Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America

Units: 22nd Special Air Service, British Army. 82nd Airborne, US Army.

Date: May 3rd, 2021 CE

"I want one," Mclaw said as he dodged a railgun round with no more than the tilt of his head.

He looked to one side where the bullet had hit, then with a twist of his head he looked at the terrified militiaman at his feet. When he entered the building to look for the origin of the scream, he encountered the very same fighter. This fighter ended up pointing their weapon at Mclaw and asking several questions before being satisfied with the answers. Once he was satisfied, the militiaman took Mclaw to the rooftop where he now stood.

"Mr Government, please keep your head down," the leader said, his name was Jett Clampton.

Jonathon had never heard that nickname before, "Call me Reaper and I'm from the British Government as well," he responded in kind, "Also I'll stand if that's fine with you."

The militia muttered amongst themselves confused as to what a person from the British Government was doing here.

"Ok Reaper, what are you doing here and where's the rest of your team?" Jett questioned with his chin on the floor.

A buzzing came from Mclaw's ear before someone spoke over the other side, "Charges set, just need the command, Sir."

Mclaw walked forward so he was staring the enemy down, without looking away from the building ahead he spoke to the resistance, "They're ready."

Another member spoke, "Could you be any less vague?"

"How's this for vague?" Mclaw turned around grinning before he spoke into a small microphone on his face, "Set it off."

The right side of the enemies' building exploded in flame and shrapnel, shards of bricks, glass and steel flew through the air and the building started to tilt. And tilt. And tilt.

The building collapsed leaving smoke and dust clouds littering the street. Rubble covered the back alley with only the smallest amount covering the highway. The militias building started to shake and many members started to shout for help

Mclaw looked over the edge as the rumbling stopped, "That was one hell of a controlled explosion," he turned back, "Anyway my job here is done, gather your troops and find a new HQ the enemy knows your position."

Mclaw stabbed a peg into the side of the building and threw a rope off the side of the building, clipping onto it and he jumped. The rope and clip tightened together with the lower he fell, suddenly he was nearly at the bottom. Hitting the brakes the small metal hoop tightened around the wire causing it to clip in and lock on the wire no more than a few metres above the ground. Quickly, Mclaw unhooked and brought his rifle around.

Something moved.

It was no more than a flash in the background but there was movement. Mclaw questioned whether one of them survived, "Was it possible?" He asked himself.

He took one step forward realising his mistake. Behind him, someone... no it was something jumped from the shadow at a horrifying speed. Mclaw turned to look who it was as he brought the butt of his weapon down on the enemy's face. But nothing happened... It was gone.

"What the hell," Mclaw pushed his rifle to his back and drew his M1911 and blade, "Come out, if you want to live" he spoke softly.

Nothing came.

Suddenly the padding of footsteps filled the air around him and he swung around still pointing his pistol, finger on the trigger he tightened nearly pulling it.

"Friendly!" Hunt called out.

Mclaw's grip loosened, "Has anyone spotted anything strange around here?" he asked, "Like fast-moving shadows?"

The soldiers looked at each other, "Pretty sure the AA teams have orders to shoot down any fast movers overhead," Richards said.

Mclaw bit his lip before settling his nerves, "No that's not what I mean, I saw a shadow appear behind me before disappearing instantly, something's not right here."

A look of shock and worry grew on Hunt's face, "Sir, why did you shake your hand like that?"

"Huh?" Mclaw replied looking to his empty left hand, below it on the floor lay his knife, "I don't remember dropping that..." he said to himself before picking up his blade and holstering it.

"Sir, I saw your hand twitch," Hunt repeated pulling his rifle into the fire position.

Mclaw tilted his head before his eyes widened, "How the hell do you know about that?" Mclaw remembered the last time he saw the need to describe someone as twitching, August 6th 2007. That was the first sign you'd been infected by the virus that caused human muscles to spasm and then instantly shut down, well that's how it worked at first.

"Please sir put your weapons down," Hunt hesitated, carefully readjusting his grip.

Mclaw had his pistol pointing down still but was still a much quicker draw than Hunt. He knew he could win in a gunfight but Hunt had assumed the worst happened.

"I said, how do you know about the virus and why do you think that virus would be HERE?" Mclaw shouted, instantly pulling his sidearm and letting off one shot.

Hunt's weapon shattered in his shoulder and the brass ammunition trickled onto the floor. Hunt drew back and attempted to draw his pistol but Jonathon put another hole through the sidearm rendering it useless.

"Answer the question goddammit!" Mclaw said, almost screaming.

Hunt went down onto one knee gripping his thigh as the 82nd Airborne soldiers looked on, "When we met up with the Snipers squad and took the scientist off their hands I asked one of the lab coats a question, 'Where do you think this whole war started?' Many of them didn't know, but one of them theorised it could have been something to do with the coverup at Houston Laboratories."

Mclaw looked in and shook, "Why have I never heard of this?"

Gibson raised his hands discouraging Mclaw from gunning them all down, "Sir, Housten laboratories as in..."

Mclaw nodded, "The one in New York, previously owned by Lian Walters before it was shut down last year," He looked between the soldiers who were ready to draw.

Then Hunt looked up at Mclaw with a snarl on his face, "Go on then, finish me, prove the monster you truly are."

The Americans immediately reacted to the comment, Gibson was the first to ask questions, "What does he mean, Sir?"

"Over a decade ago, there was an incident covered up by the chemical corps and the US Government. I was called in to keep watch over Lian Walters and the whole building, but the virus escaped resulting in the deaths of a scientist and a few guards, the story ended there and the meteorite was transferred to the CDC to be neutralised," Mclaw responded, "And it was successfully neutralised."

Hunt still snarling at him spoke, "So you knew Walters before this as well, maybe he corrupted you then."

Mclaw shook his head, "I barely knew him, I didn't speak more than a few sentences to him."

Everyone looked at Hunt, "Hunt are you saying that everyone in the NZA has been infected with the virus?"

Hunt nodded sitting back and smiling, "That was the theory I was told and when I got one of the scientists to show me the file I noticed one of the symptoms was twitching."

Richards turned to speak, "Is that true? Do you feel any different, Captain?"

Mclaw looked at the hand that twitched and started to analyse it; loosening and retightening the grip he replied, "I feel fine, I don't feel my blood lust increasing," he said calmly.

Hunt turned back to the Americans, "Tell them we need a helicopter evac, immediately." He turned to Mclaw, "If you truly are still Captain Jonathon Mclaw of the 22nd SAS you will hand your weapons to the Americans and not cause any trouble."

Mclaw hesitated and nodded before taking his M16 off and handing it to Richards, then he handed the M1911 followed by his blades. Hunt got to his feet and wiped the dirt off his shoulder, "I'm sorry Jonathon but if you truly have been infected, I can't trust you."

Mclaw lowered his head, "I know," he paused before looking to the American Radioman who was standing there in shock at what he was hearing, "Tell command we need an evac on the double, I may have been infected with disease: India Alpha and if we don't get it under control soon things could get worse."

Gibson nodded and turned around going to walk away, but Mclaw stopped him, "Make the call nearby, there could be more of the same pathogen around."

Gibson nodded and removed the radio from his back as everyone watched him make the call back to command.

***

Within the next three hours, the soldiers had been brought to a military base in the state of Washington next to the US-Canadian border.

Mclaw sat in his underlayers with his jacket slung over a new plastic chair in the corner. He was currently laying in a room isolated from the rest of the compound to his right was a small empty cupboard in the corner and to his left, there was a one-way mirror. Well, it was supposed to be a one-way mirror. If these people had read the redacted parts of Mclaw's file they would have noticed he sees things a lot brighter than a normal human being, his eyes can register more information and send it to his brain to react faster.

Mclaw could see through this 'one-way' mirror making it effectively useless and then pairing it with the ability to lip-read, he knew exactly what was going on beyond the glass.

The first man said, "So do you think it's true," he paused gesturing with his hand, "the virus from 13 years ago is the cause of all this," this was an older man who had been Jonathon's MI6 contact since 2003. He had debriefed Mclaw about his mission and reported the findings of Houston Laboratories to the Government during the late 2000s. He wasn't Jonathon's handler, more like the agent was Jonathon's secretary. The Government once tried to give Mclaw a Handler, but the handler ended up suffering severe brain damage during a mission because he couldn't keep up with Mclaw's findings.

The man was dressed in a normal black suit and sunglasses like usual, but his hair had grown silver with age. Mclaw still remembered the black perm he tried to rock back in 2011 then he proceeded to be laughed out of the room by both senior and junior officers.

The other man looked to be some US military leader smoking a large Cuban cigar. He was clean-shaven and had a young face, Mclaw had never seen this man before but knew he could pull his weight. The man wore an army-green buttoned-up jacket with several small badges on it, below he wore a tan-coloured collared shirt and tie.

As Mclaw looked closer, he noticed the man seemed to be a US Marine Brigadier-General. He smiled, waiting for what this man might give away. Then the general spoke, "It's possible, I had to read the files on the incident on the way here, honestly it was a pain," he added.

"I've known Mclaw for a while now," the British agent paused, "No amount of mind fuckery could break him."

The young Marine Brigadier put one hand on his face and questioned the agent, "Really?" he paused, "I bet the CIA could do it."

Mclaw paused, thinking to himself, 'he really has a lot of faith in me.'

"Ha," the MI6 agent laughed, "Well the first problem is to neutralise his strength. If you find a bioweapon strong enough to take him down you should let us know! Then you'd need to break his mindset, which is impossible as his file said," the agent paused, "You have seen his file right?"

The Marine tilted his head, "Is it here?"

Mclaw smiled and let out a small laugh.

On the other side of the glass, the Marine and MI6 agent suddenly looked distressed staring at Mclaw. His head slowly leaned to the left looking at where the two men stood on the other side of the one-way mirror.

"Can he see and hear us?" the Marine asked.

"He can't hear us..." the agent trailed off, "Holy shit on a pancake."

The Brigadier tilted his head, "What is it?"

Before the agent answered he walked closer to the mirror controls, "Captain can you hear us, he said into the intercom," and he returned the mirror to regular glass.

Simply Mclaw nodded and smiled, "Yep I heard all of it," he soon continued, "Well, from the 'So do you think it's true.'"

The Brigadier stood there in disbelief before the agent pushed them both out of the room. It suddenly went quiet.

Mclaw lay back on the bed and put his hands behind his head just thinking... thinking about everything. He questioned whether he might have missed something crucial that day. It would make sense, but then raises the question of how the NZA produced so many aircraft carriers in only 13 years along with designing their superweapons like that sniper rifle.

That sniper rifle. Mclaw thought it was interesting. That was no regular bullet but it was more of a dart. He couldn't think of any weapon that fired something like that, except... the US army's railgun which was discontinued a few years ago. Was it a handheld railgun? Mclaw started to question.

Suddenly, his head started to swirl, he saw blurred images. The whole fleet had little detail but he could tell there were battleships, cruisers, destroyers and aircraft carriers along with hundreds of small blurred figures looking at him. Mclaw gripped his forehead trying to concentrate, 'What am I looking at?' He asked himself.

As he focused more he started to see it easier, it started to unblur. Those dots were fully armed Marines, Pilots, Soldiers and Sailors, as he looked up his mouth, and started to move unwillingly, "Today the war begins, each unit has its mission, so please go kill some humans," he'd never wanted to say these words but they just came out.

Cheers came from the crowd of soldiers below as they raised their rifles to the sky. Suddenly, Mclaw turned around and noticed a mirror to his left, he wasn't Jonathon Mclaw... this body. It was Lian Walters.