John POV

“My god Aithen is taking his sweet damn time” I groaned. We’ve been waiting now for quite some time but it seemed that he would never come back, “Can we just go without him?” Jake asked as his stomach rumbled loudly. “We should leave you instead” I answered Jake.

The weather was still getting hotter and hotter, without my equipment I was hit the worst and we couldn't even contact him because the calling system doesn’t work here.

“How long will he take for Christ sake?” - John. 

Aithen POV

“You pose no threat to me...I will heal you so I can crush you fully and watch everyone in despair...You will not beat me, You are merely a puppet in string“ Unknown Voice.

The portal spat me out back into Dimension-1b and my injuries seem to have healed quite well and I can walk and talk again.

Although it still hurts walking, now it’s time to meet everyone again...A sudden thought appeared into my head “...Oh God what has John done?!” I left in charge...That may have been a bad idea.

I couldn’t pick anyone else though as Jack, Kaylee, Jake and Thomas have only been a part of the team for a few months whereas Me and John have been for over five years.

Well I’ll hope for the best, I saw a weird building but the doors were open and it looked ransacked so I assume they were here before, “...How long do I have to walk through this heat?” I murmured.

Over the distance I could see a few figures walking, “Must be them” - Aithen, I ran to them and eventually came to realise that it wasn’t them.

“Convenient” - Aithen, instead it was a group of zombies...Nothing like the one I fought back there.

After walking and fighting for so long I was at the rendezvous point and saw everyone there.

“Speak of the devil, what on earth took you so long?” John very politely asked. “I was fighting a zombie a lot stronger than usual,” I replied. “Great, that’s another thing to deal with...We also fought something like that hence the weird goo everywhere” John complained. ‘’Well at least we’re alright’’ I said. ‘’Well my equipment sure as hell ain’t ’’ John complained.

“We should get going now everyone...I have what we need” I told everyone. “How do we get out without the machine?” Jake wondered…”I’ll just set of a...Few...Bombs and hopefully it’ll work.” I said to Jake. “Step back please” I also told Elixium

I got all the Fragment-66 ready and piled it on the floor...Then I pulled the pin off 4 grenades and threw them at the Fragment-66 pile as I ran away.

A large boom sound was heard followed by sounds of gushing water...The smoke cleared and I saw a brand new portal...It looked like it was going to take us somewhere in the ocean.

“Are you actually serious, just what we needed,” John loudly said. ‘’John you may have caught somethings attention’’ Kaylee anxiously said.

‘’Everyone, we have no choice but to go through the portal’’ I shouted. Jack, Kaylee, Jake and Thomas went through the portal but for some reason John decided to stay for a few seconds and shoot the zombies ‘’John you going through the portal or what’’ I asked. John kept shooting and shooting until his gun exploded into pieces ‘’Oh you have got to be kidding me’’ John aggressively said before he ran behind and jumped into the portal. 

Faint whispers were heard all around us but no one could make out what they were saying...A loud voice was heard just before we were spat back out.

I was spat out onto the ground and my body was aching. I brought myself up and looked around…”So we ended up outside?” - Aithen. The same old Facility that we entered at one two hundred and now it’s twenty zero hundred.

I noticed that the cracks I first saw when we first entered were a lot worse than when we first came here, it looked unstable and was ready to collapse, oh wait it just did.

“Well everyone I consider this a mission success...Apart from your equipment John” i told everyone.

“Charles can you get us now we’re out” I radioed to HQ. “About time, I was waiting for more than 15 minutes before I just left,” Charles told me. 

I waited for 15 minutes and the helicopter had finally arrived.

“Thank god, we’re finally out of there” I happily said. “About time” John said like usual.

My body feels so tired after all this, it was probably the hardest mission I’ve ever been assigned to and it looks like everyone else on the team agrees judging by how tired they look.

The helicopter landed and I dragged my tired body out of it. “Trzzz” Static from the radio came through followed by someone from the ZDC. “Hello?...Can you hear me?...I am the chieftain of defence not to be confused with the ceo…I handle the mission side of stuff anyway. I am contacting you to congratulate you on the mission, we have heard how tough it was and we hope that you have grown more because of this…You will hear from me again soon.”

“Tch, like they care,” John exclaimed. “Yeah, they just say that they care but still treat us like animals,” Jake told John.

I hear the team complain about the ZDC all the time…I don’t blame them but they have to deal with it…Sure they treat us horribly but then again also band everyone together to deal with the zombies.

So they should consider that. “Trzzz”...The radio again…Great. “Hello, it's the CEO. I have discussed things with the Chieftain who I assume you’ve already met…We have decided to move you from a Rank-6 Special Ops team to a Rank-3 Special Ops team…Enjoy…Goodbye”...”What is a rank?”

I assume it’s a good thing but I’ve never heard of a rank…Wait and we’re supposed to be one of the strongest special ops/elite groups!.

Well I can talk to them about this when they assign us our new mission, so I can only wait until then.

//Author here...You can find Special Chapters on Webnovel.com just search "The Zombie Reich". It isn't necessary to read them but if you want a little extra info you should check them out! The first one is a Christmas special releasing tomorrow at 10:00 UK Time