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“Well, it’s obvious these weren’t regular people,” Priest answered “They look like local support personnel, but something happened to them to make them almost indestructible to everything except a headshot. My guess is they were somehow exposed to what was being researched here.”

“Yeah, I would agree,” Webb acknowledged.

Abarra nodded his head in agreement.

“Man, the one guy kept crawling with his guts trailing behind. All that dirt was sticking to them almost made them look like octopus tentacles.”

“Jesus, Doc. What the fuck is wrong with you?” Abarra asked. “You are a medic. You’ve seen this shit before.”

“No, not like that. When was the last time you saw a guy with no lower half crawling around with his guts behind him? I’ve never seen that shit. Any of you seen shit like that before? I mean holy shit, that was some fucked up shit…”

“Ok, we get it. Pipe down,” barked Priest.

“Doc, get some blood and tissue samples from two corpses. We’ll take them back for HQ to analyze. I don’t know if they’ll stay viable, but it’s all we got,” Webb ordered.

Doc did as Webb instructed and finished just as the chopper came in to exfil.

The stealth Blackhawk hovered in silently, but the rotor wash stirred up dust and debris. The Blackhawk sat down smoothly and waited for the team to load up.

Neville and Shin came running up and gave Webb and Priest a nod and everyone mounted up. Priest plugged into the bird’s comms, “Get us the hell out of this shit hole!”

CHAPTER 3

101st Airborne Division, Ft Campbell, KY

The Reapers exited the Blackhawk, still shellshocked somewhat by the previous events. Myles had been quiet the entire way back from Turkey; a helicopter back to their forward base, a military hop from Turkey to the UK, another hop from the UK to the US and then a helicopter ride back to Ft. Campbell. Silence the whole way.

Abarra sidled up to Myles, “You feeling alright? You’ve been quiet the entire trip back. Come on, talk to me.”

Myles stopped walking and dropped his eyes to the ground.

“We were shooting civilians, regular people. It was a massacre, and we acted like it was business as usual.” He grew silent again.

“I know it was tough, but those weren’t regular people. Multiple rounds didn’t drop those people for good which was a telltale sign. They should have passed out from the pain. None of that happened. Hell, they should have at least ran the other way when we started firing. To put then in the same category as normal civilians is dangerous.”

Abarra put his arm around Myles and gave him a shake. The two continued to walk into the flight hangar.

As the rest of the team entered the hangar, Webb called the Reapers to form up on him.

“Okay Reapers, let me hear it. We all know that mission was fucked all the way around. It wasn’t the first time we have had to engage civilians, but this was unlike before. I didn’t like it either, so talk freely.”

“What the fuck are we dealing with Cap?” Neville spoke up. “Except for head shots, those people were indestructible.”

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sp; Okay,”Yeah, and what about that damn screeching?” Doc jumped in.

“Not to mention that creepy ass head movement and the clicking,” Shaw finished.

Webb listened intently and shared a look or two with Priest.

“Okay, okay, I hear all of you. Believe me, I have all the same thoughts as you. Priest and I discussed this, but of course, we have no intel to tell us what the hell just happened. We can, however, relay our assumptions.”

Webb looked at Priest, and he nodded. Webb cleared his throat.

“Here is what we believe; the formula that this gaggle of scientists either created or altered has turned into some kind of virus that doesn’t kill its victim, but changes them into the mindless machines. We believe they exposed the civilians we engaged to this virus, and we got a front-row seat to opening night. If they unleash this stuff on the population, I am not sure what we will come across. If that is how they intend to use it.”

“Hopefully we have someone on staff here who can tell us what is going on with this virus and what we are dealing with. We are running blind and I don’t want to jump headfirst into a hornet’s nest,” Priest added.