Zombie Warriors: Part 2

ZOMBIE WARRIORS
By G.D. Lindenmier
Part II1

The QALAT Fort:
Across the river, a five man team, (Foxtrot Romeo) comprised of the team leader, Lance “Chief” Carpenter, a retired EOD specialist and four operators. Fitzgerald “Fritz” Gruber, the team radio operator, Nate “Bogie” Henry, the team medic and sharpshooter. Kevin “Whiskey” Whitley, team translator and Eric “Dieter” Schmidt, the team scout. The contract “spook” operators made their way from a small patch of tall shrubbery to the East side - blind side for the fire base, to where the entryway to the fort lay. As they approached the doorway, they found the door closed but not secured. In the air they could make out two distinct smells. That of sulfur from the weapons fire and fresh blood, as there must have been a lot of bodies behind this wall. 2

The team tactically lined (stacked) themselves up along the wall of the fort, adjacent to the door, each new their tasks at hand, no verbal orders were needed, only hand signals. Dieter Schmidt was first, he opened the door, which swung inward and to the left. 3

Schmidt, his rifle up and at the ready as the first man in, swung the door around against the wall, faced out into the compound and secured the door with his back against the wall. Second man in (up) is Henry, he button hooked through the door to the right, back along the wall, clearing their right flank about twenty feet. Third member of the team is Whitley, He crosses through the door to the left, past Schmidt and traveled as far as he could, clearing the left flank. Forth inside of the fort is Carpenter. As the team leader, he button hooks to the right and stops half way between the doorway and Henry’s position. Finally through the door is the teams radioman, Fritz Gruber. He crosses to the left, stopping between Schmidt and Whitley. All in all, entry took approximately 6 seconds; the team is now ready to clear the rest of the fort.4

The walled open area of the property is 200 ft across and 500 ft long, the yard is filled with trees, possibly green apple or pear, but are leafless being winter. In the middle of the property stands an open well, approximately ten feet in diameter with wood poles overhead... There are small stacks of firewood, cuttings that are two feet in length and 4” to 6” in diameter. Stacks of wood, three to five feet high, around ten to twelve feet in length. There are also several carts turned on their sides, wooden crates and several pieces of homemade furniture strewn about the property. To the right of the team, is a small building made of mud and stone, five foot by six foot in diameter, possibly a shed or outdoor toilet. To the teams left is the main house, the door is ajar, a building that is possibly two or three rooms, two story and around 1200 square feet inside, other than the team moving about, there are no sounds to be heard. 5

As the team begins to move away from the wall and clear the property Henry comes across the first corpse. The adult male looked as if someone had shredded parts of his torso from his body, there is large pieces of flesh missing, his shirt is tattered as if who attacked him stood over the body as he removed the flesh. The man is laying face down, Henry sees injury to his face and it is missing a right ear. There is blood surrounding the body, sprayed out in every direction for several feet. Henry thought to himself, “This man was alive when the attack occurred”. Henry kneels, checks for signs of life, finds none, he steps over the body and continues the search. 6

Near the middle of the property several more bodies are located, mostly near the wood piles. Three bodies are located near each other, they are holding AK-47 rifles in their hands, and expended 7.62mm cartridges are everywhere. Carpenter thinks to himself. “They made a stand here and were attacked from all sides.” Their bodies have severe upper body trauma. Chest cavities are tore open, necks are ripped exposing their carotid arteries leaking the red fluids of life onto the ground. One mans body, lying on his back displaying his lower jaw torn from his head, his tongue missing. Carpenter took note that these bodies, once living human beings, had a peculiar look he normally doesn’t see from Taliban or Al Qaeda kills. These men all looked scared, like the devil had slain them.7

Total exterior body count found in the yard stood at thirty-two, with twenty weapons, mostly rifles found. Whitley, Carpenter and Gruber stand near the remains of three females. Whitley asked Carpenter, his voice almost a whisper. “Do you think the ANA or the Paki Police did this?” Carpenter looked up from the bodies of a small girl who looked about nine years old. “Not sure, doesn’t seem like their M.O., worse case of a vengeance killing that I have ever seen. Even worse that anything in Bosnia.” Whitley frowned his eyebrows, “What sort of weapon rips the flesh like that?” “Nothing I ever dealt with.” Gruber added, looking at Whitley. “One sick weapon that I’d hate to be on the receiving end.” Whitley checked to see he did not walk in the puddle of blood, answering Gruber, “All I know, one hell of a mind fuck for the locals to find.” The team came together near the water well, took a minute to discuss their entry plan before heading towards the house.8

Carpenter assigned teams to enter the ancient house two by two. Schmidt and Henry would team up and search to the right. Gruber and Whitley would enter next and search left. Which ever team found the ladder to the up stairs areas, (sleeping quarters) that team would get the privilege of clearing the second floor. Carpenter would secure their rear, making sure no one could approach from outside and surprise the team. The team activated their helmet mounted night vision goggles before entering. The advantage of being able to see in the dark goes a long way in war.9

Entry into the house was textbook perfect. Upon entry, the teams came across several bodies, just inside the door. The room smelled of sweat, blood, sulfur and death. The few pieces of furniture, a small table, two wooden chairs and a bench seat were strewn about the room. One of the chairs was missing two legs, as if it had been used like a weapon or as a defensive tool. The main room took up half of the lower floor, to the left is a doorway leading into an adjacent room, the pantry, meal preparation and dining area. Gruber and Whitley entered the adjacent room, to the left, they found an area set up for family dining on the floor. Food, plates and bowls were strewn, a struggle had occurred here. On the right, was a small wooden counter and an ancient cooking pit. Smoldering wood was emitting a small pillar of smoke that rose and exited the structure through a hand made mud looking tubular vent. 10

To the rear of the room stood a door that was closed, the team could hear a shuffling sound from behind the door. Whitley heard the noise first and motioned to Gruber. As they approached the wood door they noticed the bolt latch was intact, keeping what or whoever was behind the door captive. Whitley had his Springfield Armory XDM 9mm pistol out, his rifle slung across his chest. Whitley motioned for Gruber to cover him while he unsecured and opened the door. Gruber nodded in acknowledgement, stood back several feet from the door, his rifle, a modified Colt M-4, 5.56mm rifle, held at the high ready pointed in the direction of the doorway as Whitley reached for the latch.
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Henry and Schmidt cleared the main room and located a well worn wood-pole ladder in the back right corner which led to the second floor. Henry took the lead up the ladder, followed by Schmidt. As Henry cleared the plane of the floor he was only able to make out part of the room and a doorway in the distance. He motioned to Schmidt that he was going to proceed and exit the ladder into the room. As quiet as a mouse, Henry got to the top of the ladder, stepped out onto the ancient floor and dropped into a crouching position. What had obstructed his vision was three wooden crates with a blanket strewn across the top. A quick glance at the crates revealed writing in Russian, the crates were for carrying RPG rounds and launchers. The crates appeared to be full. 11

Directly ahead of Henry’s location was a window with no glass but covered with a heavy blanket. To his right was two more bodies, one held a M9, 9mm Beretta pistol and there were several spent cartridges strewn on the floor. The pistol man’s face was torn away and there were deep gouges to his chest and forearms. The second male body was in a distorted position, its hands and body were covered in blood, from his mouth was some hanging meat, Henry leaned forward for a closer look, the meat was a human nose and cheek area. Henry grimaced in disgust and a small bit of bile rose to his throat. There were several impact holes in the upper chest area and one to the head, just above the eyes. Henry thought; “That’s one way to stop someone from eating your face, what the hell happened here?”12

Schmidt had risen to the top of the ladder to cover Henry, his rifle, an H&K G36; 5.56mm was at the ready covering the additional rooms’ doorway. The adjacent rooms view was obstructed due to a heavy blanket hanging over the door. Most of the blanket was on the inside of the room. Any threat would most likely come from the adjacent room, as below him, he hoped, was secured by the rest of his teammates. 13

Rule #1; an unsearched room is a dangerous room until proven otherwise. Schmidt watched Henry out the corner of his eye the best that he could but his main focus was on the doorway. Henry moved towards the doorway, with his free hand pulled back the blanket, unleashing hell.14

When Henry moved the curtain, it alerted the three reanimated men who had been converted into flesh eating zombies. They had been resting, in the room, standing in a trance like state. Before the curtain was completely moved, the three zombie like, man-creatures ran towards the doorway, a high pitched scream emitting from their mouths as they exited the room. Henry jumped back from the side of the doorway and leveled his weapon on the first one. Both Henry and Schmidt had taken aim and gave verbal orders in Pashtu for the men to show their hands and stop. The second and third creatures ran towards Schmidt, while the first attacked Henry. 15

Within a second of giving the command to stop, the man-creature had turned and jumped onto Henry. Henry instinctively let loose three rounds from his Sig Sauer model 556 rifle into the zombies’ chest, slowing it down, but not putting it down. Before Henry could get a good aim to the head, the man-creature was on top of him. Henry was fighting back, but the mad creature was strong. At least defensively; his body armor and long sleeve clothing protected his chest and arms. His tactical gloves were protecting his hands and Henry was using his weapon as a blocking tool. The stench from the creature was awful, his facial features were contorted and his eyes were wild. 16

It clawed at Henry and snapped its teeth as if it were trying to eat him. Bloody secretions dripped from its mouth and splashed on the walls and onto Henry. He was surprised at how strong and limber the creature was. Henry yelled; “Shoot the bastards!” Henry struggled as he and the man-creature bounced off the wall and across the floor. It was extremely powerful and Henry could not create the distance he needed to free his weapon and fire. Henry was doing everything he could to keep the things mouth from any parts of his body that it could clamp down on. The man-creature tore at Henry’s clothing and hands, this hand to hand combat was to the death.17

Schmidt took aim as he gave the verbal command to halt. He placed two rounds from his rifle into the chest of the first man-creature. An instinct shooter, Schmidt then placed two more rounds into the skull. The man-creature stopped in motion, like flipping a switch, it dropped to the floor contorted, its upper body crumbled away. Landing off to the right and behind the opening where Schmidt stood on the ladder. The second creature which was protected by the first ones body continued forward and launched itself onto Schmidt. Schmidt thought for sure he could distinguish a smile on the man-creatures face as it dove. The momentum drove Schmidt down the ladder, onto the floor, with the man-creature on top of him. The two then began a death roll on the floor. Schmidt was becoming tired from the fall, approximately 12 feet, it had knocked the wind out of him and he was seeing spots. At one point Schmidt thought he was going to black out. With the creature on top of him, Schmidt yelled as loud as he could for Carpenter. 18

Carpenter, hearing the gunfire and commotion stepped backwards into the house, turned to his left to see one of his teammates rolling on the floor with an Afghani male who appeared to be strong as hell. Carpenter leveled his SIG556, 5.56mm rifle at the man and ran towards the two. Carpenter kicked the man in the side of the head, with all his might as it lay over Schmidt. The impact moved the man-creature off for a second, but before he could fire, the creature had hopped on his feet, jumped into the air and attached itself like a spider monkey onto the front of Carpenter. Carpenters’ rifle fired in semi-auto mode, the round ricocheting off of the hard compact dirt floor, into Schmidt’s left foot. Schmidt let out a scream of pain.19

At approximately the same moment that all hell broke loose upstairs, Whitley unlatched the wooden door to the kitchen areas adjacent room and pulled it open. Gruber had switched on his rail mounted stream light with a blue lens. His weapon pointed into the room, looking with both eyes open and using his ACOG sights mounted on top of the rail system of his M-4 rifle. This gave Gruber a red dot point of aim, also allowing him to utilize both eyes in a combat scan of the entry. But before either Gruber or Whitley could check the room for signs of life, they heard screams and gunfire coming from above. Instinctively, both of them looked up at the ceiling for a second. That was when it happened. 20

Three enraged Afghani creatures began to exit the small room. The first one, a male, ran past Gruber, the second, a female, did not. Gruber held his ground, letting loose two rounds of 5.56mm into the skull of the second female-creature. The third one, another female-creature, he struck in the chest with two rounds then hit her in the front of the skull with the butt-stock of his rifle, making a “snapping” sound as the female-creature fell back. Whitley, who was crouched on his knees, brought up his 9mm pistol up, firing two rounds into the rear of the female creatures head. They both then took aim at the first man-creature which had stopped at the far end of the room where the dining area sits. It turned back around and ran towards the two operators. The creature letting out a blood curdling high pitch scream as it ran. In unison, they fired!21

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