I must have dozed off sometime during the flight because when I opened my eyes, the pilot announced that we have entered the Washington DC area. The helicopter was flying at a lower altitude now and we were given a good view of the capital. However, what I saw was something horrific. The city that was once known as the center of the most powerful country in the world was in ruins and was in total chaos. There were flames and smokes visible from the sky that somehow gave the city an orange glow. I remembered the orange glow I saw from the sky when I was still fighting in the battlefields in the Middle East. I never thought I would see it here. From this distance it was not hard to notice what was going on. I could hear loud gunfire from the ground accompanied with tones of screams of terror along with the growls and roars of the hordes of the infected. The helicopter passed by a busy street where I saw a lot of burning cars on the streets, a large crowd of infected and mutants, and soldiers on the other side with several Humvees fighting desperately. We then passed by the Library of Congress and its large front lawn where I saw several helicopters being overrun by the infected with only one helicopter managing to leave the ground only to fall again when another of those tentacled mutants pulled it down. A small number of soldiers on the Library's footsteps were making their desperate last stand with no way out. I could only look away from the carnage below. I noticed Agent Smith dotting on his tablet computer and dared to ask a question. "Hey," I said. "Where exactly are we heading again?"
"Washington Naval Yard," he replied. "It's now known as the Washington DC Safe Zone. We're heading straight to an aircraft carrier where I have just received word from that the president is expecting you, me, and Dr. Andrews over there, in a meeting at the situation room."
"Why does the president want you?" Dr. Andrews said to me.
"I'm not sure," I said. "But I know the guy personally. Might want to say hi or something."
"Well I guess we're gonna find out real soon." Agent Smith said.
The helicopter passed through the large fences of the new Washington DC Safe Zone and from the windows, I saw a large crowd of people in the courtyard with soldiers gearing up. Trucks and Humvees were parked, some were heading towards the city with full loads of soldiers. Several tanks were there as well. We passed by the buildings when the helicopter slowly made its descent to land at the huge aircraft carrier by the docks.
The helicopter doors opened and we all went outside as fast as we could. It was then did a guy in his white service uniform along with four other guards approached us. "Gentlemen," he said. "I'm Admiral James Howard, captain of this ship. Welcome to the USS Olympus. The president is waiting for you at the situation room. He says to get you guys settled in before coming to meet him."
Captain Barnes and his men were already gone by the time I turned around to signal my team to follow. We were escorted to a large medical room where we underwent the same medical checkup once again only this time without the blood test and the series of questions. After passing the checkup again, we were told to drop our gear and weapons at a preparation room where we stripped down to our bear combat uniforms. We were then escorted to a large room below deck where a meeting table was in the middle and several monitors were at the walls. The moment I entered the room, I noticed a man with black hair with slight grey tones wearing a tan sweater and grey combat pants sitting at the other side of the room. The face was very familiar. The man stood up and approached me. "Well," he said extending his hand. "I never thought I see you like this."
"How are you Sears?" I replied, shaking his hand.
"Mr. President," one of President Gerard Sears' aides said. "We just received word on the VIP evacuation progress."
"Go on." Sears said.
"The Speaker of the House's helicopter crashed on the way from Florida. We've lost contact with him and his security team and we now presume him to have been killed. The CDC has activated his self destruct protocol and is now just a rubble. We've received unconfirmed reports that only two of the doctors we need from them have left the area safely and are now on the way. The Colorado Safe Zone has gone dark, we've lost all contact with them but the last news we've got from them was that the Joints Chief of Staff was there and was infected and had to be killed. Vice President Cowley has successfully been extracted from Texas and is already en route. Secretary of Defense is still at the Pentagon, sir, but they've locked it down already. And we still have no further update on what's happening with the CIA."
"What about my daughter?" Sears asked.
I noticed the aide's face turn more serious with a tone of fear. Sears noticed it as well and spoke again. "Where's Sophie?"
"Sir," the aide eventually managed to say. "I'm afraid that the extraction team we've sent to Brightmore University were wiped out upon landing. I'm sorry sir."
I noticed Sears' face turn furious and sad upon hearing the bad news. He took a deep breath and was about to speak when a female aide wearing an army uniform came with us with a remote. "Sir," she said. "We're receiving a transmission from your daughter's safe room. Take a look at it."
She then pressed a button on a remote changing the channel on one of the screens turning it from a tactical map to a video transmission of the president's daughter, Sophie Sears who appeared haggard. "Sophie!" Sears exclaimed at the sight of his daughter.
"Dad," Sophie said. "I'm scared."
"How are you? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine dad. Agent Reynolds and the rest of the security team took me to the safe room."
"You're with the security team?"
"What's left of it. Only Agent Reynolds and two others are here and they're putting another barricade to the door. I'm with others as well. We've rounded up some other people here. Dad, what is going on? What were those things? I'm scared. Many are still out there and they're killing them!"
"Don't worry. I'm getting you out of there. Just stay put and don't come out of that room at all costs. You're going to make it through this. I promise."
"Dad..."
There was a sudden shake at the video and we could see that the transmission was slowly getting distorted. The video feed was lost but the audio was still on going. We suddenly heard a loud roar and the sounds of loud gunfire along with someone screaming. There was a loud thud and someone shouting "What on earth was that?!" before totally losing contact.
Sears slammed his fist at the table and several pieces of paper fell to the ground. For a moment, there was silence in the room. I decided to comfort my old friend but before I could approach him he began speaking again. "I'm going there myself," he said to his military aide. "Get me a V-22 ready."
"Sir," another man in his service uniform who I recognized to be General Burns of the US Army, said. "I'm afraid what you're planning to do is very stupid if I may speak so frankly, sir."
"My daughter is out there," Sears said. "Don't you know how this makes me feel?!"
"Mr. President," General Burns said standing up from his seat. "I have sons fighting out there. They're doing their duty to their country. If you do this, then you might get killed and we would lose one of the most important people we have left. Please sir, try to reconsider and think this through."
Sears took a deep breath, then turned to me. It was at that moment did I realize that I was not getting that rest I've been yearning for. For a moment Sears was looking at me with a dead serious look and I knew what it meant. After a while, I simply nodded. "I'll do it," I said. "You just had to give me the order."
"This one doesn't count, okay?"
"You still owe me," I replied. "Twice."
The next thing I knew I was in another preparation room with my team gearing up for the rescue mission while our transportation, an MV-22, was being prepared up the flight deck. I ordered my men to gear up on mines and more ammo as well, thinking that we might need to secure the perimeter once we're there. I also had everyone get night vision goggles just in case we find ourselves in dark spaces. In a few minutes, my team and I were ready for the next mission. Fully armed, fully equipped, I walked towards the MV-22 where I once again encountered Captain Barnes and his four men. standing by the plane along with Agent Smith who was dressed in a black combat outfit carrying an M4A1 with him along with the president's military aide earlier, also dressed in a similar outfit as Smith. "Glad to see it's not just us coming to this mission." Evans said.
"Gentlemen," Agent Smith said after drawing a laptop from his backpack. "I got the mission detail and the map of the area here. I'll brief you once inside. So let's move."
We did so and the plane took off immediately. We were already in the air when Agent Smith began. He set his laptop in the middle for all to see. It was a satellite map of the entire campus we're heading to. "This is Brightmore University," Agent Smith began. "The president's daughter, Sophie Sears, is hiding in a safe room below the student's dormitories opposite of the main building right here," he pointed at a large building south of the large center field. "That's where we're heading. However, due to the large numbers of infected down there, we can't afford to go in all with guns blazing. This is why we're going to split up once we set foot on the ground. Captain Barnes, Captain Raynor, and Lieutenant Jane Hudson, will move into the south building with me to rescue the president's daughter." He then turned to Summers. "Lieutenant Dan Summers, am I correct?"
"Thats me," Summers replied.
"You will lead the rest of the team and cause as much distraction as you can to get the infected away from the south building. You'll move with the rest and head towards the football field at the north where our plane will land later on for extraction."
"Wait a minute," I said after noticing something wrong at the satellite feed. "Are you sure this is a good idea, landing at the center field? There's a lot of infected there based on this feed we have."
"I'm afraid it's either that," Agent Smith replied. "Or our distraction team will have to run farther than they have to. South of the target building is the main entrance to the campus and that's where the initial rescue team got slaughtered, based on the intel they gave me."
"So you're saying once we get on the ground we'll be ganged up by those ghouls down there?" Captain Barnes asked. "There's too many of them!"
"That's where this plane comes in more handy than it has to," Agent Smith proudly began explaining. "This MV-22 is equipped with chain guns and grenade launchers. It's going to soften up that drop zone before we rope down. Yes, we'll be rappelling down there since it's quite impossible to land this thing due to the debris down there. Any further questions?"
"I got one," Haynes said. "Not to impose or anything but as a medic, I'm just curious. Aren't we supposed to be wearing gas masks or anything? I mean this is a virus, right? How'd we know we won't get infected and turn to one of those flesh eating goons once we get on the ground?"
"Right now we're still researching on that and are still waiting for a confirmation. But seeing that we've been encountering the infected all day long and we're still not having any of the symptoms, I think we're going to be alright."
"But how on earth do they continue to multiply like that? I saw a news feed back at the ship earlier and it seems that almost every healthy guy they come into contact with turns to one of them. There was this video of a convoy in Virginia attacked by a horde. One moment the army guy was human. When the video came back he was one of those drooling..."
"Ever watched a zombie film?" Agent Smith interrupted which attracted our attention.
"Yeah of course, why?"
"Well you're in one right now. This virus is exactly like that. So I'm pretty sure all of you understand now. Once those things bite you, you're pretty much dead. Anything else? Good. Now I suggest you guys rest while we still have time. This is going to be a very long night."
I knew it was going to be. And something in my gut tells me that I'm not going to like what's going to happen once we set foot at the ground. When I woke up this morning, I thought things were just normal. I even thought that rescuing "Sierra One" was just some sort of exercise the old general made up to see if we're still fit for these things considering that my team hasn't received a serious mission in more than two months. What happened this day was very shocking. Unexpected. Right now I don't know why I'm not worrying about my family, my mom and dad, and my sister. Maybe it was the fact that my dad was a retired Special Forces operator like myself and was currently on some cruise trip with my mom or the fact that my sister is a serious gun enthusiast who lives in a house with tons of guns and got married to a decorated marine I once had a brawl with in Iraq and almost lost. Anyways, one thing was clear right now. I got to worry about myself, otherwise I might get myself killed out there. I'm just not sure how the rest of my teem feels, though. Summers had a pregnant wife, Evans had a wife and three kids, and Haynes was to be married next month. It's kind of ironic. I'm thirty two, the eldest in my team second to Evans, and I was the guy with the highest rank and yet I'm the only one who's not worrying about the fate of my 'significant other' since I currently don't have one. I suddenly remembered someone from my past and begun thinking about those days, the days before I entered West Point. But I'm pretty sure she's either dead or in a safe location right now. I had no time to worry. There was a mission ahead and I should focus on that. I just hope we all make it out of there in one piece.