Drabble: First Patrol of the Outbreak

It has been less than 24 hours since Sergeant Ashford and his battalion arrived at Randolph Air Force Base in Austin, Texas. Already, they are making patrols within and around the state capital city to try and keep the peace and maintain order. Even though it has been a few days since the order was given to deploy all military units into action to deal with this new crisis, not much has been given to the battalion in the way of information about the outbreak. They have learned more through social media and being on the field rather than from their incompetent superiors.

Rumors spread quickly through the Air Force Base. The dead were coming back to life to attack the living. Those dead or infected can only be put down with a headshot. If you are attacked and bit by the infected, there is no saving you from dying from a sickness that burns through you like a wildfire. This outbreak is everywhere, not just in the major cities. Across the globe and in rural areas. Almost like god flipped a switch and changed how the world worked.

Unfortunately for Sgt. Ashford, any teeny bit of information that his radio operator and driver, Corporal Ray Persons, spews the information any chance he gets. There is not a day that goes by when Ashford tells motormouth Ray to shut up. Though, Ashford will play into Ray’s constant talking with banter. Joking with Ray about him being trailer trash among many other things.

The platoon that Ashford and Ray are in was tasked to patrol the rural areas East of the capital city. Luckily on their travels, they didn’t get into any situations with the dead or infected. Only civilians trying to get away from the city center or trying to make it into the city to get to one of the several refugee camps that were being set up. Just in those few encounters, it was obvious that the populus was frightened about the outbreak and what was being shown on the news.

Daylight was running out and it was time to return back to the airfield where they were basing themselves out of. Just as they were about to turn around, one of the squads from a different platoon got on the radio. “This is Assassin-Actual. We are RTB with two casualties. Bite wounds to the shoulder and arms. Over.”

“Jesus Christ, Ashford. Two in Alpha got bit and they are returning to base,” Cpl. Ray said just after listening to the battalion communications.

“Do we know who and what happened?” Sgt. Ashford said as he and the others in the humvee looked to Ray for any answers. Ray only shook his head and looked back to the road. “F***…” Ashford said under his breath as the humvee grew silent. 

“This is Hitman 2 to all victors, we are done with our patrol. We are turning around at the next intersection and RTB. Over.” The Platoon Commander, LT. Nate Fick, ordered all humvees to turn around and return to base.

Once they got to the next intersection, every humvee turned around and started to make their way back towards the state capital and to Randolph Air Force Base. If it wasn’t for the humvee’s engine and driving on the road, it was silent as the grave. Ashford knew that it wasn’t good for his men to keep their mind on what his driver just said about the two casualties from Alpha Company. It probably didn’t help that Ray was spewing the rumors about those who getting bit will die fairly quickly.

To get their minds off of the news, Ashford slowly started to slowly sing a cult classic. Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus. Little did they know, it was going to get much worse from this point on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjueQs1JkTE