Hux at the Armory

Huxley Wheeler: Log Number 23

April 1st - April fools day

24 days since the fog started:

I left early in the morning letting everyone know I was leaving. I wasn’t worried about going out alone. I could take out a dozen Empties in my sleep after what happened in Yellowstone. I set out to bring back dozens of guns and thousands of rounds of ammo and possibly even a Humvee or a tank. One of the perks of the new Emptie America is I can have any car or truck I want. In such a small country town finding a massive six wheeled truck was pretty easy. Just a few miles from the base I drove over to the Military Armoury. The fence was still up and the building was fairly intact. I could make out the hum of electricity from the electric fence still working. A building still having electricity almost a month since the fog shouldn’t be possible. As far as I was aware there were no other buildings in the city that still had functioning electricity. I parked and took my shotgun to secure the perimeter of the fence on the opposite side of the building where there was a group of Empties. They had no ripped clothes and no missing arms or legs. Seeing them not move or attack me was a comforting and a terrifying feeling. They looked as if they hadn't moved since the fog, standing and staring at the armoury. Being careful not to touch the fence. As I approached them they didn’t move, they couldn’t be bothered to look at me. They had no drive to hunt their prey. I calmly walked up and blew all their heads off. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a camera, red light on, pointed right at me. I tried not to look right at it to see if it would follow me as I walked back to the truck. It didn’t move and stayed in place on the now dead Empties. I switched guns and I shot the hinges on the fence gate and disconnected it from the power supply. I kicked the gate open, and walked with caution. I could feel eyes on me with the cameras pointed around the building. One right at me, again. I pointed my gun at the building and shot out the camera’s, each sparking with electricity after each shot. The door wasn’t locked so I was able to walk right in. The lights were off, I clicked on the flashlight attached to my M27. In the circle of light I was able to see four fully geared up and helmeted soldiers, pointing their guns back at me.

“Who the hell are you?” I screamed at them, with no response they only started walking closer to me.

“You better back up or else you aren’t gonna have heads anymore!” My voice cracked when I said heads, I tried to continue sounding intimidating. I pointed the barrel right at the middle soldier's head. From both sides more soldiers appeared out of the shadows. One grabbed my gun and ripped it out of my hands easily. The other put a bag over my head and tightened the opening around my neck. I got pistol whipped from behind and passed out.

I woke up in total darkness with my head pounding. I could feel the waves of pain radiate from the back to the front. Each pound hit my eyes and felt like they were going to pop out of my head. I was strapped to a chair at my wrists and ankles. The lights turned on burning my eyes and my brain. As my eyes adjusted I could see a glass wall in front of me and a row of masked soldiers. Through the intercom I heard a man in a monotone voice.

“Who are you?” the voice booming on all four speakers in different corners of the room. I could feel each word vibrate and pound on my brain. I paused not knowing if I should lie or not. What did it matter? My name doesn’t even mean anything anymore.

“I’m Marmaduke Deckard.” There was a slight pause before the omnipotent voice responded.

“How did you get here?” What kind of question is that? I asked myself.

“Uhh, I drove here.” As soon as I said that I realized what their next question was going to be.

“From where?” I had nothing to do but hope they didn’t already know.

“We have a camp in Mantua, the reservoir has fresh water and the mountains help with defence.” With no pause the voice responded.

“We know you are lying.” How they knew immediately, or if they were lying I had no idea. The voice asked another question before I could say anything

“How are you alive with no oxygen?” Where were they getting these questions? There was still oxygen in the air dipshits. I didn’t want to explain the science of the oxygen levels and the fog so I just decided to have fun with this.

“Because I’m just BUILT. DIFFERENT.” One of the soldiers pushed a button that released me from the chair and another took off his helmet to reveal that he was Chinese, of course they were Chinese. Who else would have done something like this to America? I walked up to him and smiled through the glass and snickered.

“What are you gonna do to me now?” He smiled and pressed a button. I could hear a valve open and gas rushing in the room. The signature scent of rotten eggs, mint, and pineapple hit my nose. The white gas leaked in. The dense gas being pumped in fell to the bottom of the room. The room slowly filled with fog as the oxygen floated on top of it. I ran to the chair to get the most oxygen closest to the ceiling. The soldiers all took off their masks and started laughing at my struggle to survive. I could feel myself drowning in air, my vision blurred, lungs burned and cramped until I passed out.

I woke up, laying on the ground, head pounding, lungs burning. The same four soldiers were right in front of me, I had fallen right in front of the glass wall.

“WHO ARE YOU?” I yelled at them. They just smiled, and the voice boomed in the room with none of the soldiers mouths moving.

“That doesn’t matter, what does matter is how you are alive and how many more of you could be out there.” It said calmly and paused before continuing.

“All you need to know is that you are no longer Marmaduke Deckard, but lab rat number 1 of potentially many.” I tried to not lose it as the voice in all seriousness said the fake name. I walked up to the glass knocked on it and listened, I looked at the frame to get a sense of how thick it was. This had to at least be laminated glass, this didn’t look like bullet proof glass and I had to hope it was just laminated. I looked back at the chair which was simply screwed to the ground. I was confident I could get it off no problem. The soldiers realized what I was doing.

“There’s no way of getting out, in case you were wondering.” I realized that this was the first time I heard the soldiers speak. It wasn't the Chinese soldier but a man next to him who had dark features, and broad shoulders. He had a Russian accent. Of course those two countries aligned together and destroyed the whole country. I was already looking forward to telling everyone else that me and Arnie were right, so I could rub it in their faces. I kept my cool and looked right at him.

“Well, I could have told you that.” I could clearly see that they didn’t appreciate the sarcasm that I have been giving them. The chinese soldier leaned over and flicked the switch. The fog started coming in, again the disgusting smell flooded in. As soon as it did I looked right at the Russian soldier and smiled. I used my tongue to pull out my fake mollar and bit down on it injecting the epinephrine right into my bloodstream. The soldiers looked at me in shock with their mouths on the floor. I knew that they thought I just took cyanide. I rolled my eyes back and fell backwards. The fog filled the room and I only had a few seconds before I passed out. I moved to the chair knowing that they couldn’t see me through the thick fog. I couldn’t get the screws out. The low visibility combined with the sweaty hands meant I couldn’t get a grip on them. I could feel myself drowning in the air. I pulled on the back of the chair as hard as I could, leaning it back and ripping the screws out of the floor. I ran to the front, ripping the back legs. The screws were still in the chair giving me a sharp point to crack the glass. I ran to the back of the room and ran full speed at the glass wall. I pulled back and pushed the chair forward as I hit the glass, the entire pane breaking and the legs of the chair skewering one of the soldiers blood spraying me and the other soldiers. The other three looked at me in shock as the fog filled the room. I pulled the pistol from the now dead soldier and shot the soldiers before they had any time to react. The gas in the room stopped, too late. The fog was dense enough in the room to fill the building and turn anyone and everyone into Empties, except me. The emergency lights turned on and the siren started blaring. I took each of the soldiers' guns and ammo and shoved them anywhere I could. By then the fog had gotten into the ventilation and was in the entire facility turning or already had turned everyone here. I had no idea where I was in the building or how many Empties there could be. With the epinephrine running through my veins I also didn’t give a shit and just wanted to murder some Emptie bastards. A door at the end of the hallway burst open and four empties came barrelling towards me, they still had full military gear on and were at full strength. I tried to hold my ground shooting at their unprotected legs dropping them to a crawl on the ground. I walked up, ripped off their helmets and painted the floor with their brain matter. I smiled with the ease of killing them, the joy was a short-lived moment. From the same door twenty to thirty Empties swarmed in, I had no chance of stopping them all. The epinephrine let me match their speed, giving me time to find and open the door to the staircase and lock it. In the staircase I was able to hear marching footsteps coming down the stairs in between the blaring alarm. I looked up the middle and these soldiers had on gas masks. When one saw me at the bottom they all stopped and pointed their Rifles at me

“FREEZE!” One of them yelled. They slowed down to a careful walk making sure their sights never left my brain. The only noise for a second was the banging of the Empties on the door behind me, until the alarm went off again and he screamed.

“PUT THE GUNS DOWN!” He yelled. I nodded and put each gun down two from each hand two in my pants and kneeled on the ground. I could see the fog, although not as dense, was still filling the staircase, getting more dense around me at the bottom. Once the first soldier was just a few steps away from me I yelled out.

“Do you know one thing about the Emptie virus?” They paused for half a second and continued moving towards me, I continued. As I could see the gas took effect on the closest one, moving slower and twitching randomly.

“Gas masks don’t work.” I jumped up and grabbed the soldier using him as a human shield. A few shots fired went into him and knocked us both back. The shots stopped for a second. I started to feel hot and a stinging from my legs down and I assumed I had just been stabbed with something on the soldiers armor. I looked down to see that my foot, shin, and knee had been obliterated from bullets. I looked up to see the soldiers turning to Empties, fully seizing up while standing for a few seconds as the virus took hold of every neuron they had in their body. I struggled to move the soldier off of me without sending a shooting pain in my leg. I tried to get his gun aimed at them but it was strapped to him. The Empties screamed as loud as they could, shooting every bit of air they had out of their lungs into their scream. One of them jumped at me. I leaned to the left letting him fly face first into the armoured door, breaking his spine on impact. I could hear the crunch of his bones right next to my ear as he made an impact. Dodging the attack made me forget about my leg pain for half a second, the dead soldier now under me. Allowing me to reach the pistols. The other two Empties ran at me and I unloaded both clips from each gun into them. They fell on top of me dying as they fell. I didn’t hear anyone coming down the stairs and the door was military grade so I had plenty of time before they broke through. Initially I didn't feel much but now I wanted to pass out from the pain in my leg. My ears rang from the loud echoing shots, I think my ears started bleeding. I pushed the Empties off me and grabbed one of their guns, I looked down and noticed that they all had different guns and none of them were US military. I wanted to take them all but I went with the only bullpup rifle giving me an advantage in the close quarter combat I was in. I pulled myself up standing on the bottom stair hopping on my left leg. It looked to be five or so stories, easy if I had both legs. I hopped up each stair one at a time going up to the next story shooting the gun at the door, fully armoured and the tight quarters sent the bullet ricocheting around eventually hitting my side only bruising the ribs. I hopped up to the next few levels hoping any of the doors were unlocked. I got to the fourth story and I realized that I couldn’t hear the Empties banging on the door at the bottom anymore. I had no idea how many people were still here but I didn’t hear anything other than the alarm so I had to assume this level was mostly clear. One of the doors in the hallway was ajar with the word “SECURITY” printed on it. I was so relieved, I would be able to use the cameras to figure out how to get out. I hopped into the room and there was a lone figure standing. Immediately I put his skull in my sights. He was staring at the screens, he had a thick accent I couldn’t quite pin down. Without turning around he said:

“Do you think that this is ever going to end? That you’ll be able to survive out there? You are just a child fighting the whole world. You and your friends will never…” I pulled the trigger when I decided I was done listening to his stupid monolouge. He fell back on the floor oozing blood into a puddle in the middle of the room. I hopped inside and locked the door knowing if anyone else was in the building they would hear the shot. The gas either wasn’t thick enough or was settled at the bottom floors to make him not turn yet. Meaning any more soldiers on the top two levels might still not be turned, able to use guns, and higher brain function. I gave up on trying to get guns and ammo. I just needed car keys, any keys. I looked at the camera’s planning how to get out and where to get keys. I could make out a room with windows and lots of clipboards and drawers, the camera name was ‘Inventory, Level 1.’ I opened the door and hopped down the hallway to the elevator and hit the button for the inventory on the top/ground floor. In the elevator I could feel the epinephrine wearing off, it hit me that might pass out from blood loss before I got to the keys or on the drive home. The door dinged, I had my gun pointed at the door when it opened. I was glad I did because I was faced with two soldiers pointing their guns at me. I could see sunlight through a window behind them. One of them looked over to his left.

“Over here, In the elevator!” He waved his hand over towards me. I heard footsteps and then an absolute barrage of bullets down the hall. The other soldiers looked over to see what happened. Knowing they were slightly distracted I started to squeeze the trigger, but before I did they got ripped up by bullets, blood shooting everywhere. As I watched them be ripped apart I started losing consciousness and fell on the floor, accidentally hitting a floor button, on the way down. They hit the ground unrecognizable from when they were standing. The elevator doors started to close again. As the door closed I saw Jeremy’s face and I passed out as the doors closed on his face.

I woke up a few hours ago, back at the base. Everyone has checked up on me. While I was passed out they took me back home, and Will operated on me, having to amputate my right leg from mid thigh down. Cass stayed to protect me and Will as I recovered. The rest of them are gone to find if any hospitals in the city have prosthetic legs that fit me. Per Beka and Will’s orders I wrote my daily journal. Today I had to do it to keep my mind off what foreign soldiers in such a small town deep in America could mean.