TRAVIS LEWIS-ANSTIS took first place in the 2024 Wangaratta Young Writers Award year 10/11/12 story category with this piece. The competition was jointly run by the Rotary Club of Wangaratta, and the Rotary Club of Appin Park Wangaratta. oooo Back story: It was 2045, a major war was threatening the United States. Our great engineers and scientist made a weapon to make the military stronger, smarter, and more agile than anyone has ever been before. The Germans send military force to rescue a spy and steal experimental bioweapon. But it all went sideways, as the spy was caught by the allies and most of the German soldiers were killed while trying to evacuate the hidden facility. Whilst they were near the evacuation point to be picked up, high-calibre rounds suddenly burst out of the facility towards the soldiers, piercing the lower abdomen of a German soldier, making the soldier collapse. The soldier was holding a syringe in his hand as he hit the ground. As he hit the ground, the syringe broke. Crushing from his body weight, causing the bioweapon syringe to shatter and the liquid to enter the bullet wound. Present day 2050 The war still rages on in America. The battle has progressed into Los Angeles, with rumours of conflicting countries using bioweapons. This encourages one last final effort to defend American soil. American troops airdrop the untested vials into the friendly military forces at approximately 0100 hours. "Firstly, we have rumours that Germany is holding up in a bunker three clicks north from where we currently are. Secondly, we are sending an airdrop to your location. It is untested, but we are certain it will work. All you need to do is inject it into yourself and you will become stronger, smarter, and faster than ever. It will arrive at 0100 hours," Commander Shepherd (code name Iceman) announced. "Copy that, Iceman. We are enroute, ETA 20 minutes." Devil, the team leader of the 401st company leader, turned to the team. "We got a hostile bunker three clicks north from our position, but we are waiting on the airdrop in about 10 minutes, and we must inject it into ourselves If we are to get there. Any questions?" With no reply, Devil assigned me to lead a team onto the battlefield and try and get to and infiltrate the bunker. We are 1.5 clicks out, my radio chirps, and I hear my codename. Devil - "Devil to Bishop, do not inject the serum into your body..." Before anything else could be said, a blood-curdling scream sounded from the radio. And then screaming and growling came from nearby buildings. Me - "Bishop to Iceman, do you copy?" Iceman - "Send Traffic, Bishop." Me - "Iceman, we need QRF to the location of frontlines in LA! We lost contact with Devil, and we are hearing some strange things," I say, panicked on high alert readying my AR. Icemen - "Copy that Bishop, QRF is enroute to the frontlines, but you need to continue to the bunker, if possible, otherwise get onto high ground and we will evac you and your team," Iceman replied angrily. Something dropped off a three-storey high balcony, which looks like a human. It was horrible, and by the looks of it, was a civilian. We approached the body, and it suddenly jolted up onto its feet. Bravo team raised their weapons and aimed at the thing that once was human and opened fire, knowing it would be dangerous. I grabbed my Colt Python and shot it in the head, as shooting it in the body did not have any effect to the thing. Me - "Bishop to lceman, we got a problem. I’m sending video feed now." | grab a pair of gloves and slowly look at the body and see a lot of bight marks and scratches. Me - "Iceman, are you seeing this?" Icemen - "Yes, I do Bishop! You need to get to a roof immediately, we are sending an evacuation helicopter to your location." Me - "Copy Iceman, we are heading up to the roof of a nearby building now and we will set up some flares." Before I can say anything else, more of these things pour into the street where we are. They stream out of nearby building and houses. We burst into a building which the first infected fell from and we climb the stairs. When we get near the top, I throw down a couple of grenades and plant four C4 mines onto the stairs and we climb a bit higher and set off the C4 collapsing the stairs underneath us and we reach the roof access. I plant some C4 inside the building near the door and grab some rope and tape and tie the rope to the last three grenade pins, and I tape them to the door and tape the other end of the string to the other side of the door, so when an infected comes through the door it will trip over the string and set off the grenade, which then we detonate the C4. Me - "Bishop to lceman, we are at the roof waiting for the evacuation helicopter, how long until it gets here?" I yell urgently over the radio. Iceman - "Copy Bishop, the helicopter is about two clicks out, can you hold on until then?" he replies franticly. Me - "We can try and hold out, but I’m not too sure how long we can hold on for as there are zombies climbing the building around the walls and up the Emergency stairs!” I was about to continue speaking, but the grenades explode as zombies started to come onto the roof, so in desperate measures I detonate the last of the C4 we got near the door. "OPEN FIRE," I yell to the last four people I've got in the team while I raise my weapon and start to open fire on the infected. Iceman- "Iceman to Bravo, helicopter is 30 seconds out, what's your status?" Me - "Infected have breached the roof, get them to double time it, we got three mags left without guns and we are out of grenades!” I yell over the radio frantically. Iceman - "Copy that, Bishop, the helicopter is five seconds out!" we hear frantically over the radio. Five seconds later, we hear a helicopter and then my radio chirps on. Unknown - "Bishop, this is Alpha 1-1, we are inbound, how many survivors?" Me - "Copy, hover over the roof, we need immediate EVAC!" I reply, emptying my last magazine before switching to my pistol. Alpha 1-1- "Copy, we are arriving now, climb on quickly as we are running on fumes," Alpha said when they arrived, hovering over the roof as my team and I climbed onto the helicopter. Me - I put on a headset to talk to the pilot in a panic and yell "GO! GO! GO!", we take off away from the building and the rear doors and I man one of the gatling guns on the side of the helicopter and open fire on anything that is trying to jump onto the helicopter from the building we were just on. Iceman - "Iceman to Bishop, how copy?" he said urgently. Me - "I copy, Iceman. We got a huge problem in the city, tell the QRF the city needs to be sealed off these infected are killing everyone and everything that moves." I look out the window and see the infected flying out of windows chasing cars that try to evacuate and ripping the guts out of anyone who tries to fight back. Iceman - "Copy, Bishop, we got the tank division Enroute to the city of LA, you’re to be RTB." Me - "Negative, you need everyone you can out here!" I send video footage to Iceman to show what is going on, all the carnage, bloodshed and fires happening over the city. Iceman - "We see what you mean, we are sending everything we got and can send." We continue to fly over the city, and end up landing outside about 50 miles, so we have time to set up and prepare for the infected. Me - "Iceman, we are set up waiting for further orders as we are still waiting for the tank division and the infected are closing in fast." Some growling of heavy machinery and loud engines can be heard from one mile away, I turn to see the tank division arriving and opening fire. Onto the infected. A tank pulls up next to me and we were told a tank is getting airdropped to the location. Bravo 1-01 - "Bishop, a tank is three minutes out, the moment you get the tank come join the fight." And then they sped off with the rest of the tank division to try and hold off the infected. Me - "We are waiting on the tank which is here now." I look up and see the tank getting gently detached from a helicopter. As the ropes are disconnected the tank drops onto the ground. And we all climb inside start it all up and we rejoin into the fight. Bravo team - "WE NEED IMMEDIATE HELP! MULTIPLE TANKS DOWN AND WAY TOO MANY INFECTED!" we hear gunfire and explosions. Me - "Iceman, Bravo team is having heavy casualties! Send air support, we don’t know how long until we arrive!" Iceman - "Copy Bishop, air support is enroute as soon as we can free up some air support, but we are sending more tanks." Me - "Copy that, Iceman..." we arrive on scene to see all the tanks destroyed and the infected eating the corpses of the dead tank members. "Negative on air support, send a nuke and do not evacuate any nearby towns, we cannot tell if this infection has spread out anywhere else." I commanded the driver of the tank to turn around and return to the outskirts of the blast radius. Iceman - "Copy that, Bishop. We got a warhead inbound we just need your verification code to initiate the nuke." Me - "Bravo-Delta-Tango-Alpha-2-5-3-4-9-Sierra." Iceman - "Copy verification code, confirmed missile strike inbound ETA five minutes. You need to get out of the zone a helicopter will be there to pick you up."
