Other than boot camp, Andrew never felt weeks could pass as quickly as the last ones were. To be fair, he didn’t really do much other than work out, eat, sleep, and wait for the break to end. It was a good break, but that’s all it was: a break.
Everyone in CDR-4 returned to the CDR base that evening. Smith had a glum smile, Singh had dip, Kang was stoic, and Gutierrez was jet-lagged as all hell. “Those flights are a fuckin’ pain in the ass. They act like their fuckin’ bosses will lose their money ‘cuz Mister Mexican wants a couple more peanuts.”
“Why not move them here?” Singh asked. “My parents wanna move here—not that I’d let them within a hundred miles of me.”
“Well my family’s all happy in the US of A. If I try to move my wife, I’ll have to move her mom, dad, grandparents, cousins, and… it gets overly complicated. Not everyone’s bought into this island, even if it’s rich as hell.”
The Sergeant was the last to arrive, though her tardiness was probably work-related. Ever since that meeting with upper, she’s been handed errand after errand. She might as well be promoted.
“Good to see everyone’s here,” the Sergeant said with her usual can of Monster in her hand. “Considering I wasn’t called about a DUI, I assume you guys didn’t do dumb shit. Or at least you were able to run away in time. In any case, a new week means new problems.”
They entered the base where CDR-3 was already waiting. Andrew recognized Sergeant Horrigan, their team leader, as well as their mascot on matching PT shirts—the Spartans. But despite that tough armored mascot, they looked half-dead.
Sergeant Horrigan stood up and shook Sergeant Yang’s hand. “Good to see you, Yang. It’s been a real wringer of a week. We had three calls at the same time, so we had to recall CDR-1 and 2. Can’t say they were too happy.”
Andrew was a little confused, since rotation period was supposed to be their break. But Kang was observant enough to whisper, “You can always be recalled during rotation, so it’s not fully carefree.”
CDR-3 picked up their duffle bags and fistbumped CDR-4 as they swapped. The only animosity was from an Asian girl in CDR-3. She gave Smith a nasty look as she ignored his hand.
“Jesus,” Andrew whispered. “What happened there?”
He was only given more questions as he made it to the barracks. Everyone’s bed was perfectly made, except for Smith’s. His sheets were strewn everywhere as a poster wrote, Fuck you and your new girlfriend.
Oh. Wait. That actually explained everything.
“Why the hell is Mary still mad about our breakup?” Smith scoffed, still referring to her by her first name. He tore down the poster and remade the bed. “I literally told her that I couldn’t handle her crazy ass, so she decided to just get crazier!”
Singh chuckled as she looked at Andrew. “Park is a real psycho. Last time, she left rotten fish all over Smith’s bed. It smelled so bad, Sergeant Yang had to counsel her for ‘sabotaging CDR efforts’. Long story short, Park promised Sergeant Horrigan to only do temporary damage that wouldn’t stink up the whole shop.”
They put their bags underneath their beds and set up their watch rotations. Two people would be awake, probably working on maintenance, and the other four would be asleep. “The Sergeant prefers to stay awake,” Singh explained. “I have no idea how her body hasn’t shut down.”
Andrew and Singh were on the first watch. Sitting by the truck, they could see the Sergeant scrolling through her emails, of which she had plenty. They watched as she crushed another energy drink before popping a new one.
“I bet my nicotine addiction is healthier,” Singh chuckled.
The Sergeant turned like a possessed gargoyle. “It’s not. Get back to work.”
Andrew and Singh went right back to maintenance as the horrifying stare from the Sergeant spiked them awake. With that much fear, they were able to check on the engine, the doors, the weapons, and even the APE suits. After an hour or so, the Sergeant finally had to take a phone call.
“What’s up Bates…”
She left the room, finally giving the two watchstanders a moment to breathe. “God, that was close,” Singh chuckled. “I wouldn’t wanna fuck with her even if I earned a million bucks from it.”
Andrew nodded. He had a cold sweat from the Sergeant’s stare. It was ten times worse than any panic he had felt in boot camp. “The Sergeant, was she in the military or something?” There didn’t seem to be any other way she developed that level of intimidation without it.
“You haven’t heard?” Singh asked. “She was a Marine Sergeant in the Chinese-American war a couple years ago. You know, the shortest but bloodiest war in human history.”
Andrew’s eyes shot up. He must’ve been in middle school at that time when that war kicked off. It apparently lasted only a couple weeks until untold lives were lost, boats were landed, and the two superpowers made peace. “Shit…”
“Apparently, she was first wave in the landing. I think it was Shanghai… or was it Beijing…? Anyway, she was first wave and kicked a lot of ass. I’m guessing that when the war was over, she was just bored.”
“So she joined the CDRs?”
“They pay well, especially in New Changan. She probably was tired of seeing familiar faces too, since the American CDRs are full of prior military. The second-best thing to a firefight is a demon fight I guess.”
With a fresh dip in her mouth, Singh sighed as she spat some fluid into a plastic bottle. “Sometimes I wonder what goes on in her head too. A real badass like that probably has her own demons in her head. Even though she doesn’t spend much time with us outside of work, we all trust her like a mother.”
Andrew nodded. He still remembered when the Sergeant pushed him out of harm’s way, literally saving his life. Even now, she was taking the brunt of responsibility, including the consequences.
“Honestly,” Singh sighed. “I think she’s tired of losing people.”
“Huh?”
“She probably lost people in China, then lost more people in the CDRs. If it was my guess, she’s tired of seeing faces she couldn’t save. That’s probably why she gets more distant from us, especially as more new faces show up. Now, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t care—she definitely cares—but this job is chipping away at her.”
Suddenly, the alarms blared and the two of them stood up. “Fuck! Get the weapons! I’ll get the APEs!”
She loaded the APEs onto an automated cart and slammed the button. The suits were loaded onto the truck as Andrew did the same with the machineguns. It didn’t take long for the rest of the team to assemble at the loading dock with their uniforms and boots.
Sergeant Yang promptly arrived with a fresh can. It was almost like seeing a magician appear with a white dove. “Got everything loaded?” she calmly asked.
“Everything’s good to go!” Singh replied.
They huddled into the truck and Gutierrez started the engine. He floored it onto the road before blasting the sirens. The address was already pulled up as Sergeant Yang quickly set up the radio.
“Command, this is CDR-4, do you read?”
“CDR-4, this is command,” Lieutenant Bates replied on the other end. “Standby for situation brief.” The radio went silent for a second. Sergeant Yang took the time to get out pen and paper.
“Situation began at 0038 in the New Changan Botanical Garden. Target is likely a medium-level threat which mimics moss-like features that have infested the facility. All unprotected humans were consumed by the target and transformed into infested mutants. You have authorization to neutralize them; their medical status is determined as dead despite their control by the target.”
Sergeant Yang took this all down on her notes. “Any other details, command?”
“CDR-4, this is all I know. My professional guess is that the target is at the center of the moss. Standby for authorization from the city to torch the place to high hell as you make your way to the target. Over.”
Smith sighed as he checked on the thermite grenades. “If only those pigs in the council would just let us firebomb a moss demon, then everything would be a hundred-ten percent easier.”
“Then we wouldn’t be CDRs. We’d be soldiers,” Kang replied. “We can’t destroy the entire city every time a demon shows up. We’ll have to do our best to conserve damage as best as possible.”
The truck arrived at the front of the botanical garden. From here, nothing seemed to be wrong. Not through the windows, even though they reflected the blue and red sirens of the police perimeter. A whole brigade of cops had the place surrounded, in case infected people shuffled up.
This was a recipe for disaster.
“APEs on!” the Sergeant ordered.
It didn’t take long for them to put on their suits. Even Andrew took less than a minute to fit the thing around his body. It still felt like it belonged to someone else, Wade, but he still had a job to do.
Gutierrez yawned through the microphone. “Alright sar’nt. You got a plan?”
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The Sergeant took a second to breathe as she looked around. She had a quick work with the cops, probably about the logistics of rescuing survivors or differentiating them from the infected, only to receive confused shrugs. “Sounds like we’re being sent in alone, as usual. Police aren’t sure if the demon is spreading itself through spores.”
“Dumbasses,” Smith scoffed.
Kang chimed, “To be fair, the APEs have an integrated breathing filtration system, but their caution is understandably irritable. Anyhow, I suppose we should move as one. Splitting up when facing an anomalous demon isn’t smart.”
“I agree,” the Sergeant said. “We should have good crossing fires as we move through. If we can pinpoint the origin of the demon, then we can nip this in the bud. Best case scenario, we can try capturing it alive.”
The Sergeant showed the inventions the lab recently came up with: electric wire that could easily wrap itself around a demon and shock it into submission. Completely prototypical, but there was at least an attempt. “As I said: best case scenario. If things seem to be going south, blow its head off.”
Smith chuckled. “Sounds good to me.”
***
The CDR team moved inside with their APE suits whirring around them. As invincible as these suits apparently were, Andrew felt completely vulnerable as he looked around in infrared-vision. Everything was cold, except for the buddies around him.
“W-W-Welcome t-t-to the Ne-e-ew Changa-an–”
The welcome hologram glitched as the team passed through. Stuck on the same audio recording, the machine was doomed to repeat the same phrase. “W-W-Welcome t-t-to the Ne-e-ew Changa-an…”
The Sergeant was at least able to secure a map of the garden. “Just got some more intel from command. Looks like most of the place isn’t touched by the demon, meaning we’re not gonna get authorization to cause long-term damage—like burning this place to the ground. Looks like they’re concentrated on the eastern wing.”
They moved to the eastern entrance. The dim lights surely didn’t provide much help, though their infrareds didn’t need them regardless. “The first area is Woodland. Keep your eyes peeled. Don’t zip any civilians.”
Gutierrez busted down the door and they moved through. Even here, there didn’t seem to be any sign of infection. The trees were awfully peaceful, given the circumstances. “Keep it steady, team.”
They moved as one diamond with Andrew at the front. He held his breath as his eyes darted about. “Sergeant…” he muttered in the microphone, “are trees supposed to have a heat signature?”
Gutierrez chuckled before the Sergeant could even answer. “Chino, do you hear yourself? Trees have a heat signature, even if it isn’t a big…” He stopped speaking all of a sudden. Everyone looked over, though with their machineguns still trained on their areas.
“Guti’. You good?” Singh asked. Then she looked at the same tree he was looking at. She also froze.
There was the obvious heat signature of a human clawing out from inside that tree. It looked almost like he was scratching at a fleshy membrane, for the inside of the tree was anything but bark. “Holy fucking shit… is that guy… is that guy alive…?”
“Team!” the Sergeant called. She pointed over at the deeper part of the section. “There’s more.”
Countless wooden cocoons trapped around countless human victims. They seemed to be eating the people like flytraps—dissolving their body until it became a hot slime of digestible fluid. Even with the infrared vision, they could see the carnage unfold before them.
“Kang! Gutierrez! Break those open!” the Sergeant called. “I want everyone else to maintain security while I call for medical aid!”
Everyone finally broke out of their petrified horror as Gutierrez and Kang went to work. They pulled the first person out before the chemical process could begin. They coughed a fit as they stumbled onto the ground into unconsciousness.
“Command. This is CDR-4. Do you read?” the Sergeant called.
“CDR-4, this is Command, what do you need?”
“I need medical staff stat,” the Sergeant replied. “I got people being dissolved into… just get a medical and chemical team here. I also want police to not only escort them, but to bring the perimeter closer inside.”
There was a pause. “CDR-4, be advised that the police do not have the equipment–”
“What? And they expect a team of five people to evacuate the wounded and fight the demon?” the Sergeant scoffed. She almost sounded angry; maybe she’d give her real opinion if she wasn’t on radio. “I know what the cops’ upper is gonna say, and I frankly won’t take it. Medical needs to be here.”
Another pause. Andrew wondered if Lieutenant Bates just shut off the radio. But after half a minute, he finally replied, “CDR-4, I’ll see what I can do. Proceed to exterminate the demon. Over.”
***
Medical staff arrived piecemeal. Even though they were told to wait for a police escort, which frankly wasn’t coming, most of them couldn’t stand to wait around while some high-level officer complained about the CDRs. A lot of them decided “fuck the rules” and headed in anyway.
“Y’all will need to keep going,” a paramedic said. “Don’t worry, I was able to get a couple of my police friends to join me. Sure they’ll get fried later, but that’s better than getting some innocent people killed.”
The Sergeant nodded, but had her own doubts. Specifically, she didn’t know why the demon would let them easily rescue these people. “Kang, give me your opinion. If you were the demon, why would you have your own cocoons in the front rather than the rear?”
Kang was quick. “If I was a demon, I’d do that to distract first responders and cause massive amounts of casualties.”
They looked at the unconscious bodies. “You know…” Smith muttered. “It’s weird that not a single one of them is conscious. And weirder that they weren’t just… you know…”
“Killed?” Singh finished.
The paramedics prepared to load them out, but the Sergeant stopped them. “Wait, on second thought, this is extremely suspect. I can’t have you lead them too far out of the area, considering the anomalies demons are capable of.”
They weren’t happy to hear that. “The hell? You call for aid, but then want to double back as soon as it comes?” the paramedic scoffed. “Yeah, not thanks, I’m gonna get back in my–”
Bodies suddenly shot up as they were filled with spontaneous energy. One immediately lunged for the paramedic, only to be zipped by Kang’s machinegun. The body fell right on top of the medic, who had hardly grasped the situation.
“Shit! Look at their fuckin’ eyes!” Smith snarled. Rather than seeing so much as a pupil, they saw what was literally a white sea of nothing. Their eyes had gone pale, and their skin slowly turned into a sickening green. “Goddamned infected!”
At the same time, a wave of them charged right through the door. The Sergeant aimed her weapon accordingly. “From the next section! Andrew and Singh! Concentrate fire at the door! Kang, set up the automated system!”
“Sergeant, it’s still in prototype!”
“Then let’s give it a field test!”
Andrew kept firing at the doors where green bodies flew right through the cracks. There didn’t even seem to be blood anymore, but a green liquid that looked like concentrated chlorophyll. Their bodies were covered head to toe in grass, as if their hairs had been replaced with those sickly green leaves.
Kang planted a minigun and quickly programmed it. The weapon looked even more overkill than their machine guns as it looked more like something used to defend a battleship. “Automated system set! Singh! Andrew! Pull back!”
Andrew slowly stepped back as he kept firing into the opening. Brass spewed from the side as he watched his ammo counter slowly dwindle to the fated number of 0. “I’m out of the way!” he yelled.
“Out of the way!” Singh also yelled.
Kang hit the button. “Automated system firing!”
Just as the green bodies charged into the opening, the automated gun whirred and started its own barrage. It must’ve had the firing rate of two, or even three, machineguns as it blasted clear lines of lead. Anything in its way was almost vaporized into a green mist, like something out of a videogame. Andrew even wondered if he could see practical effects the same ever again.
The traumatized paramedics and cops could only helplessly watch. It was funny. In an ordinary situation, they’d be the ones with all the answers, or at least the ones who had a chance against a crisis. But here, where there were demons on the line, they were just other victims.
“Jesus, did the demon reach that many people?” Smith asked. “There must be a thousand or so green bastards waiting for us.”
Kang took a deep look. “Hm. Wait. Look at their faces,” he said. “Many of them look nearly identical to each other, if not to the cocooned bodies.” It didn’t take long for him to come up with a hypothesis. “I believe the demon extracted their DNA to be used for further cloning. It would explain how they could’ve created so many numbers.”
Singh chuckled as she spat out more of her dip fluid. “That means the demon is connected to the roots. Why don’t we just give them a gift they won’t forget?” She showed her thermite grenade and gave an expectant look at the Sergeant. “May I?”
The Sergeant gave a grin that Singh could imagine through the helmet. “You have my full authorization.”
She pulled the grenade, popped it in the trunk, and sealed it like a firecracker. “Three! Two! One!”
The trunk went up in a fiery explosion that quickly swallowed it in chemical flames. Since the roots were made of woody material, they easily caught flames and all of the trees were quickly on fire. Singh gave the sadistic laugh of a teenager as she watched it travel through. “God, this shit is so awesome!” Her accent really showed.
At that point, the green bodies retreated. That meant only one thing: they were going to protect their host. “Kang and Smith! Help the paramedics get out of here!” the Sergeant ordered. “Everyone else will follow me!”
The four of them pushed through the lines of green bodies as their APE suits squashed them right there. The dim neon sign shown over their heads: Arboretum. A nice place to kill a demon.
Their intersecting fires really proved lethal here. Countless green bodies were mushed apart like veggies in a blender. The fact that some of these were clones alleviated Andrew’s heart a bit. At least he wasn’t killing people this time.
“Follow them! They’re retreating to the host!”
They marched their way to the largest tree of them all: a massive brown trunk the size of a small tower. The hologram kept replaying as the CDR team mushed their way through body after body. D-Da Shu is the name of a m-massive tree imported t-to New C-Changan. Cousin of th-the Sequoia T-Tree…
The green bodies finally made one suicide charge from all directions. Andrew wondered if he had fallen into a trap, but he could sense the desperation from the hivemind of the infected. This wasn’t just a trap, but a last ditch effort to protect the host.
Bodies fell from all over as the Sergeant charged towards the tree. “Keep up the cover!”
They moved as one as they fired at anyone at their backs. They even ran across the tree’s root which served as a bridge over a pond. Countless green bodies were shot into these waters where they floated like the corpses they were. “Here! Inside the tree!” the Sergeant yelled.
She kicked down the bark wall where they could discern an almost untouched face. It almost looked like a young girl, though with veins that popped from all over its face. Its eyes seemed to glow green as it stared back at the Sergeant. Andrew couldn’t see the Sergeant’s face, but he assumed she wore a sadistic grin.
“You seem smart enough for tactics, so maybe you’re smart enough for words” the Sergeant said aloud. “Choose between shocking rope, or thermite that’ll char your body inside and out. Choose, or I’ll choose for you.”
The green bodies went limp as all life disappeared from them. Even the trees lost their color as all life was sapped from them. It was obvious that the demon didn’t want to die.
“Good girl.” The Sergeant wrapped the electric cord around her and shocked it long enough for the girl to be devoid of energy. As insurance, she rigged the thermite grenade to explode if the cord was ever broken. “Let’s see how the boys at the lab will like this.”
Countless green bodies lay around as the CDR finally took a breather. As the team gathered outside, planting the demon body into a secured armored car, they took a good breather from a hard day. “Command, this is CDR-4. Mission accomplished.”
“CDR-4, this is Command. You guys are my heroes,” Lieutenant Bates chuckled.