The Supply Run

It’s midnight in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, and the city is in ruin as the dead walk the streets. Human life is nearly extinct with only a few hundred thousand people known to be uninfected around the world. The virus had mutated from an experimental biochemical weapon produced by an unknown weapons company to end any war. However, after a successful weapons test had reduced a test site to ashes, leaving biochemical particles in the air, surrounding areas had massive civilian casualties; 24 hours later the zombies started to rise. The virus which had now been dubbed the Untote strain was quickly quarantined and those infected but yet to turn where placed under lock-down. It seemed the virus had a desire to live and it started to mutate forming the first of the Berserkers. A creature whose muscle density and size was five times that of any man and it broke out of the quarantine zone allowing a tide of infected and zombies alike to spread out into the world. The virus’ desire to live grew as another mutation came into the light, later dubbed the Carrier, a zombie that’s entire body was covered in the virus as giant blisters covered its body. Once this new form had escaped into the world all hope of containing the virus was destroyed. Humanity’s weapons were ineffective and growing sparse so they scrapped them for parts in order to produce older models as they are easier to manufacture and maintain. The military had started protecting the last of the civilians in small settlements around the world. Canada has a few of the larger settlements but some of the food stores were running low so the military had started sending out small teams to gather materials from the streets. These teams had to be careful because the zombies were attracted to loud noises and always traveled in at least groups of ten. Unless a horde was on the move then you could expect to see anywhere from fifty up to two hundred of the bastards. About a year into the infection Humanity managed to find a temporary cure for the virus and it protected them from airborne, water, and food. However, a direct bite from a zombie or direct contact with a carrier still managed to infect new people and those who weren’t infected were afraid to leave their houses leaving it to the military to protect them. Delta is one of the retrieval teams that the military ordered to gather food and other supplies. Lead by Lieutenant Damian Chatterson a young man who had a tendency to bring hope back to the people of the settlement he helped guard. Damian had led his squad into the heart of Ottawa to raid another store house for any supplies they could gather.

 “Sir, we don’t have much time before they notice we’re here.” Kristopher said as he grabbed a hunk of metal and placed it into a shopping cart. Kristopher was the squad sniper with a laid back personality. He has red hair and a full red beard standing at five foot nine. His skills as a sniper were unrivaled by anyone else in the settlement.

“I know, I know, we need to get these materials quickly.” Fred said as he turned towards David and said. “Any idea where the seeds are?” Fred was the squad’s small arms specialist. Standing at five foot three he was the shortest in the squad. He has brown curly hair and a cleanly shaved face. He always acted as if he was the boss when Damian wasn’t around but none of the other squad mates listened to him.

“Nah not a clue, ask the LT.” David replied. David was the quite one of the group. Standing at five foot eight with brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He was smart and good with his hands. It was because of him that their bikes still ran, he was a master mechanic with a golden touch.

Damian ran into the store with his rifle in hand. “We’ve got a horde moving this way. Dylan says he saw at least 80 of them, but they were walking this way. Time to get the shit we came for and get back to base!” Damian caught a glimpse of himself in some broken glass, he stood at five foot nine, with short cut dirty blonde hair and had a long scar on his jaw where a lurker mutation had jumped him a few years back in an alley one dark night. His skin use to be pale before the infection but after years of working outside his skin had tanned. His squad mates voice brought him back to the present.

“But sir, we don’t have everything we need. There’s still some stuff on here that we can find!” shouted Fred.

Damian turned towards his comrade and was tempted to shoot him; they had no time to be arguing with each other. Instead he grabbed Fred and dragged him over to their motorcycles.

“We’ll have to come back; we just simply have no time!” Damian responded.

“Damian, they will hear us ride away, you know what that means right?” Dylan said as he came up from behind them. Dylan was the tallest of everyone in the squad standing over 6 feet tall. With brown hair and a full beard. He was the squad lookout and had a nack for seeing things that others hardly did. He worked well with Kristopher as his spotter and he had worked with Damian for years even before the infection. He had entered the shop with his assault rifle at his side and looked at all the junk they were carrying and simply nodded his head.

“Yea it means we’ll have a lot of trouble on our hands.” Damian mumbled grabbing a bag full of cans of beans.

“I just pray there aren’t any mutations out there tonight.”

Everyone nodded their heads, mutations were the worst the outbreak had thrown at them, they were faster and stronger than zombies and far more intelligent. Damian had encountered several different types of mutations. The Berserker was one of the more commonly seen of the mutations. All muscle hardly any brains, the Berserkers muscle density and size was five times that of any man. Damian had seen a Berserker run through multiple walls like they were made of paper as it charged after it’s prey. They were hard to take down though as their body absorbed most impacts and bullets hardly slowed it down. Well it’s body can absorb a huge amount of damage it’s legs were the weakest parts of it’s body. Take those out and the Berserker is wide open for a head shot to completely take it out. The carrier mutation’s are usually the slowest of the bunch and probably one of the ugliest with the blisters all over it’s body. They stood at around 5’ and usually moaned the loudest as they moved, killing them is easy as long as you aren’t close to them when they die cause when one blister pops they all pop sending the virus in all directions. One that Damian had a more personal experience with was the Lurker, this form was known to attack lone targets in dark places and usually only ever came out at night and well they’ve been said to attack lone targets there have been reports of large groups of Lurkers attacking groups of people. The Lurker was incredibly silent and have the ability to climb on any surface. Lastly is the Knight, little is known about this mutation since very few people who have engages the knight have lived to tell about it. It’s been reported from the survivors that the knight is stronger then the Berserker and more intelligent then most humans. It’s been said that the knight has burning red eyes and a dark armour like substance surrounding it’s body that’s nearly impenetrable. There were other Mutations out in the world, but they either have to little information about them, or they have only been heard and not seen.

“Ok boys let’s ride!” Damian called out as David finished loading what materials they had found into the sidecar of his bike.

The bikes sounded and charged off into the vehicle packed streets where thousands of broken hover cars from the year 2030 had once filled, but now in the year 2043 they had resorted to old combustion engine machines; even the military was using old Abram and Bradley tanks. They still had some of their vehicles from 2030 in working condition but working parts for them were hard to find. The military confiscated all vehicles and weapons from civilians to help fight against the zombie outbreak, and any technology that was found from the time before the outbreak was instantly taken by the army and used by them for their own purposes. The civilians didn’t like it too much but what could they do? Without the army they’d have all died out many years ago. All around them buildings were burnt out with windows broken. Dried blood was splattered all over the streets as some people who refused to take shelter with the military fought against the zombies on their own. Many didn’t last longer then a few days, a week at most. Damian had met a few people who’ve survived these past 13 years without help, they were sneaky and didn’t trust others easily. Over the roar of the engines Damian could hear some of the zombies heading their way, but not at a slow mangled pace they were running. Some of the zombies were horribly disfigured and were missing body parts, these were the slowest of the bunch and were usually at the back of the horde when they became alert. Damian and his squad didn’t have time to shoot at the horde as they drove through the streets as ammo was limited to what they could carry. They were only packing a few pistols, a sniper rifle and assault rifles which isn’t enough to combat a horde of zombies. They drove through the city as fast as they could, narrowly avoiding all the cars that blocked their ways and driving through parts that were barely wide enough for their bikes to pass through single file, Over the roar of the engines Dylan was the only one who heard the danger quickly bearing down on them

“Mutation!” Dylan yelled over the engines as he slid his bike a halt narrowly avoiding a large transport truck and took out his rifle, a C8. “I’ve got two clips!”

“We can’t risk bringing it back to the settlement we need to kill it now!” David yelled as he got off his bike and drew his pistols.

“Not like we could have out run it anyways…” Damian mumbled as he took out his ACR assault rifle. “I’ve got 2 clips as well Dyl. Make ‘em count.”

Fred sat on his bike but pulled his Micro SMG from his shoulder holster and aimed at the Mutation. He knew that he had to fire very short bursts otherwise he’d waste more ammo then he could spare.

“The horde is gaining sir!” Kristopher called out from behind them.

The mutation charged at the small group, in the night light it was difficult to make out its features but it stood at 6 feet tall and was moving fast. Dylan opened fire with his rifle and shot short controlled bursts at the creature’s legs. After fighting these things for years you knew that aiming at the head was the worst thing to do. Slow down the creature, immobilize it, and then kill it with a head shot. Damian joined in by firing off a few rounds at its legs and watched as it started to stumble. It smashed through Dylan’s bike and continued on towards David’s. Everyone turned to fire at it but watched in horror as it grabbed David and bit into his neck, shaking viciously before throwing him aside. Blood dripped from its mouth as flesh hung in its teeth. Damian could see the front of the horde coming closer as the runners were crawling over the cars and in between them, at the rate they were going they’d be on them in a matter of minutes and things would go from bad to worse. The mutation looked at them before howling in rage as it started its charge again. Damian stood his ground and waited until the mutation was close enough that it couldn’t move out of the way, he jumped away from his bike and shot at the fuel tank blowing the bike and the mutation into the air. The Mutation fell to the ground with a missing leg. In the light of the explosion Damian noticed it was a Berserker and watched as it flailed around on the ground trying to move towards his squad. With the horde baring down on them Damian knew he didn’t have time to kill the Mutation.

“We need to get out of here now!” Damian yelled as he ran towards David’s old bike and told Dylan to hop on. Before he left he turned towards David’s mangled body and he could hear the man sobbing in pain as he felt the infection taking over. He’d have hours; a day at most if the zombies didn’t get to him. Damian took out his pistol and aimed at David’s head. He didn’t hesitate on pulling the trigger after a few years of living like this; there wasn’t any room for remorse when it came to the infected.

“Dyl, hold on to your ass we’re getting the hell out of here!” Damian called back as he kicked the bike off. The remaining troops started their bikes and rode off towards the settlement which was 10 kilometers out of the city in the middle of the country. It was far enough out of the way that the zombies didn’t go near it often, but close enough for the humans to raid the city. Earth was not their home anymore; Earth was now their hell.