We went out and she went down stairs, I headed over to the living room with the rifle at the ready, as I stepped in I took a quick glimpse and noticed that the door had been knocked down by something big and then I found out there were even more corpses than what I had anticipated, 7 of them in total all scattered and mangled around, I noticed that they were all uniformed in the same black jumpsuit but these weren’t AOG uniforms like ours and had no tags or insignias, extremities and chunks of flesh were gone and one corpse was missing it´s head, this definitely had been done by bloodhounds and from the decomposition and smell I would say that these guys had been here a couple of weeks already, some of them showed small signs of mutation by nova so before they had a chance to come back as a crazy I had to make sure they never did.

I took my M1911 out, attached the suppressor to it and blew a hole in the heads of all of them who still had one attached, their weapons were still scattered around so I looted the bodies.

- Nice and quiet gets the job done. – I sang and slung the rifle on my back.

I reloaded the gun and as I was going to holster it up I heard a loud thump followed by a muffled scream coming from underneath, I ran to the basement door, went downstairs as fast as I could and saw a ¨crazy¨ in top of Helena, she was keeping him at bay but struggling, trying not to get bit, she placed her left arm on the crazy´s throat and with the other hand reached for her Tokarev.

- Wait, I got him, if you shoot that thing with your own gun you´ll attract some unwanted attention. – I said.

- Well, what are you waiting for!? – She grunted.

I shot the creature twice in the head and it´s body went completely limp, it made a whiffing sound as it took it´s last breath, he was wearing the same uniform as the guys upstairs and had a big bite mark on the back of his neck.

- Whoof, thanks Marcus, the bastard was locked inside the closet but the hinges gave up and he jumped on me when I got close, I found this on the ground near the closet, must be his. – She said as she got up and handed me small book with a leather cover.

- Must be some sort of personal journal, I Found 7 guys wearing the same attire as his. – I pointed at the body of the crazy. - No names, dog tags or insignias, let’s get back upstairs and finish searching the house. – I said and placed the journal in my backpack.

We went up the stairs and came up to the middle of a corridor with three rooms, 2 had their doors wide open one was closed shut, the master bedroom was right in the middle, there was another room to our left towards the back of the house which was the one with the door closed and a bathroom to the right towards the front of the house. This floor had another gruesome and tragic scene as well, the walls were stained with blood but it wasn´t fresh and it was evident that this had happened way before the guys downstairs, probably during the initial wave of infected.

In the master bedroom the skeleton of an adult was lying on the floor near the doorway and facing up, judging by the size I could determine it was a male, it still had some dried rotten flesh in it but it was almost picked clean, there was a revolver and a sawed-off double barreled shotgun a few feet away, his hands were stretched towards the weapons as if trying to reach them while being pinned down by something, as I walked further inside the room I saw that there was a blood trail leading from the side of the bed to the doorway indicating that the body had been dragged out and pinned down… a slow death.

- Holy shit. Helena stay here and cover the stairs while I search the room, I´ll hustle up and check it fast, this stench is unbearable. – I said with a gloomy tone, she nodded and turned around.

I then saw another corpse lying in the bed and this one was a bit more ¨fleshy¨ but almost down to the bones as well, it had a wide hole in the forehead probably a mercy shot from our friend at the door way, based in it´s lower height and how the bones in this body seemed thinner I could make a safe assumption that it was a female, husband and wife maybe?

I searched the drawers and found a couple of full .45ACP and .38 special boxes, as well as some 12 gauge 00 buckshot and ten .30-03 rounds.

- Uuuuh… Miller? Come here please. – I heard Helena say.

- Coming. – I replied and headed out to the other bedroom taking the revolver and the shotgun with me.

- Listen. – She whispered and made a gesture indicating me to be quiet and listen, It was the sobbing of a child it was very subtle but I could hear it clearly enough, we walked slowly to the other room that had the closed door where the noise seemed to be coming from, I got to the door and placed my left ear against it so I could hear better, I held my breath and there it was, that sobbing again but this time I could hear it louder and clearer, it was definitely coming from in there, I grabbed the door knob with my left hand and turned it very slowly while clutching my pistol with the other hand.

I opened the door of the room only to realize that another macabre scene awaited us, Helena was shocked and bursted into tears by what she saw.

There were two beds, one with light blue blankets in the left and the other one with pink ones on the right, two small corpses were tied by the hands and feet to the bed frame with a thick rope, one in each bed, they both had a dress matching the color of the bed they were in… must´ve been little girls by the age of six or seven, their skin was almost gray and they had no hair and their face was covered by a small white rag, I took a step to get up close but Helena stopped me.

- Miller, they are tied to the bed frame for a reason and… Shit, I think their chest is moving. – She whispered while staring at me, her eyes were red and teary, as she said that she pointed at them and when she did they began to thrash around in the bed trying to break free from their restraints, I took my gun and fired two rounds hitting the pink one in the chest and making it puke a black goo, I took aim and fired once more hitting it right in the forehead causing it´s skull to pop in two halves and sending it backwards, splattering grey jelly all over the wall, the blue one let out a loud, long and eerie screech before I walked to it and shot it twice in the head.

- Screamers, the children of Stalingrad suffered the same fate as these two. – She said while wiping a few tears off.

Harry came in over the radio and I walked over to the bathroom and found some bandages, morphine, aspirin and alcohol…what the fuck was this morphine doing here.

- Marcus come in, did you heard that screech? What the hell was that? –

- Marcus here, we came across a pair of screamers Harry, I´ve dealt with them, but there is some nasty shit over here, very gruesome. Any luck on your end? Over. –

- We found two jeeps and a M70 hellcat tank in the first and second barns but had no fuel, no markings and were black. We also found our boys… they were locked inside the third barn, tied down and shot in the head, all six of them, their guns and ammo are gone and there are some vehicle tracks outside, they look like they were done by something heavy, halftracks I would say, at least two of them. –

- I heard Desmond´s raiders had a couple of half-tracks among their vehicles but last I heard we were in good terms with them weren´t we? Over. – I peeked through the window and noticed a shadow by the corn field right in front of the house.

- Well, WE are, WE as in post thirteen, for all Desmond cares the rest of the AOG is fair game. –

- I see. I found some bodies over here, a couple of weeks old and all wearing black military jumpsuits and carrying German weaponry, the usual MP44k´s, Lugers, Walthers and K98 but no tags, no names and I can´t tell which nationality they are due to the decomposition, over -

- Right, I´ll grab the dog tags of our boys and head over there, don´t move, over. – Harry said in a concerned tone.

- We´re not going anywhere, be careful, I think I just saw a bloodhound by the field in front of the house. Over and out. – I said and placed the radio back in it´s pouch.

- Helena, please radio HQ and tell them the whole team from post seven was found KIA, we are heading back. -

- Right away Miller. – She replied and turned the radio pack on.

- Command this is rescue one come in, over. – She called over the microphone but we got nothing but static back.

- Try again – I told her.

- Command, rescue one here do you copy? Over? – No one answered.

I then heard Liam and Harry coming upstairs.

- Over here you old fart. – I joked.

- Oh fuck you! Were you able to get a hold of HQ? – Harry said, panting.

- No, why are you guys so agitated? – I asked, Liam ran to the front window.

- Remember that bloodhound you mentioned earlier? Well he´s back. – Harry said still trying to catch his breath.

- And he brought some friends! – Liam said while peeking through the window.

- Shit, we need to go now! How many Liam? – I said.

-I count seven and two more coming out of the field but there could be more, I´m not sure.

- Distance? – Harry asked.

- A group of four in front of the house about forty meters away, the other three are moving around to the back by the left, there´s two more in the fields but they are staying put. –

- They know we´re here, they are prepping up their attack. – I said.

- What? Miller they´re animals, I doubt they can´t be that smart. – Helena cried.

- This isn’t a matter of being smart, it´s a matter of instinct. – Liam said.

- Liam, what channel was Dominique on? – I asked.

- Channel twenty-three, why? –

- I believe something might be jamming our signal here, Helena switch to channel twenty-three and see if you can raise Domino, Liam you come with me downstairs and help me put some claymores in the entrances. Harry you cover us from above and if they get too close you open fire, if not wait for my signal, we´ll try to hit first. – I said and we all mobilized, Liam and I went downstairs trying not to make much noise, he went to the back of the house and planted some trip mines, I did the same.

- Miller they are just standing there in the front, staring at us. – Harry said over the radio.

- Same back here Marcus. – Liam added.

- Alright everyone pick a target, open fire on my mark. – I said.

I took position in one of the windows at the front, the Harry was exactly above me beside Helena who was still trying on the radio, Liam was on the back in a window as well, the bloodhounds formed up and began moving slowly towards the house, they may not see us but they knew we were there.

- Thirty-five meters – Harry whispered on the radio.

- Steady. – I replied, the bloodhounds picked up the pace as they got closer.

- Twenty-five meters. –

- Steady! –

They were almost running now but all of a sudden what seemed to be the alpha male stopped and the rest did the same, there was a short silence and then it belted out a loud, long howl, in the distance he received an answer, the sound made my skin crawl, it must´ve been hundreds more.

- Oh this is going to get good. – Said Harry.

- I doubt we brought enough ammo mate. – Liam remarked.

- Indeed. – I muttered.