What Remains: The Outbreak

by Tyler Barrett

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Kenji sprinted across the airstrip to the others as soon as he heard the scream. He could make out Ramirez huddled over someone, Kenji presumed it was Knight. His stomach sunk, realizing what he feared had happened. Knight had finally turned and had bitten someone else.

  Tiller was holding his arm. He had a decent size chunk missing from his arm, and it was bleeding quickly. He was still screaming in pain at the top of his lungs, Evans was trying to calm him down or, at least, making him stop screaming. Muller sent Ren, and the other pilots ahead to wait at the hangar. It was chaos, intersecting on their carefully laid plan.

  Kenji readied his blade; Knight was attempting to stand up. Ramirez was looking back and forth between Knight and Tiller as if not believing what had just happened.

  “HEY! Over here,” yelled Kenji.

  Knight turned his focus towards Kenji in a heartbeat. Nothing of the man Knight remained, Kenji looked square into Knight's eyes and only saw red. He had indeed freshly turned. Kenji had only been this close to infected that had just turned three times before, Smith, Kiyomi, and Takeo. He wasn't fond of the occurrences, finding them more disturbing than seeing an infected that wasn't fresh.

  It meant that shortly before this had been a live person, but now they were no more. He had been talking with Knight just one day before; so much had changed since then and even now their numbers thinned out. Now Knight was another causality of the infected, nothing more than a host to something smaller than himself. Kenji knew that the man before him did not recognize anyone around him; he no longer had friends or worries.

  It made him sick knowing that he was now only seen as an infected. He would have to be put down by Kenji. Still, Kenji felt some resentment for the man. He was directly responsible for the deaths of many people he had lead to safety, all it took to undo his work was Knight’s bad leadership. He had not been a terrible person but had made some calls that got people killed.

  Rather than showing remorse, he proved that many of the people lost, he felt nothing for them. Maybe he put on a strong face, so he did not appear weak, but to Kenji, that was still not an excuse. He wanted to place all the blame on Knight, but deep in his heart, he knew he had failed them too. The quick anger Kenji felt towards the man that was once Knight faded, knowing that what was done, was done; only one thing remained.

  Kenji silently apologized to Knight knowing him not to be a great man, but one that had been trying to survive just as the rest had. He looked once more into his cold red eyes filled with nothing but blood and hunger. He watched as Knight skulked closer to him, Kenji planted his foot to steady himself for his swing. In slow motion he watched as his blade sliced through the air moving closer and closer to where he aimed his katana; time caught up, and Kenji felt the blade slice through muscle, tendons, and bone.

  The screams of Tiller echoed across the space, but they quickly stopped as he bled out. Kenji quickly looked at his body knowing he too would turn. As he ran the short distance to where he lay, with Evans next to him, he tapped her shoulder.

  “Go with the others,” stated Kenji calmly.

  The wind had blown across the airfield, and with it, the low rumble of an infected army marching; guttural moans carried to them.

  “Run, help them open the hangar. I will handle Tiller,” said Kenji with a bit of worry in his voice.

  Evans got up and ran to the hangar where they had just started to get the massive hangar doors to open. They screeched open and created enough noise to drown out the moans of the infected. Kenji grabbed his sword and plunged the blade into Tiller's eye socket, making sure he didn't join the infected moving on them now. He pulled out the knife and started to run.

  Kenji crossed the distance quickly, knowing time wasn't on their side. He stumbled into the garage finding Nobuto standing next to the driver’s side of the truck with two new bodies nearby.

  “What is going on? Is everyone ok?” Asked Nobuto.

  Kenji climbed into the passenger side of the truck, followed by Nobuto into the driver’s side. Kenji motioned to start the truck, “No, one of the pilots is dead. Knight turned.”

  Nobuto didn't reply, accepting the words as truth. He pulled the truck into drive, and it rolled forward slightly, he gave it some gas, and it pushed them forward. As the truck rolled out from the garage, they saw the infected. A couple of hundred infected marched across the airfield closest to the base housing. They were closer than they thought, meaning they had even less time to get to the helicopter, open the hangar, move the helicopter out, fuel it up, and take off.

  Nobuto floored the gas pedal and stopped outside the hangar doors. They had opened the doors enough for people to walk in and out but not a vehicle.

  Kenji climbed out of the truck, “We have to hurry!”

  Muller caught on quick to what Kenji meant, “How many and how far away are they,” he asked worriedly.

  Kenji looked back towards the infected, they had already made it to the garage area, “At least two hundred, and they are already on the way to the garage.”

  Muller looked up from the crank he was using to open the hangar doors, sweat dripping from his brow, “Shit. Alright...ok...Evans, Ramirez both of you go out there and make sure none of them get too close. Use your rifles, no noise suppression. Kenji see if you can get Nobuto and Ren to make sure they gather up all the ammo and give it to them.”

  Ren and Nobuto didn’t wait to be told by Kenji. Instead, they emptied their packs, and anyone else’s they could find for magazines. Together they gathered enough to give Evans and Ramirez four each. They stood by them both with their knives ready if any infected got close enough. So far Evans and Ramirez had picked off a couple, taking precious time to line up shots so their bullets would hit their targets and conserve ammo.

  The hangar door was only halfway open, and the infected were one-third of the way across the airfield. If they did not speed things up, they would be overrun before they could get the helicopter out of the hangar.

  Kenji ran over to Muller, “Switch with me. Take a break and check on the pilots.”

  Muller nodded and let Kenji take a turn on the crank; he was breathing heavily, but he ran back to the helicopter, where they had climbed inside and were looking at gauges. Seeing that they were working, he figured they had not run into any problems yet, so he jogged outside. If it were not for a horde of infected headed their way, the breeze would have brought him some comfort. However, he could see that even with Evans and Ramirez shooting at infected there were too many.

  Crack. A two-second pause. Crack.

  They both were using their training well, remembering to breathe in between shots. As soon as one went down, another would replace the downed infected. Evans and Ramirez both had used their magazines they had brought with them and were now down to four each. Muller started to turn back to help with the door when he noticed a small group of infected rounding the corner of the hangar.

  “INFECTED ON THE RIGHT!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

  Evans who was on the right turned to aim at the group of infected; so far, only ten had come around the corner. She quickly downed the closest ones with skill but found her magazine empty. Attempting to reload Evans dropped the empty magazine out of her rifle, and slammed a fresh one into it, and charged the gun. She pulled the trigger, finding it jammed. Nobuto who was at her side rushed forward at the closest two infected.

  He quickly ended the first one, an infected soldier, missing a huge chunk of his chest. The second infected was a woman, only wearing a white tank top and baggy pants. She lunged for Nobuto, who quickly ducked the attack and let the woman fall on her face. Nobuto Placed his knee on her back and stabbed her in the back of her skull.

  Evans yelled, “Move!”

  Nobuto quickly moved to the edge of the hangar, as Evans placed a couple of well-placed shots in the infected closest to Nobuto. The numbers of the infected that were coming from the side of the hangar were still also growing, but they were
quickly and easily put down. After another minute, the infected stopped appearing, but Evans moved forward to double check to make sure there were no more coming around the corner.

  Nobuto was called back to the hangar and moved back to the hangar door. Evans held her gun raised ready, she hung close to the wall and quickly peered around the corner. Infected hands reached out and grabbed her, knocked her rifle from her hands. She was caught completely off guard and fell back with the infected man’s momentum. Before she knew it, she was on her back struggling with an infected on top of her. Nobuto rushed to save her, but another infected came around the corner and grabbed her.

  Her scream, as two infected tore into her, filled Nobuto’s ears. He grabbed the first infected, the man and stabbed him in the back of the neck like the infected woman. The second infected on top of Evans paid no attention to Nobuto. He shoved the infected that was still tearing into Evans, giving her a moment's reprieve. She quickly punched the infected in its face to stun it while she gained her footing.

  Muller ran outside and quickly made his way over to Evans and Nobuto, “What happened?”

  Evans was crying, “They bit me, they grabbed me and bit me,” she said showing them her forearm and side. Both had visible bite wounds and were missing muscle.

  She took off her rifle from its clip attached to the sling, and handed it to Nobuto, “I’m infected. You can’t take me with you now. I’ll make sure to take out as many infected as I can,” she said backing away from them both.

  “What…” Muller started.

  “NO. There is nothing you can do. We both know we can't keep holding on. There is no cure, and I don’t want to suffer as Knight did. I’ll make sure to get you guys some more time that you need. Otherwise, the rest of you won’t make it,” she said calmly.

  She took off running holding her side; she ran straight into the wall of infected. She brandished her sidearm and fired into the few infected that were in range. A majority of the infected drew their attention to her. She had given them what she said, more time.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Kenji had finally opened the hangar door wide enough for the helicopter to fit through and dropped the crank. He ran outside to the truck and climbed into the driver seat. It was still running from when they had left it; he put it in gear and entered the hangar. He had to turn the truck around, so the back of it was facing the helicopter, to begin fueling it. Kinders had climbed out of the aircraft to guide Kenji inwards to the helicopter.

  Once he was in position, he climbed out, leaving the door open. He went to the back where Kinders had started to unhook cables. Kenji looked at the cables for a second, confused at what they were. Then he realized they were cables to hook up to the helicopter so that they could tow it out. Kenji grabbed one from Kinders and helped him yank it towards the helicopter. Kinders showed him where to hook up the cables, and he quickly hooked the cable into place.

  “Cables are in place, take us out,” said Kinders from the other side of the helicopter.

  Kenji went back to the cab of the truck and got into the driver seat. He put the truck in drive once more, and slowly gave it gas, not wanting to put too much torque on the cables. At first, the truck did not give, but it slowly started to roll. Kenji was starting to feel a little less stress as he looked back to make sure the helicopter was clear of the hangar. However, driving out towards the crowd of infected put a knot in his stomach, he also noticed only Muller and Nobuto were on the right side of the building, which was odd since that is where he had last seen Evans.

  He stopped the truck and got out to unhook the cables, as Kinders ran to the back of the truck. Kinders started to unravel a sizeable hose that looked heavy and thick.

  “Is that for the fuel?” Kenji asked, pointing at the hose.

  Kinders pulled hard on the hose, bringing it over his shoulder, “Yes, we need to get it towards the back part of the helicopter. I got the hose, I need you to flip that switch at the base of it when I tell you too.”

  Kenji headed back over to where the hose was hanging off the side of the truck and helped pull it out from the truck.

  Muller ran up from behind the helicopter, “How much longer?”

  Kinders looked at him, “It’s going to take at least another five minutes to fuel up.”

  “We only have a few minutes to spare…The infected are getting close,” Muller stated with heavy worry.

  Kinders took out his extra magazines and handed to them to Muller, He then tossed two more to Kenji, “Give those two to Ramirez, Kenji,” he turned back to Muller, “How much time can you give us with that?”

  “Hopefully, the amount of time we need to get this thing fueled!” Muller exclaimed, running back to start shooting at the infected.

  Kenji ran over to Ramirez and dropped off the two magazines to him, and Ramirez nodded with a grateful look. He had gone through five of his six magazines already. They were barely holding back the swarm infected in front of them, but almost every time they downed an infected, the ones behind it would trip over its body. Every infected they slowed gave them a precious few seconds, as more infected navigated around.

  Kenji jogged back to the truck waiting for Kinders to give him the Ok to flip the switch. It wasn’t long before he heard Kinders yell, “Flip it, Kenji!”

  He didn’t waste any time at all and pressed the switch down. He could hear as the truck began to pump fuel out from within the tank. It was deafening standing right next to it. He backed away and patted Kinders on the shoulder and told him he was going to find Muller. Kinders nodded and climbed back into the helicopter, where Cooper sat in the pilot’s seat.

  Kenji found Muller on the other side of the helicopter, with Nobuto standing next to him, firing his rifle into the infected. He approached and asked, “Where is Evans?”

  Muller stopped firing to answer, “She’s been bitten, she took off into the crowd of infected to draw their attention.”

  “Damn. Evans was brave to do that,” Kenji said sorrowfully, “The truck is being fueled now, should only be a few more minutes, though.”

  “Come grab us…” Muller fired a shot into the infected again, “When it's almost done.”

  Kenji walked back towards the helicopter and decided to check on Cooper and Kinders. He walked up the ramp which they had lowered; both pilots talked back and forth throwing out numbers from gauges, as they prepared for flight.

  Kenji interrupted them, “How much longer before we have enough fuel?”

  Cooper looked back, “Gauge is about halfway, so only a couple of minutes. Tell the others to start making their way back in a minute.”

  Kenji left them to their preflight checking before he went back outside. The infected were starting to make their way to the truck, meaning they were probably no more than a minute away. Ramirez and Ren had already begun backing away from the horde of infected, towards the helicopter. Muller and Nobuto were still further out, so he ran over to them.

  “Cooper said to give it a minute before you head back,” he told Muller and Nobuto.

  “Yeah,” Muller said taking yet another shot, “We might have to move back sooner, there are too many.”

  They started to make their way back right then, slowly backing up towards the helicopter, as the infected crowded towards them. Kenji saw Kinders run out of the helicopter and over to the truck. Kinders duck and dodged many of the infected that surrounded the area, until he reached the switch. Once he was there, he stopped his momentum, and all the infected he had dodged on his way there were now turning around to continue chasing him.

  Kenji knew there was no way he had time to warn or save him and could only watch as the infected swarmed him. He tried pushed his way through, but several infected grabbed him and tore into him. He shoved them off him and shoved his way out of the group of infected. Kinders quickly went to the hose and unclamped it from the helicopter, before collapsing on the ground.

  Kenji sprinted over to where he lay, “Why did you do that?!”

&nb
sp; Through choked breaths, Kinders replied, “Someone had to stop the fuel and unhook it…”

  “You are infected now! We can’t bring you with us,” Kenji said.

  “I know. Go, just make sure everyone else makes it out,” Kinders replied weakly.

  Kenji walked away looking back at Kinders; the infected were close; he pulled out his sidearm and took a few poorly aimed shots before stopping and putting the gun to his temple. Kenji looked away as a gunshot rang out. Someone tapped him on the shoulder; it was Ramirez mentioning to get inside.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Muller and Nobuto took a couple of steps back every time Muller made two shots. They were only ten feet away when Muller heard the high pitch whining that developed into a high pitch squeal, and then finally changed into a thunderous roar as the blades came to life. The helicopter was ready to take off and not a moment too soon; Muller only had six shots left.

  Muller turned around, “Chopper is ready, let's go!”

  Nobuto followed him as they climbed up the ramp and looked inside to see if everyone had made it in. Ren, Kenji, and Ramirez all stood inside looking out the windows at the approaching horde. Cooper was in the cockpit, and Nobuto was in, right behind Muller.

  “Kinders?” Muller asked.

  Kenji just shook his head.

  Everyone was on board; Cooper closed the ramp, waiting until it was almost closed before turning his attention back to the cockpit. He pushed the pedal to raise them up, and they slowly lifted off the ground, the torrent of wind forced many of the infected away from them. They all watched as the infected army below them got smaller and smaller.

  They could see the entire base; then they could see the town they had passed through the day before, small trails of smoke coming from fires that were still burning. They could see the sea behind them, they headed west, hoping to find US Navy in the Sea of Japan. Cooper pushed forward on the controls, and they watched as the land underneath them became unfamiliar to them.