Chapter 32: The 20th Division welcomes you!

Cold water dripped down onto the metal floor, each resulting in a sound that pushed the Phasewalkers' minds further and further over the edge.

"Relax." Ryan whispered for the fifth time.

The hallway was completely dark, with the only light guiding the path being the flashlights of the Phasewalkers. The UEC trooper, despite not having any sources of light, moved quicker than any Phasewalker. It was as if he could see through the darkness. Finally, Ryan picked up his pace and found himself right next to the trooper.

"So, do you mind telling me what happened here?" He attempted while keeping his rifle distinctly aimed at the trooper.

"Fort Sentinel...as its name suggests...is constructed to keep the peace of the surrounding. If the situation calls for, the 20th Armored Division can be deployed to any of the six nearby cities within two hours…as long as Fort Sentinel stands...as long as there is one man left in the 20th Division...peace will be ensured!" The trooper stated blankly.

Ryan suddenly felt a surge of sadness from the bottom of his heart. He didn't know what happened to the trooper and the 20th Armored Division, but at the darkest hour of the United Earth Confederacy, the division was the first to be struck down. Not a single shot was fired. Not a single tank was brought out of the garage. Just like that, the 20th Armored Division didn't give their lives on the frontline against the onslaught of endless Mutations. They died here, in the darkness, where no one would ever know what fate befell them.

It was unfortunate and tragic and, ultimately, meaningless.

In fact, it was perhaps the worst that could happen, in Ryan's opinion. Dying a thousand deaths on the field of battle was relevant. Meaningful. Honorable. This, on the other hand...

And now, one of their troopers was being paraded around like a trophy. It was obvious whatever tragedy unfolded here must've broken his mind. The words that came out of his mouth, those of courage and determination and duty, only served the purpose of mockeries.

Suddenly, the hallway ended, and the Phasewalkers found themselves standing in a large field. They looked around with their flashlights, but all the military-grade flashlights did was meaninglessly projecting strands of light into the abyss that were quickly devoured by the darkness.

"Welcome, everyone!" The UEC trooper quietly walked to the wall and flickered a switch, and the entire stadium lit up. "The 20th Division welcomes you!"

The Phasewalkers all froze right then and there from what they saw. In half a second, half of the best in the 1st Phasewalker Battalion turned and vomited.

Bodies! The ground of the stadium was literally covered by layers and layers of bodies! Shot to death. Burned alive. Slashed open and bled to death. Possibly starved to death. Most of the victims wore black Guardian IV armors. They used to be UEC troopers!

Mixed among the trooper bodies were some corpses in civilian clothing.

Several groups of survivors explored the camp...they never came out.

If it was just bodies, then the Phasewalkers would be fine with it. They have all seen a handful of dead people, but it was a literal mountain of corpses! How many people have died here? Hundreds? Thousands? Ryan wouldn't be surprised if the entire 20th Armored Division was here!

And the smell! Thousands of bodies! Piled in a closed room for over a year!

Wait...if they have been here for a year, then shouldn't the bodies have decomposed already? But these bodies...they looked like they just died...something was really wrong with this place. Their guide must be hiding something!

Ryan quickly snapped to the leading UEC trooper with his weapon raised, only to find the man confused as well.

"Oh my god...what happened?" The man's knees buckled as he suddenly collapsed on the ground. "Who could've done such a thing...what...I was here just hours ago...what in the bloody hell happened...oh wait…"

The man suddenly froze in his tracks. His expression was covered by his face shield, as it has been the entire time.

"I remember...there was these things...they were everywhere! They were in the barracks...they were in the toilets...they were on the shelves and on the beds...they were even in the armors! We couldn't hide...we couldn't fight...they started digging into our brains! And...and then they forced us all to come here...and they made us kill each other!"

"Some sort of parasite. Mutated by the virus." Ryan whispered quietly before turning to the trooper. Like the others, he was afraid, but he controlled that fear with an iron will. "How did you survive?" If this trooper managed to survive here for a year, then he must have some way of evading the parasites. Let's just hope it had nothing to do with his amnesia and psychotic episodes.

As if the question pulled a trigger, the trooper slowly turned to Ryan. The Phasewalker could see his own face reflected off the pitch-black glass shield of the UEC trooper.

"That's the thing…" The trooper said slowly. "I didn't."

The next second, the black glass shield snapped open, revealing a face riddled with livor mortis, spots that appeared on corpses. A pair of lifeless eyes stared back at Ryan Carlson.

The Battalion Commissar raised his rifle and emptied four shots into the trooper's face without a moment of pausing. The trooper collapsed right then and there.

"We need to report back now. We have gotten all the information we need." Ryan turned back to the rest of the squad. "Just in case, we shouldn't try to explore this area. The equipment in the warehouses should be more than enough for now...uh!"

Eric and the others looked down and were horrified to see the UEC trooper, the one with four holes in his brain, slowly standing up. In his hands was some sort of army knife, and he just used it to cut open Ryan's left leg. Just like in the movies, the camouflage uniform offered no protection whatsoever.

"I've got to say…" The trooper said quietly with half a brain left. "you are one of the most decisive ones we've met. We would be more than happy to add you into the fold…especially after you destroyed my toy..." He tapped his own chest.

That was just a moment before he was riddled with so many bullets that reanimation was physically impossible.

"Well, at least that means headshots don't work. Good to know." Eric turned to Ryan. The Battalion Commissar has been quiet after the initial scream, but the pained look on his face was obvious. "Can you still walk?"

Ryan tried to stand up before failing. Eric knelt down, about to carry Ryan when the Phasewalkers suddenly noticed something was off.

Remember the mountain of bodies? Yep...it was starting to move…

"That thing said 'we'." Ryan realized quietly. "He wasn't alone." He slowly took off his helmet camera and handed it to Eric. The man was slightly taken back by the gesture.

"What?"

"Take the rest of the squad out of this building. I'll buy you some time."

Eric would be laughing if it wasn't for the direness of the situation. "Really? So what are you gonna do...sacrifice yourself? For what? The cause? For the freaking Section X?"

Ryan glanced at the pile of corpses once again before turning back to the squad with renewed determination.

"Listen to me, Lieutenant! What happened here is too valuable to be lost! Get out of here now and get back to Colonel Hunter! Tell her what happened here and make sure not a single Phasewalker will step into this trap!"

Eric was about to say something else, but Ryan quickly turned to the others. Most specifically, two Phasewalkers that he recognized as Shieldbearers.

Shieldbearers. The shield of Earth and humanity against all threats, foreign and domestic.

"Escort Lieutenant Hemingway out of this building at once. That's an order!"

The two Shieldbearers exchanged a glance before giving a quick nod. "You heard the Commissar!" One of them declared to the rest of the squad. "Start moving!"

Eric protested, but two other Phasewalkers grabbed onto his arms and pulled him away. Suddenly, just as everyone was about to leave, Ryan called out to one of the Phasewalkers.

"Shieldbearer."

The man's steps paused.

"When you see the Colonel," Ryan added quietly. "remind her that she is a Phasewalker."

The Shieldbearer nodded slowly. "Yes sir." He said swiftly before departing without another word.

Ryan gave out a small grin. When he selected the candidates for the Shieldbearer program, he chose those loyal to the cause and would do anything to defend it, even if it meant abandoning not just a fellow Phasewalker, but also a fellow Shieldbearer.

In a sense, as Ryan slowly checked his weapons, he felt a sense of relief. Yes. Not fear. Not anguish. Just relief. In fact, there was still a strand of joy in his heart.

What was a better fate than dying for the greatest cause of all? A better fate than forever being remembered as a martyr. A martyr whose death actually mattered in the greater scale of things?

The Battalion Phasewalker slowly stood back up. The pain in his leg made him groan, but if there was one good thing about impending death, it was that he no longer had to worry about losing too much blood. He slowly raised his M4A1, took aim at the pile of corpses, and opened fire.

The silenced gunshots were no more than a few light pops. Ryan watched with disappointment as some of the corpses were obviously hit, but they shrugged off the impact as if nothing happened. That was the problem with these things: their Guardian IV armor made sure the only way to kill them, completely destroying the bodies, was nearly impossible. The first trooper got targeted down by nearly a dozen M4A1 at close range. Try to do that to a horde.

Not beaten down, Ryan reached to his tactical belt and pulled out an incendiary grenade. What better way to deal with zombies than with fire? He tossed one of the grenades at the horde and watched it explode into a ball of flames.

The smell of scorched flesh covered the enclosed area. Any normal opponent would have fallen back, but not the undead ones before Ryan. The mountain of darkness rolled forward and quickly devoured whatever flames that existed before washing over Ryan.

And then, everything went silent.

Dead silent.

---

Caity stood in the middle of the Phasewalker convoy. Troopers of the Battalion Security Platoon stood around her in alert, being the loyal bodyguards they were meant to be.

Perhaps she was the most protected individual in the battalion, but no amount of soldiers could protect her from the overwhelming feeling from the bottom of her heart that she has done something terribly wrong, and as a consequence, she might lose not one, but two close friends.

The vanguard has reported back about seeing warehouse after warehouse of valuable assets. Weapons. Armors. Equipment. But a while ago, after they reported entering the main structure in the middle of the fort to root out the last possible threats and seeing some sort of UEC personnel, all contact was lost.

For all she knew, they might have been wiped out already by the same monster that silenced the 20th Armored Division forever.

The Phasewalker Colonel kept on telling herself this was what all the Phasewalkers signed up for. They knew the risks, and they were well compensated for it. If the Phasewalkers died here, their families would be taken care of as long as Section X stood. This was better than what most people could hope to give their lives for.

Her mind went on to Eric. She has always known the man was hardly friends with Ryan, which was why she was so surprised when he asked to go on a risky mission. Now, she found herself regretting giving permission.

Make no mistake. It was Ryan's words that helped her get through the toughest parts of training at Eagle's Nest. It was his encouragement that supported her through the role of the Colonel, and it was his assurance that helped her ultimately make this decision to come here.

In that sense, Eric wasn't nearly as helpful. All he did was offer a few caring words when she was the most exhausted. Hand her a bottle of water or a cup of coffee when her throat was aching. Yet, Caity suspected without the man by her side, she would've collapsed a long time ago.

It was the balance of Ryan's ruthlessness and Eric's compassion that made Caity Hunter a qualified commander. She couldn't afford to lose either one of them. This wasn't romantically speaking, but rather emotionally speaking.

Suddenly, commotions appeared in the front, and when Caity saw Eric stumbling to her, she was half excited and half concerned.

Excited, because her partner in bed was still in one piece. Concerned, because the leading officer, who would never be absent willingly, was absent.

Eric quickly explained everything, from the first UEC trooper they met to how Ryan got injured to the mountain of corpses lying in the room to the sacrifice of the Battalion Commissar.

"We need to mobilize a strike force now!" Eric declared. "It may not be too late yet! Ryan Carlson is perhaps the best Phasewalker in the unit! If we form a defensive line at the building's gate and deploy our infantry…"

Suddenly, one of the two Phasewalkers that were the first to comply with Ryan's command stepped forward.

"Colonel," He said quietly. "Before we left, Commissar Carlson wanted me to remind you of one thing."

"Yes?" Under the blazing eyes of Eric, Caity asked. Her eyes stared into the Shieldbearer's. "What's that?"

"You are a Phasewalker, Colonel."

That simple sentence sent Caity's eyes shut and her fists tight.

Indeed. She was a Phasewalker, and the whole purpose of the Phasewalker Corps was one of life and death. Earth was under attack, and risks had to be taken and sacrifices had to be made to ensure its survival. It was the duty of the Phasewalkers to be the ones sacrificed.

It was their task to burn so bright that they light up the future of mankind.

The human part of Caity, the one that belonged to a teenage girl, wanted her to throw every unit she had into the building to save Ryan. She would gladly die for him. But the Colonel side of Caity forced her to, as painfully as it was, extract herself from her feelings and look at this situation from an objective manner.

First of all, Ryan was probably dead right now. Even if he wasn't and somehow, miraculously, the Phasewalkers move in and save him, and then what? Assuming they take care of the Parasites, would a weakened Phasewalker expedition force be able to make their way back to Fortress Alpha with all the assets at this base? Was it wise to risk the fate of the entire Battalion and possibly Earth to save a single person?

No. Never.

Ryan knew that himself, which was why he reminded her on purpose. He knew she would be forced to make the choice and he wanted her to make the right one, even if it meant sentencing himself to die. That was very...Ryan.

The human side was in tears, but the Colonel said has made up her mind.

When Caity looked back up, her eyes were watery. Her nails have dug into her palms so deep that a medic might be needed soon so she wouldn't bleed out. Her lips pressed against each other. Her face, stoic.

"All units, proceed with the original extraction plan. Seal off the central building and make no attempt to move inside." She bit her lips before adding. "Make no exception."