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Evil Unleashed

By Mark Cannon

By Mark Cannon Jr.Published 3 years ago 30 min read
1

I had been called in for an emergency meeting to discuss a confidential mission in Verona City located on the outskirts of Montana. Details were sketchy at best but the city was put on an emergency lock-down with members of the Armed Forces standing at the company line fully armed with tanks and RPGs. I knew enough to know the entire city was in severe danger. When I arrived at headquarters my team was already there and dressed in battle gear. I knew it was big as both the Mayor of Miami and Verona City were present. In short, he told us that there were numerous bizarre attacks being perpetrated on the citizens of Verona, this combined with an alarming number of unexplainable injuries and scars made us the first choice to handle the situation.

Our team was called the Elite Disaster Task Force or E.D.T.F if we were called in, it was a last resort, all seven members James Coleman, Paul Steele. Gary Varlins, Michael Cannon, Daniel Carmine, Harry Robinson, Pamela Sky, and I, James Coleman varied in style and specialties. Paul was a computer geek, able to hack into any system invented and not leaving a trace. Gary was an explosives specialist, I once saw him make an explosive device using nothing but a box of cereal. Michael was a vehicle expert, if the thing had wheels he could drive or fix it. Daniel was a weapons expert everything from non-lethal attacks to cannons was his forte. Harry was a forensics specialist. Pamela was both a martial arts expert and a weapons expert. I was a tactician expert, I dabbled in the other fields and was more than capable of handling myself in a fight but I specialized in strategy. That was what made me the leader, the others while not completely reckless could be loose cannons at times and that is not a mentality you want to be employed when dealing with the catastrophes we handled.

After about an hour we all boarded up into the helicopter and had about an hour ride to Verona City. We traveled lightly, all equipped with just a pistol, a shotgun minimum ammunition, and a few health supplies. Our mission was simple, get in, examine the area, take video footage, and send it back to HQ then await further instructions. When we arrived we were all taken aback, we landed right in the middle of what seemed to be a cannibalistic feeding frenzy. The screams of agony echoed throughout the lightly snow-covered ground that was beginning to turn a crimson red. It was strange the noise from the chopper, the spotlight being shown on them or our shouts of “STOP!” did not detract them from their munching on human flesh. Once they started to attack us we had no choice but to begin shooting, after emptying several rounds into them they were all dead.

After our altercation with the gathering of the cannibals, we headed to the first building we came to, which happened to be an old abandoned steel mill. It was a huge structure that appeared to be in the center of Verona City and was clearly a large part of what made the city go, it smelt terrible and was ice cold. The echoing sounds of our footsteps against the cold concrete floors enhanced the eeriness of the building. We stopped in an old cafeteria and sat in an old booth, we had no idea what we ran into just moments ago, how many there were, or what was going on, so we tried to get in touch with HQ but the signal had died. We were all alone in a strange snow-covered city, unaware of the danger that lurked and unsure of the severity of it, one thing was for sure: There was something in the air tonight, something thick and full of tension, we had no idea the horror that awaited us all tonight.

It was hard devising any type of strategy for a way out. We had no way to communicate back to HQ, we were in a city we had never been in before and were surrounded by inhuman flesh-eating beasts it was going to be a long night. We decided that we would break off into pairs and search the mill then meet back at the cafeteria in about an hour to figure out what to do next. Paul and Gary exited the room and headed east, James and Harry exited and headed south, Michael, Gary, and Daniel headed north, and Pamela and I headed west.

You could hear faint screams of agony throughout the mill, it was hard to tell if they were interior or exterior, either way, they were sending chills down my spine and I do not frighten easily. We were basically going blind, just using some walkie-talkies to communicate, and given the weather and a solid concrete mill we were unsure of how much longer we would have them. We used flashlights to see and obviously with its limited range, to say we moved at a snail’s pace would be an understatement. Suddenly we heard a loud banging sound coming from what sounded like it was just a short length ahead. We sped up a bit and as we heard it getting louder we tried to focus our lights in the direction we thought it was coming from with our hand grasped on our Magnums.

We came upon half a dozen of the cannibals, blood, and flesh just dripping out of their mouths. We shot, targeting the heads we only had a set amount of ammunition and we had no idea how long we'd be stranded in this city. After a couple of direct hits to the skull, they collapsed and let out these inhuman groans as their bodies smacked the concrete of the mill. I kicked one just to make sure it was dead, then told the others to only go for head-shots as that appeared to kill them the quickest. After the brief encounter with the monsters, we decided it was time to head back to the cafeteria.

When we arrived we noticed we were one member short. Gary was attacked by a hoard of the cannibals and Paul was unable to save him. Our hearts sank into our stomachs, we were an hour in and had lost a member, and we dealt with peacekeeping efforts and wars and never lost one of us. Tonight was a different fight, none of us were sure of the beasts we were facing, what made them? What were they? How many were there? All these questions needed answers and with one man down, our odds of finding them were decreasing every second.

We all decided to stay together and attempt to find a way out of this maze of rotting carcasses and get away from Verona as soon as possible. We left the steel mill through its back exit in the south wing and cautiously went through the dimly lit woods of Verona. The entire city was creepy, it was filled with broken-down houses, old-looking trees and seemed to always be cold, there just wasn't anything cheerful in the city...not to mention these monsters were apparently let loose and free to terrorize it. Our first order of business was to find a safe place to rest and try to sort out what little information we would be able to get by rummaging through what was left of Verona City.

Shortly after leaving the mill, we had a call come in through my cell phone (station issued I have no use for technology). It was the Mayor of Verona, he was brief and to the point:

“There was a man named, Dr. Stevenson Mars, he was obsessed with creating what he called the new Genesis, he wanted to be seen as a god. He conducted all sorts of experiments in his estate located thirty miles from the Verona City Police Department on the west side of the city. I have sent a map of the city to all of your cell phones.” Just as I was about to give him a nice piece of my mind for not telling us this before we left, I had a change of plans.....

“I'll have to get back to you Mayor as something more urgent has come up,” I said before hanging up the phone as an enormous, disfigured beast stomped its way towards us. It was a giant monstrosity of ripped flesh with a yellowish puss oozing out of its open wounds.

“What is that?” Paul asked.

“I'm really not sure...but I'm thinking he isn't here to help us,” I stated astutely. Just then it grabbed my phone, chomped on it a few times and I was pretty sure it smirked.

“Great, the one beast on in this place with a brain!” I muttered.

“How do we kill it?” Pamela asked.

“Well, I'm not sure but we can try our guns!” I said firing off a few shots but the thing didn't move. We were in severe trouble, we had a very limited supply of ammo, a beast that was apparently impervious to any pain and basically at its mercy. Just as these thoughts raced through my mind I was able to see that it had grabbed a telephone pole and was making its way towards us. We knew we at least had a speed advantage and decided to use it quickly.

For the next thirty minutes, we used our surroundings and superior stamina to wear the thing out. As it was gasping for air, we decided this was our chance and fired off fourteen shots straight into its partially exposed brain. Finally it fully collapsed and the ground rumbled. The good news was we had sleighed the beast, the bad news was, we wasted a significant amount of ammo on it. The next question we had was how many more of those things were there? And was there any form of scientific formula that would allow anything like that to be created, or how would someone create such a hideous mass of flesh and puss.

Once we got into contact with headquarters again, we were able to tell them what we encountered and the Mayor of Verona sounded none too surprised. Which led us to believe he knew more than he was letting on. I grabbed Pamela's phone and demanded he tells us the full truth, if I was going to be eaten alive by these things, I was at least going to know everything that coward of a politician knew. He told us that he and his cabinet had funded Dr. Mars' research for an ultimate army of monsters. He even granted permission to test local citizens and disguise it by saying it was a flu vaccine. However after six months of testing and seeing the grotesque side effects of the serum, the lovely Mayor had a change of heart and pulled all funds, but by that time it was far too late. Almost the entire city had been infected and turned into monsters and what few normals were left, were basically food for the new breed of race in the city.

After the revealing conversation with the Mayor, we knew the night wasn't getting any easier. Perhaps he was so candid with us because he knew just how slim our chances of survival were. The harsh reality of the situation hit us as crisply as the frigid air, it was the now eight of us against however many thousands of them. In a very somber moment for our team, we all looked at one another deeply, no words were spoken but all our eyes told the same story, we were willing to die tonight to save other cities from this horror, we also knew we were expendable if we died a new E.D.T.F would be built like nothing happened; We were all each other had and we were already one short.

We continued through the city which was seemingly being gutted like a fish as we ventured through it, lines were down power outages randomly throughout the city, windows smashed cars flipped over in the streets, and mutilated bodies scattered every few inches. We were literally walking in the guts of human beings and of all the things we had seen, this was by far the most tragic, disturbing, and unnecessary disaster we were ever sent to clean up. A worst-case scenario was to have the entire city blown to smithereens and wiped off the map permanently, leaving any signs of life behind including us and we were okay with that.

We used the map as best we could to avoid areas that had more body parts than others hoping to avoid any confrontations with the beasts the Dr. created. As we walked through we couldn't help but think what Verona looked like before all its carnage and corruption. It was one of those small areas you never heard about in the news, a place to escape the chaos of life and relax. Now it was a home of destruction all funded by its very own Mayor, and the cruelest irony of it all...we now worked for him and were stuck cleaning up his mistakes.

It took three hours and we were finally able to reach the Police Station. The station was very large and was in immaculate condition in comparison to all the other buildings in the city. We were hopeful we'd be able to load up on ammunition there as we all still had our travel packs on. We cleared the immediate area and sat down in some chairs that were at the front desk, we studied the map of the city and contacted Mayor Jacobs in hopes to shed some light on the outline of the Police Station. He sent us a map of it and we were able to have Michael draw it out for us on some computer paper. We marked exits in red pen and points of interest in black and blue ink depending on what it was carrying. For example, the armory was marked in blue and the communication center was marked in black.

I decided to come up with a strategy that would see us use the Police Station as an operating base, after all, we could get to the communications center once we were safe and have Jacobs send a chopper to get us out of this God-forsaken nightmare. We had to get down to the armory, we weren't sure how much if any ammunition was left down there but it was our only hope because even if the monsters hadn't found the station yet, they were eventually going to, and after our encounter with King Kong Cannibal, we weren't sure what else was roaming around.

We split into two teams, Michael, Daniel, James, and Harry took the east and the rest of us went west. They were heading to the communications center and we headed to the armory. The station was eerily quiet, you could hear the wind beginning to whip outside. I couldn't help but imagine what type of chaos had been unleashed in the early moments of the outbreak as no police force was designed to battle a city of cannibals. Paul, Pamela and I heard a crash just a few feet ahead, it wasn't a mystery what awaited us in the next room. We readied our weapons and prepared to fight. Once we got in the room, which appeared to be a cafeteria of some sort, it was being overflown with cannibals and we began shooting, with precision, we still only had a limited amount of ammunition and had no idea how many more of these things were around. Once we got through the wave of beasts, we made our way to the armory, hoping we'd be able to find a supply of guns and ammunition.

Fortunately for us, the armory was still well-stocked, yet again pointing to just how unprepared for the catastrophe the city was, had they even a sense of what was out there the first responders would have been heavily armed. As we loaded as much firepower and extra ammo as we could into our bags, a touch of sadness came over us all as we realized that the officers had literally no chance against these things. Then the reality hit us, we weren't exactly much better off, there was no real means out of this horrific mess. We knew we had to get to a point where we could be picked up via helicopter, but then the only means of fixing this was to wipe Verona City off the map, that's hardly a victory.

As we headed back to the main entrance in hopes of meeting up with the rest of the crew, it dawned on us that it had been about an hour since we heard from any of the other members. Paul tried to contact them but there was no response, we feared the worse, and headed in the direction of the communications center. As we entered the main hall, it was now being ransacked by the beasts, we again opened fire and tried to be as precise as possible. We were all trained to keep our cool even in moments of extreme crisis, but this was beyond a crisis, this was life or death and anyone even the most disciplined of people had a level of anxiety in these scenarios. Fortunately for us, these beasts while next to impossible to kill, had a limited to zero-level of intelligence and tended to just circle and area until something obstructed their path, and then they would change direction and repeat the cycle.

As we entered the North wing, and it seemed as though it had been hit recently with a slew of beasts as papers were scattered, furniture was flipped over and broken, window panes shattered and there were multiple blood-splatters up and down each side of the hallway. We had our guns ready as an attack could come at any time and we had to be ready for any chance at survival. As our feet stuck to the dried blood on the once-white marble floor of the Verona City Police Department, something inside told us what we would eventually come across. As we entered the massive file room, I felt a drop of blood come from the ceiling and smack my bald head. Looking up I saw what could only be described as a crimson covered mass of flesh stuck on the ceiling, it had been impaled by a wooden leg of a chair. In ten years of police work, this was the only time something had turned my stomach. We kept moving forward as we were sure the station was being invaded by these things and in all honesty our desperation to survive grew to a whole new level of intensity.

The next room was another file room and to our dismay, we saw the torn apart corpses of the other team members. It was clear something had eaten most of their ligaments, leaving them just recognizable to us. Combined with our grief over our fallen cohorts, a bit of anger began to fester, all this death and carnage was so the Mayor could ensure another run by funding the mad doctor to create these savage things. I took a deep breath and decided that as the leader and someone who wanted to survive this night, it was no good to allow my anger to clout my focus. As we rose back up to our feet we noticed a diary next to, James' body I opened it out of blatant curiosity and it said the following:

“November 1, 2002

I completed the first dose of the hope serum today, that fool of a Mayor actually gave me permission to create these creatures!

November 14, 2002

It's beautiful! My creatures are beginning to stir, I wonder if this is how God felt when he began creating the earth. To see what you put time and effort in to come to life is truly spectacular.

December 25, 2002

Poor Martha, she failed to see the love in which I have for my creatures. I hope they enjoyed her as a snack ...her perfume did smell like vanilla.

January 1, 2002

Oh, what have I done? These monsters don't love me, they've taken over me. They snarl and snicker at me as I walk past their cages. Oh if they only knew how much I loved them.

January 3, 2002

It must stop these voices in my head they scream and moan in agony. I hear the screams of my late wife asking me why I fed her to the beast. Why? Why? Why?

January 7, 2002

It is time to end this! I can no longer bear the sins I have committed. The city is in chaos, my monsters have eaten all they could. I can still hear the screams of the good people of Verona as my lovely's bite into their warm, moist flesh. I have created a super serum and will inject myself with it in mere moments. I cannot bear for my children to feast upon my tired flesh, I will remove myself from the human race and become one with my children, perhaps then they will fully understand how much I love and admire them.”

Despite the chilling memoirs, perhaps the most alarming thing was his mention of a super serum, if a normal serum had the power to do this, what powers could the super serum have held? Better yet, would we even know?

We were about eleven hours into the investigation and fatigue was beginning to set in. Our senses were heightened, our anxieties raised, not to mention the loss of five of the original eight E.D.T.F. squad, this all combined to zap both our mental and physical strength. We were so close yet so very far away from getting out of this place alive. We had to get through a maze of corridors, search through an endless amount of rooms just to get to the communications center, then we had to get to the roof for a pickup point and hopefully leave Verona with what was left us, we knew, either way, none of us would be the same after the things we had experienced tonight.

Just as we entered what we felt was the middle of the North Wing of the Police Station. To our surprise, it was also the middle of a herd of beasts whose hunger seemed to be growing. It made sense, we figured by this time, we had to be about the only humans in the city, those who weren't infected by the hope serum were doomed to be the meals of the savages it created. We frantically opened fire and moments later the corridor was no more than a pool of blood that covered our feet. Just as the fighting stopped a monstrous beast busted through the doors, killing Paul immediately. Pamela and I opened fire but it laughed demonically and kept moving forward. We retreated and tried to discover a weakness, so far all these things were easily killed, and shots to the head finished the job. This thing, however, was different it was at least eight feet tall and engulfed the entire corridor making it impossible to go anywhere but backward. I noticed a puss-filled growth on its left leg, having nothing to lose I began firing at it causing a green fluid to spurt out. The monster screamed with every shot to it and began to slow its forward movement. We shot at it repeatedly breaking the monster down to its knees. As we caused the growth to erupt, several more grew out of its crimson covered flesh, we fired at them desperately refusing to allow it back to its feet. After several more minutes of intense fighting the monster's breath left its body and morphed into a pool of blood and green bacteria.

With that behind us, we took inventory of how much ammunition we had left for our Magnums we were using. We had about sixty bullets between us, fortunately, the armory had some machine guns and we thought we would have enough to get through, depending on how many more of the creatures we encountered. Once we got into what appeared to be a form of a waiting room, we decided to take a momentary break. It was here the loss of our fellow teammates hit us. It had been a long stressful night, our blood-soaked black gear told us we had been through a war, and neither of us felt like our survival would make a difference; we had lost too much already. We tried to contact the Mayor again who was back in Miami, but he wasn't responding. With that, we grabbed our bags and continued on this seemingly futile mission.

Thankfully we were able to get through the next few rooms without encountering the monsters. This allowed us to rest our minds a bit and pull up the map on our phones. We were just a room away from the communications center it was just beyond the next room. We got in and were able to contact, Chuck Wilcox, the helicopter pilot who dropped us off in this horrific place. He told us that he would be there in two hours and to get to the roof quickly. That sounded great in theory, but in order to get to the roof, we had to get outside and into the courtyard and climb the ladder to the top of the massive station. We were unsure of what was outside at this point, Verona city was the third biggest city in the world and despite the number of beasts we had killed, many more possible monsters remained. Didn't have a choice though, it was literally, fight or die and even if I was going down, you could rest assured I'd be taking the city with me.

Pamela and I walked outdoors into the frigid Montana cold as the sun was beginning to rise. We had been battling these deformed beasts all night, they had taken all but two members of the team and now we had to battle them some more just to escape this snow-covered nightmare. As we suspected a hoard of cannibals awaited us on the outside and we fought through them, using both melee attacks and gunfire to fight through them. It wasn't that we were reckless, we were just ticked off at the entire trivial situation we were unwittingly placed in. Cannibal after cannibal fell to the floor, its bones crunching and puss oozing mass just crumbling to our feet. As we marched toward the area where the ladder was destroying anything that stood in our way there was a sense of satisfaction hearing the beasts cry out in agony.

As we approached the ladder we could see a shadow on top of the roof, fearing it was another pack of cannibals we prepared to fight with what energy we had left. Instead, when we got up there, it was who we presumed to be Dr. Mars due to the white overcoat he was wearing. He was unaware of our presence despite looking right at us. Pamela and I readied our weapons in case of a sudden attack, but just fell to his knees and began laughing while pulling at his hair out.

“Oh yes, I have done it! I have done what the naysayers said could not be done I have created a race far more indestructible than man. I have become a legend, for years to come they will speak of me as a brilliant creator far ahead do of his time.”

He rambled this several times. We shouted at him and he did respond, he could hear but not see. He began to talk in gibberish and nothing he said was making sense. He stood up and screamed

“Meet your maker simple-minded peasants!”

After saying this his body began to bulge and shake randomly. Whatever was happening was not good by any means.

Right before our eyes and with a blood gurgling scream the doctor morphed into a gigantic indescribable mass of torn flesh, exposed cartilage, and a horribly disfigured face. Pamela and I opened fire but he simply swatted away the bullets. He then kicked me near the edge of the roof and snatched Pamela up and swallowed her whole, leaving just me to face this monstrosity alone and tired. Truth be told, I didn't want to continue, my entire team had been eaten alive and I was forced to see what remained of them. Just then Mars vomited Pamela, who was nothing more than bones now. As he methodically walked over to me, I used what little drive and strength I had left to pull myself to my feet. I aimed my gun at its head but he grabbed it and ate that too. I punched tiredly at him to no avail as he just backhanded me to the other side of the roof. He stepped on my throat and looked into my soul, I had nothing left. I was tired of fighting and had nothing left to fight for, I wanted to give up. I was drifting into unconsciousness and saw my days as a rookie all the way up to just a half-hour ago flash before me. As my life played like a film reel in my mind it renewed my spirit. If I quit now, my team died in vain, not to mention what would be left of the world after Verona? I was an officer of the law and sworn to uphold Justice to my very end. My eyes shot open and I kicked at the monster's legs snapping it off. To my amazement he kept coming, he didn't know or didn't care that he was now missing a ligament.

I punched at his midsection.....or whatever that ball was in the middle of it and it started to stagger a bit. It grabbed me by the throat and lifted me off the ground with ease so I resorted to a highly difficult and guaranteed method of fighting, I poked it in the eyes. As I pulled my hand back I realized its eyeballs were still attached to my fingers. I tossed them aside and knew I had an advantage now, I had to move quietly around the roof and fend him off. I had to survive just a few more moments until Chuck was able to arrive. As the chopper neared the monster followed its loud propellers as the ladder was lowered I leaped on it and quickly climbed in.

“Hey, use that!” Chuck said looking back and pointing to a rocket launcher kept in the back of the chopper. I aimed it at Dr. Mars and fired then watched the mass explode into millions of tiny particles scattered throughout the snowy roof.

“Haha, looks like a cherry slush puppy!” Chuck laughed.

It was over thirteen hours of rummaging through guts, flesh and puss ended with a single fire of a rocket launcher. As I leaned back in the chopper and rested my eyes, I could hear the Blackhawks swooping in to blow the city to smithereens. I could hear the explosions in the distance as I flew back to Miami. I looked around and the back of the chopper was empty. I was alone my team was gone. There was a picture of us to the left and I grabbed it before placing it in my bag. The eight of us were all dressed in our best attire for the team photo celebrating the beginning of the Elite Disaster Task Force just a few short years ago. Now I was all that remained after a traumatic night battling inhuman beasts and mentally ill doctors. I then drifted off to sleep.

As I arrived back to Miami, the airport was filled with people waiting to give me a hero’s welcome. The chopper landed, waking me up. I took a deep breath and grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder as the door to the helicopter opened slowly. I could hear the loud roar of the people as it got closer and closer to being opened fully. I stood waiting for the door to open completely and dragged my spent body down the stairs. My clothes were drenched in a disgusting combination of blood, sweat, and other bodily fluids I cared not to think about, I smelt like stale sewage in a grinder factory and looked like I had been through a war. As it became apparent to the people I was all that remained their cheers stopped and their sorrow set in. I saw the family members of my fallen comrades begin to breakdown into tears. I asked Mayor Walter Williams Jordan to gather them into a private room so I could speak with them alone. He obliged.

Then the Mayor of Verona, Randall Heyman came over with the most disingenuous smile I had ever seen in my life.

“Ahh Jason, you made it!” He said cheerfully. He was then met with a hard right hand by me. I had lost my team and it was at least partly his fault, he was lucky there were so many witnesses, or else I might have done something I regretted. After that, I headed into the airport lounge which was empty except for the families of my teammates. Without going into great detail, I told them they died serving their country and I would do my best to ensure their sacrifice and their lives would not go unheralded. I then gave them all a copy of the picture of us all together and despite their hurt, they were relieved to see at least one of us made it back alive.

I headed back to the station after that and hung the picture up right in front of my desk as a constant reminder of them. Two weeks later we held a ceremony for, Pamela, James, Paul, Gary, Harry, Michael and Daniel. We were unable to get their remains so they hung up honor badges both in the station and gave one to the next of kin of them all. I sat alone in my office and wondered what caused Dr. Mars to use his brilliance for such evil, why did Mayor Heyman become so corrupt ensuring winning the electoral race was more important than human life. Nobody will ever know the answer to these questions as the only one capable of answering them was no ashes in a deserted area in Montana. I shut off the light in the office and headed home uncertain of what my future was. After enduring the sudden loss of seven crew members I wasn't sure if I wanted to rebuild the E.D.T.F I decided to take a hiatus and head to Hawaii for a much needed mental vacation.

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