Designated (Book 1): Designated Infected

by Ricky Cooper

Rook listened to the static chopped message as it came through.

  'We can try. Do us a favour and blow the north tunnel on your way out. It'll stop any more of the Infected coming through.'

  Dictator grinned as Rook replied.

  'Done deal mate, one Infected pancake coming up.' Turning to his men, Dictator smiled. 'Well lads break out the C12; we have a cork to pop.'

  ****

  Baker looked slightly stunned, he had done some stupid things in his career as a soldier and special operative, but dropping a mine tunnel while you were still stood in it, he limply shook his head; staring at Colinson he asked.

  'They actually blew the tunnel?'

  Colinson simply twirled his hand in a gesture of “keep reading.” Baker taking the hint dove back into the file.

  ****

  Titan's head scraped the ceiling of the tunnel, eliciting a growl of annoyance from the behemoth. His ear bead crackled and fizzed, the metal content in the mine tunnel was playing havoc with his radio. None of the Icarus section had been able to get in contact with any of the other team members or the American unit.

  Racking the bolt back, to charge his weapon; he smiled. The heavy metallic clack, of the bolt against the folded steel of the casing echoed off the walls; his smile almost bloomed into a grin, as he felt the adrenalin shiver down his spin. The “Mini-mi” M249 machine gun was a toy in the man's hands, he carried it as easily as the rest carried their MP5's.

  He growled again as his head clanked off another low slab jutting out the ceiling, the noise echoing down the tunnel before bouncing back at them as they moved forwards. A low guttural moan rolled over them as they rounded the corner, the sight made the nine men grind instantly to a halt.

  Their weapons snapped to their shoulders as they took stock of what lay in their path, the pinpoint red tactical lasers mounted on their weapons arcing through the dust filled gloom. The tunnel ahead was awash with Infected, stumbling and falling over one another in their haste to get at the walking buffet that had so kindly wandered in.

  ****

  The fried and slowly dying brain of Simao Kitu latched onto the figures in front of him. In the dim recesses of his ever diminishing mind he saw them as men, as people who offered help, the patch on their front told him that; they were soldiers, the good ones.

  But it mattered not to his starving body as blood filled saliva dripped from his shattered teeth. A gurgling, bubble filled, moan of hunger left his throat as he stumbled into a run; his arms flailing in front of him as he reached in desperation, hunger and his need to feed on anything that resembled protein driving him onwards.

  Time seemed to drop to a crawl as his still dying brain flickered to life and drove him forwards. His ear picked up the muffled shouts and groans of his fellow diners as they all scrambled towards what they simply saw as food. Simao's teeth ground together as he slowly closed the gap, the pink tinged saliva slipping through his split lips as he latched onto the single thought cascading through his shattered mind.

  His motions became faster as he threw himself forwards, stumbling over his own sandal covered feet he fell to his knees. His left knee cap burst through his skin like a whale broaching the ocean's surface as he smashed into the unforgiving cavern floor.

  Forcing his atrophying muscles to work he blindly surged on. His eyes dimming as the corneas died and faded to nothing, Titan took one look at the room before him the ordered the rest to open fire. Simao spun as bullets impacted into his body, tearing through him as the hot spears of copper and lead forced their way through his soft flesh tearing open his body like a pencil through paper. Slapping to the ground like a dying fish on a dock, his shattered form came to rest amidst a cloud of dust and blood on the cold stone of the cavern floor.

  He scrapped and dragged at the dust and blood covered granite in his desperation to reach the life giving sustenance his body craved, his plague tortured mind refusing to acknowledge, that his body was beyond any hint of repair.

  As the smoke cleared the massacre before them was revealed, the bullet riddled bodies of the Infected lay strewn about the room, like dolls cast aside in an infant's play room. Titan scanned the room with a practised eye, his gaze alighting on the still struggling form of an Infected. He winced slightly as he took in the damage that had been caused not only by the bullet impacts but also the Infected that had condemned the poor fellow to this insurmountable fate.

  Slowly striding towards it Titan watched the Infected writhe and squirm as it tried to reach out towards him; strangled, gasping gargles escaped its mouth as it swiped futilely at the air. Shoving it onto its back with his boot, Titan raised his side arm, the small red dot of his sight centred on the middle of its forehead. He scanned the body once more, eyes falling on the name tag partially obscured by mud, dust and blood.

  'Sorry Kitu it's either you or me, and to be honest mate; I don't fancy being lunch. May you find peace.'

  With those final few words reaching the last flicker of the man trapped within the desiccated form Titan fired. The forty-five calibre round left the guns muzzle covering the distance in less time than it took to blink. The bullet connected with Simao's forehead slicing like a scalpel through his dermis and skull; shredding brain matter and exiting the back of his head amidst a powdered mist of bone and brain.

  Simao's head fell back with a crunch of crushed bone as his shattered form was finally stilled, to his dying day Titan would swear to any one, that as he stared down at the corpse below him he saw a gaze of thanks dance through the dead eyes of the Infected man as the last vestige of its former life left and the corpse of the poor unfortunate soul was still once more.

  23

  Dictator sped up as the sounds of the gunfire echoed through the cavernous maze of tunnels.

  'Rook, time to move, that tunnel is coming down in the next thirty seconds, and if you ain’t out it's coming down on your head.'

  Rook scrambled to relay the order to his men as Dictator's voice growled in his ear.

  'Sparrow time to go.'

  Sparrow looked down at the still darkening leg of his trousers, he knew he was Infected and was as good as dead, a sense of calm washed through him as he spoke, his words, soft and fluid as he set a fresh magazine into his weapon.

  'Go, I got you.'

  Rook's face fell.

  'No Sparrow, one or none, you know that.'

  Sparrow sighed, setting all thoughts of friendship aside he pushed Rook back, his hand crashing into the centre of Rooks chest making him wince sharply from the impact.

  'I said go. I got bit, I ain't taking you down with me, I'm dead if I go, and I'm dead if I stay, you know that. Just fucking go!'

  Raven went to drag Sparrow away, the young soldier moved like a snake slamming his fist into Ravens chin lifting him off the floor and sending him into the waiting arms of the others.

  'Sparrow, it don't have to be like this.'

  Sparrow began to shake as his temperature spiked, mucus cascading down from his nostrils slowly seeped its way into his B.D.U jacket, the viscous fluid shimmering in the dull glow of the their night-vision goggles.

  Sparrow's skin felt slick in his clothing as he began to perspire, his body basting itself as he was slowly cooked from within, the rattling chant of gunfire permeating their thoughts as they watched Sparrows slow decent into madness and death.

  'Just go, I got this.'

  A harsh hacking phlegm filled cough tore at his body as he turned away lifting his rifle to his shoulder.

  'Sparrow!'

  The soldier raised his hand tossing his dog tags to Crow and flipped a lazy half salute. Then through a half swallowed wad of phlegm and mucus, all but screamed at them.

  'Go!'

  With that, the rest turned and ran, dragging their unconscious team mate with them. Sparrow stood his ground, the pool of blood at his feet a deep red, his feet shifting in the clotting molasses of death carpeting the floor beneath him.

  The blood flow slowed to a trickle as his body bega
n to fail him.

  'Well, at least it ain't got to my brain yet; although, I know my heart has all but stopped, I can't feel it beating, heh weird.'

  He began to laugh as he lowered his gun.

  'Besides who the hell am I talking to.'

  Ejecting the magazine he fed a new one in and carried on. He aimed at the ever present wall of flesh, his sights settling on another target as an Infected broke off from the mass and came sprinting towards him.

  Its arms were raised, fleshless fingers extended as its mouth gapped open showing blood stained teeth. The creature got to within three feet of Sparrow before he fired, his reflexes already dulled to be beyond useless. Knowing he only had seconds left to live, the creature wailed in his face as Sparrow pulled the trigger emptying the magazine point blank into the creature's torso.

  'Yeah, fuck you to, ass hole'

  With his parting words floating down the tunnel, the charges detonated sending three million tons of rubble crashing down on top of them. As the ceiling fell he stared into the vacant eyes of an Infected lucky enough to be clear of the initial collapse, grinning Sparrow pointed upwards.

  'Hey buddy.'

  The Infected seemed to acknowledge the fleeting call.

  'Heads up.'

  With that the tunnel caved in completely entombing all beneath it in a deluge of rock, gravel, sand, and mud.

  Crow glanced back down the tunnel, the rumble of the falling rock and mud rolling up behind them as a displaced cloud of dirt and dust snapped at their heels like the dogs of hell.

  A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he watched the cloud began to thin out.

  'Oorah Devil Dog.'

  Sparrows' tags jangled slightly as they bounced on his vest, their soft dance sending out a tinny rhythmic lullaby, Rook smiled tightly as the whispered phrase met his ears.

  'Oorah Sparrow, Oorah'

  ****

  Titan all but lost his footing as the mine shook beneath him, he sent a hand out to the wall steadying himself, and all but knocking the man next to him unconscious as his arm crashed into the side of the man’s head.

  'What the fuck was that, felt like the whole place is collapsing.'

  Wolf sniffed the air tasting fresh dirt on the air.

  'Tunnel collapse, about seven hundred yards ahead.'

  Titan looked at his friend sceptically.

  'How can you tell that?'

  Wolf shrugged. 'Dunno just can'

  Titan shook his head muttering under his breath. 'Damned weirdo.'

  Wolf just smirked and trotted ahead, his rifle pulled close into his shoulder. A strangled yell echoed from the tunnel ahead followed by sporadic gunfire and several dull thuds, the rest of the team broke into a dead sprint rounding the corner in a very unprofessional tight bunch. Glancing around him Titan grimaced; a simple fact staring him in the face, the fact that if it had been a set-up all of them would be dead.

  Turning he stared around the room, darkness and death loomed hand in hand. The stench of copper tinged blood mingled with the overwhelming aroma of faeces. Blood dripped from the ceiling pattering like rain over the men as they stepped forwards, weapons pulled tight to their shoulders.

  Wolf stood, his uniform running alive with the flesh and blood of the Infected, the dismembered bodies, a halo of flesh, set before him like an offering to a Mayan god.

  His weapon lay buried, secreted beneath the pile of steaming entrails, a hidden treasure beneath a cairn of the dead. Spent brass casings shimmered amidst the blood like diamonds on red silk; their smoking, tarnished forms littering the floor.

  Wolf's blunt ended, heavy machete was clothed in a mingled sheath of flesh and blood, it clung to the razor thin edge like wallpaper over plaster. Gore and flesh flowed along the blade's sides coalescing into lumps of thick glistening filth, falling in gelatinous globules to the blood drenched floor.

  His chest heaved as he sucked in breath after deep pain soaked breath, his chest creaked like a dead tree as the ends of his broken ribs ground against one another.

  Spitting out a lump of flesh he grinned at Titan as he motioned revealing the deep bloody gouges in his side, they swelled and bulged as the corded muscle beneath shifted oozing thick streams of semi-clotted blood like pustular sores.

  A hacking cough racked his body as he vomited; blood and mucus pouring from his nose and mouth. The stench of liquid faecal matter rose up from the ground as the hot steaming fluids splattered the swirling mire at his feet. Titan heaved as he looked at the ever expanding pool of liquid excrement pouring from the saturated legs of Wolf's uniform.

  'Fuckers tried an ambush.' His teeth glimmered, shimmering with blood the pieces of flesh caught between them showing just whose it was. 'It didn't work.'

  Wolf swayed on his feet slightly as he bent to pick up his weapon, his hand missing the sling by scant millimetres as Wolf's vision swam, the world twisting, tumbling in on itself as he fought to stay on his feet; as he did the collar of his combat jacket opened out. The back of his neck was nothing but a festering pit of teeth rendered skin and bone, white flecks of his spinal cartilage rising like glacial bergs amidst a sea of twisting muscle.

  The eight men present visibly winced as the cartilage shifted pushing against the torn flesh, making it dance over the bulging plate's of cartilage.

  'Wolf? Buddy?'

  Wolf's blade flared upwards even before the man himself had registered the question fully.

  'What?' He backed away machete raised, his body crouched, defensive; his manic gaze dancing from soldier to soldier as Titan slowly began to edge closer. Wolf's boots sent ripples through the mire as he stepped through the swirling mass of his bodies own evacuated content.

  'Bud you're hurt, you need to settle down and let us deal with it.'

  The man was wild-eyed, his mind fraying second by second like an over taxed rope, the strands of Wolf's mind peeled away one by one spinning into a fathomless pit. The soft flicker of a torch beam bounced across the tunnel mouth behind Wolf, its bodiless glow shifting over the rough-hewn stone. As quickly as it came, it stopped and went out like a flame snuffed between finger and thumb.

  Wolf began swiping the machete from side to side, the blackened blade swinging in long streaming arcs through the cloying air. He swung in any direction he could, his shattered mind allowing no one to get closer than the reach of the blade, as he searched; desperate for freedom from his own mental prison.

  Rook slowly leant out the tunnel mouth his eyes alighting on Titan, the giant English man slowly raised his hand to his collar; Wolf tensed at the sudden motion, he watched with a feral interest as Titans middle and index fingers hooked round his throat mike, the gargantuan soldier making a small show of relieving an itch under it.

  Nodding Rook lifted his hands, the black gloved digits dancing over one another as he signed out his query.

  'He Infected?'

  Titan made a show of working a kink out of his neck as he slowly nodded; the Americans fingers danced once more as he replied in kind.

  'Roger that. He coming quietly, it don't look like it.'

  Titan slowly lowered his hands to chest height his right balling into a loose fist, as he let his other sit open in the air with his fingers closed and palm down, Wolf’s eyes took on a quizzical stance as he watched Titan mime using a snooker cue.

  Titan grimaced inwardly as he watched Wolf's features contort in puzzlement; it was only alleviated by the fact he knew full well that Wolf wasn't versed in basic sign language, and as much as it hurt, he took full advantage of it.

  Rook's jaw clenched as the answer became all to clear, stifling a curse he let his hands talk once more. 'Fuck it all to hell, didn't think he was going to be playing nice. Need him decommissioned, say the word and I will. I don't want to, but it's better than him being a toy for the boys in yellow.'

  Titan unintentionally quickened his pace, losing focus for no more than a second as he watched Rook over Wolf's shoulder. Wolf's already virally frayed n
erves snapped at the sudden burst of speed and began to wildly swing the blade, narrowly missing Titan's throat.

  Rook's patience died in that instant, grinding his teeth he mumbled to himself as he snatched his pistol from its holster on his thigh. 'Fuck it, I'm doing it any way. Not losing any more men than we have to down this shit hole.' He rounded the corner his side-arm raised, the fibre optic sights settling squarely on the centre of Wolfs head, as it loomed large in his vision.

  Rook fired three quick precise almost surgical shots, watching as they impacted into the back of Wolf's head. The soft nosed rounds caved the back of his skull completely, dragging the shattered remains of Wolf's cranium with them as they surged forth. Titan's chest was spattered with a mix of brain and bone as one bullet passed through Wolf's right eye the others settling in his nasal cavity.

  The man's body dropped like a bag of stones as he folded limp to the floor, the blade in his hand falling from his grip, clattering to the floor with a hollow metallic clunk.

  Titan stood, as he watched the red ooze roll away from Wolf's lifeless form, the sucking muck licking at the toes of his boots as it swelled, ripples crashing over themselves as they drifted away to nothing. Titan said nothing as he watched Rook kneel beside the body of his friend and gently lift the tags from around his neck.

  The round, embossed discs clinked off his carbon fibre knuckled gloves as Rook held them out.

  'I did it to save you the weight of the pain my friend. Sounds cheesy but it is better if someone he didn't know ended the issue rather than one of you. I can bear the weight easier than you can.'

  Titan nodded. 'I know.'

  Reaching out a spade-sized hand, he ensnared the small metal disks and slipped them into a pouch on his hip.

  Dictator came storming through the passage seconds later, skidding to a halt his boots aqua planing on the blood and bodily fluids that coated the floor. A sad, pained look haunted Titan's eyes as he stared at his unit chief.

  'Finally snapped didn't he?' The giant man simply nodded in response. 'Thought he might, who did it?'