Chapter Two
"Toy Soldiers"
23 March 2124, 0300 hrs Former Settlement 3451-B 45 miles East of New Chicago in the forested region of location once known as Cedar lake. Medical unit stationary, perimeter holding, reinforcements received, settlement lost, only 4 survivors, Samuel last name unknown, Dustin Cross age 7, Mark Arnolds age 27, and Eris Peters age 22. Lost six members of the guard squad Paul Westler, Jose Martinez, Garvin Potter, Allen Smith, William Thomas, and John Stevens were all crushed and dismembered by a beast attack. Acquired unusual specimen will analyze in the morning and send results. Moral stable. Will await orders for relief, evac, or new mission objectives.
Astrid leaned back from her desk and put the small portable telegraph in its shielded box. She stretched her fingers and looked at the report she had sent to headquarters and groaned. She got up and slipped out of her cloths before curling up in bed, she knew she could only afford 3 hours of sleep tonight, but she was at least glad to have the report taken care of before bed. Her eyes opened as she looked over at the compact CB radio that she had sent the Morse code transmission through and groaned. It would be fine there until morning, then she would pack it away in its shielded box as well. She drifted off to sleep her dreams filled with huge beasts chasing her, though she did not wake until after the first explosion outside at roughly 0430 hrs.
VVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM BOOOM! Was the sound that woke the medical unit and those sent to guard it. A rather large explosion sent fragments of metal and flesh from what was at one point a 50 cal rail gun mounted on the back of a hummer. Three more successive wails of RPG’s sang through the air, each one ending their sorrowful cry in a huge colorful explosions rocking every trailer in the medical complex. All three RPGs were aimed for the spot lights that rather quickly shrouded the entire camp in flickering fire light instead of the bright lights cast by the spot lights. Small arms fire sounded as two more sorrowful cries marked two more rockets being launched at the government camp from the forests. The howls ended in explosions as the other two 50 cal rail guns evaporated in a cloud of smoke and shrapnel.
Screaming sounded as everyone in the camp was dropped into darkness, two of the riggers were already making a run for their trucks trying to get them up and moving if they needed to make a quick evac. It was wrong, no one had this kind of weaponry, hell the government was the only one close to it. Then from the forest the sound of mechanical humming and the sound of metal grinding against metal purred and screeched, it sounded like a tank possibly, or something like one. Then the bright flashes of gunfire irrupted from the shadows of the dense wood the gun fire cutting into the guards who were fleeing the explosions or running from their trailers to secure the perimeter. As the forms responsible for the small arms fire stepped out from the shadows into the light the scene became all the more surreal and horrifying. Three tall half machine, half zombie things holding SAWs strode into the camp with sharp mechanical movements. The upper half of the zombies’ heads were covered by metal plating to protect the brain from gun fire.
The lower half of the bodies were partially mechanized with long powerful three toed legs that moved with a low grinding hiss; the zombies were held in a metal frame as the internal combustion engine that powered the horrible creation was encased in the metal frame at is back. Then the trees behind the three mech zombies fell outward away from them, and what best could be described as a beast covered in full plate armor marched in behind the much smaller zombie mechs. The beast lowered itself on the ground and roared a shrill metallic piercing snarl as it litterly leapt over the three smaller mechs landing in the center of the medical complex. It had a mechanical face mask as it turned towards the first guard that raised a gun against it and raised its metal banded flesh arm towards the guard. From the back of its arm a hatch opened it seemed they had found the source of the RPGs as another Rocket proppelled Grenade exploded from the sinew and metal encased arm right for the guard who quickly leapt out of the way.
One of the large trucks that held the cranes to move the medical trailers exploded as the beast screamed and took aim at the next crane truck. It seemed like the beast was taking out all protection, as well as all possible threats of escape the medical team might have, moving from largest threats to smallest systematically. The panthers in the trees around the medical unit continued to watch and wait sending a live stream of visual feed much like television to the one controlling the four mechs.
Deep in the forest in an old military bunker safe from any threat was a room filled with television screens. Each screen was filled with the images of the medical camp from the panther’s point of view, and in front of the screen was a large comfortable chair. The occupant of the chair could not be seen though hands could be seen as they aimed moved and shifted; wires connected to the gloves at the hands. The center 4 screens were from the three small mech zombies and the beast zombie. The sound of a child’s laughter filled the small room from the seat, then what sounded like a little girl’s voice sounded from the chair, ”BURN BABY BURN!!! AHAHAHAHHA!!!”
"Come on now, everyone knows explosions attract bad things!" Hime exclaimed as she turned the small blue dune buggy towards New Chicago both her and Elle were met with a sight that would make their blood run cold. Four Jeeps and six bikes barrelled towards them from New Chicago, it seems the refugees had also seen all the black smoke and were coming to take what they could from the wreckage. Each person on a dirt bike carried small arms, the jeeps were armed with any assortment of firearm they had scrounged off of transports, nomads, and stolen from less powerful gangs. The only possible retreat would be towards the forest, though the trails through the woods led to various settlements, and sometimes those settlements were sources of protection. For the most part Refugees stayed away from the forests, though this group that was barrelling across the flat lands towards Hime and Elle looked to be rather excited. For the most part refugees consisted of bands of 13 to 29 year old boys and men, all of them in various stages of insanity, and for the most part, the only thing more entertaining than scavenging wreckage, was making wreckage to scavenge.
