Chapter 12: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Perspective: Daniel
The alarms went off next, a harsh static buzz of white noise that set my teeth on edge—designed to accommodate those with sharper senses; A loud shrill sound like those used for normal alarms would easily have deafened more than half the anthros on base.
"All available operatives report to the situation room. We have incoming AFA forces to the south." a voice said over the PA. "Other personnel, make for the lockdown rooms. Repeat: Non-combatant personnel report to the lockdown rooms."
I made for the door, following after the others and trying not to panic. I was suddenly very aware that I didn’t have a gun or a bulletproof vest. If an AFA squad stormed into the room, I would be defenseless. Every open room I passed through felt like a trap waiting to be sprung. I kept an eye on each exit and potential entry point, and felt a slight comfort knowing the other FSF operatives had been trained to do the same.
But we made it to the situation room without any complications. Lana was leading the briefing and assigning people to various places.
"We’ll need another team to protect the lab and the research staff. We can’t let the AFA destroy everything we’ve worked for." she was saying.
"What’s more, there are still hundreds of newly infected anthros in the quarantine rooms." said a black cat anthro I didn’t recognize. "If the AFA breaches them, the new virus will spread unchecked and we still aren’t certain it’s completely safe yet."
I volunteered for the group going to the lab and headed out of the room with several other FSF soldiers, all of us equipped with vests, helmets, and weapons. My head should have been spinning with everything going on, but oddly I felt clearer than ever, focused. My friends, the only true friends I had ever had, were in trouble.
The laboratory was at the end of the hall. There was a loud bang to the right and I wheeled around to see a man in combat armor burst through the door to the west hall. He raised his firearm, a sawed-off shotgun, toward us, and my world slowed. All I saw was the man’s face—or at least the black ski mask he used to cover it. He had brown eyes, full of hate and panic and fear. He was just as afraid of us as we were of him. I looked back at the shotgun in his hands. His fear would kill us all.
The gunshot split my world. The pistol jerked back in my hands and his head jerked back too, a splatter of red opening on his forehead. He fell, collapsing to the floor in a heap.
"Nice shot." an avian anthro said beside me. "Let’s go, the lab is right around the corner."
I nodded, forcing my head to turn, pulling myself away from the body. Focus. I had to focus on my friends. They’d have ended up just as dead as him if I hadn’t acted. One wrong move and it might’ve been me on the floor.
My ears were still ringing as we moved into the lab, the walls so white it blinded me. The sterile air hit me like a punch to the face, my hyper-sensitive nose taking in all new sensations. I shook my head and focused.
"Hey, we heard a gunshot, is everyone alright?" Eddie asked as we moved into the lab and shut the door tightly.
"Yeah." another soldier said. "Rookie here took out an AFA on the way in. Pretty good shot, too."
Eddie looked at me with concern.
"You okay?" he asked quietly.
"I appreciate the concern, but let’s just focus on getting through this." I said, gritting my teeth. Eddie hesitated, but nodded.
"We need people protecting the quarantine rooms." he said, turning to the soldiers and gesturing to a door on the far side of the room. "The rest of the science team is already there. Get there and lock yourselves in the corridor, barricade the doors if you have to. We cannot let the AFA get to the subjects or it’ll be a massacre."
"What about you?" a soldier asked.
"I have to finish gathering things here. Important things that we don’t want to leave behind." Eddie said.
"I can look out for him." I said. "The rest of you go."
The others nodded and moved for the quarantine area. When they were gone, an awkward silence followed. It was an almost terrifying quiet as Eddie packed up test tubes and kits filled with various chemicals with unpronounceable names. My senses strained to hear the slightest sound that would alert me to the incursion of an enemy, knowing that at any moment a fight could break out.
"Lab team, come in!" I jumped at the sound of my radio, clipped to my belt. "Quarantine zone has been broken through, repeat, the quarantine zone has been breached by AFA forces!"
"Shit!" I growled.
"We’re falling back to the barracks! You need to get out of the lab! Do you copy, over?" the voice shouted through the radio.
"Copy." I replied quickly. "Evacuating the lab now."
I motioned to Eddie and he nodded quickly.
"Wait." the voice came again. "I don’t— Something’s… The AFA forces are attacking each other!"
"Squadron 6, this is Commander Warner," said Lana’s voice, "did you say the AFA is attacking their own?"
"That’s affirmative, Commander!" the voice replied along with the sounds of gunfire and shouting in the background. "One of their own squadrons— They’ve started changing! The virus must have gotten to them!" Eddie and I stared at each other in disbelief. "The AFA is full of anthros!"
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