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Chapter 12

Everyone opened fire at the creature at once. The sound was deafening, leaving Micah shell-shocked.

Micah watched as the mutated soldier at the centre of the bullet barrage remained still, absorbing their bullets entirely. It hadn't even flinched.

The soldiers ceased firing. Micah, Ulises and Farah did as well.

Oberon was dead, slain by the creature. It breathed while peering over him, as if studying the pyramid of ash where Oberon had stood, only seconds prior.

"Why didn't his device work," Farah said quietly, staring at Oberon's remains, what little that was left of him.

"I disabled it," Ulises said.

"What?!" Micah said, furious.

"Fools," the creature rasped, now looking at them.

They looked back at it.

"I knew where you had gone, Micah," its crispy voice said. Micah had to look away from its stare. "The Biogen... it's become so much more than its original design and intent... it's become absolutely glorious!"

It began cackling a loud raspy laugh that would haunt Micah to his dying day.

"I... marked you," it continued, heaving, "oh yes, Micah, you are of the Infected! The virus led me straight to you. It allows us to cross our oceans at great speeds, unhindered by your... human weaknesses."

"Us?" Micah repeated.

"We are among you," it said.

It raised its arm again.

The various dead soldiers that scattered the area around the transport suddenly began twitching. Farah gasped.

The dead arose before them.

* * *

The battle lasted 10 minutes, in real time. It felt like an eternity to Micah. He had been stopping time. He assumed Ulises had been as well.

Micah never forgot about the alpha-creature's ability to do the same. He wondered why it simply didn't stop time and kill all of them instantly. Instead, the creature was standing away from the battle, watching, and cackling.

Micah took advantage. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and ran past the mutated undead as well as several of his fellow soldiers. They and he dodged the creatures' slashes.

He stopped running. He stared down his target. He stopped time.

It became eerily silent. Everything and everyone became still. Blood drops remained suspended in the air.

He looked upon it. The alpha-creature. His old "comrade".

He calmly walked right up to it, once again noticing how hard the ground had gotten. The sand and various other particles below his feet were severely frozen in place, making him slip and stumble a bit.

He took a sample.

He walked it back to a small medical storage container, having emptied it of its syringes.

He sealed the container shut, then buried it shallowly under a discrete patch of sand. He stood back up. He resumed time.

The battle also resumed. And then it was over.

Farah's unit, what was left of them, had neutralized the mutated undead. The alpha-creature remained.

It then began to hover, gazing upward. It shot straight up into the air, then flew off with a sonic boom, to the north, disappearing into the dark of night.

"Great. They fly now," Ulises said.

"SOLDIERS," Farah called.

They rounded up. A mere fourteen were left, including Farah, Micah and Ulises. Scores of Farah's unit had fallen.

"Mother FUCKER," Farah exclaimed at the loss.

Micah gravely shared her sentiments.

She then walked swiftly to Micah. "You fucking led us here to be slaughtered." Her eyes blazed at him.

"I had no idea my old comrade would be here," he honestly replied, standing fast. "I didn't know what he'd become."

"It killed all my men..." She fell to her knees, burying her head into her hands, and began sobbing. A moment passed, in silence, save for her soft cries.

"Not all, ma'am!" one of her unit finally said. The soldier lifted her fist in a salute.

"Farah," Ulises said. He stood next to her now, his hand on her shoulder. "We must keep going," he told her softly. "On your feet, soldier."

"To go where?" she responded. She looked up at him in pure misery. Tears stained her cheeks.

Micah stepped forward and held his hand down to her, beckoning her to grasp it. "To get us, all of us, the hell out of here." She grabbed his hand and he helped her up. He saluted.

They all saluted.