Island of the Dead

Chapter Four

June 6th 11:47 am

By the time everyone had calmed down from their encounter with the infected, made camp, and got a working comms station running out of the now emptied hut, it was nearing mid-day. The only disturbance since finding the man was some rustling they heard in nearby bushes. Donovan, still shaken up by the experience in the hut opened fired, causing whatever was there to flee. Evan wanted to get off the island before nightfall so he rushed his soldiers to get ready to leave.

The soldiers had thought it best to store their craft in some bushes near the beach hut with Dylan and Amanda staying behind to guard it and control the comms station.

"We won't be back for 6 or 7 hours at the earliest." Evan estimated "Don't take any chances. If anyone or anything comes near here before that you shoot it. Understand?"

"Yes sir." They had covered the craft in branches to help disguise it and Dylan and Amanda sat on the porch of the beach hut to watch it.

The rest of the soldiers started their trek through the jungle to reach the city. Evan was ahead of the group by a few yards so Donovan ran to catch up with him.

"Hey Ev." Donovan had always called Evan by his rank around other soldiers out of respect, but when it was just the two of them he would use Evan's first name. "So have you ever seen anything like this?"

"Once. I took a trip down to Indonesia and met a tribe of cannibals. They believed that eating the dead would help their spirits live on. They would cut out the organs and put them in ceremonial jars, then they would cut apart the meat and distribute it to the family. They viewed the ritual as respectful to the deceased. But that was organized. It was an honor to be a part of it. What was happening on the beach, the was inhuman. That guy wasn't right. He was digging into the body like a wild animal." Evan was speaking from experience. He had once seen a wolverine eat a coyote. It had torn open the coyote and dug its face into its abdomen. Evan shook the thought from his head and focused on the road ahead. "How's everyone else?"

"Freaked out. And I don't blame them. This shit is crazy. A psycho cannibal virus spreads on an island and we're the ones who have to run through a fucking jungle into a city, which is probably crawling with those freaks. Then we have to find a couple of eggheads, who may already be dead, then go all the way back. Hell, I'm freaked out."

"Well keep that to yourself. I need these people to believe that we're gonna make it through this."

Besides Donovan, Evan didn't know much about the men he was leading. The department of defense had chosen the group based on their skills and besides for one formal meet and greet the department of defense had set up and the week of training they went through, none of the soldiers really knew each other. Evan knew that Dylan and Amanda were in the same squad and Jason and Rebecca had gone through basic training together. This made him more confident in their abilities to work as a group and gave Evan hope that the mission would go well. All he had to do was make sure they stayed motivated and everything should be fine.

They walked for another hour in silence with the jungle showing no sign of letting up. Suddenly, they heard rustling in the bushes. All five soldiers pointed their guns in the direction of the noise but saw nothing. Evan looked around for the source but came up empty. He signaled for the others to keep moving.

"Eyes open everyone." He quietly said.

Just as they started moving, something shot through the bushes and tackled Jason, laying him on his back. The thing let out a scream and began swiping at Jason's face.

"FUCK GET IT OFF GET IT OFF."

Donovan fired and the force of the bullet sent the infected sprawling on the ground. It quickly got up but before it could do anything Jason grabbed his sidearm and unloaded a clip into its chest and head. Evan rushed to Jason and inspected him. He had a big gash in his left cheek and a few scratches I over the rest of his face.

Evan used his canteen to wash out the wounds while Rebecca grabbed some gauze pads out of her first aid kit along with some antibiotic cream. They patched Jason's face up and propped him against a tree.

"Mills, Lewis, keep your eyes up. Don't let anything else sneak up on us." Evan turned his attention back to Jason. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I think so. The son of a bitch came out of nowhere." Jason used the tree as leverage and stood back up. He moved his jaw to make sure it wasn't broken.

"Alright," Evan said, getting Donovan and Martin's attention. "Let's move. The quicker we are out of the damned jungle the better."

They continued their walk and, aside from hearing some screeching in the distance, were met with no more opposition. After a half hour they finally found a dirt road. After following it for a few minutes they finally were at the outskirts of Alsoft. The outer city limits was mostly suburbs but even from there they could see the big building with the red plus sign. That was their target. The had began to walk when Jason suddenly threw up.

"Oh fuck guys. My stomach." He crumpled into a ball in the middle of the road. He threw up again. Evan looked and saw that Jason had thrown up blood.

"Jason?" Rebecca began to move to him but was stopped by Donovan. "Move Mills. I have to-"

"Look." Donovan interrupted.

Jason had began to convulse as the blood began the leave his face. His mouth began to foam and a low gurgle came from his throat. Then he was still.

"What the fuck Mills? Why'd you stop me."

"Just wait."

Jason's body began to twitch. Suddenly, he twisted around and hopped up on his feet. His eyes were bloodshot and he was growling. A screech erupted from his throat but before he could lunge forward Donovan shot him in his head.

He shot him again, then turned to Rebecca and said, "Briefing said the virus was transferred through the blood. When that thing scratched him I was afraid he would turn but I wasn't sure. I was really hoping he wouldn't."

"Why didn't you say anything? We could have helped him!" Rebecca got into Donovan's face, anger clearly visible in her eyes.

"How? How could we possibly help him? We have no fucking clue what is going on. All we would've done was delay the inevitable at best. How do we know that if we tried anything it wouldn't have sped up the process?"

Rebecca punched him.

"Hey." yelled Evan, getting between them, "Both of you knock that shit off. Mills, if you thought of that you should've said something. And Munoz, Mills was right. We don't know what we're up against. Nothing we could've done would've helped. But right now the only thing that matters is that we don't let that happen again."

Donovan got up and dusted himself off.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything. But I didn't want him shooting himself before I could see if he would transform."

"That's a pretty shitty excuse." Rebecca tried to say something else but got choked up. She turned and began walking again, tears welling up in her eyes at the thought of her now dead friend.

Evan grabbed Donovan by his collar and pulled him close, "He could've killed someone. If that shit pops in your mind you tell me. Got it?"

"Got it." Donovan shrugged him off and went to get Jason's dog tags.

Martin stood beside Evan, looking back at Jason's corpse.

"Hey kid." Evan tapped his shoulder, startling Martin, "Come on."

Martin began walking but couldn't get the image out of his mind. It was the first time he had seen someone killed, and he feared it wouldn't be the last.