Sam ran away, the complex behind him burning, and the screams of torment and death following him. He was about to be executed when a horde of zombies had attacked, bursting through the wall and killed everyone but him. Sam kissed his Cross necklace, feeling hope for a moment. Sam hefted his new toy to adjust the weight.
Not a big fan of the SCAR, but hey, I found other things too! Sam thought idly. Sam slid a grenade into the M203 under the barrel, and then he picked up the AKM hanging at his side.
" I wonder if this is where the Russians stayed, Nah" Sam mused to himself. He was carrying a Crap load of ammo, he wouldn't need to worry about it for qiute awhile. Sam ran towards a Jeep Cherokee on the side of the road, there was a body still in it. He opened the door and pulled the non-moving body out, the keys were in the ignition, so Sam started the Jeep up an ddrove off, heading back towards Base Camp One.
I just hope the Russians don't kill me, Sam thought with gravity.

Vlad nodded an affirmation. He hated being a prisoner.

He then tried to remember the events following the creation of the brute.

A horrible nightmare as it were...




Chernobyl Secret Test Facility


"Comrade Captain!! What in God's name is that!" shouted Fieldmarshal Konstantinov.

Vlad was taken unprepared as well, for the prisoner was to expand, yes, but not to become a beast.

"Kill it! Kill it now!"

The Russian guards didn't hesitate. They blasted fully-automatic rounds repeatedly into the beast's head. But it wasn't helping. The brute ripped the straps off the table and leaped towards the first guard, crushing him. The 3 other guards switched to their grenade launchers, which would've been suicide in close quarters, but the brute might take most of the blast. They fired, ripping the brute's limbs apart.

Red covered the side of the test room and the 3 remaining guards backed out of the room, into safe territory.

Vlad lifted the radio's phone.

"Filter in the poison gas, IMMEDIATLEY!"

A low hisss filled the room, and everything in the testing area became covered in a green mist.

Vlad stood, horrified at the event, and he couldn't help but think of the tale of Frankenstein.

Fieldmarshal Konstantinov stood, bewildered, and his adjutant, Lieutenant Zubov, stood with him.

"Comrade Captain, I AM SEVERLY DIS-" The Marshal didn't finish his words. Zubov had begun to whisper into the Marshal's ears, and his face changed from anger, to the joy of a little boy.

"Captain, begin mass-producing this as a bio-chem product. The Motherland will be able to use it, and we will become the saviors of the world."

Vlad glared angrily at Zubov. Vlad knew that such a weapon was of extreme danger to everyone, but he could not contest with the Fieldmarshal. He wanted to believe that he had helped build up mankind technologically, but he feared the only thing that he did, was prepare the world for the end.

Present

Vlad bit back a small pain of the memory.

He remembered what had happened now.

He looked back at the American.

"I created the virus as a stimulant for our troops. But it didn't work out that way. My superiors were too dumb to see the affects of such a virus. But they wanted a test, so they used this chemical in a number of small Russian villages, but discovered that it was nearly impossible to contain. We used our last nukes to protect the people."

Vlad let it sink in for a bit, "After the Soviet Union fell, I felt relieved that the project had not been used, but the same superiors who ordered its creation, were still my superiors. And the thoughts of revenge against the United States had ruled their minds."

Vlad took a step back and looked at his troops.

"After the terrorist attacks of 2001, the Al-Queda had caught my superior's attention. They made a deal for 4 nuclear missiles. One of which contained the virus, to which I had no idea. They didn't inform me immediately of the exchange of weapons. But when they did, it was too late. Their revenge had been taken."

Vlad looked at the military compound and prepped his weapon.

"You have what you wanted to know, American. I fear that this area is no longer safe."

Atrianna looked closley at Vlad, she had been listening and she could believe the story.

She had to ask a Vlad a certain question.

"Vlad...is this an official operation? If what you said was true, then wouldn't Russia rather just let the US die? Is the only reason that you and your men are here is because you felt guilty about what your country did to ours?

The question took Vlad off guard.

"Of course this operation is official. The men who used the bio-chem did it on purpose for us to save the day. Once we are declared the true heroes of our world, then Russian enterprises will grow, and our Motherland supplemented."

Attriana had hit right on the money about the guilt, though. He wasn't planning on telling anyone that, though, it would show possibly as a sign of weakness. Not a good thing due to the situation.

"Of course, how could I get funding if this operation wasn't official?"

Smith heard the Russian's statement about it being intentional, and that was all he needed to hear. "You catch that?" He asked the helo pilot through his mike.

"Yes." The pilot's response came.

"Try to get POTUS on the line and relay the past five minutes, it looks like we're involved in another war."

"On it."

Turning his attention to the Russian, Smith flipped his M-4 back to full auto and made a show of flipping the safety on and off. "Listen, Russian." He said. "I don't really like you, and what you said has really lowered your standing in my eyes, comprende?"

He looked over at the Green Berets who had accompanied him and noticed that they had anticipated his orders and were herding the Russians in the camp back into the holding pens.

"Listen, you have two choices here. One, you give up and become a POW, or two you die. Choose for yourself."

Vlad stared with hatred and a pride of an old soldier, accepting the facts. He nodded, and fished through his jacket. He grabbed his small Tokarev pistol and showed it to the American. He then tossed it to the ground and did an about-face towards the holding pens.

"So it begins..." he whispered to himself.

Vlad had a plan already. He wasn't the most Elite soldier of the Russian army for nothing. And soon the Americans would know why.

The ever-silent Coryn stood there, contemplating Vlad's story. Richmond....

For now, at least, maybe there wouldn't be fighting. He remembered only too well how that felt. No wonder he was still such a good aim. The memories came flooding back....

Flashback

((I really did have some flashbacks in mind, not trying to copy, Vlad :xp:))

"Aiden Valko, step forward."

He took a quick step, glancing at Dragomir, smiled, and looked back at the commander.

"Does something strike you as funny, SIR?"

"No, sir."

"Then you would do best to follow my orders. You know how valuable you are to this team, but you still have things to learn about discipline, understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you know the only reason that I'm preachin' at you now is because we have an agenda, a very important mission coming up, and this is the most nervous I have ever been about an operation. You know that I would hate to lose you boys."

"Yes, sir."

"At ease, Aiden."

"Yes, s-...Stanislav."

Commander Stanislav handed him a logbook and a vial.

"Distribute a copy of the briefing to everyone, and make sure you all get an even dose of this vial. And if one person doesn't get some of it, then he will not be allowed to go on this mission."

"Alright."

Aiden led his team into the mission room. It was time.

Smith looked at the pistol that the Russian had thrown on the ground and then back up at the Russian.

"So, you going to give up your Kalashnikov as well?" He inquired as he bent down to pick up the pistol, all the while keeping his eyes on the Russian.

"That and your Name, Rank and Serial Number would be nice."

"Sir, I've got the President on the line." The pilot's voice broke his reverie.

"Lieutenant Colonel Smith." The President's voice came.

"Yes, sir?" Smith said, still keeping his eyes on the Russian.

"I've gone over the past five minutes of your conversation and have a question to bring up."

"Yes?" Smith prompted -he hated it when people needed all this prodding.

"Do you know if this mission of the Russian's is official?"

"Sir, he said it is, so I'm going to have to trust him on this one."

"Alright, Colonel, I've got a bad conversation ahead of me."

Vlad nodded, slightly annoyed, and unstrapped the AK slung off his shoulder.

"Sure....Comrade. Vladimir Rosokosvski, Major, serial number 111, Elite Forces."

He then continued back toward the pens, listening carefully to whatever conversation the American was having. From Vlad's point-of-view, there would probably be some political fireworks.

Oh, good, thought Vlad, I like to see ruffled politicians.

Smith watched the Russian Major turn around and walk towards the Pens, his AK was on the ground and Smith stooped down to pick it up.

A major in the Elite Forces! Smith thought in wonder, I'm just a medic! He reached over to his right shoulder to caress the familiar shoulder-flash, but realized that it wasn't on his BDU, likely this was just a generic uniform that had been quickly put together for his use.

Smiling slightly as he thought of the conversation that the President would be having with the Russian president. While he was supposed to respect civilian authority, there were few people who just rubbed him the wrong way as much as politicos did.

Working the action on the AK, Smith fired a few rounds into a tin can that had been set up, the rifle had been sighted correctly as the can blew apart as the bullets impacted.

"Sir, we have some incoming, err, Zombies." The pilot's voice cut through his thoughts.

Damn...

Once Vlad got into the holding pens with his comrades, he noticed that most of them had a fearful look about them.

Boris approached, "Sir, there have been reports that one of the nearby cells have been overrun by those creatures."

Vlad nodded, "I heard that, too. So, why are you so afraid? We stand more than a fair chance against that scum. Besides, if we're lucky, they could provide an escape."

Boris' expression changed from fear to happy realization.

"True, Comrade Major. We have little to worry about. Glad to have you with us, by the way."

Vlad smiled and looked at all of his men. There fear had stopped by their leader's reassuring words.

"Thank you, Comrades. We will accomplish our mission."

The group nodded in unison in agreement.

Atrianna smiled to herself, the idiots had left her with her jacket, and that was a grave mistake on their part.

Atrianna had taken a small pistol and hid it inside her coat, along with three combat knives and around thirty bullets. the gun was small and didn't have that much power behind it's shots, but it would suffice for getting their original weapons back. she just hoped they didn't run into any brutes, the little gun would be about as effective as a pee shooter against a brute.

At first, she had been worried that someone would find the gun during the search, she had nothing to fear though, the solders were too busy with other matters to search her properly.

"Hey Vlad, do you need a gun by any chance?"

Vlad smiled

Vlad put a finger to his lips and motioned for quiet. He then waved for Attriana to follow him. He waved for Boris to follow to.

They came to a small corner of the pen, an area out of the vision of the guards. Boris then took out a small screwdriver and smiled.

"So, where's the weapon?"

Atrianna reached into her coat pocket and pulled out the small pistol.

"It should work on any of the solders, but if we run into a brute, we're gonna be in deep trouble."

She handed the gun to Boris who took it with an eager smile on his face

"Goddammit." Smith muttered darkly as he looked at the radar readout in the helo. "See if you can't get in the air and act as our close-range fire support." He didn't think it would do much, but it was always handy to have a pair of friendly M-60's in the air.

Jumping out of the helo, Smith reloaded his M-4, making sure his clip was full, and then walked over to the four Green Berets he'd been assigned.

"We're going to have some of these Zombies coming soon." He said quietly. "All we have to do is hold the line and pray that we don't get anything like the Demon or Brute variants we've seen earlier."

Running over to one of the overturned HMMWV's, Smith checked out the turreted M-60 and was pleasantly surprised when the machine gun appeared to be in working condition.

Well, five men on the ground -one with an M-60- and two M-60's in the air didn't seem like half-bad odds against a horde of Zombies.

He hoped.

Boris had assembled the weapon in a few minutes. He'd even added a few little kinks himself, not enough to do serious damage, but enough to handle a problem.

"Major, do I have permission to..."

Boris gestured to the gate lock as the Green Beret gaurds moved to join the perimeter defense against the zombie/things.

Vlad nodded slowly and Boris walked up to the gate.

Vlad then looked at Attriana, "Thanks again, American, you're prooving yourself a good ally. I think it's time we left."

Boris pulled the trigger and blew the lock off. The Russian commandoes moved fast and quietly toward the armory, where the weapons and ammo were stored. Indeed, the Americans had no guards there either, the defense would definately have taken immediate precedence.

Once Vlad made it inside, he found his precious modified AK-47, a weapon he had jokingly named "Natasha."

Vlad picked it up and began cleaning it carefully.

Atrianna looked around the armory in suprise

Where was her shotgun? Her pistols were missing as well.

Atrianna quickly looked around and noticed a Sawed off shotgun hanging on the wall next to a pump action shotgun.

She quickly grabbed them both, strapped the regular shotgun across her back and hefted the sawed off shotgun.

And then Atrianna saw the most useful thing in the armory.

A Bazooka complete with ammo

"Hey Vlad!" she said pointing to the bazooka, "Do you think we can use this?"

Vlad peered at the weapon.

"If you can carry it, you can keep it. My men are already loaded down with RPG's and such, we can't spare any for that. Do what you will."

Vlad loaded his rifle and checked the sights to make sure nothing was tampered with.

Atrianna smiled

"I just have a very strong feeling that we are going to need this later, call it a hunch."

"So...when do we leave?"

( Sorry for not writing in a few days, my computer is on the fritz, well here goes nothing)
Sam stepped out of the car he'd taken after his near execution, the gas was empty.
" Looks like I'll he hoofing it from now on" Sam thought dryly. The sad moan of the undead broke threw the night, and he had no wish of encountering any more. Sam worked the action of the AK and proceeded down the highway, praying he'd find a car or something along the way.
Sam the headlights of a car approaching rapidly, and he was joyful for a second, then he realized a zombie was at the wheel. Sam jumped out of the way just in time, the car sped past swerving off the road and smashing the car he'd parked on the side of the road.

"We leave now, American." Vlad said.

He loaded a magazine into his Tokarev pistol and stepped toward the entrance of the armory, looking cautiously for American guards.

"We'll try to find my friends at the camp, but we may need to help the Americans. Of course, as a last resort."

Vlad looked back at the group.

Atrianna glared at Vlad, she hated the fact that he kept calling her 'American'

He made it sound like a curse.

Atrianna managed to strap the bazooka to her back with great difficulty and started following the Russian solders out of the armory.

She suddenly stopped moving as she heard a rusteling sound from the shadows behind them...

She quickly hefted her shotgun and pointed it at the shadows.

"Vlad...did you hear something?"

"No"

"Well I did! Theres something in the shadows...behind us."

Vlad turned around quickly and aimed his AK into the dark shadows. Boris and Vasilli broke rank as well, taking a firing position near by. The other commandoes moved to cover, and watched all the possible Zombie points.

Vlad spoke first, "Good call, let's handle the problem."

Vlad moved forward, AK at the ready.

Movement came from the deepest part of the shadows and a badly wounded man crawled out of the shadows

"C-Comrade Major...didn't anyone miss me?"

Atrianna couldn't believe it

She had seen him fall into the arms of one of the undead

She was either dreaming, or someone had hit her really hard over the head and she was hallucinating

He was still in the same bio-chem suit that he had been wearing when he had been pushed out of the helicoptor, and it was still sealed despite all that he must have gone through

She could only really say one thing

"Hello Yuri."

Vlad holstered his weapons and ran towards his comrade.

"Yuri, you idiot! Where have you been? We thought you were dead!"

Yuri put a limp hand on Vlad's shoulder.

"I nearly was, sir. But as you can see, I'm not."

All the Russians chuckled and went to greet their good comrade.

Vlad spoke again, "Well, we best get you to the medic, there, we will conduct blood tests to see that you are not infected."

Yuri nodded, smiling, "No worries sir. I'm not. But check anyways, these wounds are from falling from a helicopter."

Vlad smiled again, "Let's get you to the medic."

Atrianna couldn't help but smile as she saw the Russians smile and chuckle at the sight of their friend..but something was still bothering her.

"Vlad...I'm happy for you and your men, I really am, but we really need to get going, I thought I just heard a brute a few seconds ago. we need to go. Now"

Atrianna quickly loaded her shotgun.

"By the way, Nice to see you Yuri, I really thought you were dead when you were pushed out of the helicopter, how did you manage to get away from the undead and end up here anyway?"

Smith broke himself away from the M-60 to look back into the camp.

"Damn." He muttered. "Next time, I change all the locks." Trusting the Russians enough to not shoot him in the back while he was trying to hold off the Zombie horde that was supposed to come, Smith turned around again.

A Zombie had jumped out at him and was perched on top of the M-60, a piece of wood held in its hands like a club.

"This is just not my day!" Smith yelled as he brought his fist back and then slammed it into the Zombie's face. He could feel the crunch as his fist impacted.

Nursing his hand he drew his Colt with his left and fired off three shots, trying to hit the zombie. His first two shots missed, but, thankfully, his third shot hit it in the head.

Making sure that the M-60's safety was off Smith fired a few tracers into what appeared to be a horde of Zombies.

"Sir, we have roughly 12000 of these 'Zombies' headed to your position, over." The pilot said over the com.

"Roger that... see if you can't get the rest of the Army here or the Air Force, I could really use some air support in the form of Napalm and White Phosphorus right now, over."

"On it."

Smith let out a small breath as he looked up at the horde.

They were coming.

Sam ran away from the wreck, either the zombies were becoming intelligent or this one changed while he was driving, either way, it was no reason to stay near the smoldering wreck.
Sam ran for ten minutes before he was drained of energy, and felt like he needed rest, " Can't stop, must keep moving" Sam said, puctuating every word with heavy breathing. Sam heard the hellish scream of a Demon, not to mention of wheezing of a jumper, and the roar of a Brute.
" OH son of a b-" Sam started, but was stopped by the sound of another car. He looked behind him to see a truck, driven by someone, obviously not infected. Sam hailed them over, to see it was... Holy crap! his uncle.
" I thought you were dead!" Sam exclaimed with tears in his eyes. The fort he had been at was overrun two days ago.
" Nearly was, but I'm here now, let's head out. Washington DC is still a safe zone." His uncle returned. Sam loaded into the truck and headed out towards DC, maybe today will be a bit better!

Yuri smiled as he limped toward the medic.

"Well, I found out how to fall without killing yourself, that much was fun. But the demon whatever thingy caused a small problem. I got caught by its tongue, nut luckily I had..ummm...Vlad's combat knife."

Vlad's face turned to surprise, "WHAT! You stole my favorite knife? How dare you! I'm your commanding officer!"

Yuri tried his best to smile, "Well, I didn't steal it, it fell out of your coat while the Amis were leaving with you in tow, so, I kept it to return to you."

Vlad nodded, "Oh, well, thank you, Yuri."

Yuri smiled, "Sir, your bedside manners need work. Well, I used your knife to cut off the creature's tongue, then I pulled out and used the rooftops to avoid the horde. And they're coming here, they know where you are, but I don't, they may know WHO you are, Comrade Major."

Vlad suddenly looked scared and concerned, "What do you mean, Yuri?"

Yuri's face was grim, "I encountered some zombies, they are getting smarter, beginning to use technology."

Vlad let his scared emotions show, "Oh, no. They're brains are beginning their evolution. We only have so long. The Americans will need our help."

( right here is were I mention some funny things, like my original idea was that some ex-KGB guy sold the nukes, not realizing it, and that Russia wasn't really to blame, and other stuff, but this makes it more interesting.)
Sam and his uncle had traveled through several major cities to get to DC, along the way adding to their arsenal. Jim ( his uncle if i forgot to mention) had kept everything rom before, so Sam was overjoyed at that, or at least happy.
Sam had read that zombies couldn't use any tech, but that was disproven, but he knew that they were too clumsy to use guns. So he didn't have to worry about being sniped again, at least not from some moronic shambling corpse.
He held his shoulder, remebering the pain he felt after being shot.
" I might just return the favor, my little pretty." Sam thought out loud.

Aiden sat there in the cell, his heart throbbing. Finally he got up and followed Vlad, and spoke up.

"Vlad...I know something about the zombie serum. But first I want a good reason why I should help you. If Russia's to blame for all of this, then...."

He let the question hang, and immediately regretted it.

Why should he care if you help or not?

Vlad turned to Coryn, "..Then what, comrade? We are here to stem the tide of this virus, what better reason is there?"

Vlad sighed, "We can use whatever information you have. Please tell us, it is not only vital to our world situation, but to our survival as well."

Vlad hoped that he had managed to get through, but he didn't know. He looked closer at Coryn's face, something that looked familiar. A face came to mind from long ago, but he could not put a name to the face. Vlad dismissed it for now as a mere coincidence. Right now, there were more important things to handle.

He loaded the AK an pulled the action into position. The horde was close.

((You don't know my real name yet, unless you remember that too.))

Flashback

"Alright guys, this is our moment. Our moment to shine! We will rise up, and-"

"Aiden, seriously, enough of the speech."

"Yeah, let's get this over with, shall we?"

"-Dragomir will carry out extra supplies and ammo."

"Never mind, I love this speech!"

"Yeehah!"

Equipping his SMG and crossbow, he handed a pack of ammo to his best friend. The rest of the soldiers filed out, but Aiden stayed behind and looked at him.

"You understand that I'm doing this for your own good. And I'm not giving you the serum, either. Something tells me that it's dangerous. And I need you for a special mission."

Dragomir simply looked away as he strapped on the carry cases and a rifle.

"Dragomir, I really need your help on this one. This is the mission we've been waiting for, and it can't fail. We've all got to make sacrifices. The least you can do is sacrifice some muscle pain and a risky mission for your brothers."

And then he watched Dragomir leave. He would never talk to him again.

End flashback

Aiden stared at Vlad, and saw that perhaps he recognized him.

A sudden holler in the distance told him that he had no time. He looked for a weapon. As the Russians ran forward, he stood there helpless, remembering only too well the horrors of that mission.

(Oh sorry, typo there...My guy doesn't remember that much yet, allow me to edit that.....)

Vlad noticed a zombie rounding one of the corners and unloaded a couple rounds into the creature's head, effectively ending its attack. Many more began piling out, groaning and screaming and flailing there blood-strewn arms. Vlad shoved the butt of his rifle into one of the undead's face and quickly brought the barrel to bear on the rest of the creatures.

"Pull back to the American's defensive positions! They will help! Pull back!"

Vlad backed slowly toward the American's positions, firing as he went.

Atrianna blasted another one of the undead right between the eyes with her shotgun

I really really hate these things

She quickly reloaded and blasted another one that was attempting to sneak behind them

Why did they have to get so smart all of a sudden?

She turned to look at Vlad when she saw a brute trying to sneak up behind him

"Vlad Get Down NOW!"

Vlad ducked and the brute ended up having it's head blown off

Atrianna smiled sweetly at Vlad

"That's two you owe me."

Atrianna quickly reloaded her shotgun and waited for the next one to show it's face

Vlad looked at Attriana and nodded and smiled.

"I hope this isn't becoming a habit with you," he said jokingly.

He took out the brute serum and rammed it into the remains of the slumping brute. These things were just as dangerous dead.

((Coryn would really like someone to give him a weapon.))

((What does the brute serum do?))

Flashback

The helicopter com was bursting with instructions, but no one really paid any attention to them. After only 5 minutes of flying they were ready to be dropped off anyway. Behind the trench that they had discussed, they unloaded and set up stationary weapons.

Also, as they had been prepared, the helicopter did not make the trip back. The mines blew it out of the sky. Before long, they were already advancing towards Aiden's team. Dragomir had set up his small "base" in a ditch nearby.

These Russian-designed mines were ahead of their time, one of the creations in the desperate rush for their secret project to become complete.

A project with an improved version of the serum.

Finally Aiden gathered everyone.

"This is your second and final dose. But you knew that. If anyone wants to back out now, I won't blame them."

No one said a word.

"Then let's do this."

Everyone took a large dose from the vial and soon the effects began to take place.

Aiden leaped over the ditch and pounced on a mine, and then hurled it at another. His teammates did the same. Soon it was an all out battle with the mines. The Russians began arriving then.

The shots started. Troops fell.

Aiden went to the planning board and ordered troop movements.

Meanwhile, Dragomir stayed behind. He had a more important role to play.

"Milan, you take Nevena and form a flank here. Alpha and Beta will take the north strike, as we discussed."

They ran to accomplish their all-important task.

Dragomir looked up at Aiden then, and began to realize something.

"Aiden, which position are you taking? This wasn't in the briefing."

"You mean to say, Dragomir, that this wasn't in your briefing. Good luck."

"No, Aiden! It's suicide!"

"I know."

Aiden then began the run of his life, leaping over anything in his path. The serum made it uncomfortably easy and hard at the same time. Streaking towards the Russian commander now coming into view, he began to take heavy fire.

He didn't feel a thing.

The blood blurred his vision, he ached, and he knew that he might not last much longer. After all, he would be dead by now without the serum.

Stealing the commander's vial, he excelled faster and faster towards the Russian headquarters.

And then he heard abrupt screaming. A bomb. He looked back. The plains were all gone. Someone had dared to nuke this battlefield. It didn't matter. Another mile and he was at the base. The explosion nearing the headquarters, he saw Russian commandoes closing in on his position. They knew perfectly well their mission. Among them was someone he didn't know at all, but by looking at him he could tell that the man was simply trying to serve his country. The man took point, but did not fire.

Aiden took this chance to steal into the base. He armed his bomb and then faced the incoming commandoes.

"We know what you are trying to do. Destroying the serum with only make things worse."

"It's too late."

The bomb detonated as Aiden ran and then fell to the ground, fatally wounded. He took out the small dose of serum he had recovered shortly before the explosion, and injected it. As the commandoes fleed, he felt a sudden disturbance in his body.

He knew it was over. All of his men, the serum, his life--it was all over. Eyes closing, he had just enough time to see a transformation taking place.

And then he rested.

End of flashback

(The Brute serum is specially created by Vlad, the serum uses the brute's chemistry against it, and explodes the brute. A very gory weapon, but small and effective)


Vlad looked over at Coryn, a feeling of small rememberance still in his mind. He brushed the feeling aside again and tossed Coryn a pistol as the brute serum took effect.

Vlad leaped to cover just as the brute began writhing around, and exploded in cloud of red.

"Move forward! Find the American lines and stick with them! Stay and move together!" Vlad shouted. They needed to find some sort of ally soon, and quick.

Aiming, Coryn fired and missed as one of the undead came towards him. Even with the long-lasting effects, bad memories could still shake him enough to miss. But that wasn't the problem.

The jumpers on the ceiling that no one else seemed to notice were the problem.

He ran as fast as he could, and attempted a maneuver to try and leap off the runner's head and have aim at the jumpers.

The attempt brought him nowhere close.

Falling to the floor, he shot quite a few rounds into the runner and then called out to Vlad. Despite Vlad's appearance, Coryn still remembered that mission. He knew that there wasn't as much to fear as he might have thought.

"Vlad! Above you!"

Vlad looked above right in time to see one of the undead leaping toward him. Vlad moved quickly with his combat knife and took the creature at close range. He managed to time the knife to the speed of the jumper. The blade made contact with the creature's head, killing it effectively. He pushed the bloody thing off and turned toward Coryn. He nodded and gave a small salute and turned the rifle toward another oncoming zombie. Suddenly, a memory came to mind. A memory that he'd thought would never come back. It was a memory of one of the containment missions, back when the super-soldier serum was first completed, and when it first lost control. Then Coryn's face came to mind, and he remembered.

Flashback

Aiden awoke completely immobile. He couldn't even blink. Of what he could see, his skin was turning gray, and raggedy. No one had rescued him or taken him prisoner, however. The plan had succeeded, but he had failed.

The pain was overwhelming.

Blocking out all else, he focused internally on the thoughts flooding into his brain. He tried desperately to resist.

The voice was like that of hundreds of voices all talking at once, echoes, but there was not many of them, just one.

Yet there were many.

The entity spoke softly, soothingly, and at the same time with threats.

<There is no hope for you.>

<Give up.>

<Give your body to us.>

Now the voice was many voices speaking at once, but at the same time, again, it seemed as one voice with many echoes.

He had to fight. With all of his willpower he strained against the voice, and tried desperately to move.

<Resistance is futile.>

<Stop that.>

<You will surely lose.>

But Aiden had been trained, and knew what was at stake. He also knew what it was trying to do. Trying to close off his mind, he summoned every single ounce of strength in his body. The pain grew more intense.

He managed to stand.

<STOP THAT HUMAN!!!>

And then he fell down again as surely the worst pain imaginable flooded his body and the entity retook control.

<Foolish human.>

<Foolish human.>

<Foolish human.>

But ke kept trying. Giving up would mean losing.

And that would surely be worse than death.

Vlad thought a little harder on his memory as he blew off some more rounds at the zombies. It then came to him, it was one of the few missions he had led to contain the virus, and the only mission to destroy a rebel group that had somehow acquired it. It was also the day, that Vlad created, what he called, the second-most important chemical of the modern world.


A Village near Tura, Siberia
The Motherland shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union
1000 hours

25-year-old Vladimir Rosokosovski stood silently as he watched the distinct mushroom cloud of a Nuke rise slowly above the clouds above a small Russian village.

Boris Yegenivich walked to where Vlad was standing.

"The Virus is contained, whatever remnants of the rebel group are now dead. Nothing can survive what we just hit them with."

Vlad nodded,"That is good to hear, Boris, how many did we lose?"

Boris shook his head, "The Complete numbers aren't in yet, and with the nuke, we may never really know. If anything comes out of ground zero of the explosion, we'll have to kill them. Why? Radiation poisoning, and only the already dead would last through a nuke."

Vlad nodded in agreement, but something caught his eye about a hundred yards out. A man in the center of a burned out field was trying to get up, and was struggling. Boris saw him, too.

"Sir, we'll handle this. A few shots of the AK and we'll have nothing to worry about."

Vlad shook his head, "No, this could be particularily profitable."

Vlad took a small syringe from his pack.

"Comrade Major, this isn't the time for experimentation. We've got to leave before the radiation poisoning spreads."

Vlad continued walking towards the struggling man, Boris sighed and followed, loading his AK-47 as they went.

As they got closer, Vlad recognized the man. It was the rebel that had attempted a bomb run at headquarters, the run that Vlad had barely survived. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on Vlad.

The major kneeled and grabbed the man's arm, he then quickly plunged the syringe into the small right next to the elbow. The man quickly stopped struggling and Vlad waited. There was no immediate response. Vlad shook his head and began walking away.

Boris followed, "Sir, what were you testing?"

Vlad kept on walking, "I was testing a possible antidote for the virus, that way we won't waste so much nuclear weaponry."

Boris nodded and they continued back to whatever was left of HQ.

Present

Now Vlad completely remembered the situation among the gray nuclear wasteland outside of Tura in Siberia. It also brought a smile to Vlad's face.

I guess it worked, he thought.

((Time for some revelations about the serum.))

Coryn noticed Vlad hesitate for a full few seconds before he kept firing. Apparently that last jumper had startled him. Who knows?

Flashback

Aiden awoke in great pain, and the entity was shrieking at him.

<NO!!!>

<FOOLISH HUMAN!!!>

<DIE!!!>

Was it trying to kill him?

His mind flooded and then suddenly the entity made him walk.

<KILL THEM ALL!!!>

His legs were not under his control, but he felt himself running. Running towards the headquarters. And there was the head commando.

Aiden suddenly reared to strike at the officer.

And then, suddenly, he had control.

Just in time to feel the commando knock him senseless.

"Wait!"

The commando lowered his rifle.

"My name is Aiden Valko...secret Bulgarian strike force...did we stop the weapon...the nuke...the...one with the serum...?"

The officer stood there for a moment, assessing the strange situation. He looked regretful.

"No. No you did not. As we speak the infection is spreading. I...."

The Russian did not finish the statement.

Aiden felt himself suddenly ready to rear again. But the officer was quicker. Aiden was knocked out once more.

End flashback

Aiden knew that he had to tell the Russian what he knew of the serum. This went way beyond what Vlad appeared to know about it. True, he developed a new version of the serum, but there was something he didn't know.

That will have to wait.

A brute nearly knocked him senseless. Again, Aiden missed. But another clip emptied into the thing's chest at point blank took it down.

And with every one he killed, he knew that there was still some human left in them.

Atrianna was carefully picking off the undead with her shotgun, she had already blasted a few off of Vlad's back was in the process of bringing her shotgun to bear on another when something heavy fell across her back.

Atrianna rolled over and saw the snarling face of a brute staring her in the face.

Oh God, i'm going to die,

She was going to die, no one could shoot this thing fast enough to save her

She wasn't afraid of dying, everything died in it's own time

But she was terrifed of becoming one of the undead.

And then she heard Vlad yelling at her.

Vlad saw the huge brute tackle Attriana, and there wasn't enough time to warn her. The thing had literally come out of nowhere.

"Get down! This is going to get messy."

He took out another anti-brute syringe and loaded it into a canister round. He then brought it to bear on the brute and pulled the trigger. The syringe stuck easily and the creature immediatley lost attention of Attriana.

Vlad shielded his eyes and awaited the explosion.

Atrianna saw the syringe inbed itself in the brutes's skins and it suddenly was off of her.

Atrianna ran toward Vlad as fast as she could.

She quickly looked behind her just in time to see the brute explode in a red haze.

"I think we need a new startegy vlad, these things are getting way too smart. If there starting to sneak up on people then we need a new strategy when traveling on foot."

Vlad was smirking.

"What's so funny?"

"You owe me one."

"I saved you twice!"

"I saved you from becoming one of them, I think that puts me slightly ahead."

Atrianna conceded fefeat with a sigh. "Fine, your in the lead. For now"

Vlad simply smirked

Vlad nodded at the remark, "Ja, we should head towards the American line, as I have said numerous times. From there, we can create a new strategy, at this rate, it'll be much harder to regroup..."

Vlad loaded his AK and brought a a fist up, a signal for his squad to fall in and prepare to move out.

Atrianna had been seconds away from being infected.

Aiden knew only too well how that felt.

Somehow, he thought that perhaps it wasn't the antidote Vlad had given him that had purged the serum. It appeared to be something else. It had enabled him to talk and take control for a short period, but he felt that wasn't the end of the story.

Not for the first time, Aiden thought, Perhaps it really isn't just a virus....

Aiden heard Vlad mention that they were regrouping. For now, it seemed, the undead had backed off. Vlad gave a signal, and the Russians started moving.

It could turn out to be a long day.

Biting back a curse as the M-60 he was using jammed, Smith jumped out of the overturned HMMWV and hit the nearest zombie with the stock of his M-4. The improvised club did it's job and the zombie went down. Turning around he brought up the M-4 and bashed it into another zombie's head, and shot yet another.

When will the damn Air-Force get here? He idly thought to himself as he killed another handful of zombies at range and shifted his aim to another knot.

After reloading, he checked himself for ammunition before realizing that he was almost out, just anther two clips left to burn through. Reaching for the AK-47 he thought he'd slung on his back, his hand only met air.

It was hanging in the armory still... provided that the Russians hadn't escaped and stolen it by now.

The relative silence of the battle -except for the gunfire that seemed to rip through the night every so often- was broken by a rather... liquid sounding explosion. I'm glad I'm not on the receiving end of that...

Vlad turned his attention to reaching the American lines.

He reloaded his AK and began moving in the direction where he'd heard some heavy weapons going off. He sprinted across the zombie body-strewn alley toward what looked like a small defensive line. He noticed several green berets resting near a overturned humvee. Vlad stepped slowly outside of the alley and aimed his rifle in the air.

He pulled the trigger letting off several warning shots. The Green Berets moved quickly back into defensive positions. The American officer stepped from behind the overturned Humvee.

"Ahh, American, do you need any Russian help?"

Vlad's troops chuckled quietly.