The speedboat was quickly approaching the shore, I was once again checking my M16, last time this girl decided to stop working I almost became a desert for the fuckers, not a great time and I fully intent to keep it a once-in-a-lifetime thing. HQ had tasked us to scout the place for and upcoming clearing operation. The military base there had been overrun but the location was still very interesting for the high command. From what I understood, the ship desperately needed a docking place, and since the continent was still a huge no-no, they were left with few options.

The island appeared to me more clearly, the heavy fog was still hampering my view but I still managed to distinguish some trees in the distance, we decided to land on a supposedly less populated part. A sudden thud brought me out of my thoughts. We had landed. The three of us landed on the sand. Three people seemed a bit lackluster for an island of this size but even if it would reassure us, I knew we couldn't afford to spend even more ressources on this mission, unless of course we wanted to make ourselves more conspicuous than we already were.

We were on our guard. The sound of the boat should have alerted some of the surounding Zeds, and not wanting to get overwhelmed as soon as we arrived I ordered the other two to follow me into the woods. We progressed as quietly as possible. This goddam fog was both a curse and a blessing, on one hand, we couldn't see shit and risked an ambush but on the other, it concealed us pretty efficiently. Nevertheless, our progression deep inside the ever-so-silent rows of trees really was starting to unnerve me, not a single groan had been heard for the tens of minutes we had been walking. I thought this Island was a fucking death-trap, so where were they? Sure, we were in a more secluded part, but there were always stragglers.

Even when we arrived in what seemed to be a neighborhood, nothing came to greet us. Strange... The fog was so heavy that I struggled to see my own feet but still, during the briefing we were told that the estimated number of residents on the island before the outbreak was around ten to fifty thousands. Yet, nothing. We searched further for an hour but nothing, I was starting to wonder if we were on the right island.

But then an idea sprung in my mind: What if they had formed a cluster? That would be an ideal situation. Some artillery from the boat would make quick work of them, even if at the moment that could become a big problem for us. I turned to Mike, the radio operator.

• Tell to HQ that we have landed, no contact yet. Also, hypothetically a cluster could be at play.

• Roger sergeant.

While Mike was relaying the message I stood guard. Nothing interrupted us, which seemed to confirm my idea. Mike wasn't very discreet, he almost yelled at the operator on the other side. I sighed at his carelessness, It was a shame but he was one of the few capable of operating the radio.

• Sergeant?

• What?

• HQ requires us to contact them as soon as any contact occurs, if nothing happens we must call in 4 hours.

We resumed our exploration after that.

We had to find a safe place to moor the boat and determine the severity of the threat on the island, in other words, we would be stuck here for some time. For now, it would seem like everything was the best it could be. But I knew better than be blinded by positive thoughts. I knew that at some point we would have to fight.

- - -

Well, fighting we did not. I'm not sure if I should be glad or worried. The whole day we searched, but the visibility was too bad to discover anything. Not a walkings corpses, not a dead one, nothing... We reported multiple times the situation, nothing was in sight. It seemed that HQ was as confused as we where.

This was starting to get fishy, either this cluster was one of the biggest we ever discovered or there were no zombies on this island. This seemed highly unlikely however, the briefing did say that the base was destroyed and emitted a distress signal for quite some time. It was so strange that I even considered for a split second that aliens had spirited them away.

Still, thanks to the tranquillity we found a place to spend the night. It was the nearest house from where we had landed. It took us time to reinforce it but at least we were safe... maybe.

Bob had taken the first shift, he wasn't a very talkative guy and he felt somewhat dangerous with his scars, his dirty black hairs and his bushy beard. At least his bulging muscles weren't for show. All around a reliable guy, and that's all I need. In the meantime, Mike was still busy calling HQ for instructions with his usual calm and on my end I was cleaning my gun.

The night was short, but I'd say that I slept better than I ever did since everything went to shit. This meant that I was in a pretty good mood, plus the fog had lifted now so the streets could be explored far better.

We moved out. Our objective was the military base as I suspected it would be there that the cluster would have formed, the battle that led to its downfall was probably the reason for so many to have gathered there from all over the island. Quickly we traversed the streets. Mike stopped and quietly pointed me something. It was a corpse, on the ground. Dried blood surrounded it. Knife in hand we prudently approached, even like this these fuckers could jump us. But seeing it's mangled head I relaxed.

• Shotgun shells... Bob was puffing on a cigar while giving his autopsy. Point blank at that. The guy who did that was either in big trouble or can't use a gun for shit.

• Maybe survivors of the initial outbreak, the body seems pretty old. Mike said shrugging.

• Thats not our problem, Mike, call HQ. We finally made contact with a neutralized hostile.

• Kay'

I regret the time he was still stressed by the mission...

We continued north, but quickly stopped our advance. The road was littered with corpses, the smell of rotting flesh was atrocious. The trail was following the road.

• The boys really fought hard...

• I'm almost surprised they lost.

• Quite admirable indeed...

Dry blood was almost covering the entirety of the road, mangled corpses were scattered everywhere, their heads systematically severely maimed, mostly by rifles and pistols but some also had their heads caved in, probably from a heavy melee hit. All in all, the sight was quite impressive. The boys of the base had made a spectacular last stand. I hope some survived in hiding, they really deserved it.

We followed the road, still very careful of our surroundings, even if a lot had been taken out the usual rule was that there were always more to replace them. But nothing came. We arrived to a traffic jam that lead to the entry of the base. Like the rest it was completely barren of any life except for a few dead zeds. At the end of the road a sandbags barricade had been set up and about thirty to fifty corpses laid still on both sides of it. Some wore the uniform. All seemed to show that they were overwhelmed here and the base was compromised from that point on but something was bugging me. Bob, seemingly more and more on his toes quietly whispered:

• There is something else that forced them to retreat, the previous trail of corpses was at least ten times the size of this one...

• I think you're right. Mike, send a message, we're gonna enter the compromised base.

- - -

Nothing! Not even one was standing up! There weren't even a lot of the dead ones! No cluster, no big group, not even a hole in the fence where they could have fled! What the fuck is happening on this island ?! We searched every nook and cranny of this fucking place! It's clear that fighting occurred here, but even if the place was clear of zeds it was also of any human life. The armory was in a complete mess, the doors had been tore down with a sharp tool, most likely an axe and not by zeds. Had they lost the key ? But if they were in such a hurry why the heck did they took the time to empty every shelves and dump the ammo in one big pile on the entrance and weapons on another ? That didn't make sense. Plus the place hadn't seen fighting, no blood or corpses could be seen inside so it's not like they had been killed before enacting the plan they had.

Even stranger, I think, was when we looked for a safe place to spend the night, we chose the infirmary. A strange scene welcomed us when we entered, multiple guns were tucked in the hospital beds, like newborns in the cradle beside their mother. Said mother seemed to have abandoned her babies but that wasn't really what worried me. There was someone in this base who had time to do something like this. And it seemed this guy stayed here for some time as the pile of empty ice cream tubs in the corner of the room indicated.

• Chief, I don't like this place.

• Me neither Mike but I don't think we'll find better before nighttime, now set up the radio while we barricade the entrees.

Once again we spent the night doing shifts, but this time it wasn't a pleasant one. I jumped at every cracking sound and I couldn't let go of my colt, ready to blast any fucker that would dare to enter. Safe to say I didn't sleep well, so when morning came I wasn't really in the best of shapes. But I lived through far worse than a sleepless night. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't the only one that spent a bad night. Mike seemed like his soul was leaving his body and Bob's face was even harder than usual. We needed to talk.

• Mike, Bob, come here. I'd like to hear your opinions

• Yes ?

• Up until now, we haven't seen a single living zed right ? Well I think the boys didn't do this carnage.

• What do you mean Sarge? They are the only ones capable of such a thing.

• And yet, why haven't we seen anyone in the base ? If it's clear and secure, why isn't anyone staying here ? There is still food, ammo and water nearby.

• Maybe they just felt like leaving

• Why would they do that? To me they were forced to leave, but not from zeds, there clearly isn't enough corpses to make me think that they were overrun this easily when we compare with the previous dead piles.

• What are you trying to say ?

• Someone forced them out, I know it's just a theory but I think we have a bunch of survivors eager to attack military assets for supplies. It's not that rare, I heard the same thing happened near New-Orleans before the fall of the city. Plus they seem to have some sickos with them considering the weapons we saw yesterday.

• If thats the case we're in big trouble.

• Yep, at least the zombies have the decency to not return fire and being morons.

• Tell HQ, just in case.

• Roger

I was still not entirely sure of my theory but for now it seemed to be coherent with what we saw. They probably scaled the fence and took the soldiers by surprise who were then forced to flee by carving their way through the horde. I assume the survivors didn't have the means to transport everything so just took what they could and left. They are probably quite a few to make the military flee. This wasn't good. Maybe we should bail out and come back with more troops...

• HQ say we must keep up the mission and explore the rest of the island. They also say that if there is contact with survivors we are to detain or execute on sight.

• What ?! At least ask for reinforcement !

• … They said that they couldn't afford any additional resources to this mission

• Shit...

We were really in trouble.