Chapter 419: Following Your Dream Into Hell
The giant mounds of grass that Laz had noticed earlier seemed to explode and come alive, with man size beetles, praying mantis, and wasps shooting out from them, surprisingly all at the same time. In the normal order of nature, these insects would have their own nests to call home and any sort of invasion into each other’s territory would be cause for war.
But now, the ground was exploding with these nightmarish insects that went straight for the waiting troops.
About an hour ago, before the troops had ended up at the compound of the order to try to surround Laz and the unidentified infected, an argument was taking place within one of the armored vehicles that was part of the convoy. A beautiful, young reported with brown hair, red lips and a sexy jawline was currently yelling at the driver of the vehicle after being told she wouldn’t be allowed to record once they arrived on scene. As a prominent news reporter, she had been drafted to follow this particular team in their hunt and capture of dangerous infected, something she had fought hard for. She was considered too new to be allowed overseas to cover the wars going on half way around the world, but she had always dreamed of being an actual war reporter. While the hunting and capture of dangerous criminals wasn’t exactly exciting, the same couldn’t be said about the infected who had been wrecking havoc and mayhem across the country for years now.
When the government wanted reporters from different stations to ride along and capture ’pure’ take down footage of these malicious threats to the country, she was the first one in line, especially because the gig didn’t require her to leave the country.
Miss June, I understand your frustration, but this isn’t a single infected takedown like we experienced in the past. According to reports, there could be as many as one hundred of these creatures living together in this compound. To make matters worse, it seems one of them has grown almost one hundred feet tall and there seems to be a lot of infighting going on. The entire place is currently considered a war zone. Since we have you, a civilian on board, we will be one of the last ones to enter into the scene. You will be allowed to film, but only once we have cleared the area as being safe.
"What was the point in bringing me along if all I do is sit in the truck here and twiddle my thumbs? This fight is exactly what I signed up for and exactly what your higher ups wanted to see. Humans and our special chosen together, protecting our country from the heinous and dangerous threat that has been awakened here in our country. So far in our one month together, all I’ve seen is you take down one guy who apparently could stretch his tongue out several feet and snatch purses. And even that is according to witness statements without a shred of proof otherwise. How am I suppose to spin that into a story to astound the masses, huh?"
Ashley June was more than just a pretty face. Or at least she wanted to be. The problem was that her pretty face landed her jobs but not even an ounce of respect. She had gone through college on a journalism major and even graduated at the top of her class thanks in no small part to her working her ass off. Much of the time her looks got her a lot of positive encouragement and even allowed her to model during her years at school to help pay for it without burying herself in student loans.
Many people marveled at her talent while others couldn’t help but be jealous. They never saw the long hours she put in, the quiet nights studying instead of partying, the fact that she hadn’t had a single date since freshman year when she kicked a guy in the balls after he tried to take advantage of her. In return for her trouble, a rumor went around that she had only gotten her modeling job after allowing most of the male staff at the talent agency to run a train on her.
After hearing about that and the suggestion that she was just that easy as long as you had the money, she never trusted a guy again at school. Even when she got out of school, the same looks that sold beauty products and designer handbags caused her nothing but trouble when it came to perspective employers, male and female.
After getting a recommendation from a fellow model she trusted who heard about the job offer, Ashley June jumped on it, only to find herself doing fluff pieces for a local news station, nothing like the hard hitting reporting she had wanted to be a part of. Despite that, she tried to make the best of it. When fluff pieces were in short order, she wrote news articles online, going by an alias. But even in that field, the jobs didn’t come often since she couldn’t use her real identity while she was working at the station.
It wasn’t until this offer that she finally saw the light of day.
Just as the captain in the vehicle was about to try to calm her down again, the vehicles arrived on sight, only to witness the hell that had engulfed the land before them. Their unit was ordered to stay inside with the reporter while she started with an intro, interviewing the relatively attractive captain as to what the situation was and what they were doing there, as far as he could share.
While her blood was already pumping at being on site, once she heard this situation involved the countries most wanted infected, she could barely control herself.
’This is it!’ Ashley June thought to herself while getting the camera man to film the captain’s briefing.
That entire portion lasted maybe five minutes before a lot of gunfire and explosions rocked the vehicle while loud screams came over the com. The camera man tried getting a better shot from the narrow window when the captain suddenly ordered,
"HANG ON TIGHT!"
The armored vehicle took off, following behind the others in the convo. As they made their way through, Ashley June and the camera man gasped as the bodies and burned out wreckage of vehicles came into view.
"Captain. Please let our viewers know exactly what is going on!" Miss June asked while looking into the camera with a naturally concerned face, not even close to the fake one she had practiced many times.
’Those were real bodies... but we just arrived on site like five minutes ago. How the hell did that happen so quick?’
"The suspects are on the run Miss June. They have stolen one of our chosen’s armored SUV’s and made a get away."
"Please call me Ashley, Captain. My life is in your hands so no need to be all formal now," Ashley told the captain, mentally high fiving herself. She had been saving that line for exactly the kind of time where things would get dangerous to help make her more normal. The Captain caught on to this ruse but didn’t decide to say anything about it.
"Of course Ashley. We are currently in pursuit. We have air support that is currently following the stolen vehicle in addition to the fact that the vehicle is one of ours so it has been wire with gps and tracking software that is easy to follow."
"Could they remotely shut off the vehicle Captain?" Ashley asked.
"While putting that option into government vehicles had been talked about in the event of a theft, it was determined to be more dangerous to have that option seeing as how a skilled hacker could potentially take down an entire fleet of cars versus one lunatic stealing one vehicle. To be honest Ashley, right now hacking happens at a rate that can be measured while stolen police and military vehicles is practically a non-existent crime."
"I see captain. And what of the chosen who had been using that vehicle?"
"They are all safe and sound. They had exited the vehicle to join in with the take down, only to be fooled by the criminals into thinking they were on the other side of the facility. Had the chosen come into contact with the infected, they wouldn’t have even been able to reach the SUV, much less steal it."
"I see Captain. I’m happy to hear that as it looks like several men have been injured in the fighting already, scaring off those infected who had been hiding out here." Knowing enough not to mention anything about the bodies she had seen, she spun a narrative that invoked anger at the infected along with sympathy for those injured in the fighting while insinuating that they had been successful.
The Captain had to stop himself from smiling since her quick reactions and ability to lie without skipping a beat were exactly what they had been looking for in a field reporter.
The camera man had to stop himself from shaking his head and scoffing at just how brazen yet natural that statement seemed to flow from her lips.
"That’s correct. We have already dispatched units to move into the area along with air support and round up those who escaped by foot. As for us, we are following along with the main group to take down the big fish. Prepare yourself because I don’t think this thing is going to go down without a fight," the captain said with a rather wild and handsome smile on his face.
It almost matched Ashley’s own.
As they drove along, the captain informed them that one of the two escapees had jumped from the vehicle during the chase, but they had determined it was the unknown infected and not their target.
Just as they got to the town, the helos had pointed out where the SUV had rolled down the hill, prompting everyone to spread out and search the area, this time in teams no smaller than eight with at least one armored transport.
They quickly located the church as the only viable hiding place and surrounded it.
Ashley June jumped out of the vehicle as they had their target surrounded inside and it was therefore deemed safe for her to do so.
"According to the sign we passed coming in, this quiet town that was once called Tin Cup has been abandoned for centuries and seems like it will be the finally stand for the most wanted infected currently in the United States. That’s right everyone, behind me in that old church is none other than Lazarus Crowe, the one and only who has been evading authorities for years now even since his break out of the prison convoy, attack on the private homestead compound in Virginia, the encounter with the massive bronze giant in New Orleans and even the recent bloodbath at the summer club that took place in the Lone Star State itself, Texas. While the troops with me will do everything possible to not have to destroy that holy piece of history behind me, they also understand that there is no one else anywhere around here and this man is too dangerous to let loose. If need be, they will bring the fires of hell to bear on this sinner if that’s what it takes to bring him to justice. I believe that they will be announcing themselves soon and asking for his surrender... wait... what is that buzzing... Is there interference with the sound system Miguel?" Ashley asked as she took off her ear piece before noticing the buzzing wasn’t coming from the ear piece.
"Oh my god... no..." Miguel uttered as Ashley turned around and looked at what he saw.
The microphone dropped from her hands as she let out a scream.
