A minute or so passes of this horrendous noise, and the smell only gets stronger, it fills my lungs and seems to seep into my stomach. I manage to hold my stomach down and then the noise stops as quickly as it started. The sound of shuffling starts again as the Rabid moves on, away from the opening. I afford a look back at Alice and see straight away that she found the whole episode as frightening and sickening as me, she is looking quite green as I'm sure I am. When she sees me looking, she gives me a thumbs-up and even attempts a weak smile. This girl—sorry, woman—is made of tough stuff.
The Rabid couldn’t have seen me as its head was down, but I felt sure it must have at least glimpsed me as I moved back away from the opening. Maybe it was more concerned with whatever it just ejected or tried to eject from its stomach.
I move farther back up the steps to Alice.
“Jesus that was a close one,” I whisper close into her ear.
“I thought I was going to faint,” she whispers to me, which I don’t believe for a second.
“Right, I count five in there, including our noisy friend. I’m afraid one is in combats,” I tell Alice, “I’m going to get to the second opening to give me better angles to take them out. You take the position I just had and cover me, and don’t shoot unless absolutely necessary, okay?” Alice nods affirmative, looking confident but concerned.
Quickly, I reach and give her shoulder a reassuring squeeze and then move back down to the bottom step.
Leaning again and looking out of the opening onto the room, I only see three of the Rabids, towards the far end of the room. Two are shuffling about slowly whilst another is not moving at all and looks like it is staring at something on the floor in front of it. A fourth appears, this one across on the other side to my left and also going towards the other three, but I can’t see our fifth friend.
As the fourth—the one in combats—moves past the entrance I’m looking out from, I gamble and move swiftly, low and silently across the opening and behind the next wall. My M4 is pointed straight down the passageway as I wait to see if I have been seen, and I rely on Alice to cover my back and the first opening.
Nothing happens, so I look back at Alice, my M4 still pointed down the passageway and she gives me another thumbs-up. I signal to her that I have positions on four targets but not on five, and she signals back affirmative.
Slowly, I move down to the second opening, and once in position, I ease my view around until I have sight of the room. The first three Rabids are directly in my sights and by my reckoning, the fourth will be shuffling into view anytime now. There is still no sign of number five, but I can’t give up the chance of having four in the same vicinity so signal to Alice to be ready.
Raising the M4, I aim it just to the left of the head of the Rabid farthest to the left of the three. I steady myself and wait.
The fourth Rabid in its combat uniform is soon in my vision and moving towards the others, and as its head moves across into my sights, I fire! In an instant before the first one’s head explodes, I am retargeting and focusing on the second Rabid, the one I aimed just to the left of. I fire again. Immediately, I swivel to the right, taking aim at the third that is shuffling around. And I fire, my last target is the Rabid staring at the floor. Her head is just raising up as I fire my fourth shot; the bullet caves in her nose and the back of her head erupts.
In a few instants, the four Rabids are down, with barely any noise, my M4 only spitting as the silencer does its job of displacing the hot supersonic gases that would normally make the bang as the bullets exit the barrel.
Where is the fifth Rabid? Scanning the room, I can't see it anywhere, and Alice moves into the opening to my left and also takes a knee. But she keeps farther back using the opening walls as cover. A sound echoes from opposite me, coming from one of the stone openings across on the other side of the room. These lead to what looks like another room on the opposite side of the building. Another sound comes from the same direction, then I see a hunched silhouette move slowly across in that room, but I spot it too late to take a shot as it disappears behind a wall. My aim moves to the right to the next opening.
Breathing steadily, controlling my heart rate and body, I steady myself ready to take my shot when the Rabid next appears.
The silhouette starts to come into view and I focus my aim, my finger moving to the trigger of the M4. As I'm about to squeeze my shot away, a fast shuffling noise starts to my far left down by Alice, and for a second, I ignore it. Squeezing the trigger, the silhouette falls, and I swivel on my knee towards the shuffling noise coming on my left, adrenaline pumping.
Just beyond Alice, the fifth ‘retching’ Rabid is waking out of its stupor and starting to build up speed, coming towards me, its groaning building.
