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“I need a fucking sit rep! Captain Simmons, give me a mother fucking sit rep!” Major Harwell spat out.

Captain Simmons stared at the monitors as she tried to raise any of their squad leads on the radio.

“Sir, both the east and west walls are compromised and the infected are inside the compound,” Her voice and her hands were shaking.

“Fuck me to hell!” Harwell raged.

He grabbed the handset, “Pave One this is HQ, do you copy?”

The Reapers were a few miles out of Frederick when Harwell came over the radio. “Pave One, this is HQ. Do you copy?” He sounded out of breath and stressed.

“Pave One, go ahead.”

“We are being overrun. The infected have breached the outer walls.” Harwell’s voice raised an octave or two, and the fear could be heard in his voice.

At this point HQ’s front doors were being assaulted, and Simmons was trying to search the monitors for the cameras that were facing the doors.

“Are you in a position to support?” It sounded more like a prayer than a question.

Webb answered, “Sorry, Sir. We are over the east coast. The CDC facility was overrun, and we’re heading to North Carolina.” There was a lengthy silence, then some mumbling from Harwell.

The front doors gave way, and Simmons pulled her pistol. She leveled her Glock and took the right side of the closest infected’s face off. Harwell ran towards her and fired at the next two closest.

“Simmons, come on! Come the fuck on!” Harwell screamed at her.

She back peddled as she continued to fire, but the infected were much too fast. They ran and pounced on her even as Harwell was firing into the mass.

The closest infected jumped on top of Simmons and drove her down. Before they even hit the floor, a gangly woman took an enormous bite out of the front of Simmons’s face, coming away with strips of flesh and most of her nose.

Simmons let out a gargled scream as blood spurted from the front of her face. The infected woman didn’t waste a moment and dove in for another bite. This time she tore out most of Simmon’s throat as blood bathed the both of them.

Harwell turned and took off running for the war room. He made it there a couple of seconds before the horde of infected, slamming and locking the door. He turned around frantically, trying to come up with what to do next.

He heard a voice come over the radio.

“HQ this is Pave One, do you copy? HQ, do you copy?”

Major Harwell stared at the radio for a few moments while the infected scratched and pounded on the door, trying to get in. After a pause, his shoulders slumped, and he trudged to the radio.

“Captain Webb, this is HQ. You are not in the vicinity to provide support? Is that correct?” Harwell said solemnly.

“Correct, Sir. What are your orders? Continue to the CDC Facility?” Webb asked.

Harwell then started rambling, “Then it’s over. It’s fucking over. I guess I knew it would all come to this.”

Webb tried to talk to him but Harwell had the transmit button pushed, keeping the line occupied.

“I knew when I had to kill Madison that it was all over. Just too stupid to let it all go, but it’s time.”

There was another long silence, then a click. Webb shouted in the mic, “Major Harwell! Sir, can you hear me? We can redirect and head your direction….” BANG! Then there was dead silence.

CHAPTER 30

“Harwell, Harwell, are you still there? Major Harwell, do you copy? Speak to me, Sir.” Webb looked stunned. He then yelled, “Fuck, fuck, fuck! HQ is gone; it’s fucking gone!”

Priest and the rest of the team looked down, their faces not revealing the emotion inside them.