Number 7

"Fodder at the front. I don't want to see any worthless soldiers trying to hide from a safe position."

The smooth yet ever so sharp words of the woman seemed to cut into the minds of her subordinates as she spoke to them as if they were less than animals.

"Ah, but that's all of you, isn't it?"

With a crisp snicker, the woman seemed to mock the very soldiers underneath her as the men all found themselves pressing through the hallways.

This woman was Yelena Slausenricht, Admiral of the Navy of the Forgestarian Empire.

Following her orders, her subordinates made their way through a number of secure premises until eventually reaching what should have been the courtyard - however as soon as they pried open the two doors which should have opened electronically, they were instead greeted with a scenario that was anything but lush and green.

Instead, brown and black seemed to lace the landscape, withered plants and corrupted structures setting themselves out before the group.

"Madame Admiral, stay back if you will."

"Of course. Please have this taken care of, James."

The man with the glasses stood in front of the woman as he took the lead, gazing around before him as they were met with this unexpected situation.

"What has happened here? The plants... the garden... the courtyard... everything has been destroyed."

However this was not the only surprise - for as soon as the soldiers stepped forward to investigate, a growl could be heard from the side.

"Raargh!!!"

Jumping out from a dead hedge was none other than a man who wore the outfit of a gardener - yet his complexion was anything but that of a man.

His face destroyed by disease, his skin had turned a pale blue as he jumped towards one of the soldiers at the front, gardening shears in hand.

Slice!

"AGH!!!"

As the shears were plunged into the neck of one man, blood sprayed as the zombie jumped on top of the man, letting go of the shears as it bore its claws, tearing away at the skin of the man.

Shock and horror spread through the soldiers as they backed away, however panic did not overtake the group.

The zombie began to tear away at the man who screamed and yelled out in pain, using its claws and teeth to render the man's flesh as blood flowed and screams echoed - yet even as all of this happened the people surrounding him merely watched, standing still as they awaited orders.

They did not run.

They did not scream.

They did not panic.

However, neither did they rush forth to kill the creature that was attacking one of their comrades.

They waited for orders.

"Don't kill it. Capture that creature alive."

And with a light smile, the woman spoke these words as if she were a demonesse, ordering her own troops to do something which would almost certainly result in numerous deaths.

Yet without question, despite fear being evident in the men and women, they all moved upon her words.

"Yes Ma'am."

And with this obedient response, the soldiers stood forward, clearly disturbed and terrified as to what the creature could possibly be - however they surrounded it quickly on all sides.

One man rushed forward as he grabbed the hands of the thing, another grabbed it's legs, and one by one more and more people assisted as the creature struggled to escape.

It gnarled and spit, and eventually its fangs found themselves sunk into the neck of one particular man.

"NGH!!"

Biting down the pain, the man fell to the ground as he tried to stand up, however he was quickly replaced with another who took his place.

"Gag it!", one man shouted as another took off their jacket, making a makeshift gag as they wrung the creature's mouth from behind.

It continued to kick and claw all the while, landing scratches on person after person, however eventually the group had stabilized it.

Propping it up, the men and women looked to their leader for direction, at which she stood forward, slowly approaching the creature that had been captured.

"This... this is no human. How interesting."

Yet as she stood right before the creature, investigating it up and down even as two of her soldiers were inflicted with potentially fatal wounds, the woman seemed to completely ignore them.

"A monster... for lack of a better word, a zombie. Is this some sort of biological warfare, perhaps?"

And then, with a smile, the woman waved her hand as she turned around.

"I've seen enough. If Victor were here, then perhaps I would have presented such a thing for him to research. However we are not scientists. I merely wanted to confirm as to what it was... and I believe I now have a good idea. James. Do you think it would be appropriate to assume that some sort of disease has spread, causing this undead phenomenon?"

"That... seems to be the case."

Responding to the woman, the Vice Admiral stood forward as he pulled out a pistol, placing it directly on the forehead of the creature.

"Hold it still."

And with this direction to the men and women who held it, a shot was fired.

Bang!

The creature fell to the ground lifelessly as soon as the bullet entered its skull, at which the soldiers holding it seemed to let out a light sigh of relief.

However among them, hidden behind their obedient expressions, was a single thought.

'Two men are severely injured... one was tortured and will certainly die. The other was bitten on the neck, and a chunk of his shoulder was taken out. Without question he will bleed out. And three more men were scratched and injured lightly.'

'And for what?'

'So that she could look at it for just a few seconds, only to kill it anyway?'

Displeasure with the actions of the Admiral found its way into the minds of these soldiers.

However such displeasure was nothing new.

For this was how it had been from the moment they entered the Navy.

They had been nothing more than the slaves of this woman, following her orders no matter how ridiculous the task.

"If there are more of these things, then we will have to fight them. Ah, I have an idea. James. I'll be taking the armored car. You will be driving. As for the rest... you all will surround my vehicle as bodyguards."

'Body guards...'

'She wants us to go out and protect her against those things while she stays inside the comfort of a nice car...'

Irritation filled the minds of the men, yet they made every effort not to show such irritation in their expressions.

"Ah, and if there are too many of these creatures, then I want one of you to run off in order to distract them. Please feel free to sacrifice yourself. And know that in the case that someone does not sacrifice themselves in such an event... that five of you will be sacrificed at random."

Putting her hand to her chin in thought, a devious smile wrapped itself around the face of the woman.

"No... actually... random would be a bit too boring now, wouldn't it? Very well. The five that I feel are the least loyal will be sacrificed. I feel that there have been many who are... displeased with my way of doing things recently."

With a sinister tone, the woman spoke with the tongue of a snake, her words slithering about as they coiled around her prey.

"Therefore make sure to show with your actions that you are among the loyal."

"We will need to make it to the garage.", James commented.

"Then what a perfect opportunity, don't you think?"

With a wide motion, the woman glanced upon the soldiers as she looked back and forth, her eyes glazing across each and every one of them.

"For everyone to prove to me just how loyal you truly are."

In this instant, each and every soldier felt a chill sent down their spine as if their very souls were being read - however at that moment something happened.

"GRR..."

A low moaning sounded out from below, and all eyes fell upon a particular man.

The man had his face eaten off, and his body was rendered mutilated from the attacks of the zombie.

This man, mutilated as he was, slowly sat upwards, his skin slowly becoming a pale blue shade as he looked to the soldiers with dead eyes.

"RRRR..."

And then, eyeballing each person there, his gaze landed upon none other than the black haired woman known as the Admiral.

"ROAR!!!"

And rushing forth to attack her, the creature shouted at the top of its lungs.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yet stepping in front of the woman with the quick fire of three bullets was none other than the Vice Admiral - James Herglas.

"Filthy... to think that not a single one of you would step forth to protect the Admiral when her very life was in danger... or perhaps you were all too shocked to even do anything?"

And as he blew the smoke from his weapon, the man fixed his glasses with a grim expression as he spoke in a lecturing tone.

"And yet you call yourself soldiers?"

"Thank you, James. And to the rest of you... I will remember this."

Waving her hand, the man known as James followed the woman without looking back, at which all of the soldiers immediately spurred to action, marching forth as they took their positions around her.

And as they circled around her to form a line of protection, the woman chuckled lightly as she spoke her next orders.

"Do your best to make me forget."

----

"Three more on the left!"

"Ten up front! Fire at will!"

"We need more support at the rear!"

A group of around 30 soldiers had edged their way through hundreds of zombies, most of which were dressed in the grimy outfits of heavy laborers.

They were in the center of a large port, and they formed a circle as they fired off their weapons without reserve, picking off the undead from afar.

The gunshots had attracted entire hoards, as was expected, however the soldiers didn't hesitate to use their weapons.

"We've got to make our way to the warehouse!"

"We're trying, but there are too many between here and there! We have to take them all out first!"

As if a series of fireworks were going off, the sounds of gunshots repeated over and over without cease.

One after another, the group killed zombie after zombie without hesitation, and the bodies piled up quickly.

"Why aren't we moving!?"

"I just told you, there are so many! It's everything we can handle just to stop them from reaching us!!!"

Yet despite the fact that the group was composed of soldiers who should have experience in combat, this was only true for a small portion of these people.

The majority of these people were those who gave out orders from the Headquarters. With the Admiral as the prime example of this, the woman stood in the center of the ring of soldiers from relative safety as she merely watched the group fight ever so desperately - a bored expression tainting her face.

While some men and women were experienced in shooting, the majority of those present had only a small amount of practice during whatever training camp they had endured long ago, and as such there were some whose shots didn't seem to hit, even in the sea of undead surrounding them.

Ratatatata!

One particular man fired off an automatic weapon, lining the hordes with bullets, yet this method was exceptionally inefficient as many of these bullets would dig themselves into the flesh of the undead without killing them.

"Shift all weapons to semi automatic fire! They seem to die after taking a bunch of shots to the body, but one or two to the head seems to kill them! Aim properly and don't waste ammo!"

The one who shouted this out from the center was the Vice Admiral, James Herglas.

Taking control of the soldiers who were struggling to survive, this man barked out orders while the woman at his side watched with disinterest.

"We can refill our munitions when we get to the warehouse, so don't worry too much about sparing ammunition, but don't waste five bullets on a single enemy! Aim high, and if you can't do that then aim for the middle of the chest! Remember that living through this is most important, so don't waste a second! Fire, fire, fire, and if you can't reload fast then hand your weapon to someone who can! Derek and Chester, I want you two to be constantly reloading weapons, is that understood!?"

"Yes Sir!"

Strategy seemed to come naturally to this man even in a scenario surrounded by monsters - for warfare was no different than this.

No... perhaps this was even less chaotic.

"At the end of the day, these creatures are mindless! They have no intelligence, and even if they outnumber us they could never win in a battle of wits - and what better application of intelligence than the use of technology!? Keep firing and keep pressing forward, and we will eventually make it to our goal!"

The man shouted this out, however even as he spoke with words that should have increased morale - there didn't appear to be any such increase.

And the reason behind that was simple.

'Why are we putting ourselves at risk so that the Admiral can sit from the comfort of a vehicle while we fight on the ground?'

'Why didn't we just perch ourselves up from a high position and take out the zombies from afar, only leaving the base once it was safe to do so?'

These questions plagued the minds of the soldiers.

Yet more so than these questions, it was the answers that angered them.

Whether this was some sort of biological attack or not, it was almost certain that the enemy was not present.

Had there been snipers lying in ambush or enemy regiments preparing for an attack, the group would almost certainly have been picked off after creating such a ruckus - yet despite this the Admiral had ordered that they press forward while shielding her.

Was it because she knew that there was no such thing?

Hardly.

'She knew that we would be the ones taking the fire, even if such an ambush had been prepared.'

However this didn't answer the further question - what if bombardments were to be used on the group?

The answer to this was simple - such a thing would not happen, otherwise there would be no purpose in these creatures in the first place.

In the case that this was an enemy attack, then the creatures would be a force in of themselves designed to infect and overtake the base without need for any mass scale weaponry.

'That's the terrifying thing about these creatures...', one soldier thought as he fired shot after shot, doing everything he could to keep his weapon steady as he fired.

'It only takes one of them to infect another... they'll bite and spread the infection, increasing their numbers until it's reached this point... and before anyone even notices it will already be too late.'

Two men had died.

Three more had been scratched.

The man fired more shots while the group urged forward as a bitter memory from just moments earlier entered his mind.

----

"Ugh... I'm not feeling so good..."

"Me neither..."

The three who had been scratched began to hold their heads, barely able to walk as the group was gathering weapons and ammunition.

"Hey, what do you mean? You... you were scratched by that thing... do you think you're infected?"

"I... I don't know."

"I... I'm scared...."

Tears filling his eyes, one of the men fell to his knees, terror evident in his expression as he let out these words of despair.

"My head... it's tearing me apart... I feel like... like... lugh... lurgh..."

"Hey! Pull yourself together!!! What are you-"

"RAARGH!!!"

One woman had stepped forward out of concern for the man who seemed to be struggling only to be met with the fangs of a monster.

"AGH!!!"

As the creature bit right into her arm, the woman shouted out in pain while the others who were preparing themselves in the armory merely dropped their jaws in shock.

"HEY!!! We've got another one here!!"

"Shit!!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three bullets to the skull.

The entire armory was silenced at the sudden gunshots, at which a man entered the room with a calm expression, pushing up his glasses with a sternness.

"I was wondering why you all were keeping the Admiral for so long, yet I come to find this situation... this is quite the predicament."

"James. Weapon please."

"Of course, Madame Admiral."

Following behind the man was Yelena, and she immediately took his weapon as she stood forward, looking around the room with razorlike eyes.

"You. You. You. And the one on the floor there. You have all lost your use."

Pointing to the woman who had been bitten and the two men who had been scratched, as well as the one who was now six feet under, the woman spoke these cold words as she held up the weapon - aimed straight for the forehead of the woman who had been bitten.

"W-wait, Madame Admiral!!! I-"

"Are you going to tell me to spare your life when it has already been lost?"

Her words were cold - yet ever so logical.

"What if... what if the disease isn't lethal to everyone? What if only some people turn-"

"Do you think I'm willing to take that chance?"

One of the infected men spoke up - something which he perhaps would never have done before - for at this moment his life was in true danger.

Yet without a shred of hesitation, the woman pointed the weapon to the head of the man who spoke.

"The man who was directly attacked turned more quickly than any of the others. The others who had been scratched all suffered from a sudden fever - clear evidence that something was circulating within their bodies. It only makes sense that the deeper the cuts, the quicker the infection will spread into the body, and the quicker the person will turn into one of those monsters. Therefore..."

Bang!

A shot fired, causing shock and horror to spread throughout the ranks of soldiers as they watched their comrade be killed in cold blood.

"I have no further need for those unskilled enough to hinder this unit."

Bang!

Another shot fired off, once more straight through the head of an infected man, leaving only the woman who had been bitten on the arm just now.

She looked up to the Admiral with a pleading expression, however not a word exited her mouth - for she understood well that begging would do nothing.

Instead, she stood up to run.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yet the moment she did so, she was riddled with so many bullets that her body turned into a pin cushion.

Shells clanged as they fell to the ground, and the gunpowder filled the noses of all as the woman blew it from the weapon with a smile.

"Ah. I suppose I shouldn't handle one of these after all. I do have quite a bit of a trigger finger, after all."

Handing the weapon back to the Vice Admiral, the woman closed her eyes as she snaked through the group with a smirk.

"When something tries to run from me... I can't help myself.”

Stopping in her steps, the woman's tone lowered as her words entered the minds of the soldiers.

"Nobody runs from me. The only time that I want to see your back... is when you're bowing down before me... or when you're risking your life to stand in front of me."

----

Perfection.

This was the focus of each and every soldier as they fought for their very lives.

A single mistake would mean death.

A single scratch would mean death.

There was no question as to what would happen to them if they were to take even the slightest injury from the undead, for even in the event that they were not infected by a small wound, their life would not be spared.

Or rather - that woman would not spare them.

Yet despite these ill natured emotions, each of the men and women who fought did so without reservation, and another effect was created.

They gave their all and mowed their way through waves that could not normally be taken down given their numbers and skill levels.

With around 30 well trained soldiers, all of which had rifles, even large hordes could be easily taken care of, however the fact that so many were inexperienced in combat meant that this group wasn't capable of such a feat.

Even so, they fought.

And they fought to the very end.

How many hundreds of zombies did they kill before they reached the warehouse?

At first it was only a few dozen, however once the gunshots began, hundreds more had popped out of the woodworks - all converging on this area of fire.

"We did it... we're at the warehouse!"

"Everyone get around the entrance. There might be more inside, so we need a few people to enter first and clear out any stragglers."

And finally - the group was successful.

At the orders of their Vice Admiral, three experienced soldiers lined up on the door, preparing to barge in while the remaining people circled around the door facing outwards, continuing to fire at the hoards from afar.

They were surrounded, yet they were able to hold the approaching undead back so long as they didn't pause their fire.

"On three, head inside and take out any undead. One! Two! Three!"

With a slam, the door barged open as the three stormed in, their guns pointing in all directions as they entered FBI style.

"RARGH!!"

"HISS!!"

"URGH!!!"

And as soon as they entered, three zombies thrust forward to attack.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

In an instant a number of bullets were fired, and the three zombies were filled with lead - however one particular zombie didn't die immediately, despite the bullet straight through his head.

"GRR!!!"

Thrusting itself forward, the zombie drew an arc through the air as it scratched at the cheek of one man who placed his rifle in it's mouth.

RATATATATA!

And with the fire of numerous bullets, the head of the creature exploded as it fell limp to the ground - yet so too the man did.

"Everyone inside."

And the one who spoke this time was none other than the woman as she ordered everyone to converge inside the building.

The people rushed inside, a few taking the rear as they continued to keep the numerous undead at bay, and eventually only the rear guard was left outside.

At this point, even these people ceased their firing, and slammed the door shut quickly.

"Bar it off.", the Admiral ordered, at which a couple of men who had been preparing for this grabbed hold of a nearby filing cabinet, lifting it up before placing it right in front of the door.

Banging could be heard from the outside, however the door didn't budge.

For now, the group was safe.

"That was a mess.", the woman stated with displeasure evident in her voice.

Standing forward, the woman walked to the center of the warehouse - in which there were three heavily armored vehicles.

Within each, there were a total of four seats plus a single seat on top with a gatling gun, totaling to be 15 seats - yet present in this room were 30 people.

"What a predicament, isn't it? 30 of us... and only 15 seats. Ah, but this isn't a predicament at all now, is it?"

With a smug grin, the woman jumped onto the hood of the vehicle in the center, crossing one leg over the other as she glanced upon the soldiers present.

"After all, I said it before - did I not? Those who risk their lives for me... will be rewarded."

Standing up, the woman gracefully swung over to the seat with the weapon on top of the vehicle.

And at that moment, taking control of the gun, the woman gripped the handles as she grazed the sights across the line of soldiers.

"Heh."

Chills were sent down the spines of each and every person as their very lives flashed before their eyes.

For in that instant, there was only one question which concerned them.

'Is she going to kill all of us here and now?'

Yet this did not happen.

Instead...

RATATATATATATATATA!

BOOM!

Aiming to her side, the woman began to fire off a volley of bullets, the barrels of the weapon spinning rapidly as bullet after bullet was fired - directly upon the vehicle on the left side of her.

And with an explosion, the vehicle was left in a blaze of fire.

"However... to reward 15 people with seats would be far too generous."

Turning the weapon around, the woman once more fired it off with a blast of shells, lighting up the other vehicle before yet another explosion.

And in mere instants - two of the very weapons which the Navy could have used were destroyed.

Stunned at the rash actions of the woman, each of the soldiers could do nothing more than watch in shock, completely at a loss.

Yet as they thought these things, the woman stood up from the weapon, sliding down the hood as she landed gracefully.

And with a devious grin and an alluring finger, the woman motioned for the Vice Admiral to stand at her side.

The man stood forward, taking his place beside her as the two stood in front of all, at which the soldiers lined up almost instinctively - as if such a thing had been drilled into them their entire lives.

For it had.

"Now then, soldiers... it's time for your evaluation."