Nightmare-Z

by S. A. Lowry

That is when Christopher, whom overheard the conversation across the way, storms into Trevor’s room and proceeds to yell at Gilroy for going straight to the squad leader instead of him.

  “I know that I told you what was going on tomorrow. Did you bother to take notes?” angrily asks Christopher as he pulls Gilroy out of Trevor’s room. Trevor can hear the two talking back and forth as he proceeds to put his headphones back and unpause his show. Trevor can over hear some commotion going on Christopher’s side of the room where the poker game is taking place. He can also hear Private Gilroy knocking out push ups in front of the rest of the squad in Christopher’s living area while he sounds of the repetitions in cadence.

  Some time goes by. Further into Trevor’s show, he hears the sounds of apparent machine gun fire and various other small arms weapons going off within close vicinity of the tent. As a result, he is startled by it and rises from his bunk immediately pulling off his headphones without pausing his show.

  He sits there and waits a few minutes until more gunfire follows. This time it is much closer than before. After the firing stopped shortly after, he lays back down in his bunk and places his headphones on his head once again. Trevor decides to rewind back to the part he missed which was only a few minutes behind where the show was currently at.

  Once he gets to the end of the part he missed, he now hears loud footsteps running by the entry way to his tent. His living area is located right next to the main door of the tent which leads out to the main walk way of the camp. The sound of running soldiers or individuals grow louder as more begin to pass by him on the other side of his paper thin wall. He decides to ignore the annoying commotion and stick to his show. He is sick of being interrupted. Also the sounds of Gilroy being punished while doing push ups also ring through his ears.

  Yet again, a few more minutes go by when he hears the main doorway to the tent slam wide open. The sound of an individual dragging his feet towards Trevor’s section of the tent caught his attention. Low moaning sounds can also be heard. Trevor can overhear his men across the hallway jokingly ask the man from afar while they continue to play their game and dicipline Gilroy if he was ‘drunk’ without even seeing who it was. The man in the hallway did not respond while he began to open up Trevor’s divider into his room.

  More gunfire erupts on the outside once this happens. Now, ever closer than before. At this point it sounded like it was pretty much right outside the door. Everybody in the card game gets up from their chair with a quickness, including Gilroy as Trevor opens up his divider.

  “What the hell do you want man!” Trevor yells as he aggressively opens up the hooch with his arm and looks up at the man standing over him. What he sees frieghtens him as he scrambles to take the headphones off and stand up from his bunk while dropping his laptop in the process. The man standing over him appears to have blood stains all over his jacket and around his mouth. He doesn’t possess any pupils and appears to have a mangled face as if someone bit chunks off of his cheeks. He is slouched over and begins moaning historically as his mouth opens as he stumbles towards Trevor.

  “Whats wrong with you man? Get back! I said get the hell back or else!” yells Trevor as he reaches over to the top bunk for his assault rifle.

  “Last chance guy, one more step and i’m taking you down!” Trevor threatens as he grabs his muzzle and lifts the rifle up with two hands as if it were a baseball bat.

  The intruder ignores his threats as he approaches closer. Trevor swings the rifle across his face. Butt-stock smashing right into the left side of the man’s temple. The intruder instantly falls back and moans in pain. Appearing unaltered and not even a bit dazed, he begins standing up. Trevor strikes the man with another blow while he is on the ground to the head, this time stopping him for good. That is when the other members of Trevor’s squad approach him to see what was going on.

  “What the hell is going on in here!” yells Hunter. Trevor shakes his head in disbelief as all of them stare at the mangled man on the ground beginning to twitch. That is when they hear gunfire going off inside the tent and rounds weezing down the center main hallway. Screams of other soldiers and profanities start to break out in different tent areas which are connected to the main hallway. Trevor slings his rifle and loads a thirty round magazine he uses for force protection ammo on the base where ever he goes. The other members of the squad, whom all had their rifles racked up against the wall on Christopher’s side of the tent, quickly huddle over to their weapons and load magazines.

  Trevor marches out into the hallway at the high ready to make sense of the situation as more gunfire erupts inside and outside the tent. His squad follows behind them as they charge their rifles and go red-direct(round chambered). Ringo pops open the feed tray to his machine gun and snaps on a nutsack followed by feeding the start of the belt into the tray and closing the lid.

  Trevor takes aim down the hallway with his rifle. What he sees through his EO tech sight, in the center of his circular crosshairs, are a mob of local civilians in Iraqi attire(i.e man dresses, hijabs and turbans) feeding on a soldier in the middle of the hallway.

  Must be a group of ten or twelve he concludes as they surround the lifeless soldier and dig deeper into the victim’s stomach to rip out his guts and gastroul tract. He notices them eating the soldier’s body parts while others bite into his arms and tear flash off his lifeless face.

  “WHAT THE HELL! Get the hell out of here! I said get!” yells Trevor as he takes aim down his sight. Most members of the mob engaged in their meal ignore Trevor while the others who are trying to reach over the crowd for flesh to feed on turn their heads and place their attention on Trevor.

  Once they notice him, they begin charging him in a dead sprint. Trevor switches his selector switch from safe to semi and begins opening fire on them from down the hallway. He aims center mass on the first two and puts two rounds in them each as they drop face first to the floor. He quickly acquires the other three through his sight and places two more rounds center mass in each attacker. Once the last one drops, the first two he engaged prior to that slowly begin getting up as they moan and emit a terrifying scream.

  Once they are fully erect, they continue to charge in Trevor’s direction only not as fast as before. Now in shock, Trevor places three rounds in each center mass once again, expecting them to be finished off for good. The attackers drop once more. That is when he hears a single shot come from behind him. He quickly looks back and sees Christopher standing over the man whom earlier attacked Trevor with his barrel pointed at the man’s head.

  “He wouldn’t stay down Sergeant. He’s out for good now!” shockingly explains Christopher as he stares over the lifeless man. Other members of Trevor’s squad, now in the hallway watching down it and pulling security on the door begin to open fire on the crowd which is still feeding on the dead soldier.

  “We need to get out of here now!” Ringo yells as he opens fire with his M249 SAW down the hallway in the direction of the feeding mob.

  Ear drum busting bursts of machine gun fire litter the hallway from Ringo’s one hundred round nutsack he loaded drowns out the sounds of other semi-automatic rifles going off in succession of eachother.

  Most of the soldiers running around in the tent don’t even have their ACU tops on or their patrol caps. Trevor and his squad frantically goes back into their tent to grab up some last minute stuff such as their ACU tops and patrol caps. Trevor weaves around the executed man laid out in the center of his living area as he exits for the hallway and gathers up the rest of his squad members.

  “Everybody turn on your damn PEQ-15 lasers and head for the trucks!” Trevor yells as he wittnesses with wide eyes the assailants he just laid out earlier rise up again only to pursue the group.

  Dozens more behind him follow as other soldiers down the hallway attempt to make a run for it, only to end up being caught in a crowd of cannibals and wrestled to the floor to be bit into like a piece of meat. Trevor’s men, who are closest to the doorway make no hesita
tion and follow Trevor in a dead sprint out the doorway.

  Once Trevor hits the walkway, he sees soldiers running past him while some are turning around to shoot in the opposite direction they came from. Trevor and his men follows these passing soldiers as they notice a mob of attackers racing towards them on foot on the other side moaning and screaming for bloody murder.

  Hunter, the last man in the group, places his vis-aim laser from his PEQ-15 mounted on the top of his rifle barrel into the direction of the crowd and opens fire. Reagal and Price yell back for him to hurry up and keep moving. Hunter obliges as his red laser stays on and now lights up the ground as he runs with his rifle. As the soldiers run for their lives down the narrow walk ways to the truck line, Trevor begins panically recalling the situation to Christopher.

  “I shot those bastards like six times in the torso and they kept getting up. What the hell are they?” a winded Trevor exclaims as he takes aim down passing corriders to cover him and his men’s movement safely.

  Christopher responds. “I shot that one guy in the head once and he stayed down. I say we start aiming for the head, what do you think?” Christopher adds while following behind Trevor. “Can’t freaking hurt. What else do we got to lose. HEY EVERYBODY! AIM FOR THE HEAD!” Trevor yells back to the group as he continues running.

  All the members of the squad frantically respond with the word “roger”. Trevor picks up the pace down the narrow corridors surrounded by hesco barriers. Once he reaches the end, from there is nothing but open gravel pits and military vehicles staged in their miniature platoon motorpools. Trevor is the first one to hit the open area when he makes a shocking discovery and comes to a screetching halt while slightly almost falling over as he slides onto the gravel rocks. Christopher catches his fall and lifts him back up.

  Trevor’s eyes are wider than ever now, along with the approaching members of his squad as they look off into the distance. What they see, are fellow soldiers in ACU’s among the mobs of assailants chasing down soldiers and eating them alive. A few notice Trevor and the group with a fast twitch of their necks placing immediate attention on them as they run by. A few of them decide to head straight for the group while frantically screaming and moaning while others decide to continue to pursue the other potential victims whom continue to sprint to safety off into the distance.

  Trevor and the group brings their rifles up and carefully places their lasers on the targets and begin unloading their magazines upon fellow soldiers whom now joined the frantic attackers. Some soldiers of the group still continue to connect with body shots resulting in some of the attackers dropping to the ground. Others, however, remained upright and kept pursuing the group until they were shot in the head by Trevor and Christopher.

  Trevor figures now at this point, some body shots will drop these attackers, however it mainly depends on the individual’s body size and type. The larger assailants would remain uneffected by body shots and keep pursuing as the thinner and smaller ones would drop to the floor upon being hit. In the end however, all of them who fell would only get back up again. Head shots permanantly puts them down for good.

  “I SAID AIM FOR THE DAMN HEAD BOY!” Trevor yells back as he is seen by members of his squad placing well aimed shots with his PEQ-15 laser on the heads of the charging attackers.

  His men begin to catch on and start aiming for the head as well. Once the group clears a path, Trevor takes off while his soldiers follow behind him. Just about all of them shooting as they move. Some attackers got to close to comfort and were put down my Ringo’s M249 SAW with cyclic bursts. As they approach their parked MRAP, RIngo takes up his position behind the back door of the vehicle and provides cover for Hunter as he frantically searches his pockets for his key.

  “You better have that damned key!” yells Trevor as he grabs Gilroy by the shoulders and throws him to the ground to clear his path to fire at a bloodied soldier who tried to tackle Gilroy from behind.

  “I’m working on it! I’m working on it! I know its here give me a minute!” a panic stricken Hunter exclaims as he is on the steps of the back door trying to find his key for the padlock while Reagal and Price stare on nervously and expend a few rounds off into the distance in self defense.

  Hunter finally finds the key as he rips it out of his bottom right leg pocket. His hands are jittery and shaking as he attempts to unlock the door. He is so shaken he almost drops the key all together.

  “Hurry the hell up dude!”, yells Christopher. That is when Hunter gets the padlock open and dives into the back of the vehicle face first. All of the soldiers follow behind in a file quickly shoving eachother in panic. The last guy on the truck, Ringo shuts the door behind him and engages the combat lock from the inside with his foot while his back is to the floor of the truck.

  “Oh hell no!” a fear ridden Hunter exclaims.

  “I didn’t turn on the power switch outside below the battery box!”

  Everyone on the truck in the darkness glares at him in silence. A split second passes, then Ringo calmy chimes in. “You’re good bra. I flicked it on the way to the door,” Ringo smoothly states as he is lieing down on his back still trying to catch his breath.

  Everybody on the truck displays a shy of relief. The soldiers, now secure inside the armored vehicle with all doors securely locked proceed to throw on their vests with their personal kits attached. Hunter and Trevor crawl through the gunner’s platform and proceed to take seats within the cab as the soldiers in the back continue to wrestle to get their gear on. Hunter powers up his gauges and switches while Trevor throws his headset on and powers up his BFT.

  Price turns on the radios and preps his M240 Bravo to be thrown up in the turret. Before he opens the hatch up, he stops and asks Trevor a question.

  “You think it’s a good idea for me to get the gun up sergeant?” nervously asks Price. Trevor nods his head, then goes on to add, “Make sure you take your rifle up there with you in case they jump on the vehicle.”

  Price reluctantly complies. Once everyone is kitted up and dons their headsets, Christopher asks Trevor what their next move is. Trevor tells Hunter to push out to a safe area. Once there, they will monitor the company net to receive updates on the situation and go from there. Some members of the group such as Reagal and Gilroy don’t think that it’s a good idea.

  “We just can’t leave here sergeant. What about everyone else? We will get in trouble if we abandon them!” explains Reagal.

  Gilroy agrees.

  Now upon catching his breath, Trevor responds. “We aren’t abandoning nobody. Outside isn’t safe right now. The streets ain’t fit to be on. We need to secure ourselves first before we can help ANYBODY!” Trevor frustratingly states.

  Once putting it that way, everyone agrees, especially Ringo.

  “I was with you from the get go sergeant,” Ringo adds.

  “Yeah, we barely made it the entire two hundred meters out the tent to our vehicle. What the hell are those things, sergeant?” curiously asks Christopher in a broken voice. “I don’t know man. I know they only die when you blow their brains out. I know they eat you. Other than that, i’m not sure what the hell is going on,” Trevor explains as he watches the chaos unfold through the thick plexi glass of the cab window.

  He then goes on to add, “All I know now is, it is now survival of the fittest.”

  Everyone remains silent. A few of the assailants outside, picking up on the sounds of a starting vehicle, begin to draw their attention over to the engine. Many members of the mob begin making their way over to Trevor’s vehicle as Hunter attempts to take off but can not. The truck doesn’t move as he depresses the gas pedal.

  “You left the damn chock block down didn’t you? Floor it boy!” yells Trevor in disgust.

  Hunter slams the gas and turns left and right with his wheel until he is able to drive over his chock blocks. As the MRAP pulls out of it’s parking spot, Hunter runs over a few of the charging assailants as the chock blocks attached to chains drag behind the tru
ck. The group pushes out the gates of their compound and heads for ECP Ritz as chaos unfolds in the streets before their very eyes.

  As they move along, they pass burning F-150’s on the side of the road with soldiers jumping out of them on fire frantically rolling around and sprinting as assailants hop on top of them to attack. Some joggers are seen off into the distance sprinting for their very lives as mobs of people tail them, then suddenly being hit by oncoming cars trying to escape the carnage. While this is all happening in front of Trevor, he begins calling the company headquarters and his platoon sergeant over both frequencies. No response.

  “Continue pushing out the gate. We need to find some open desert and wait it out there until we get word to come back,” Trevor orders Hunter as he reaches for a Miami cigerette to light up and smoke. Everyone in the back asks for one, including Hunter.

  “Damn boys I only got ten left. Here you go,” Trevor passes them out reluctantly and continues to call his platoon sergeant in order to get a response.

  The rest of the soldiers in the back check their dip cans. Most of them only got half a can left. Gilroy, remains in his sit with his head down looking terrified. Ringo pats him on the back and tells him to calm down as they push outside the gate and head for open desert. Gilroy remains silent with an apparent look of shock on his face as he breathes heavily.

  “They were just eating those people like they were food,” Gilroy states with fear and uncertaintity in his voice.

  “Yeah man. I’ve never seen some stuff like that before. They weren’t human. They didn’t even have eyes,” Reagal responds to Gilroy’s comment. Price in the turret continues to scan the road up ahead. “Everything looks clear from up here. No people. Looks like everyone is on our base,” informs Price as he spins his turret to the six o’clock position and looks back at FOB Basrah and sees flashing lights of explosions and tracers fill up the horizen.

  “They definately’s weren’t insurgents. There were even some of our own guys out there attacking us with those mobs,” adds Hunter as he drives with one arm and takes puffs from his cigerette with his other.