before I show it to you, I must warn you, it is very disturbing."

He then tapped on an icon that pulled up the video. It was taken from a security camera, and it showed a security officer sitting behind a desk with several dog kennels lining the wall (afterwards, I learned the animals were there to keep the employees company while they were off work.) After ten seconds, the door to one of the kennels was violently struck from the inside, causing a major bow in the wire door. This surprised the guard so much that he stood up and could not move for a moment. When he regained his composure, he decided to investigate what happened in the kennel. When he knelt down to get a closer look, the door was struck again and a vicious looking chihuahua came flying out (laugh if you want, this truly was frightening.) The tiny dog latched onto the guard's face and proceeded to rip off all the flesh from his right side. As the man struggled, the Chihuahua then grabbed hold of his neck and quickly snapped it. Then the dog moved off screen and a door was seen flying across the room.

It was then when Roger turned the video off. "The reason why we have not acted sooner was because we wanted to determine whether or not the video was a fake. I'm sure you all remember the McBurbur hoax," (another story for another time) "so we had to be sure. Against all hope, the video footage proved to be real this morning.

"Our objective is to locate this animal and either cure it, or dispose of it. Now, are there any questions?"

Eric raised his hand. "Yeah, why are we helping a company that was accused of selling weapons on the black market?"

"We do not care what our clients have done in the past. Our only goal is to help them eliminate whatever disease they claim is there. Now, any other questions?" No one else raised their hand. "Okay, you are all free to speak to each other until we get there."

The remaining four of us got up from our seats and talked with each other about small matters, such as the weather, next Sunday's game, how the kids were doing. Then Lisa caught me trying to stuff something into my pack.

"Why do you have to bring that book?" (referring to my bible.)

"I always bring it. Is that a problem?" I asked. They always seemed to have a problem with me bringing my bible.