Footsteps splashed across puddles of the desolate streets of Adventure Bay.

For the past week, Adventure Bay had been under strict quarantine due to a mysterious outbreak but the zones failed and now these...things wander the empty streets and alleyways.

Three armed men gathered up in a stack, crossing alleyways and streets as quietly as possible. As they crossed the street, they heard music echoing through the one of the vehicles.

Don't they know it's the end of the world? 'Cause you don't love me any—

One of the soldiers turned off the car, stopping the music.

"Alpha Team, this is Chase, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, sir, we're past City Hall and are making our way towards the restaurant." The soldier answered.

"You have your orders, destroy whatever this thing is and head to exfil." Chase finished communicating with the team as he saw through the main leader's body cam.

"Ok, you heard the man, stick close and keep an eye out. Let's move." The soldier moved towards the restaurant, the streets were quiet too quiet.

As they reached the building they heard screeches in the distance.

"Sir, we shouldn't be here." One of the soldiers said with a nervous tone.

"Shut it, we have our orders, come on." The trio moved in the restaurant and noticed how bad this whole thing was.

The restaurant had these spores surrounding the rooms, along with what looked like a huge hive.

"Harris, check it out." The lead soldier ordered.

"Yes sir." Harris slowly went towards the hive and sweeped the area.

Nothing.

"All clear sir—." Harris was grabbed from the darkness that lurked in the restaurant.

The two soldiers heard Harris's screaming then it stopped, they aimed their rifles at the area and saw this creature make its appearance, it looked human but it was far from it.

"Open fire!" The two laid into the creature but it was barely affecting it, they backed out of the restaurant as the creature screeched loudly, attracting more to them.

"Sir? What do we do?!"

"Fall back! Fall back!" They kept unloading their ammo into the creatures that were now after them.

"What the hell are these things?!"

As they moved back, more of the creatures surrounded them, Chase heard the the gunshots and screams of the soldiers as the creatures overran them.

Chase took off his headset and placed his hands on his face.

"We should've sent a full strike force, not a three man team." Ryder said.

"I gotta make a call, I'll be right back." Chase stood up from his desk and went outside the tent he was in.

"Admiral, it's Chase."

"Chase, how's the situation in Adventure Bay?" The Admiral asked over the phone.

"Not good sir, we lost Alpha team." Chase stated as he placed his hand on his head.

"To what? What is out there? Who's holding position?" The Admiral asked.

"The national guard is holding position until the Army gets here." Chase answered. "This is worse than the Barkingburg incident, I can't even tell if this is terrorism or something else. I've got no operational jurisdiction here Admiral, we need to figure something out and now!" Chase desperately worried.

"Ok, name whatever you want, you have the con for this operation." The Admiral assured.

"Thank you sir, I need you to send Skye, Marshall, and Rocky, I'll explain later. And Admiral send them fast...before this gets any worse." Chase ended the call as he walked back in the tent.

"Chase, buddy you need rest, you've been pushing yourself all week." Ryder stated.

"Ryder, it's my job to watch over this operation, if I'm needed—." Chase was interrupted.

"If you're needed, you're going to need to be awake and energized. Just rest up okay? We're going to need you at your best. Everything's going to be fine." Ryder assured.

Chase did what his friend asked and lied down on a cot that was in the tent, resting until the next morning.

<><><><>

"Jeez you haven't changed a bit Rocky!" Marshall laughed as he hugged his former teammate.

"You either man! Are you still the clumsy kid I worked with back then?" Rocky asked.

Marshall lightly shoved the tech-savvy engineer and laughed along with him.

"Hey, have you seen Skye anywhere?" Rocky asked.

"No, I thought she was with you?" Marshall replied.

Rocky nodded as Marshall noticed Ryder coming towards them.

"Hey good to see you guys." Ryder quickly hugged the two as he gestured for them to follow him.

Marshall was the first to ask a question. "Ryder, what's been going on in Adventure Bay, I'm hearing it's a sickness, an epidemic...any idea what it actually is?" Marshall asked as he raised his rifle over his shoulder.

Ryder responded rather quickly to the combat medic. "Don't know what it is but I have some notion, I'll tell you when we start briefing." Ryder answered.

"How's Chase doing?" Rocky asked.

"Not good, he's barely been getting any rest for the past week, this whole thing is getting out of hand but hopefully we can fix it." Ryder answered.

"I thought Skye was with one of you?" Ryder asked as the two shrugged at the question.

As the three approached massive tent, Rocky sighed.

"What's wrong?" Ryder asked.

"Well...we haven't seen Chase in a long time and this whole infection or whatever is putting more stress on him than we can imagine, I hope he hasn't forgotten much about us." Rocky said with a slightly depressed tone.

As Ryder was about to reassure Rocky, Chase walked out of the tent and greeted the two.

"If I forgotten about you, I wouldn't have called you here in the first place." Chase assured.

"He's never forgotten about us!" Skye yelled out as she walked out of the tent with Chase.

Marshall laughed at the sight. "Not surprised that she was the first one here. I bet the second you heard that Chase needed our help, you sprung into action." Rocky laughed along side him.

"You know for a guy who was really clumsy and sometimes unaware, you got a mouth on you. Have you been hanging out with Zuma lately?" Chase asked as he lightly punched the combat medic. "Alright, it was nice catching up but we got a briefing to start, come on." Chase gestured the group to come inside the tent.

As they entered they saw a board with various drone pictures scattered around, showing the damage that this whole thing caused over the past week. The pictures included the creatures that were spotted around Adventure Bay, it caught the eye of Marshall who immediately asked what it was.

"Uh Chase? What the hell is that thing?" Marshall pointed out.

"Not sure but from the looks of it, it was human but somehow mutated the hosts body." Chase quickly explained.

"So it's a parasite then?" Rocky added.

"Yeah, from the looks of it at least." Chase answered.

"Please tell me we have this thing contained." Marshall pleaded for good news.

"For now but it's adapting faster than we can track, we upped the ordnance two days ago and it created this thing." Chase said as he handed a picture of what looked like a heavily armored creature.

"What the actual fuck?" Marshall cursed to himself as he looked at the picture of the creature. "That's what we're going up against?" Marshall anxiously asked.

"What happens if it gets loose?" Rocky asked.

"Foggy Bottom is south of us, if that thing breaks quarantine and manages to spread out, the world is gonna be in for a long day." Chase answered.

Rocky walked up to the board and realized a way safer option.

"What about nuking the town?" Rocky suggested.

Chase sighed at the question. "It's...on the table but we're here to make sure it stays as a last resort. We have operatives already on the field and you three are our hot zone specialists."

"So what's our mission?" Skye asked.

"Last night we had Alpha team go in and set to destroy a hive that our drones found in Mr. Porter's restaurant, they didn't succeed and that hive is most likely producing more of these things." Chase explained. "Skye, you're dropping us off here near the docks, once that's done, we need to make our way towards the restaurant, level the building and get to exfil." Chase finished briefing.

"That shouldn't be too hard." Marshall said with confidence.

"Gather rebreathers, explosives and ammo, we move out in 10." Chase ordered.

"Yep."

"Got it."

Everyone besides Ryder left the room to gear up and get ready for their mission.

<><><><>

The trio got geared up and made their way towards the helicopter.

"So why the rebreathers?" Marshall said as he got on the side of the helicopter along with Chase and Rocky.

"The buildings have spores in them, you breathe them in, you most likely become like the rest of them." Chase quickly answered.

"Anything specific hurt these things?" Rocky asked as they approached the infected town.

"I guess a bullet to the head, same as any other? Maybe fire, that works in the movies most of the time." Chase said as he checked his rifle.

The team flew past City Hall, Marshall looked at the once peaceful town.

"Oh man, look at this place, these people didn't deserve this." Marshall sighed at the sight.

"Don't worry, hopefully we can fix before it gets out of hand." Chase reassured his friend.

"All right we're here, good luck you three, I'll see you at the exfil point when this is done." Skye saluted at the trio as they got off the helicopter and moved towards the objective.

"Ok, let's do this as quietly as possible." Chase equipped a suppressor on his gun as did Marshall and Rocky.

The trio moved up the road, taking down hostiles along the way. They heard the screeches of the creatures echo through the town but paid no mind to it. The only thing they had to do was level the building and get out.

"Ryder, we're approaching Mr. Porter's restaurant." Chase said quietly.

"Alright, look for the weak points inside the building and place the charges there, once that's done, blow the place and head to exfil." Ryder ordered through the comms.

"Got it, come on you two, it's not that far now." Chase motioned for the two to follow behind him.

"Right behind you buddy." Rocky assured.

As the trio approached the building, they slowed down the pace.

"Rebreathers on." Chase ordered.

The three equipped their rebreathers and entered the building, being as careful as possible to not make any sudden loud noise.

As they moved up, they saw the massive hive and the spores surrounding it, almost like a fungus.

"Alright, let's get these charges on and get the hell out of here." Chase ordered as he went to one of the weak points.

The two did as the leader ordered and placed their charges on other weak points.

"Ok, once these things start, be prepared for some resistance." Chase assured as he placed the last charge. "Three minutes you two, protect these charges!" Chase ordered.

The charges started beeping and the trio loaded their weapons, ready for a fight.

As if on cue, multiple creatures started making their way towards them as they stood their ground, dropping any thing that came close to them.

"Two minutes!" Chase yelled out as he was almost grabbed by one of the creatures, he kept it pinned down with his foot and emptied multiple rounds into it.

Marshall kept most of the creatures back with his secondary shotgun, blasting at the doorway the second any of them came through.

Rocky stood back a bit from the two, picking off stragglers with his marksman rifle and backing his team up.

"30 seconds, fall back!" Chase ordered as the trio ran outside the restaurant, destroying everything that was in there.

Everything was fine for now, the trio had a moment to catch their breath.

"Skye, restaurants destroyed, we're heading to exfil." Chase advised.

"I saw the fireworks! I felt that shit from up here! Alright, thirty seconds out from the extraction point. I will—— What? Mayday! Mayday! I've been hit! Losing alti———!" Skye's comms stopped functioning.

"Skye! Respond dammit! Skye!" Chase yelled out as Rocky and Marshall looked in fear.

"Chase, we got a lock on Skye's location, she's at City Hall, but it's swarming with hostiles, get over there and extract her ASAP." Ryder advised to the trio.

"You heard him! Let's go!" Chase led the way to City Hall.

"There's no chance Skye crashed by accident, is there?" Rocky asked.

"Stow it Rocky, you know as much as I do that Skye isn't no amateur pilot, something shot her down but we don't know what." Chase replied as they made their way towards City Hall.

<><><><>

Skye found herself dazed from the crash, luckily for her, she had her rebreather on and it didn't take much damage from the crash.

She cut herself free from the pilot's seat and fell to the ground holding her abdomen, she was bleeding a decent amount.

"Chase? Rocky? Can anyone hear me?" Skye asked through the damaged comms.

The pilot rummaged through the boxes that were in the helicopter and found a flare that could help her light her way, all she had to defend herself was a sidearm and a combat knife.

Skye heard footsteps and screeches inside the darkened City Hall, she was scared but had to make it out. She realized she wasn't going to make it far and decided to hunker down in a room and barricade the doors with whatever strength she had left.

She was lucky that the creatures inside didn't come after her.

<><><><>

The trio made it past the garden at City Hall and breached the door, looking for their pilot.

"Come on Skye, where are you?" Chase worried to himself.

"Worrying about her isn't going to make her less likely to die." Marshall checked behind them. "Let's find her and get the fuck out."

The trio found the crash site but Skye was no where to be found.

"Guys, over here!" Rocky called out as he spotted a blood trail.

"That has to be Skye's, let's go and let's keep it quiet." Chase ordered as they reequipped their suppressors.

The trio followed the trail the best they could, they had limited visibility inside City Hall and could get ambushed at any moment.

"Skye?" Chase whispered.

"Skye? Where are you?" Rocky whispered along with Chase.

They continued to follow the blood trail which eventually lead them to a door, as they tried pushing the door open, gunshots came through but luckily didn't hit any of them.

"Skye! Check your damn fire!" Rocky ordered.

"Skye! Are you okay in there?" Chase asked.

"I'm fine, I just took a hit in the crash, let's just get out of here." Skye said on the other side as she cleared the door to exit.

Chase put Skye's arm over his shoulder and had Marshall and Rocky escort them out.

"You're bleeding bad!" Chase examined the wound the best he could.

"I'll be fine, just get us out of here and I'll get patched up." Skye pleaded.

"Ryder, we found Skye. Where's that exfil?" Chase asked as the team made it out of City Hall.

"Exfil is on it's way. ETA 2 minutes!" Ryder advised through the comms.

As the comms ended, the team heard a loud bang from one of the buildings close by. They looked over in the direction and out came a hulking creature, it's skin looked similar to metal and it was heading straight towards them.

"Holy shit! Fuck fuck fuck!" Marshall loaded up his rifle and began to fire at the huge creature.

It was pointless, that thing didn't even flinch from the gun fire, it seemed to piss it off even more.

Marshall ran out of the way as the huge creature charged towards him.

"Rocky, get over here, I'll help out Marshall!" Chase ordered.

Rocky went over and helped the pilot as Chase ran to help his combat medic friend.

The creature managed to land a hit on Marshall, knocking him to the ground. It raised its arms and was about to kill him but that's when Chase opened fire at it, catching its attention.

"Come on, you ugly son of a bitch!" Chase taunted the creature as he drew it away from Marshall.

Marshall had to catch his breath from what almost happened to him, as he looked at the creature, he noticed a red spot on its back, that had to be its weakness.

"Chase, it's back! Target that fucker's back!" Marshall yelled out.

Chase dodged the attack from the creature and saw what Marshall was talking about.

"Distract that fucker!" Chase ordered.

Marshall was still catching his breath and couldn't do anything, that creature really knocked the wind out of the combat medic.

Rocky didn't want the creature to come towards them, they had to protect Skye. The pilot didn't care, she pulled out her sidearm and shot at the creature, catching its attention.

As it turned around, Chase rushed towards it and stabbed the red spot on its back, trailing his knife downwards and eventually killing the creature.

The streets were quiet as the team finally put that tank of a creature down.

"You ok, Marshall?" Chase asked as he helped the combat medic up.

"Yeah, just when I thought we weren't going to run into that thing." Marshall laughed. "At least we took it down."

"Where the hell is that chopper?" Chase exclaimed.

"We need to get out now! There's no way they didn't hear those gunshots!" Rocky explained.

At that moment, the team heard screeches coming towards them.

"Shit, this is gonna get bad." Rocky said as he loaded up his rifle.

"Skye, get behind me." Chase ordered.

The team huddled up as they got ready to fend off what they presumed to be a horde of those things.

They looked up in the sky and saw the exfil chopper beginning to land.

"Finally! Let's get the hell out of here!" Chase said as he helped Skye in the chopper along with the others.

The chopper got out of the zone and headed back to base.

"That was too close." Chase said with worry. "Don't do that again."

"Yes sir." Skye joked as she huddled up next to Chase.

"Look at 'em Marshall, just like the old days." Rocky laughed.

Marshall laughed along with the engineer. "If it was like the old days, he would've covered up his worries like the tough guy he is." Marshall smiled.

"Ah, go fuck yourself, Marshall." Chase smiled at the joke, it was true after all.

The chopper finally made its way back to base, Marshall took Skye to the infirmary tent as Chase and Rocky went to the main tent to debrief Ryder about the mission.

"Come on Skye, up on the table so I can look at your wound." Marshall said as he helped Skye.

Skye took off her armor and lifted her vest up.

"Is it bad?" Skye asked as she winced in pain.

Marshall examined it and cleaned out the blood. "Well it's not THAT bad, lie back will you? Gotta stitch this thing up." Marshall went across the room and grabbed a med-kit.

As Marshall stitched the pilot's wound up, he was asking her questions in the process.

"So Skye? Any idea on what shot you down?" Marshall asked as he stayed focus on the sutures.

"I don't know, I'm flying to you guys and then something just hit the helicopter. Didn't catch a glimpse or anything." Skye explained.

"You think it was one of those creatures?" Marshall asked again.

"I don't know, I hope not, that would be even more problems for us." Skye answered.

Skye winced in pain as Marshall almost closed the wound.

"Hey, just relax, we're almost done." Marshall chuckled at the thought. "So you can survive a helicopter crash, but stitching something up is a problem?"

Skye rolled her eyes. "Hey, you're not the one having to deal with this." Skye defended.

"I've done plenty of self stitches before, you get used to it." Marshall boasted as he finished up.

He put the sutures away and helped Skye sit up.

"Man, you should've seen Chase, he was freaking out about you." Marshall chuckled.

"He always does when I'm in trouble." Skye smiled.

"He would throw down his life for you, you know that?" Marshall said truthfully.

"Yeah and that's why I love him so much, he's so caring." Skye said.

Marshall for up from his chair and told Skye. "Once this is all done, you two need to spend some quality time together, it's been too long."

"I know, he's always so wrapped up in his work and so am I." Skye explained.

"I'll figure something out, anyway go rest up, I'll go check up Chase and the rest." Marshall helped Skye off the table and lead her to a cot, lying her down. "Take it easy, we don't want those stitches falling off!" Marshall said before heading off.

As Marshall headed off to the main tent, he heard commotion from the soldiers about nuking Adventure Bay.

This worried the combat medic as they still had work to do and resorting to that option is not good.

Marshall entered the tent and shoved Chase.

"Really?! We do one mission out there and that's what you want to do?!" Marshall looked around and forgot about Rocky and Ryder. "Leave us, I need to talk to Chase alone."

The two respected the combat medic's wishes and left the tent.

"We were in the middle of debriefing Marshall." Chase said in a annoyed tone.

"That doesn't matter, what does matter is that—." Marshall was cut off.

"It was about Dr. Zenus." Chase stated as he crossed his arms.

That made the combat medic retract his statement. "What about her?"

"We had drones and operatives scout out the hospital and they've seen her there but it's full of hostiles." Chase explained.

"Well, maybe she has a cure, maybe I can stop working in a quarantine tent that's lined up with claymores and c4!" Marshall snapped.

"You're a humanitarian Marshall and I'm not sure you can afford to be. That's too risky!" Chase said as Marshall looked back at him.

"You have a better option? We're barely containing this. And I hope to god you have a solution that doesn't require a nuclear response, I heard the talk." Marshall stated.

Chase sighed realizing that he couldn't get through the stubborn medic, I wonder where he got it from?

"Fine, let's extract Dr. Zenus and hope that she has something, anything that can help us turn the tide." Chase finally agreed.

"Thank you..." Marshall thanked.

"You two can come back in now." Chase called out.

As Ryder and Rocky came back in the tent, Chase began to explain the new plan to them.

"Alright here's the plan, our friend here wants to find Dr. Zenus and hope that she can make a cure, we go in and extract her, we have external comms ready but we're not sure on how long it's going to last. Ryder you're guiding us through, Marshall and Rocky, you're going inside with me, we'll have other teams covering the other sides of the hospital. This is a risky mission but let's hope it'll be worth it." Chase looked at the team. "We move out in six hours. Get some rest everyone, we're going to need it."

<><><><>

Night loomed over the base as the town could be seen, the infection slowly taking over the once peaceful town.

Chase was overlooking the board, adding new intel on the board, such as sightings of new types of creatures seen around the town, and entry points to the hospital.

The leader sighed and placed his hand on his face, signifying that there might not be a chance to save this town and stop this whole thing.

At that moment, Skye came in the tent even though she was supposed to be resting. Chase turned around at the noise of the tent flap opening.

"Skye? You're supposed to be resting. What're you doing here?" Chase asked with a stern tone.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing, is that a crime officer?" Skye smiled at the leader.

Chase sighed, knowing that he couldn't really talk through the pilots stubbornness. "It's not but I'd prefer if you were resting, letting that wound heal." Chase replied.

"Marshall told me that you were finding a doctor who might be able to stop this thing, you think that's possible?" Skye asked.

"It depends if we even get her here alive, I told Marshall that it was too risky but he said otherwise." Chase sighed.

"Hey, what's stopped you before? You've always been the defiant leader I've known since childhood." Skye smiled. "You can do it Chase, I believe in you." Skye hugged the leader who didn't expect it and hugged back.

"Thanks, you always have." Chase said as the two kept hugging.

It was quiet between the two until Skye finally said something.

"What ever happened to us?" Skye asked during the hug.

"What do you mean? 'Us' as in you and I? Or as in the team?" Chase asked with a slight chuckle.

Skye smiled. "I mean our team, we all just separated one after another. We used to be together." Skye said with a depressed tone.

Chase separated from the hug. "I guess work just got in the way of all of us, I really miss the old days you know. Always have." Chase answered.

"You think when this is all done, we can spend time together? As a team?" Skye asked.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Chase smiled. "Go rest Skye, I gotta brief everyone in five minutes and this is going to be our toughest mission yet." At that moment, Ryder ran in, panting.

"Forget that Chase, external comms just went dark at the hospital, we need to move now!" Ryder explained.

"Shit, alright round up the teams to the helicopters and tell them to gear up. Rebreathers, ammo, everything needed for this." Chase ordered.

Ryder nodded as he went to inform the other teams heading into the hospital.

That one moment of calmness, Chase didn't worry about his job, he was just happy to be with Skye, all snapped back to reality that fast.

<><><><>

The helicopter flew near the hospital and landed, letting Chase and his team out, along with the other teams backing them up.

"Before comms went dark, Dr. Zenus was holed up in the serology lab, reach her location ASAP and get her out." Ryder briefed to everyone.

Chase gave a thumbs up to the pilot, signifying that they were good to go. The hospital was down the road from them and they had to be careful on how to approach it.

As they finally approached the entrance, there was a creature they've never seen before, it was digging in and out of the ground at a rapid pace and had spikes protruding from its back, just like the other creatures, but had these yellow like blisters on said spikes, flashing red when it got close to the other creatures.

"What the hell? Isn't this ground zero? Why the hell are we here?" A soldier questioned behind Chase.

"Keep it down, those things can still hear, take them out silently and move in." Chase ordered.

The teams got into position as they lined up their sights.

"Now!" Chase fired, dropping the creatures who were surrounding the entrance. "Let's go! Before more show up."

The teams made it to the entrance and was brought to a halt.

"Ok, Bravo and Delta teams, clear out the floors while we look for the doc." Chase ordered.

"Yes sir!"

The teams moved out as the trio made their way to the serology lab.

They cleared out any hostiles they encountered and pressed on, eventually finding the serology lab.

"Dr. Zenus should be close by, locate her and be careful." Ryder advised through the teams comms.

"Yep, got it. Come on you two." Chase called.

The trio entered the lab, finding it riddled with bodies and infected.

The trio took out the infected and looked around for Dr. Zenus.

"Doctor! Where are you?" Chase whispered. "Keep an eye out." The leader advised to his team.

They moved on and found the doctor in the next room of the serology lab.

"Dr. Zenus, we're here to get you out! Come on!" Chase advised as he grabbed the doctor.

"Thank god, help me get my research and we can get the hell out of here!" Dr. Zenus said.

Chase escorted his team out of the room and contacted Ryder.

"Ryder, we found the doctor, heading to exfil now." Chase advised.

"Be careful! Bravo and Delta teams are barely pulling through, more hostiles are coming to the hospital!" Ryder warned through the comms.

"Alright let's pick it up everyone, let's get the research and go!" Chase ordered as they swept through the hallways and into the research lab.

"Grab that jet injector for me. I'll need it to build a prototype vaccine." Zenus informed.

Marshall grabbed the injector and placed it in his bag, as that happened they heard gunshots down the hallway and multiple footsteps coming towards them.

The team aimed their guns at the hallway and saw Bravo team falling back towards them, taking out the creatures that were chasing them.

"Sir! We lost Delta team, we had those things overwhelm us fast, they were exploding! We couldn't do anything!" The lead soldier panicked.

Marshall placed his hands on the soldier's shoulders. "Calm down! There was nothing you could've done, we still need to get the doctor out of here." Marshall reassured as he calmed the soldier down.

"Come on, we'll leave the way we came in." Chase motioned for everyone to follow him.

The team made their to the barely lit hallways, hearing the screeches and cries of the creatures that roamed in and out of the hospital.

"Stay close and keep it quiet." Chase whispered as they moved forward. "Ryder, we're leaving through the way we came in, how many hostiles are out there?"

"A lot, I mean a lot, head to the roof for exfil, it's safer that way." Ryder advised.

"Alright everyone change of plans, we need to head to the roof for exfil, hostiles are swarming the place and we need to head out now, let's move!" Chase ordered.

As they moved, Doctor Zenus guided them to the roof as they took down creatures that were in their way. They were now compromised and had to exfil fast.

The team heard screeches coming towards them and they picked up the pace. They found the stairs that led to the roof and blocked the entrance.

"Ryder, we're here, where's that exfil?" Chase questioned as he loaded his rifle.

"Just hold on for 30 seconds Chase!" Ryder advised.

"Alright, 30 seconds everyone!" Chase aimed his rifle at the entrance and waited, as did Marshall and Rocky.

The banging on the door turned into an explosion as the radius was covered in a yellow substance and the creatures were making their way towards the team.

The team dropped as many hostiles as they could, at that moment the helicopter was heard and was getting ready to land.

"Alpha team, you gotta clear that area before I can land!" The pilot advised.

"No shit, we're trying to clear it!" Chase yelled back as he reloaded his rifle. "Land the second you see a clearing!" Chase ordered.

"Fuck it! Tossing frag!" Rocky pulled out a grenade and tossed it in the entrance.

The pilot saw a clearing and landed the helicopter. "Come on let's move it!"

The team ran to the helicopter and got the doctor inside, Chase, Marshall, and Rocky got in and as they were helping what was left of Bravo team, they were grabbed by the creatures. The pilot had no choice but to leave Bravo team.

"No! Goddamn it, get back down there!" Chase ordered.

"I can't, we go down there, we all die!" The pilot advised.

Chase stood quiet, he knew the pilot was right but he didn't want to leave his team behind.

"Ryder, it's Chase, we got Dr. Zenus, we're heading back." Chase said in a depressed tone.

"Alright, good job out there, at this rate this whole thing will blow over soon." Ryder assured.

Marshall placed his hand on Chase's shoulder. "Chase, there was no other way. What's done is done."

<><><><>

Two days have passed since the extraction mission and results have been good for the most part, Dr. Zenus developed a prototype vaccine but is still unsure if it'll work and the team found out the possible origin of this whole outbreak.

Marshall and Rocky arrived in Chase's tent, asking the leader what the call was for.

"I called you two here for this." Chase had a photo and showed it to his teammates. "We tracked a meteorite that crashed near Adventure Bay around a day before this started. It also turns out that Farmer Al salvaged the scrap and hauled it back to his farm." Chase explained.

"That doesn't make sense, why would Farmer Al want whatever what was in the meteorite?" Marshall asked as he handed the photo to Rocky.

"That doesn't matter now does it? What does matter is that we get whatever he hauled back and airlift it out, we can get a better insight on this whole thing with it." Chase assured.

"So head to his farm and airlift it out? Shouldn't be too hard." Rocky said as he placed the photo down. "When do we head out?"

"In two hours, it's just going to be us, Skye's going to airlift the thing out." Chase mentioned.

"She's not going to crash again right?" Rocky asked.

"Here's hoping she doesn't, the farm shouldn't have that many hostiles around, it's nothing we can't handle." Chase assured.

<><><><>

The trio arrived at the farm via truck and stopped outside, examining the damage.

"Jesus..." Rocky said as he saw the decayed farm animals strewn around the farm.

"Where do you think he hid this thing? I mean it can't be small right?" Marshall asked.

"It can't be, let's check the house, be careful." Chase ordered as they followed him to the main house.

The trio entered the house and saw the mess that was left behind, signs of struggle.

"You think Yumi got out?" Marshall asked as he opened the bedroom door, seeing his answer.

He saw Farmer Yumi ripped almost in half, guts were hanging out, this made the combat medic nauseous and he immediately closed the door.

"What happened? Everything alright?" Chase asked in a concerned tone.

"Yeah...everything's fine, let's just find that fucking thing and get out of here." Marshall said as he headed back downstairs.

As the two headed downstairs, Rocky called out their names, indicating that he found something.

"Yeah? What is it Rocky?" Chase asked as the two caught up with the engineer.

"Check that out over there." Rocky aimed at the medium sized shed that they've never seen before across the barn.

"Is that new? I've never seen that until now." Chase asked as he examined the shed.

"Well let's check it out, could be where he put whatever we're looking for in there." Rocky assured.

The trio went outside and made it to the shed, it was locked and looked rundown.

Chase broke the lock of the door and opened the shed, revealing the object they were looking for.

"What the hell is that?" Marshall asked as he walked towards it.

"It looks like a space capsule." Rocky answered.

"So the infection spread to the capsule, whoever was inside it got infected and the capsule landed here." Chase pieced it all together.

"That makes the most sense to me, call Skye and tell her that we found the capsule." Rocky ordered as he got a closer look at the capsule.

Chase stood far from the capsule as he called Skye.

"Skye, we found the object, turns out it was a space capsule that crashed here, how close are you to the pick up?" Chase asked.

"I'm close by, also have some people to pick you up, I haven't flown this thing in a while!" Skye said over the comms.

The trio heard the helicopters come close and saw an Osprey aircraft leading them.

"That's what you haven't flown in a while?!" Chase yelled out through the comms.

"Yeah! I forgot how much I love this aircraft, I got a hook on this thing, get that capsule out and I'll bring it back to base." Skye advised.

"You got it, try not to crash this time alright?" Chase chuckled as he ran back to the shed.

The trio couldn't move the capsule due to its heavy weight.

"Fuck this, you think you can blast a hole through this shack?" Rocky asked.

"You sure that isn't risky?" Marshall asked.

"Do you have a better idea?" Rocky replied.

Marshall shrugged at the question and got a ladder for the engineer.

"You think this is a good idea Chase?" Marshall asked as he placed the ladder against the wall of the shed.

"It's better than anything I can think of, just bust a hole through the roof and we'll take care of the rest." Chase ordered nonchalantly.

Rocky did a quick salute and started hitting the roof with a sledgehammer that was in the shed.

After some time, the roof finally gave way and collapsed, leaving a nice open hole.

"Alright Skye, lower down the hooks." Chase ordered through the comms. "You're lucky you didn't fall through the damn roof." Chase said as he walked in the shed.

As Chase entered the shed, the hooks lowered inside and the leader hooked up the capsule.

"Everything's hooked up Skye." Chase advised as he left the shed.

"Roger that. Ryder, package secured, heading back to base." Skye flew off with the capsule as the team got back in the truck that dropped them off and headed back to base.

<><><><>

A few hours passed since the team secured the source of the infection, they were all gathered up in the main tent, figuring out what to do next.

"Chase it's only been two days, give the doctor some more time." Marshall pleaded.

"Marshall, we don't have time! Have they run tests on it? Does it actually cure this thing?" Chase asked in a stern tone.

"Chase, you need to relax. Marshall's right, they need more time, in the meantime we can possibly handle more missions out there." Rocky suggested.

"I'm with Chase on this. We are running out of time and this infection is getting worse." Ryder sided.

Rocky sighed at Ryder's decision and then looked at Skye. "Why aren't you saying anything? I mean I probably already know the answer but you know."

Skye gave the engineer a stern look. "You know what? Fuck you Rocky!" Skye yelled out as she pushed the engineer which led to one argument after another between the team.

Chase stared at the board and sighed. "Alright! Enough!" Everyone stopped and looked at Chase. "I need time to think about this, just get the fuck out, all of you." Chase ordered.

Marshall motioned for everyone to leave and thus Chase was left alone with a choice.

He looked down on the table and noticed his phone and tag in front of him, symbolizing a choice.

Wait for a cure?

Or

Nuke the town.