Arc 1: Preparing Chapter 1, Part 1: Before the Sphere

*Thunk*

The baseball bat caves in the skull of the nude man and he drops to the floor. The old man in raingear who holds the bat is breathing heavily. His next swing catches another nude and filthy man in the unmentionables, then he takes a step back

“Damn – already exhausted. My old teammates in the Special Forces would laugh at the idea of being exhausted after just one or two hours of combat.”

The soldier next to him steps in and fires a pistol *Boom*

“With all due respect, General. You are seventy-four. You have retired from Special Forces Command years ago, and it has been decades since you last lead a team of them. I don’t think that any of your old teammates – wherever they are now – would laugh on the fact that you’re exhausted after two hours of constant melee in a god-damn zombie apocalypse!”

*Boom*

*Boom*

- piou –

“Point taken, Gunny – but a laboratory floor in a public hospital is a bad place for firearms, the ricochets are more deadly than the infected.”

Another man in a raincoat runs toward them from behind “General, General – we have a problem with the equipment.”

“What is it, something wrong with the helicopters?”

“No, the helicopters are on their way back here to get the second part of the shipment. The problem is that some of the larger equipment doesn’t fit through the staircase to the roof, we need more time to disassemble them partially. And all that noise has attracted a very large horde of infected, they are closing in on the Health Institute.”

“Is the main staircase still blocked from below? When will the horde arrive here?”

“Yes, the blockade holds – but they’re almost here, they probably start climbing through the outer wings of the building within the next ten minutes.”

“Tell everyone to fall back to point Berta three – otherwise they’ll cut us off when they come from the sides. And get that equipment out as fast as possible – we need it to research and cure the virus, and this is the first time we found intact machinery.”

Half an hour later

“We still need “ *boom* “more time – we only have a car mechanic to disassemble the X-Ray machine and the scanner, he needs to go slowly or he’ll damage them” *boom*

“Helicopters one and two are loaded again with the second shipment and on their way to the flotilla. Number three is on standby waiting for the last parts”

A horde of filthy, nude humans is trying to get around a hospital bed anchored in a doorway, while two soldiers attack them. But for every downed infected, another one comes to the front.

Five meters behind that the general and two civilians are discussing the situation.

“Tell three to load with the first group of people, we need to start evacuating. Withdrawing has reduced the number of access doors, we can’t use that many fighters to hold here anyway. But try to get Miller to go a bit faster, we need to get out here before the barriers break and we’re swarmed.”

“Gunny, how are they holding?” the general asks next.

“Not long, we’ll have to withdraw to the top floor soon. Everyone is low or empty on ammo, and we can’t go all-out on melee or risk infection ourselves. Even this raingear doesn’t keep all blood-splatter out.”

Ten Minutes later

*CRASH*

“The barricade on Alpha four has failed – there is nothing else between the staircase and the infected, we’ll be overrun”.

Hearing this the general and the gunny are running to the other end of the corridor. Three soldiers are trying a fighting retreat when one of them stumbles and is dogpiled by the infected.

“Back ten meters everyone, try to form a new line there”

From the end there is a shout – “I need another minute, most of the parts are already up to the roof but these two holders still need to be separated to fit”.

The general looks around – “there is a rolling fire protection shutter up there – get that down and we can hold them”.

As one of the workers tries to get the shutter down, another cry of pain is heard – only the gunny and one other soldier are holding the horde back now. The general joins the fray to help stop the infected.

The shutter starts to come down, but with a clang it’s suddenly arrested.

“Damn it, what idiot has blocked a firebreak with a metal chain?” shouts the worker.

The general looks up. “The doctor needs those machines to find a cure – and the mission always comes first.” Calmly he draws his pistol and targets the chain.

*boom* *boom* *Crash*

With a crash the shutter comes down and blocks the path for the infected as well as for the gunny and the general.

“It was an honor fighting with you, General, you’ve been a legend in the corps” are the last words the general hears from the gunny.

Pain

Darkness

Darkness

Suddenly a flash and everything is white.