A Few Days Later

The investigation into the shooting seemed rather routine. This was the first time that I had shot a single person, intentionally. I had shot at some people in what turned out to be a vehicular bomb, and had accidentally killed a man due to a ricochet in the past few months. I had considered myself lucky that these had been my only engagements so far. Coming over to this place, I hadn't set out to kill anyone. All I cared about was doing what I had to do to keep my team, squad, and of course, myself safe. The reasons of the war weren't my concern. I had a job to do, and if I could have done without the loss of life, so much the better.

The investigating officer, as far as I knew, was just doing his job. We had reported the incident about the "man" that I had shot. He acted disbelieving when it came to part about this thing not going down. Looking back, I don't know if he was trying to get me to change my story, or if he really didn't believe me. He kept asking things like, "Now are you sure that it took that long for him to stop?" or, "Why did you fire so many shots?" Like I really wanted turn someone into swiss cheese. Shit, I didn't even take the oppertunity to open fire on some random asshole when my roommate was killed. Why in the hell would I just blatently shred someone for no reason? Of course, how could he know what was going through my mind, I kept telling myself.

I can't be sure, but I do believe that when I glanced at his files he had with him, one of the headers said "Campion". This could be my mind playing tricks on me, what with all of the information that I have available to me now. For all I know, this could easily be just me attempting to piece things together, or see patterns where none exist.

My squad was taken off of active rotation for a few weeks while the investigation was taking place. During that time, I kept seeing more and more confused faces ther at our base. I caught snippets of conversations here and there. I heard one group at the chow hall even talking about zombies openly. It wasn't until that moment when all of the pieces rattling around in my head finally fell into place. The news reports, the virus, that disgusting creature that wouldn't stop, it all made sense in a horror fiction way. I had always been a fan of the "Holy Trilogy" of the Dead flicks (Night, Dawn, and Day); but here is was, smacked in the face by what appeared to be the begining of one.

Though none of this could have prepared me, or any one else at our FOB (Forward Operating Base) for what was about to happen next...