August 25th, 13:44
Thunk, scrrr, thunk.
The zombies are relentless, knocking scratching and banging against the doors the inside of the room electrified with tension
Snake taps her mask twice and speaks "Eagle, Vulture do you copy? Over"
"We copy, target secured? Over" Vultures voice sounds through the squads masks
"Target secured, our escape is blocked, any movement on your side?Over"
"All clear, Over"
"Good, Eagle contact headquarters ask for backup, this mission is more suited to heavy firepower" Snake says as she briefly explains the situation.
"Copy, Ill send a status report to HQ, standby, over"
-----[29 minutes later]-----
14:13
Click-click, click-click, click...
The board room is dead silent bar the silent clicking of a pen, and the silent tapping of a foot on the carpet. No noise can be heard outside the room.
Bzt "Snake do you copy?Over"
"Copy, what are our orders?Over"
"We can't reach HQ, they must've set up transmission blocking. Over"
"Copy, we proceed with the mission then."
Snake quietly curses, prompting a visibly sweating Lion to stand up, "Captain, permission to scout for exit?"
he asks in a quiet voice, expertly covering his increasing pain although his anxiety is laid bare for all to see.
"Lion sit down, its only been about 30 minutes we'd best play it safe and not rush"
"But Captain, its not safe here at all, and we all heard Vulture" he says glancing at Jacob careful not to reveal that they've lost contact
Jacob, now sporting a calm but commanding presence, the signature trained response of a long standing politician, his inner thoughts no better than Lions but equally hidden, speaks
"The man is right, Snake?, every minute we spend idle could create an extra variable. Its entirely quiet outside, I think its time to see if we can clear a way out"
Lion sneers beneath his mask thinking to himself, if so then why had Jacob just sat there with his two little followers waiting for a rescue while everyone else tried to escape on their own? But he outwardly nods knowing that if they do not make it to base promptly he will likely share the same fate as Bear.
Snake ponders for a few seconds, the room regaining an tense silence.
Then she speaks,
"You have a point, lets vote on it all in favour of trying to move out now raise your hands, if not we move at 14:30"
Lion raises his left hand, for a predominantly right handed man this seemingly small detail goes unnoticed by all but Leech,
although it remains unspoken Leech unexpectedly raises his hand in favour of moving upon noticing this.
Jacob too raises his hand in favour and although reluctant the other two executives have survived by following his every move so far so they too raise their hands slowly, leaving only Snake Mouse and Eel.
Snake values her teams votes over the untrained executives, and as she is about to speak as such Eel too raises his hand as he says, "Ill go with Lion to scout ahead, in the worst case we just run back here and wait a while longer"
Snake sighs, and turns to glance at Mouse her eyes flickering beneath her mask, "Mouse help them remove the furniture, you and Eel scout the way, Lion you stay in the hallway and keep a lookout"
"Got it".
The three of them quickly remove the chairs stacked in front of the door, Lion signals for them to get ready on 3, as they take aim he opens a small gap in the door yet the hallway is now completely quiet. And on 3, he swings the door open quickly taking care to stay quiet.
The hallway is a gruesome visage, despite half expecting it to be completely empty, it is not so. The floors are littered with unmoving bodies, likely the zombies they shot previously. Lion is the first to notice, there is no sign of Bear his body entirely gone. Signaling for Eel and Mouse to follow he moves out quietly, they check the bodies, hoping theyre all really dead, and Lion half hoping to see Bear somewhere under the pile turns them over, yet no Bear in sight.
Breathing a sigh of half relief and half pain Lion moves back towards the door, as Eel and Mouse move out.
Back inside the board room, Lion leaves the door open as he walks in and whispers "All clear, but Bear is missing."
Leech having remembering Lions previous peculiarity, has his thoughts jumbling up in chaos. Before he can say anything, Snake moves "Help me move the chairs again, we should have them ready to block the door in case we need to be fast"
Lion and Leech nod and move to help her, and as they finish Lion moves to stand near the door. Snake moves over to Jacob and they start discussing in hushed voices.
Leech similarly stands next to Lion and before Lion can react he grabs his right arm and pulls up the sleeve, Lion hastily retracts his arm, knowing Snake she's likely to take him out of commission if she knew, although she might not outright kill him she would certainly tie his arms up and leave him behind should he become a liability on the way out.
Leech puts up his finger, his back facing Snake and the executives, signaling for Lion to stay quiet as he whispers "Don't worry I won't tell her. How did it happen?"
"Bear bit me when I tried to drag him inside"
Leech tilts his head slightly, deep in thought.
Lion growing slightly anxious whispers again
"Im fine its not deep, it barely broke skin"
Leech sighs "Lion, your hair is drenched with sweat, youre clearly not 'fine', if we don't get you back to base soon you might turn, judging from the carnage around here, and you and Bear it looks like it takes longer the further it is from the heart or head. Presumably it has something to do with the bloodstream so hopefully you can hold out till we make it back"
"Fuck, Leech couldnt you just let me hope I didn't get infected? Im already..." he trails off as Mouse and Eel slip back through the door and all eyes turn to them.
Mouse speaks, "All clear we checked the stairs too, the door to the secondary staircase is busted open, looks like someone tried to make it upstairs but drew them all down instead"
Snake nods "Move out, we capitalize on this opportunity same path as before"
"Copy that" the squad echoes
Lion moves to the front, Eel moves to his left, with Leech taking the center position behind them while Snake and Mouse stand to the right and left of the executives respectively. They quietly move out, carefully clearing the corners. The hallways are even worse off than when they arrived, mostly caked with blood some of it already drying leaving the executives covering their noses trying their best not to retch. Upon reaching the previous reception area however a zombie missing its lower half slowly crawls towards them causing the male executive to promptly vomit, following that the female executive is unable to hold back and empties her lunch right next to his. Jacob only mildy better off, barely managed to contain the contents of his stomach the taste of acid reaching his tongue.
Snake hastily commands "Ignore it, move on" as she grabs the female executive and supports her, Mouse does the same for the male. They reach the stairs with no further event, this time however it is clear that there has been movement as the relatively clean lounge and its pristine white sofas are now smeared with trails of blood much like the hallways.
With the executives having recovered enough, Snake lets her down and orders for them to move up as Mouse too moves into position and keeps a firm grip on his rifle. As they move up, they notice that the door to the 37th floor is no longer closed, with one half of the glass door shattered inward and the other half barely staying on its hinges blocking half of the way up.
They all slow, only the sound of their breaths left as Lion moves up, checks the door and signals that its clear.
He slowly slides past the gap between the broken door and the stairs railing, Eel following closely, and just as Leech is sliding through the gap Lion suddenly slumps down to the floor, his body creating a heavy thud and the crunching of the glass shards beneath his weight.
Just as quickly as he fell, Lion emits a gurgling from his throat, then lunges for Leech's leg.
Before he can bite down, Eel grabs his arm and his leg, swinging his legs overhead crashing him through whats left of the door.
With a guttural growl, Lion's body twists as soon as he hits the ground and he grabs for the male executives right leg biting away a giant bloody chunk before anyone can react.
Having been the furthest down, he had one leg on the platform but his left was still a step down, so as Lion goes in for another bite the executive screams as he loses his footing and falls backward, the force of gravity slamming his head down on the stairs several steps further down with an audible crack.
Mouse finally reacts, aiming his rifle and putting a bullet in Lions head while he tears away at the presumably dead mans leg.
The mana scream evokes a series of roars from beyone the door and before the group has time to adjust, Leech having barely taken a step down to fill the gap created by Lion, Bear comes running through the door, his face now devoid of his mask it is instead covered with a mask of blood, his eyes red and swollen, his bald head streaked with red and his previously brown beard turned black with drying blood.
He roars as he barrels into Leech, sending them both over the railing and down to the net above the lounge on the 30th floor. A crash sounds from above them as zombies pour in from the 38th and 39th floors some running down the stairs and more falling over the railing, creating a pile on top of Leech and the now zombified Bear
Snake yells for them to run back down, and as they reach the 36th floor again, more zombies come pouring in from below. Snake orders
"Back through the 36th, we take the fire escape up, Eel block the door"
"Copy that" he yells as he slams the door shut behind them, their formation now reversed making him the last to enter.
He hurriedly slams a foam blocker through the handles and runs to catch up, as the 5 of them move they once again reposition, Snake in front Jacob and the female executive in the middle, and Mouse and Eel on the left and right in the back respectively.
As they run through the bloodied hallways Snake taps her mask twice, "Vulture do you copy? I need you to block the main stairs and unblock the fire escape fast."
"Copy that, over"
As they run past the reception area again the crawler from before is nowhere to be seen, unbeknownst to them it is lying in wait among the corpses outside the board room. As they pass it jumps up, and takes a hefty bite out of the female executives leg, as swiftly as it does Mouse dispatches it with his rifle although too late.
Snake looks at her, and quickly places a bullet in her head before she can plead for her life.
Shaken to the core, the group moves on. Successfully reaching the fire escape, they hurriedly push open the doors only to find a group of three zombies munching on a corpse.
One of them reaches for Snake while the second and third make a grab for Eel.
Snake swiftly dispatches the first, while Eel throws one down the stairs and grapples with the third. Mouse shoots it before it can bite Eel. As they move to continue up, unknown to them the corpse manages to scratch Jacobs heel, just a small scratch but enough to draw blood.
Jacob winces but keeps moving pretending nothing happened, as the group continues up again on the 37th floor, 4 more zombies barrel through the door, 2 each grabbing Eel and Mouse.
Eel throws one down again, and grapples the second but Mouse is not so lucky, managing to wrest his rifle upward he shoots one through its chin, but as he places his left hand forward to push them off the second zombie lunges, biting at his hand. Tearing through his gloves it bites down on the joint of his pinky, taking a third of his finger with it as he throws it to the ground and shoots.
Snake having remained cold through the whole ordeal finally shows a hint of emotion beneath her mask, her teeth gritting and her eyes flickering with pain as she yells
"Jacob move, Mick, Markus Im truly sorry we have to prioritze the mission. If youre still alive report as soon as you can and I'll send for a rescue"
Having said that she drags Jacob along as they run up without looking back, intermittent muffled gunshots and loud roars sounding from below.
As they move up she taps her mask twice and yells "Coming through, I have the target, Eagle get ready to evacuate"
"Copy that"
Finally reaching the door to the roof they burst through and Snake slams it shut behind them.
-----[14:42]-----
Vulture stands next to the chopper, holding aim at the door as Snake jogs up with Jacob in tow.
As Jacob boards the seat next to Eagle in the front Vulture and Eagle both sport shocked expressions beneath their masks, a moment of silence before Vulture finally asks hesitantly, despite knowing the answer "The rest, all confirmed KIA?"
Snake winces as she and Vulture board the back "No, Bear and Lion confirmed KIA, Leech almost definitely KIA although we didnt see him die. Eel and Mouse got split up from us on the stairs" her voice trembles slightly as she mentions Mouse.
Tapping her mask twice she tries
"Mouse, Eel do you copy?"
No answer
She tries again, and after a few seconds Eel replies
"Its Eel, copy we made it down to the 30th floor but we had to run in, we're blocked in a cafeteria requesting rescue, over"
Her heart in her throat she signals for Eagle to set off, and responds as the chopper slowly lifts
"Copy Ill request rescue as soon as we make it to HQ, how is Mouse over?"
Mouse's voice sounds, clearly angry "Breathing"
After a minute of silence the chopper is flying away and Snake finally responds heavily "Im sorry Mick, wait for res..."
Before she can continue, chaos erupts in the front, as Jacob fastened by a seatbelt twists his upper body scratching and clacking his jaws at Eagle. Again disaster strikes as he lunges his nails strangely elongated digging into Eagles throat, tearing away large chunks in quick succession. Sending the chopper spiraling downward.
Unknown to them, Mouse and Eel are watching them fly away through a large reinforced glass window, and they are not the only ones to see them fall.
Despite technological advances, the chopper still spirals down although barely slowing and finally, it crashes not far from the Skyline Tower, with a loud boom the tail falls off, and as the chopper erupts in fire all is silent for a while
-----[14:53]-----
Until an injured Vulture slowly emerges.
Her body covered in scratches and bruises, her ankle twisted she quickly injects herself with adrenaline, and drags a bloody Snake out of the crash, slowly limping at first then as the adrenaline kicks in she manages to hoist Snake up and start walking, as the autumn sunlight slowly begins to fade on the horizon with guttural growls closing in from all around