Viral Pandemic

Chapter 12

The following day, everyone was gathered at the conference room of sorts after breakfast was done. Harry was surprised as this was actually the briefing for their first mission together.

The mission, as described by Smith, is to extract a certain person from the midst of the desert in Jordan. This guy, apparently, barely managed to escape the zombies and established contact with WHO. He is considered a useful asset so WHO wants to take him in and provide safety in return for his collaboration.

As soon as the briefing was done, the Trackers Team were led into an arsenal, where all sorts of modern weaponry could be found. They geared up with the suits, tech devices, comms, and the guns too- according to their squad.

They all took yet another chaotic drive through the city to reach the airport so that they can board the military plane. The team leader had advised that they should ignore zombies unless absolutely needed or else they will be out of their ammo stock by the time they reach the airport and will be doomed in Jordan.

The chaotic ride was soon over, and Harry found himself running towards a huge military aircraft, accompanied by two fighter jets.

‘Hey, why the jets?’ Harry asked.

‘They’re back up. In case there are too many zombies in the area- they’ll drop bombs to neutralize them.’ Another member of the team answered. Harry gaped, took in the info, and resumed running.

‘Alright. Everyone aboard?’ Scar asked once the plane bay door was closed. Scar was a code name. No one knew what his real name was- or if it was even a “he”. The person could easily be using a voice modulator but Harry chose to think of him as a “he”.

‘Let’s go over the plan again. Alpha squad, on the dunes with the snipers. Team leader, Farisha Khalid. Acknowledged?’ Scar said. Farisha nodded in acknowledgement.

‘Bravo squad, accompany Delta to extract our target. Delta doesn’t have heavy weaponry so you guys will have to cover for them. Copy?’. The leader of Bravo team nodded curtly.

‘Delta squad, you storm into the compound together with Bravo to extract our target and protect him. Do it as fast as possible.’ He continued further. Delta squad members nodded.

‘We must complete this mission asap with minimal compromise. Try to not make too much noise. I doubt the zombies there are dormant but if we minimize noise, it will help to make the mission go easier.

The plane took off into the horizon and took the route for Jordan which would take around six and a half hours if the flight goes easy. If not, nobody knows how long it’ll take.

While everyone was busy figuring out how much time they’ll have and whatnot, Harry was busy wondering if this will be the last ever flight in his life. The thought disturbed him a lot and his efforts to shake it off failed seamlessly. ‘How will I conduct more of these missions,’ he told himself.

After what seemed like weeks, the plane finally landed at an airstrip near the target location of the operation. Based on the information they had, their target had taken shelter at a small oasis that had a few buildings.

The squads took jeeps and bikes and proceeded towards the marked location. Once they reached their destination, the occupants jumped out of their vehicles and got into position. The Alpha squad positioned over a sand dune and the Bravo squad accompanied the Delta squad to the compound.

They all tried to make minimal noises, but no sooner had they stepped for a few moments, several zombies came rushing out of a building towards them. Farisha and her team managed to knock out most of them and the Bravo squad took care of the rest. Since their weapons were heavily silenced, not much noise was made but it would still be pretty alarming.

As the teams near the compound kept moving, Farisha over on the dune scoped the area for zombies. Fortunately, no one could be seen except normal human beings which was a relief to her. She zoomed out of focus for a while when someone from her team triggered a shot.

‘What are you doing?’ Farisha whispered and looked into the scope herself. There she saw it. One zombie with a decapitated leg, slowly creeping behind the teams near the compounds- who had no idea what was going on.

Harry was walking with alarm near the back of the convoy, his hand constantly on the g*n attached to his hip holster. He heard a shot and turned around and came face to face with a terrifying-looking person who now is one of the undead.

With fear and panic surging fast inside him, he pulled out the g*n and shot straight to the head. The zombie went out with a loud bang and thudded onto the orange sand of the desert. Harry could hear loud growling noises coming from the buildings. His g*n was not a silenced one and the noise had signalled the zombies about their “guests”.

Without a word, tons of the undead came rushing out of buildings. Neither team were ready for this much opposition force and thus were taken by surprise. The leaders of the teams quickly adapted to the situation and started to defend themselves.

Countless zombies were being shot dead by the snipers and also the assault team. Slowly and painfully, they kept moving towards the target building. At one point, the team at the compound split themselves to better defend themselves.

‘Hey! Hold on here!’ Scar shouted over the growls and shooting noises. Scar and a few other members were leading the Bravo team and they were only two buildings away from their target. The bummer is that the building right next to it was filled with zombies and there was no way they can survive unless if they are killed or distracted.

‘Claw, pass me the grenades. We need them now,’ Scar ordered another member of his team. Claw handed several frag grenades and took one into his own hand.

‘Frag out!’ Scar shouted and took cover after throwing one grenade into the building. Soon after, Claw threw another one and the explosion took place. The ground literally shook as the shockwave came to pass. A few other grenades were thrown into the building.

Once the coast seemed clear, Scar led the others and shot down the last few remaining zombies. Out of the blue, one zombie came jumping from the roof and landed straight on the shoulder of one of the squad members.

The soldier went down instantly as he was not expecting it. The zombie bit his leg and he couldn’t fight it. The others were horrified and ran away while being on the lookout for any other flying zombies.

They finally reached the target building and a huge man emerged from the front door. Scar immediately identified him and held him. With their target now secured, their only task was to rush out of the place. They practically ran back towards their rendezvous point where the vehicles would come to pick them up.

The process of going back went pretty smoothly and they were on the way back to the plane in no time. Once they were on the aircraft and were steadily cruising, Harry finally had a good look at the person they rescued.

He looked like he was in his mid-40s. His hair was messy. To be honest, Harry thought his whole body was messed up. The arms were full of scratches and bruises. His beard was overgrown and was not properly taken care of.

Harry doubted that this person was really a sort of man who would tend after his body. The way he saw it, this guy definitely hasn’t turned this harrowing just because of the zombies. But he could be wrong too.

After another 6-hour flight, they finally reached Geneva and battled the zombies in the streets too and got back to the headquarters.

The rescued man was assigned to a room and was provided with all sorts of amenities. He was also ordered to be at the conference room the next day. Harry went to a debrief session and went to store the guns back in the arsenal.

After a hearty dinner, Harry walked back to his room with Farisha along. They talked for a while about the mission and other general things before splitting ways. Harry bid Farisha goodbye and wished her a pleasant night.

Once he reached his room, he took a shower to feel refreshed again. To his surprise, he found lots of scratch wounds again when the water hit the wound and made it sting. He had no choice but to call in a medic to get a first aid kit and tend to his wounds.

Doing that alone took an hour, plus rechecking his body for other wounds took an extra thirty minutes. By the time the medic left, Harry was more than happy to hop on the bed and catch some sleep. And that’s exactly what he did.