***
Back in the past, at the bootcamp, five fighters stayed in a tent. Those five fighters are the younger version of the members from Shi Huang squad. Back then, when Li Kay didn't have a short beard, a long hair tied in a bean form and a bit fatter. Most of the characters were different in these three months after a training they've had in the bootcamp for the future missions. The whole group has gathered in the tent because this will be their last day in the bootcamp, and they'll be sent to their very first mission.
"So." says Xin Yan sitting on the top of the bunk bed. "Anyone feeling nervous?"
"A bit." says Li Kay sitting on the other bunk bed, near Ahmed.
"Same as well." responds Ahmed, whose left leg is moving uncontrollably.
"I know it must be hard," says Ri Ku. "But we can do this. This mission isn't hard. All we have is to clean a beach in India."
"What was the name of the beach again?" asks Xin Yan to Ri Ku, who is sitting on the chair at the entrance of the tent, holding the folder.
"Called Juhu Beach by the name of the file. There was a signal from a group of survivors."
"They've managed to survive there?" asks Yu Tong. "Heard India was in real trouble."
"Code Black." says Ahmed. "Heard in a report a while ago. India together with Russia, China, most of Europe and a bit of Africa."
"Things are getting intense over there." says Li Kay. "Glad I ain't out there anymore."
"But now you're going back in." says Yu Tong.
"But this time I'm prepared." says Li Kay showing her a shotgun, without any bullets, and pointing with the other hand at the anti-biting armor he's wearing. "Now. No zombie would be a threat to us."
"Right," says Ahmed, smiling.
"Ready to go?" asks Ri Ku rising from the chair after he saw their commander waving at them from a distance.
"Before we go." says Xin Yan to the group, rising from the bunk bed and pulling up a camera. "Can we take a photo together? T-To as a memory for this day."
"Our very first mission, eh?" asks Yu Tong with a smile. "I like it."
"I want one before and after." says Li Kay.
"Sure, sure." says Ri Ku with a smile. "Let's do a big selfie and then we'll leave. We'll ask Hugo if he can print it after we come back."
The group of five fighters gathered in a circle, let Yu Tong take a selfie with this digital camera from the 2010s that she found in a training outside the walls in a retro market. Doesn't matter too much about the camera, but it's still working, and it snapped a good picture of the five members from Shi Huang Squad. When the said selfie was taken, the four people left the end with smiles and feeling a bit nervous. Yu Tong left the last because she had to put the digital camera in a safe spot.
***
Back in the present, at the entrance of a store called Bistro Café, Li Kay opens the door and lets the two fighters get in first after he tells them.
"Ladies, first."
"How gentleman of you." jokes Xin Yan to Li Kay.
The three fighters enter the building, and the moment they've entered, they see the door of a room getting wide open and a woman with a knife running at them. She stabbed the armor of Li Kay, but the knife wasn't able to go through the armor. This has made a woman look scared at the one she was trying to stab, leans back, then she trips on something and falls on the back on the ground. The frightened woman looks worried at Li Kay, the person she is trying to stab, but she doesn't know it's a man because of the thick armor and the hard helmet that covers the entire face of Li Kay.
"Don't be afraid." says Xin Yan to the frightened woman in English. "We are Fighters."
"Fighters?" asks the woman, raising up slowly, shocked. "A-A… When? How? And what happened to the base?"
"Ma'am," says Li Kay to the woman. "You may have stabbed me. But I am not going to attack you."
Li Kay takes off the digital thermometer that looks like a gun, he points at the forehead of the woman who is now more confused than frightened. After Li Kay saw the woman presented a normal body temperature, puts away the thermometer and looks at her, sees she has no bites nor no scars from a zombie.
"You are clean."
"How did you get here?" asks Yu Tong to the woman.
"I… I ran here. After the invasion at the… um… What's the word, please? English not good."
"Outpost?"
"Yes, yes. Outpost."
"So you were a member of the outpost?" asks Li Kay.
"Y-Yeah. I was. But then… The attacks came… And fled with other people, in these buildings."
"Are there more?" asks Yu Tong.
"Two more." she says, sounding happy, and then she leads them in the basement to show them the two other survivors.
The three fighters were feeling a little off about this. Just in case this would turn out like what happened in that one Elementary school, Yu Tong is hiding the pistol under her sleeves to shoot the woman. The noise may attract the zombies from outside and wake up the slumber zombies from inside, but the three can get out safely thanks to their armor. Arriving on the basement, the three fighters are not surrounded with guns, the two see two injured people, laying in their beds, on the brink of dying.
One of the men has his entire left limb damaged from a fire by the looks of it. And the second person has a leg that was cut off, his left foot more specifically, bandaged and barely able to breathe. The three fighters walked close to the two survivors, looking carefully at them. They see and realize the person with a missing leg is a goner, while the one with the burned arm can still move and can recover.
"What happened?" Xin Yan to the frightened woman.
"I found them like this yesterday… In the nearby house…" says the frightened woman who seems to be calming a bit.
"Do you speak English?" asks Yu Tong to the man who looks better than the other.
"Yes." says the man breathing heavily. "I've been sent here yesterday… As a reckon squad."
"Reckon squad?" asks Yu Tong. "Which squad do you belong to?"
"The Rabbit's Legs." says the man with left limb damaged. "My mate is also from the same squad. W-We are the only survivors."
"Are there more?"
"None, ma'am… Only the two of us have made it."
"What happened? Can you remember?"
"I… Everything happened too fast, ma'am."
Everyone has gathered around the beds of that man with the damaged limb, the one with a goner leg is about to die due to blood loss and the infection being too dangerous to his life.
"We were sent to inspect the airport before your squad came to the airport… You are from the ten squads The Organization has sent, right?"
"Yes." responds Li Kay instead of Yu Tong. "What happened there?"
"We encountered a class F zombie, none like the others."
"What do you mean?" asks Yu Tong.
"They… Were able to dodge our attacks."
"What do you mean by that?" asks Yu Tong, feeling confused. "You shoot them?"
"Yes. We almost emptied all of our magazines just to kill that creature who the moment saw us… pointing the gun… He fled and ducked away…"
"Was an undead?" asks Xin Yan to everyone, who turns around.
"An undead." says Li Kay. "Being able to be a Class F… That's something I don't want to see."
"What if we can control him?" asks Xin Yan.
"Controlling an undead is hard. Once they get a taste of zombie, human or any other meat, they are becoming savages. Like drug addicts." says that person with the burned limb, coughing a few times. "Other than that. H-Have you took the outpost."
"The golf course 21." says Yu Tong. "We did."
"Thank Heavens." says the injured person with a smile. "Now. I want you to take us there."
"Are you sure?" asks the woman to the injured man. "Are you sure of this, Tim?"
"Yes," responds the injured soldier named Tim. "I am sure." he looks over at his friend. "But my mate, Theodor… He needs to be killed."
The friend of Tim looks over at him, breathing heavily and his skin starting to change its color into a darker white with green like most of the normal zombies seen so far. While the guy named Theodor was looking at Tim, he shook his head in approval, holding his tears. He cannot talk, but by this gesture, he accepted his fate. Soon, Li Kay was the one who did the dirt work, and stabbed the brain of Theodor with his knife before they all left this place and moving Tim on a stretcher to the outpost that is located not too far from them.