it was twelve forty-three pm when we left post thirteen, Harry was at the wheel, Helena on the co-pilot´s seat, Liam and I rode in the back seats.

A deep silence reigned supreme inside the cabin, only the wind gusts hitting the vehicle could be heard as well as the occasional clattering of the truck´s suspension soaking up the bumps and the constant buzzing and clicking coming from the radio, even though we have had our fair share of experience in the outside everyone was edgy, we were quite aware that out here everything tries to kill you, make it raiders or the Freaks. 5 minutes after leaving the post Dominique came in over the radio.

- Rescue one, this is Control thirteen, radio check, how copy? over. -

- Control thirteen, this is rescue one, solid copy, over. – Helena replied.

- Roger rescue one, same back here guys, have fun out there and keep the radio on channel twenty-three for now, over and out. –

- Have fun she says, how come she never comes outside with us? – Liam nagged.

- Well, you´ve heard her before, she isn´t a field operative, she is just a radio controller. – Helena told him.

- And you´re going to have that? – Liam asked.

- Yes Liam, as long as she does her job and doesn´t interfere with mine, she can stay in the radio shack all she wants. – She said bleakly.

The two kept bickering for a while and then everyone went silent again, not liking the silence and trying to ease up the mood I had to break up the silence.

- Are we there yet? – I asked.

- Oh my god, don’t even start. – Harry said.

- How much longer? – yelled out Liam in a whiny, childish tone.

- My feet hurt. – Helena said, playing along.

- Harry! Liam is touching me! – I yelled.

- For fuck´s sake! Stop! – Harry yelled.

- We need to go to the bathroom! – The three of us chanted in unison.

Our little gag was suddenly interrupted when Harry stomped on the brakes and made the large vehicle come to a halt causing it to plow heavily to the front and to swerve left almost getting out of the road.

- Ah shit! Harry what the fuck man? – Liam thundered after having bumped his head quite hard with the front seat.

- Is everyone alright? – Harry asked.

- All good back here, Helena? – I said.

- I´m fine. –

- Why are we stopping? – Liam said.

- Look ahead boys. – Helena replied.

I raised my head and saw the cause of such an abrupt and sudden stop, there was a huge long pit on the ground that cut off the road, it was almost 4 meters deep and over 5 meters wide, it blocked our route completely as it crossed the road from side to size and kept on going into the forest, the truck wouldn’t be able to clear it, at this point we were deep into the forest meaning that we couldn´t drive around it because of the trees.

- Jesus, one of those creepy-crawlies is around. – Harry said.

- You mean a *Centipede? – I asked.

- No, Centipedes are much smaller, look at the size of that trail, Must be the female version… what do you chaps call it? – Harry asked.

- A *Millipede, chyort. – Helena Said.

- Scott, you get on the .30 cal and keep an eye out for anything, Helena, you and me will step out and stand guard for a bit, Miller get on that radio and let Dom know our status. – Harry said while taking the seatbelt off and getting out of the car.

Liam opened the roof hatch and manned the gun, I took off my seatbelt and stretched to reach the radio.

- Control thirteen this is rescue one, ummm… the road is completely blocked and we are unable to find a way around, it also seems like a Millipede is around, requesting advice, over. –

- Uhhh… Let me check with HQ to see if there´s any Intel on that. Standby, over. –

- Roger, Standing by. – I replied.

There was radio silence for a couple of minutes then she came back.

- Rescue one control thirteen here, HQ just requested control of the operation a moment ago, switch to channel 32 and wait for instructions, good luck guys, over and out. – Dominique said over the radio.

I reached for the frequency knob and turned it to channel 32 as she said, I heard some clicking and hissing and then the radio dispatcher´s voice from HQ came in.

- Rescue one come in, over. –

- Rescue one here, solid copy go ahead, over. – I said over the handheld microphone.

- Rescue one this is HQ command we are taking over your current assignment, please standby we are already aware of your situation and we´re checking the latest images of that zone, over. –

- Understood, standing by, over. – I said and placed the microphone down.

- Miller, talk to me. - Said Harry.

- HQ took over the op, we are standing by for advice. –

- Arghh shit! What the fuck does Stone want now? - He barked, completely pissed off.

- Stone? Harry, I´m speaking to a radio dispatcher, not the general. –

- You´ll see kid. – He muttered and got back to his business.

The dispatcher came back in.

- Rescue one HQ command here, we checked and it seems that all other possible nearby routes are blocked or have been confirmed with heavy hostile presence and making you go back and take an alternate route would make you lose a considerable amount of time, we advise to continue on foot by the route Ms. Follier initially recommended, over. –

- For fuck´s sake! – Harry roared.

- Command, you do realize that we are talking about 5 miles of harsh, uneven terrain, knee deep in the mud and well inside the red zone in the middle of the night, oh and did I mentioned the Millipede, over? – I asked the dispatcher trying to make her understand how dire the situation was and she was about to respond but she was interrupted and someone else started talking to me.

- Rescue one this is General Stone, your orders are to get to the objective at all costs if you disobey your unit will be facing court martial, is that cleat Lieutenant? – He said in a commanding tone.

- Crystal, sir. –

- Good, you have your orders, now get your asses over there, over and out. –

I placed the mic back in it´s place, Harry´s face was completely red and his fists clenched.

- Stone! That sono-fa-bitch, he should drag his own arse out here and do this himself, after all it´s his fault that those boys ended up in that mess. – Liam Fumed.

- Well, you´ve heard the man, it´s either this or a trial, grab your shit and let´s move. – Harry said while opening the trunk of the truck.

- It´s cold, windy and heavy fog is rolling in, I dunno you guys, but to me this seems like a nice night to take a stroll through the woods. - Helena said in a sarcastic manner.

We grabbed our gear and got off the road to start crossing through the forest, clouds were now covering the moon and the fog wasn´t allowing us to see much ahead so Harry had to use his night vision binoculars constantly to try to see what was up ahead, plus the heavy terrain was not allowing us to move very fast, we had to keep our eyes and ears wide open as we were deep behind enemy lines.

We were walking 30 or 50 meters and stopping to listen to our surroundings, as we got closer to the farm we had to take extra precautions, no one had any idea of what had happened to the poor souls that were here before us.

- My god this thing is uncomfortable. – Helena muttered while pointing at the radio pack in her back.

- Want me to carry it? – Harry asked her but she waved his offer off with a gesture.

- Hey Marcus, do you hear that? – Liam muttered while making a sudden stop, I stopped to listen as well.

- No, not really. – I replied.

- Exactly, it´s too quiet to be a red zone don´t you think? –

- Just keep your mouth shut and your eyes peeled. – I scolded him.

We reached a part of the forest where the fog was not that dense allowing us to see much further, we picked up the pace for a few minutes but Liam suddenly came to a complete stop again.

- Now what? – I whispered, Liam was about to respond but Helena did first.

- Contact front get down, I see four at 10´o clock, 70 meters ahead. –

We all went prone and got our guns ready.

- Four what Helena? – I asked.

- I… I don´t know. – She replied confused.

- Helena, grab the night vision and tell me what they are. – I said.

She looked through the binoculars for a moment, she had a disgusted and confused expression.

- Umm… I´m not even sure what those things are, it looks like a dog, a really big, ugly dog. -

- Bloodhounds, just stay still and let them pass. – I whispered.

- Oh so that´s what they look like. – Helena said quite pleased for some reason and passed the binoculars to me.

I decided to take a look as well, the night vision gave me a very clear image of what was up ahead and oh boy it was quite the horrifying view, the four bulky creatures were walking and sniffing around in a pack, they somehow retained that instinct of staying in a group.

The Bloodhounds are basically mutated wolves or even dogs that got infected by the nova virus and got rejected by the forced evolutionary process that it induces resulting in some horrific mutations: loss of fur, hyperdeveloped musculature, increase in size, changes in behavior patterns, and aggressiveness amongst some other stuff. Most animals were initially immune to airborne contagion of the virus but as the death toll rose sky-high, the food began to come at a premium and the bodies started to cover the streets so most carnivorous animals started feeding off the carcasses that either were already infected or in a decomposition state, this gradually led to the appearance of some of what we call ¨the dark ones¨, a clear example are the Bloodhounds, they´re big, fast, strong and very deadly both alone and in a pack.

After a little while they were away enough for us to keep moving towards the farm.

- Right let´s keep moving, we are well behind schedule. – Liam remarked.

The farm finally came into sight after 30 minutes more of harsh terrain, bugs, trees and dense vegetation, I could see three big barns on our left, the back of a two-story high house in the middle and a big corn field to the right stretching all the way to the front of the house, everything was quiet again.

- All right let´s split up, Marcus, you and Helena search the house for any clues or supplies, Liam and I will check the barns, we´ll regroup inside the house in fifteen minutes, if we hear any shots we´ll come running so please do the same and keep us informed through your radios. – Harry instructed, we all nodded and split up.

Helena and I reached the back porch of the house, I unsheathed my knife to break in but to my surprise the door was ajar, we both looked at each other and stood in place for a moment trying to detect any sort of noise coming from the inside but no sound could be heard, I walked inside of what seemed to be a storage room with a lot of empty boxes scattered around, we moved slowly trying not to bump into anything and we both turned our flashlights on to get a better view of our surroundings, the air was thick and damp but it wasn´t just a regular dampness, it felt heavy and I was sure that something was decomposing somewhere in here.

- Do you smell that Marcus? – Helena said taking a hand to her face to cover her mouth and nose.

- It reminds me of that time in Stalingrad when you and I met. – I replied.

- Exactly my thought. –

We reached a doorway leading into a hallway that connected to the kitchen and the living room at the front of the house, it also had a door that seemed to be an access to the basement, we kept moving nice and slowly with our weapons at the ready, as we got closer we noticed a couple of bodies by the end of the hallway, we stepped into the kitchen and started running through the cabinets, I found some salt, pepper, baking soda and a bit of sugar and coffee grains in one of the top cabinets, Helena found some soap under the sink.

- Aside from this it seems like the guys before us wiped everything clean, let´s check the rest of this floor and move upstairs, you take the basement and I´ll check the bodies at the living room to see if any of them might be our people. – I told her.

- Sure, with a bit of luck I´ll find some booze for the old man, I heard he is running low on whiskey and he gets grumpy when he doesn´t have his daily dose. –

- Holler out if you need anything. –

- Will do. – She nodded.