Christmas Fair
Burlington, Vermont
December 20, 2020
8 p.m.
Echo Squad (McRay, Speck, Reynolds, Harrison, Mendez, Nonato)
Echo Squad had made its way to the fairgrounds not long before the speech by the mayor had started, Sergeant McRay gestured his squad to keep a scattered formation to try to not draw much attention. Thankfully the guardsmen's presence didn't create much a problem as people went about their business as if they were not there. McRay for his part kept vigilant despite most of his squad having a somewhat relaxed pace.
"Sergeant, permission to partake in the festivities and maybe get laid!" Asked Reynolds over the comms.
"Denied," Was McRay's sole response as he kept one hand tightly onto his M4 and another one onto his holster. Though everyone in the fair seemed to be uninterested in their presence he knew that any looney could try anything.
It didn't take long for the local mayor to show up on stage, applause rang out along the crowd while the guardsmen either watched or were preoccupied with something else. For McRay it was neither, all he cared about was the people in the audience, he didn't truly expect it on a random Eastern Coast town in Vermont but life had taught him to expect the most in the unlikeliest of place, either that or he just had delusions of something greater happening.
The speech continued on, for most of the guardsmen it was nothing but a boring monologue from a man long past his political prime going on and on about the cliches of family and community. Each Guardsmen had their own thing going on. Reynolds for his part scanned the horizon in sight of any fine pieces of ass to venture for. Speck kept himself quiet as he continued to listen to the speech. Harrison thought back of home, hoping that he'd he able to make it back home eventually, he had not seen them in weeks and wanted to get his little girl a surprise. Mendez for her part saw a picture of her parents, she had joined the Guard to get through school and it was during these times on the holidays that she regretted it all. Lastly it was Nonato who also kept himself quiet as always but not listening to the speech or thinking of much at all, he was a man of mystery.
It was then that a commotion began to occur, which drew the immediate attention from McRay and several of the Guardsmen of Echo Squad as the Mayor himself called it out.
"Oh, come on, Ed!" A voice from the crowd exclaimed.
"No, no it's okay. I wanted to keep this short anyway--" before he could continue, the Mayor would be interrupted by the same voice.
"No Ed, I said knock it OFF!" Confused, the Mayor turned his sights to a man who was now wrestling another man, a paramedic.
"What's-- What's going on? Can someone, can someone..." Mayor trailed off as his words were starting to get drowned out by what seemed like a panicked crowd. A group of people, mostly men came out of an alleyway and began attacking the attendees, bruises, and bites visible on their bodies. Mayor Ed wanted to call for the police to do something, only to be told by one of his aides that people who seemed to be members of law enforcement were among the attackers. Unsure what to do he would be dragged away into the City Hall by his staff members.
Reynolds was the closest to where the incident was occurring, an alleyway of all places. As people were shouting and surrounding the area the Guardsmen approached with a calm walk as he tried to talk down the crowd.
"Everybody keep calm, what's the problem here!?" Reynolds shouted up to little avail as people continued to yell and crowd up around. The Guardsmen set his weapon aside as he tried to push people off the scene. "National Guard, vacate the vicinity people come one!"
It was then that the next thing Reynold's saw was a pair of bloodshot eyes coming at him as he was tackled by a woman of blonde hair and severely bruised face, her grip was a strong one as it held onto Reynold's masked face with little effort and pinned him to the ground as he let out grunts while trying to get the crazed women off him. While this occurred all the laughs and exhilarating festive joy quickly began to turn into screams of horror and yells of panic as bloodied-up people with void eyes and expressions of inhumane hunger seemingly from all walks of life, even law enforcement, began to descend onto the crowd from nowhere.
"What is going on there, Reynolds!?" Harrison asked through the commns as he began to approach the scene only to have crowds of civilians run in all directions and more of these crazed people attack the fair goers without any hesitation.
"Echo Squad on me!" McRay acted fast as he loaded up his M4 and pushed away any of the incoming civilians who were running off.
"Go it," Mendez said as he approached the Sergeant, next was Nonato, then Speck, all the while Harrison approached where Reynolds was supposed at only to then hear yells from the guardsmen through his comms followed by what seemed to be sounds of blooded up coughs and grunts. Pushing off a civilian who was recording the whole thing with his iPhone Harrison found Reynold's body being chomped up by a crazed woman, her mouth covered in his fellow guardsmen's blood as she was bitting on a chunk of flesh from the guardsmen.
"Mother of God!?" Was Harrisson's sole reaction as he felt himself nearly falling onto the ground from utter shock. Other crazed people had begun to maul many of the fairgoers and Harrison's first instinct was to raise his rifle at the women who had attacked his brother in arms.
"ON THE GROUND NOW!" He yelled through his mask, the women cared little for his commands as she rose up and began to walk towards the Guardsmen, Harrison took a few steps back while repeating the command.
" I won't say it again, ON THE FUCKING GROUND!" He yelled out as he pulled onto the loading rack of his M16, the women once more did not seem to care for the man's orders as she raised her hands, and with her mouth opened wide she tried to grapple at him only to be fired upon once through the chest. The woman was only taken aback by the shot as she continued to walk forward as if nothing had happened which only caused more panic from the locals and for Harrison as well as he continued to walk back in utter horro.
"Harrison, what's going on!" McRay asked as he and the remaining squad arrived at the scene, next thing he saw was Reynold's bloodied body on the ground and several maniacs bitting down on the cadavers of civilians, some of these maniacs were police officers. Harrison didn't say anything as he merely looked upon the scene with widened terrified eyes.
"Harrison!" McRay yelled as he shook on the Corporal's shoulder, "HARRISON!" It was then that Harrison finally came to his senses and looked right at McRay.
"What happened?!" The Sergeant asked once more in frustration.
"I-i fired on her and she didn't even flinch!" Harrison said with a panicked voice, McRay looked upon the dozens of crazed maniacs as more of them began to arrive from the alleyway. They had to be on some kind of drug, there had to be some explanation, and quickly it dawned on him, the virus. It was real, it was all real and it was here.
"Fire at will, we need to get these civies out of here!" McRay said as he then raised his rifle and immediately fired 3 shots in quick succession, the first two aimed at the women's chest once more and the last one right at the head which finally made her go down. THe Guardsmen began to fire in droves, some shots aimed at the crazed maniacs while others aimed at people who were not even doing anything, it all quickly turned into chaos as McRay's orders were drawn out by the appearance of a helicopter above them.
After a couple of minutes of chaos a helicopter bearing the markings of the National Guard would appear over the heads of the panicked crowd. Blasting a pre-recorded message telling everyone to return to their homes, pilot's actions only contributed to the mayhem. As the townsfolk desperately tried to disperse, they would leave a number of injured people to their own fates. Men, women and children of all backgrounds began to drown in pools of their own blood as their bodies were covered with what appeared to be bite marks.
What was supposed to be a family friendly event turned into a bloodbath in a matter of minutes.
The Heli's appearance surprised McRay but it gave him a sense of relief as he hoped reinforcements had arrived to help them control the chaos.
"CEASE FIRE!" He yelled out to his squad as they continued to move backwards in direction of the townhall. He then changed frequencies to hopefully contact the helicopter's pilot.
"Echo Squad here, we need immediate assistance down here!"
"Echo Squad, this is the Ranger, we have a situation at the hospital. Can't spare any men right now." The voice from the helo's pilot rang through on McRay's comms.
"Sarge theres more coming!" Harrison yelled in a panic as he and Mendez began to fire automatic fire onto a crowd of maniacs who had appeared from the main road. McRay saw in disbelief as droves of seemingly Kongo-infected maniacs were mauling police officers and civilians alike. He once more looked up to the Helicopter and this time spoke with a frustrated tone.
"Ranger, we're getting overrun here we need immediate evac!" McRay once more called through as he fired once more onto incoming infected, killing two while continuing to retreat back towards the town hall.
"Can't do, Echo Squad - orders from the command."
"Sarge we-" Speck's voice was suddenly cut off by the appearance of dozens of infected right from behind him as they descended onto him, pulling off his mask and pulling onto his gear as one of them bit off a chunk of Speck's face he let out a yell of utter pain. McRay and the others could do little but watch in terror as Nonato then fired a volley of LMG fire onto the infected.
"YOU TELL DRISCOLL I'LL FUCKING KILL HIM MYSELF IF YOU DONT COME DOWN AND GET US OUT OF HERE
"Sorry Echo Squad, can't risk it. It's too chaotic down there." Those were the last words McRay needed to hear to realize the gravity of their situation as more infected began to appear and civilians ran around like crazy people, at this point he couldn't differentiate who was who. Worse was still hearing Speck's screams of pain as the infected were consuming him alive.
"Sarge we need to get out of here now!" Harrison screamed once more in panic. Nonato continued to lay down fire onto the waves of infected while Mendez was now covering the squad's six. McRay's mind razed as he looked at the helicopter once more as it was ascending upwards, seemingly abandoning them to their fate. McRay had to make a call now, either to venture into the fire, stay here in the frying pan or have a defensive chance at the town hall.
The first thing McRay did was aim at Speck's head, though he didn't say it, it was clear by Speck's expression that he wanted to go and McRay wouldn't deprive him of a quick death as he fired a single round into the man's forehead. The Sergeant then looked back to the squad, none of them faulting him for what he had just done.
"To the town hall now!" McRay's order was quickly followed as Nonato, Harrison and Mendez quickly turned their attention to the town hall behind them and the squad began their push towards it, past the cadavers of many fairgoers and the main stage which had caught fire somehow.
"Hello's leaving now!" Mendez commented as she looked up the sky and the helicopter flew away. She didn't understand what was happening but it was all like a scene from hell, people eating people. It was then that as McRay's squad made their way up the stairs that Mendez was suddenly jumped by an infected, he had a bite mark right on his neck and it didn't seem that he was infected at first glance and yet he grabbed onto Mendez's arm and bit down to it piercing through the protective layer and right onto her flesh. Mendez let out a scream of pain as she didn't know how to react and tried to pull away from the attacker, it was then that McRay appeared and hit the infected with his rifle right onto his head, pushing him off and causing him to roll down the stairs. Mendez seemed to be in complete shock as she didn't know what to do now.
"Mendez, Mendez!?" McRay yelled out.
"She's in shock sarge!" Harrison said as he grabbed Mendez by her other arm.
"Let's ger her inside, come on squad double time!" With that, McRay's squad quickly made its way inside the town hall, unknown to them of just how badly everything truly had turned now.