Alpha of the Omega

by Corona, A. M.

  “Well let me tell you guys what has been going on. Currently we have set up camp right outside the city. We have been in charge of trying to keep the city at all costs. We have been having issues with different groups of people. There are those who are trying to stop what we are doing. They have been on some craze by this old preacher. He says we are going against God’s will. She is saying this is God’s way of bringing judgment upon us for all of our immorality and somehow we are getting in the way. I am not too much of a religious person but if the God didn’t want us to interfere with his plans then we wouldn’t be able too. These religious fanatics have been a thorn in our sides. They have been converting others over to their little cult they have going on. Then we have the others who believe these are innocent people. They think those people are still alive somehow and we are killing them. Can you believe that shit? The goal is to make a stand in the key cities the military thinks we need to keep at all costs. We have lost most of the eastern seaboard and a lot of the interior states,” said Halton. “Yeah we know,” said Hobbs. “Where we came from it is nothing but empty fields which are crawling with the infected. It’s as if life has been frozen in time.” “Well I would take that over what we are having to deal with. We are supposed to be getting some shipping containers in to help solidify the area. I won’t hold my breath on that one. In the meantime, we are to hold the line and keep the populace safe. Intelligence tells us there is a big hoard that is heading our way and will be here in a seven days or so.”

  Hobbs thought about the situation and it made him uneasy. The memory of the little girl came to mind once again. Hobbs tried to push the memory deep down in the crevices of his mind. Would he have to face another girl or any child for that matter? He was sure he would have to face many more before this ended if it ever ended. The thought of home and his shitty job seemed welcoming now. At least the human race was not facing extinction. Was this going to be the end of them? He tried to focus on something else to soothe his nerves.

  When they reached the city something was odd and off about it. There was a fence already erected and as far as he could tell it surrounded the whole entire city. The fence was a normal chain link fence but had razor wire at the top. The razor wire must have been a deterrent to keep the city’s residence from fleeing the area. But where would they go? Would they not understand this is probably the safest place for them to be? Maybe the residence would feel like a rat trapped in a cage trying to get out. Just the idea of being trapped in a place no matter how big or small can take its toll. It would be cabin fever but on a much bigger scale. He imagined people trying to escape without regard to their lives or others’. Hobbs remembered Halton talking about riots. Were they trying to get out or was it just defiance because they were cooped up in the city.

  They came upon the gate and two soldiers walked out of the shacks that were on either side of the gate. The two soldiers seemed annoyed about their current position. No one like guard duty it was one of those shitty details that was just tedious of always getting out checking IDs and searching the vehicles. Guard duty typically contained long shifts with little breaks if any. “Step out of the vehicle” said the soldier on the left. “Move over there,” the soldiers said as he pointed to a containment area. The designated area was off to the side and used to search the people. It was for the protection of the soldiers. Any civilians that would come in would be searched in a methodical way starting on the top left quadrant and work their way down. Then they would begin again on the other side from the top right quadrant to the shoes. If the person posed a threat they would be detained or shot depending on the rules of engagement and situation.

  “What the fuck” said Cowan. “You are the ones that brought us here and now we have to go through this bullshit!” Hobbs just shook his head. Cowan was always defiant. That was probably why he never made sergeant. He was always ready to blow up and the dangerous part was you never knew when he would. Hobbs gently placed a hand on Cowan’s shoulder. It’s alright man they are just doing their job. “Fuck their job and fuck them too. You know this is bullshit”, said Cowan as he pointed his hand towards them. “You got a problem with that specialist,” said the soldier on the right who had his rifle at the low ready with a smirk on his face. Cowan was going to lunge forward but he felt a hard hand once again on his shoulder stopping him from doing anything stupid. Cowan pushed off the hand in disgust.

  “Take off all your gear and lay your weapons on the floor,” the soldier said. Cowan threw down his rifle and gear as a show of defiance. “I will search you first,” said the soldier as he pointed to Cowan. Cowan just stood there with his arms folded. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way your choice.” Cowan just stood there not moving an inch. When the soldier moved close to him, Cowan threw up his elbow landing it in the face of the soldier. The soldier fell to the ground holding his nose. Blood poured out all over his hands and dripped on the floor. “He fucking broke my nose!” Cowan just chuckled in satisfaction. Another soldier named York came up behind Cowan and kicked the back of his knee causing Cowan to fall to the ground and struck him with the butt of his rifle.

  Cowan woke up in the hospital. He tried to sit up but the equilibrium in his head was off making him dizzy which forced him back down. Hobbs was by his side once again. “Are you done playing hero? You know that was some stupid shit out there. They could have killed you with justification you know that.” “Well that fucker started it.” “You mean to tell me that he started all of that?” Hobbs just shook his head once again. “You will never learn.” “Am I supposed to? I mean we were the ones that were brought here to help out and they acted like total assholes!”

  “Something just does not seem right here. They were talking about the city having people who were rioting, looting and protesting. However, when I was out in the city I did not even see any of that. It was strange as if everyone was going about their normal day life.” “Well what is so weird about everyone doing what they normally do? They are protected except for that asshole! Maybe they got everything under control you know what I mean. Hell it would just take one time for them to get out of hand and the military having to step in and put them in their place.” “I don’t know if that is the case or not but something is not right here and I got that feeling in my stomach.” “What do you mean the pit of your stomach Hobbs? You mean like that time in Afghanistan where you felt like we were going to be ambushed on patrol or just your normal ‘This doesn’t feel right’?” “Afghanistan…” “Well shit that is not good. So what do you think we should do?” “Well for now we don’t need any more of your outburst, we need to fly under the radar as much as possible”

  The two sat in quiet for a moment pondering the intel Hobbs gathered. Hobbs could not shake the feeling he had. He remembered that time in Afghanistan. They were on patrol and in the town there were kids around. The soldiers often brought candy or other goodies for the children and they would flock to them. The kids saying Tashakor which meant thank you as they graciously took the candy. This time was different and Hobbs felt something was wrong. No more than two minutes they stepped into the city they heard shots being fired. They immediately moved in one direction and went behind a building. “Compartmentalize,” Hobbs told himself. Stay calm is the first thing. Remember fast is slow, slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Then he started to bark out orders. “You two return fire. Cowan you are with me.” Cowan and Hobbs ran across the street to another building. Hobbs started to return fire. Hobbs was careful not to expend all his ammo too quickly. He let the others return fire and when they stopped Cowan and him would return fire. Hobbs looked over to the other two nodding his head. Cowan and Hobbs returned fire as the other two soldiers moved up closer bounding forward towards the enemies.

  As they got closer the enemies were panicking and running out to fire at them and then quickly hid behind the houses. Hobbs heart was racing and he was starting to lose control over his men. Things were already in chaos and it was hard to think.
“Slow your breathing,” he told himself. He remembered what he was told before during his pre mob training. The battle field will be chaos when the bullets start to fly. You need to slow down maintain control because when control can’t be maintained that is when you start losing men. Above anything else maintain control over the situation. The soldiers stopped firing for a second waiting for the reciprocation from the other men. “Slow your breathing wait for it,” Hobbs told himself. Then one of the enemies ran across and started firing. Hobbs followed his movements with his close combat optics putting the tiny barely visible red dot just a millimeter ahead of him. He squeezed the trigger slowly. The shot fired was a surprise as it should have been. The recoil was small and the pocket in his shoulder accepted it with warm welcome. The enemy’s chest opened up like a red blossoming flower and he fell to the ground in a sideways motion from his momentum. One down but he did not know how many were out there.

  He saw another running across the street firing from the hip and the shots went wild. The other pair started firing again. They stopped then Hobbs and Cowan would send another set of bullets down range. Then two more enemies ran across but one was struck in the head and fell down. Then what appeared to be the last one came out holding his rifle above his head saying something that Hobbs could not understand. “Where the fuck is the interpreter!” Hobbs said out loud to no one in particular. He had forgotten about him when the bullets started firing and now he was nowhere in sight. “Fuck me! Where the fuck is the interpreter,” said Hobbs, this time directly at the other team across the street. The man kept walking slowly towards them and laid his weapon down on the ground. Cowan noticed his clothes were bulkier than normal. Cowan commanded him to stop but the man just kept coming. “Get down on the fucking ground now!” His words becoming desperate as the man continued to walk closer to them. The man reached into his robe and Cowan focused and lined up his rifle with the man and shot him twice in the chest.

  Hobbs motioned for the men to keep watch. If the man had an IED, improvised explosive device, he would be the one that would take the risk. He did not want to be going home with someone else’s death on his conscious. He did not want that dreadful letter arriving at their loved ones home telling them they did not make it home. He would not be able to live with himself. If he were to call in the EOD or Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit they would take hours before they would reach the area. Plus he realized they did not radio over they had come under fire. He would definitely get an ass chewing when he got back. He looked over to Cowan. “Radio over a sitrep.” The sitrep or situation report was to let the higher ups know where they exactly were and what had transpired and their current situation. “Leave out about the possible IED I don’t need them to know about that yet.”

  Hobbs slowly crawled closer to the dead body making sure to keep his head down low and body as close to the ground as possible. He remembered that explosive went up and out. His best chances of survival was to stay low to the ground pending the IED would not blow particles of metal or whatever they would be able to put into the bomb. He had the pucker factor as he was beginning to realize exactly what he was doing. Am I really crawling up to a bomb he thought? He was anticipating he would be the one where a letter would be delivered to his parents. “Fuck them,” he said out loud. Sweat was pouring out of his pores. His eyes began to sting as the salt entered into them. He dared not wipe the sweat away or rub his eyes. Before he could reach the body the bomb went off throwing dust and fire into the air. Hobbs was shaken by the blast and he went unconscious. Hobbs woke up in the hospital. He had a minor concussion from the blast but other than that he was intact nothing missing. He later was reprimanded by not following protocol and taking the necessary precautions and calling in the EOD. They were going to take his stripes he thought but they didn’t.

  Chapter 9 The Approaching Storm

  Hobbs and Cowan were teamed up with two other soldiers, Pike and Rogers. They were tasked to patrol the area during the day. Everything seemed normal to Hobbs. There were people walking down the street and normal traffic from what he could gather from the size of the city. People did not even seemed worried about the oncoming storm that was sure to wreck their lives. Despite the amount of soldiers and fire power they had he was for certain if the shipping containers did not arrive they would certainly fall. He still had that feeling in the pit of his stomach there was something wrong. They brought back that thing and Jerry back. Then they were quickly whisked away to here wherever the hell here was he was not for certain. The thought was like a spike being driven into his skull.

  The city had everything grocery stores, electronic stores, a small mall, a hardware store and even a gun shop. The gun shop could come in handy he thought to himself. Hobbs was already planning on places they could hold up it was instinct that told him this city would not be able to hold their ground. Grocery stores and the hardware store were probably the last places he would want to go. There would be too much chaos in those areas. People would be fighting each other for supplies and food. The gun place might be a good choice since there were no windows just one door that he assumed would be made of steel or thick wood. In the panic of things people would loot the store but if the door just stayed intact they could make it there and whole up. He wondered what goodies were in there. Probably some illegal weapons he assumed. Then after the chaos had settled down then they could make it to the grocery store. The food and first aid supplies would definitely be gone for certain. He counted on people not grabbing the cat and dog food. Sure it would not taste that great but it had the basic nutrients that any human would need. It would have protein, vegetables and fats all rolled up into one sustenance.

  The next two days was much of the same walking through their section of town that was assigned to them. Still no shipping containers but that was to be expected. Hobbs wondered how long before they got there. This could at least give them a fighting chance and if need be they could have time to get away and hold up somewhere. There were shots fired in the distance. Cowan turned and looked at the other three men that were with them. “Did you guys hear that?” “Yeah we did” the three men said in unison. “Where do you think it came from?” asked Pike. “It had to be coming from the main gate. That would be the only thing that made sense,” said Rogers. “That’s the direction that sergeant Halton said they would be coming from.” “Damn it I wish we had some wheels,” said Cowan. “Yeah that would make too much damn sense!” said Hobbs. Cowan ran to the closest vehicle that was parked on the side of the street. He raised his rifle and struck the window. It took two attempts before the window gave way sending glass all over the passenger seat. He reached in and unlocked the doors. “Get the fuck in!” Cowan ran to the other side and opened the driver’s door and got in. He first pulled down the visor in hopes the keys were there. “Are you fucking serious! That shit is only in the movies!” said Hobbs. Cowan pulled out his Gerber and flipped it open. He pulled out the knife and stuck it into the ignition. He tried to turn the Gerber in order to start the car. The Gerber started to bend but the ignition switch gave way eventually. “How the hell did you learn that?” said Pike. “Childhood” responded Cowan. “It will work on most cars that are older than the 90’s.” Cowan pressed on the gas and sped off towards the main gate. Pike was giving him directions of how to get there. Cowan weaved in and out of traffic honking his horn as he went. “Damn don’t these people understand we are in a hurry? They need to get their asses out of the way!” After about what seemed like an eternity they made it to the main gate. Hobbs wondered where the big voice was. Each military and forward operating base had a loud speaker that was used in cases of emergencies and to indicate the start and end of each day he figured with the situation they were in this would be no different.

  Cowan came to an abrupt halt slamming his foot on the break. All of them got out of the car. Halton came running up to them. “I need you four over there as he pointed to the west. They are starting to trickle in but we think this is the
massive swarm we were expecting. As usual we can’t get the supplies we need. Rogers you are the ammo runner for the rest.” said Halton. Pike was the one that was really going to need ammo the most as he would expend his rounds quicker than the others especially since he had the SAW. The men posted up against jersey barriers that were spread out along the fence. Hobbs’ feeling at the pit of his stomach just got worse. The infected horde were shambling their way towards them kicking up a dust cloud as they went. “Hold your fire until they get closer. We don’t need to be wasting our rounds and fire in pairs.” said Hobbs. Once the zombies were within a seventy five meter range they opened fire. Hobbs could hear the screaming fifty cal. and the 240B sending down rounds in rapid succession that came from above them in the guard tower. Hobbs kneeled down and placed his rifle on the concrete in the middle of the rebar that curved around creating a half moon shape in order to better steady his aim. He had Pike on his left and Cowan on his right. The noon day sun was hot and unrelenting as it beat down upon the men. Sweat beads were forming on Hobbs’ face. The sweat caused his shirt to stick to his body making him feel uncomfortable but he ignored it the best he could. He had the urge to wipe the sweat from his brow but he did not dare to do so. Each second counted in this type of situation. Losing focus for just one minute could mean certain death.