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Chapter 8

They all huddled inside the entry way to the base, as the green shockwave lit up the sky above them.

Micah immediately reached for his syringe box.

"Stand fast, soldier. Save your supplies. We're safe," the sentry told him.

"Huh?" Micah said.

He heard an electrical hum start up from a distance. Then he heard strange sounds from above. He looked up.

He saw the familiar streams of the green virus falling in wide arcs from the bright point of light in the sky. However, they were being deflected by some force: it was a kind of electric shield, encompassing the entire perimeter of the base.

It looked very effective. He watched above him as the glowing emerald Biogen fell harmlessly into non-existence.

"Brilliant," he thought. But how had they achieved or acquired it? Technology like that was unheard of, even from the enemy.

"BREACH," a soldier screamed.

He looked around, and he saw it: a hole surrounded by the white electrical edges of the shield. It was about 20 yards ahead of them. It hung over at least twenty people, and it was widening. The Biogen was falling upon the soldiers underneath.

"MOVE OUT," the sentry yelled to them. Micah finally got a glimpse at her rank insignia. She was a unit leader, as he was, or used to be.

"You! And you! How good are you? Nevermind, you're with me!" she commanded.

"Yes ma'am," Ulises dutifully complied and lifted his rifle. Micah did the same. Oberon retreated to a safe spot near the entrance. The rest of them charged.

* * *

The disaster had been over almost as fast as it had begun, but it had lasted slightly longer for Micah and Ulises. They had deployed their new devices to help contain the virus. Their time-stopping and "porting" had been discrete amidst the chaos, and neither of them had noticed any adverse affects nor any sign of infection so far.

The Biogen was gone, save for what got inside the shield. The Infected had been successfully limited to a small percentage of the base, and were now in containment, far away and sealed off from the rest of them.

"Looks like we too are gonna have to get a 'New' prefix for our base name," the sentry remarked, staring at the contaminated area. The patch of sand below the breach was still glimmering green.

"We haven't been formally introduced," she said to Micah, turning to him. "I'm Farah. Unit Lead Farah. Thank you for your help here tonight, soldier." She gave him a salute.

Micah saluted back. "I am, or was, a Unit Lead at New Unilat. Everyone at my base has been neutralized. Only I and Ulises remain." He explained to her his journey, leaving out Oberon's lab and the oasis. He told her that they had merely found Oberon wandering alone in the desert.

"How is he not dead?" she inquired.

"Beats me," Micah said, shrugging at her.

"Beats you? Is that some kinda Unilat jargon?"

"Er." He didn't quite know what he said either. "Um. I'm not certain why he did not succumb to the desert either, ma'am."

Farah chuckled. "Gotcha. Also, relax, that's an order. There aren't any COs around here anymore..." Micah saw a hint of anguish in her face. "Anyway," she abruptly continued, "it seems your approved leave of absense was extremely fortuitous."

They were now in her office. Oberon and Ulises were tending to the rest of the base's soldiers.

"Protocol in this event dictates that I am now your CO," Farah informed him, "but don't worry, you will not be doing anything near scrub duty. I've seen you guys in action..." She typed at a log in her computer.

"Ma'am," Micah said, "my base... all of them became the Infected."

"Oh yes," Farah replied, "I know first hand of the horrors of these newer weapons, hence why we are evacuating at first light. Also... you may call me Farah. Never did like titles much."

"Have you had to engage in combat with... them?" Micah asked her.

"Yes," Farah answered gravely. "They are vicious. Worse than the enemy. Much worse. They are the reason my last base was destroyed."

She stood up and faced him. "We couldn't dispatch any of them. Our bullets sunk in like they were sponges; our guns did nothing to slow them down. Any unfortunate soul who didn't evade their path was decimated in seconds. They just kept charging... and the screams that kept coming from them, non-stop... like they were in agony..." She grimaced.

"They slashed many of my unit with their new claws," she continued. "A few infected soldiers eventually died... the rest I put down with my own sidearm. They were the Infected. God save their souls." She took a deep drag from the lit smoke inbetween her fingers. Micah felt immense empathy for her. It must have been a terrible decision to make.

"But after a while, they all just... stopped."

"Stopped? The enemy? What do you mean?" Micah asked her.

"They all started coughing severely," she said, "one of the most disturbing things I've ever heard in my life, second to their screams, and then they just dropped dead. Some twitched a little afterwards, but that was it. We cut our losses and evac'd immediately."

Micah had no words. He grieved for Farah's unit and for his own. He prayed he never had to lay his eyes on another monstrosity again.

"It's too kind, to name them the enemy," she concluded. "These new... things are abominations. Hey. I've been meaning to ask, what's with the weird bracelets?"

"Oh, this," Micah said as he held up his wrist. "One of the civilian's strange gadgets. He says they'll shield us better from the Biogen. We humored him."

"What a strange man," Farah replied, sitting back down to finish up her log, puffing at her smoke.