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Chapter Two626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkAIhA5yIhq
That Thing is Not Human
Two thin black lines formed a cross in the center of a magnified view. It glided steadily across the quiet hillside of the mining compound. Vines streaked across the white corrugated siding of the mobile trailers. Some of it crawled up the abandoned machines, as though trying to pull the metal frames under the jungle floor. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡooxkdd8NUf
The slightest movement would be thoroughly investigated by the rifle scope and its diligent operator.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeAXBSWzYh7
Terry Sheldon pressed two fingers to his ear piece as the abrupt static hiss caught his attention. The M4 he held, remained firmly braced against his shoulder. His scope held rock steady. His eyes still sharp in a critical focus. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpH5UuUahiv
“Rock, this is Bishop, how copy?” Gates began the radio check.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYeeldRoMeT
“Rock has you loud and clear.” Sheldon responded.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4KaeTk2YBl
“Doc, Bishop, how copy?”626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqFN0AxAF2U
“Doc reads you loud and clear.” Lanier replied626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2urO1TYdd7
“Good copy. Bishop has Muppets complete,” meaning he had all of the survivors with him, “and awaiting Go-call. Rock, you have the air.” 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpsl6naETt9
Then all was quiet, again. A pregnant silence descended over the jungle, heavy with suspense and dire consequences. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkbWzAdWl7w
Sheldon continued to scan the site from a spot he had chosen at the top of a slope that rose gradually up to just below the overhang of sheet metal from the roof of the mining facility. He was laying on the grass, his rifle resting on a root protruding from the ground, and he had extra magazines already set beside him.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8CMT7HCq4i
“Rock to Bishop, we are A-Go.”626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTTYTXNjGAt
A split-second later, he saw the other two soldiers at the bottom of the hill rise and silently bring the civilians to their feet. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaDzfqu1vLI
Sheldon wrung the fore-grip of his weapon. He knew the pressure was there, but he didn’t let himself really feel the gravity of it, wouldn’t let it erode his confidence.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1AiQlj1Ukq
This was it. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuVDqV9uLRK
Gates dragged the group across the open ground, his upper body and rifle moved as one, rotating like a turret. Lanier was the caboose, bringing up the rear of what looked to Sheldon like a disheveled, undisciplined line of kindergarteners on a fieldtrip. Which made him think of his son, who was still too young to start school.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0lbM28PflR
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Suddenly, a man stumbled out from behind a row of green porta-johns capped with white plastic roofs. Sheldon saw the movement, pivoted the rifle, and then quickly resettled his eye to the scope. His mental reflexes took over. One target, three hundred yards, account for elevation drop. Now, control heart rate, level-out breathing. Relax. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ukKNXAtjr
“Rock to Bishop, break” he took another brief look through the lens before keying the mic. He could see the sunlight between the green boxes become shadowed briefly, then peer through again, then shadowed again. The movement behind the johns meant only one thing, there were more.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgPOPlmfSLh
“We have one tango in the open by the johns, possible friends with him. Copy?”626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQWyZwiqhFU
“Copy, subject hostile?” 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPSZTqeeUI3
“Yea,” Sheldon looked into the scope again to regard his target, “that thing is not human.”626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBO9Sq5aURj
The infected man was tall, though he stooped over. The mess on his face made Sheldon think of his two year old son after having face planted into his birthday cake. Except this wasn’t frosting and bits of cake, this man had burrowed his face into another person’s flesh. His jaw was severely dislocated. Large lacerations crisscrossed its bare chest, only threads of a shirt were left swaying as he moved. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7PEZA33ofb
The timing was devastatingly perfect. Just as the rest of the infected rounded the same porta-john as the first, one of those civilians fucks tripped and discharged a single shot that echoed through the hills. After the crack of the pistol, Sheldon’s first thought, oddly enough, was: where were the birds? No disturbed flocks of birds erupting from the green canopy of the jungle? Had the birds fled from the disease?626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLPvYKdj0Qc
As if they were soldiers called to attention by a ranking officer, each of the infected whipped their bodies around and faced in the direction of the noise. Even in the daylight, their eyes were shadowed. Looking like dark, hollow craters.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqLmCl9j5Br
None of them moved, they just stared like startled deer.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVqD8hkIs3o
“Come on, come on, you son of a bitch, don’t do it,” Sheldon whispered to the infected man, who was standing on the wrong end of steady crosshairs, “nothing to see here, now move along.” he muttered, almost politely.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfOSnF1TmFl
In a sudden, synchronized move, the monstrous crowd lurched forward into a dead sprint, directly for the survivors.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQA6y1wNGsd
“You bastard fuck.” the words spilt from Terry’s mouth. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTwdbd8w7gE
His first target, now quickly closing the distance between he and the survivors, began to let out a shriek that sliced through the air. But he was brutally interrupted as the first bullet buried into the rotting flesh of his shoulder. The next one punched through his skull, blasting open the back of his head, looking as though the wind had just whipped a toupees from the man’s head as the bullet exited. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIHxjw2XEj9
“Tom, you’ve got about a dozen of them headed your way,” Sheldon reported.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzc3tCUSS01
“Copy that, Rock.” Gates kept such an even tone that it sounded almost oblivious to the situation.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡARgASXyhSf
Everyone had ducked out of sight when Sheldon had spotted the first infected. Gates and Joey had been leading the group when they jumped for cover, ending up behind a mound of gravel. A few yards to their right, Mark and Paul were behind the bed of a pickup truck that had been detached and converted into a trailer. Patrick and Lanier had to backtrack a good fifteen yards to find cover behind large wooden spools of cable. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU2zrJugxXu
Rifle shots crackled overhead as Sheldon continued to fire on the approaching infected. Patrick looked immediately to Mark and Paul, realizing they were the most vulnerable. Joey was with Gates, he was with Lanier, and armed. Mark had a pistol, but he had already demonstrated his inability to handle it effectively. Paul’s head bounced frantically back and forth between Gates and Patrick as he too, realized the position he was in.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo6MIXDvuFu
Gates still sounded so god damn calm, Sheldon thought, while the barrel of his rifle began to overheat from its relentless discharge of rounds. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM2zXuzQcry
“Bishop to Doc, you copy to hold position, hunker down, and do not fire on hostiles?” Gates spoke into his mic, regardless of the fact that he was making eye contact with Lanier across the open ground. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgVsWA37aSJ
“Good copy.” 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA74jyFDya7
After hearing the confidence in Lanier’s call over the radio, Patrick’s naivety grabbed hold. He knew these guys had tricks up their sleeves in the case that shit got real. Some militaristic maneuvers that would make this a walk in the park.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhpKlxGhenX
“What’s the plan?” Patrick questioned eagerly.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNU9ZFesHQI
“We stay put.” Lanier responded quietly as he used hand signals to direct Mark and Paul to stay low and quiet. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJfdt0kuoVf
“Stay put? What the fuck?” Patrick asked in an almost hostile tone.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnANW4Ikhbl
“Shh-sh-sh-sh.” Lanier reached over and pressed a gloved index finger to Patrick’s lips. "We gon’ be real quiet, boy,” he paused to let the order sink in, “Aight-den." then, he turned away from Patrick.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPqmbTnrfr4
Patrick still hadn’t moved and thought to himself, "What - the fuck - just happened?"
The remaining eight infected bore down on the survivors. After a few tense seconds, the first infected charged passed them, right between Gates at the gravel mound, and Paul cowering up to the trailer. Sheldon was drawing the attackers to him, hoping that they would be so focused on him that they would run right by the others. Bullets from his well-placed shots made quick, zip, zip, sounds as they passed within inches of the survivors’ heads. Some close enough, that the change in air pressure would swell their ear drums.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfRbdxawzm6
Another infected blew right passed Patrick, so close that he could hear the snarling, smell the putrid odor that wafted after him, and even feel its predatorily ferocious presence. The next infected slowed as he ran only a few feet passed the trailer, then spun around to see Mark within arm’s reach. Everyone hesitated. If they fired on him, the other infected would hear, come running, and overwhelm them. They had to take the chance, Gates and Lanier swung their rifles up in unison, bringing them level with the target. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD4FF5AENp8
Before either took the shot, Sheldon saved them the effort. A brownish red mist suddenly replaced the half of the targets head. The rest of his body crumpled to the dirt like a dropped rag doll. After several other infected received the same treatment from Sheldon, he made the call.626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoU153LqtIE
“Alright, all clear, all clear.” 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV1DlwI886X
Without hesitation, Gates stood, his assault rifle in one hand, the other signaling to quietly direct the group towards the tree line. The only sounds, which were muffled to everyone as the ringing in their ears from the firefight had not subsided, was their own heavy breathing and gravel crumpling under each fleeting stride. 626Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6TFNrubo3D
Sheldon rejoined them just as they neared the tree line and slid into the jungle. The mercenary team fanned out into the dense green foliage, the civilians stuck right to their heels. Large vines draped from above like streamers at a child’s birthday party. Occasional rays of sunshine penetrated the high canopy, even fewer passed through the understory level of the jungle, to the forest floor.
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