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Ryu was an unusual man. He seemed very philosophical, simply from the way he talked. Many of his soldiers seemed to fear him as much as they did look up to and admire him. He ran his camp extremely efficiently, everyone had their place and knew what was expected of them and no one was given a job he or she could not handle on their own. All his men seemed tightly disciplined and trained to the point where they would know that someone was sneaking up behind them and wait till the very last second to flip around and turn the tables. It reminded me a lot of watching Aegean run the Praetorians, everyone knew what was expected of them and knew they would be punished if they failed to meet it.

When Ryu and I got to the tent, some of the soldiers on the beds were awake, while others had passed. There were X Rays on the wall. Most of them looked fine apart from broken ribs. But some of the X-Rays had pitch black spots in them and they were fucking enormous.

"My hunch is confirmed", Ryu said, "nurse, what make you of these X-rays?"

"Please cut your shit Ryu", the nurse said, "I hate it when you talk like that and I'm not in the mood."

"This is merely how I speak", Ryu said.

"Whatever", the Nurse said, "I have no idea what to make of them. Short of cutting Miller open, which would kill him in the state he's in."

Ryu sighed, "do you expect Miller to recover enough for removal of these objects."

"I can't say", the nurse said, "what ever is inside of him simply absorbs the X-Rays, but judging on what I saw on his blood tests, it's some kind of bone based structure, an egg possibly."

"An egg?", Ryu asked, "are you certain of this?"

"No I am not certain of this", the nurse said in a "I am annoyed to hell with your stupid ass right now", kind of voice, "With everything that has happened in the past 24 hours, I'm certain of nothing."

"I know the feeling", I muttered under my breath. This was about the time that Miller's body began to convulse, while his heart monitor flat lined.

"What in all the realms?", Ryu asked himself as his hand began to char and embers fall from his clenched fist. I felt the ice creeping up my arm as well.

"Get the wounded out of here", the nurse ordered as Miller's chest burst open and a swarm of large fist sized black spiders poured from it, "now!"

"Taste cleansing fire!", Ryu shouted as he unleashed a jet of flame from the palm of his hand. The spiders let off a blood curdling cry as they flipped over and roasted in the heat. When Ryu backed off, there was nothing left but empty chitin exo skeletons and Miller's bones, along with the scorched cot he was on. The walls of the tent seemed only to be singed by the flames.

Ryu bent down and picked up one of the skeletons, inspecting it closely.

"I am glad we are not enemies Skyline", Ryu said, "for this is a fight we will not win unless we all come together in an overwhelming force. Have you any survivors in your base of operations?"

"Around 20", I said.

"You must bring them here", Ryu said, "I'll send you with a tank and a truck to retrieve them and any supplies you posses."

Ryu turned to a Hazmat team that had just arrived, packing chemical throwers.

"Cordon off this area", Ryu said, "prepare all wounded men from Miller's squad for X-Rays and emergency surgery at once, we cannot allow any more of these eggs to hatch."

The hazmat team acknowledged Ryu's orders as Ryu and I went back to the hotel. When we entered, my friends were standing in the lobby with a huge, Xenomorphic spider dead at their feet. Alcatraz was crouched down next to it. His shirt was soaked in yellow, gooey blood and his normally spiky hair was down around his forehead.

'We are so very, very fucked", Allen sighed, "Chemical 240 and Number 12 are going to run amok here and with Agent 41 turning everything they get into into an armored nightmare, it's only a matter of time before were all infected or dead."

"You killed it, yes?", Ryu asked looking at Alcatraz.

"Yes sir", Alcatraz said.

"You are worn out no?", Ryu said, "please take a rest. Also, your Exo is getting too small for you no?"

"How did you find out about that?", Alcatraz asked.

"I can tell from the way your sitting", Ryu said, "visit the medical tent next to the white military truck with a red cross on it, the doctors there can rebuild your system while you grow to the natural height."

Alcatraz stood up with help from Mike, all of them looked so worn out that they were having trouble standing.

"You'd think with all the sitting around we did at the lab we'd be in top form", Allen yawned, "but I suppose a lack of sleep for a month straight will do that."

"And then we were in cyro for a few months while we drifted in space", I said, "that was plenty of sleep."

Allen just flipped me off.

"Okay okay", I said, "I'll back off. Ryu, you said something about a truck?"

"Yes", Ryu said, "go wait at the front guard post and I'll have your escort ready soon."

I nodded and left the hotel lobby, Mike following me. We walked to the front guard post and waited for about ten minutes before a Grey cammo painted M1 A2 Abrams tank and a Deuce rolled up. Mike and I exchanged glances before climbing up on the tank, which was leading. There was a man in a tanker's jumpsuit on the M2 turret with a Mk 19 grenade launcher beside it who seemed to be the commander.

"You must be Skyline", the man said over the roar of the unmuffled diesel, "where's your base at?"

"The lifeguard tower just up the road from here", I said.

"Okay", the man said, "I know where that is", he opened up his radio, "okay, put her in first and let's get moving."

There was a lurch and the engine quieted as it's Rpm dropped and the big tank began to creep forward. It turned out of the Hotel parking lot as the driver of the deuce behind us put his truck in gear and followed us out. The Abrams rolled over the paved road with extreme ease and rather quietly as far as mechanical rattle was concerned. The giant, 18 cylinder diesel engine that was powering the monster announced our presence to every single ghoul within a 15 mile radius, but, we were riding on a tank, a zombie horde of any strength and size would be incapable of defeating the uranium armor and would offer no resistance when the tank rolled them over, which is exactly what happened when we came to the three way intersection where the old tour bus was. A fresh pack of ghouls had come up since we'd gone through. I raised my rifle to start picking them off when the tank commander lowered it.

'Ah put your weapon away", he said smiling, "let diesel do the work for you. Boys, give it full pedal, we got a pack of zombies and a tree to get out of our way."

The big tank lurched from it's stand still and took off at a brisk pace, at least for a tank. The ghouls took notice and began to shamble towards us, meeting their end underneath the 70 ton beast, popping with a sound audible over the tanks loud, mechanical gear shift and the snapping of the tree it up rooted.

"Are you guys running a manual transmission?", I asked.

"8 speed Aston Martin Tanker manual", the man said.

"I didn't know they made manual transmissions for tanks", Mike said.

"Only Aston Martin", the commander said, "no automatic could stand the torque from this engine."

"Interesting", Mike said, "Maybe I'll Google that if I ever get the chance."

The tank met little opposition from ghouls as it rolled through the streets, seeming as though it were invincible. It's 1,950 horsepower Twin Turbo V-18 Diesel announced it's presence to everything for miles around, and crushed everything that turned up without having to expend a single round. I couldn't help but think what might have happened to us if we had decided to take a stealth approach and then were discovered after we killed someone and they brought this tank out. We had just turned the corner for the lifeguard tower, the downshift no doubt heard by Chy and the others in the tower. As we neared the structure, I saw Chy on the roof of the tower, her sniper rifle in hand, pointed right at us.

"No!", shouted standing up and waving my arms, "FRIENDLIES! FREINDLIES!"

Chy seemed to far away to hear me and given the new uniform, I was sure she didn't recognize me through the scope.

"Stop the tank!", I said to the commander.

'Why what are you shouting at?", he asked.

"I SAID STOP THE TANK! MY GRILFFREND IS ABOUT TO MOBILITY KILL IT!"

'Stop the tank!", the commander shouted, "stop the tank!"

The tank downshifted again before coming to a stop and killing it's motor as I got on the radio.

"Chy!", I said, "It's Skyline! I'm on the tank."

I could see Chy put her sniper rifle down.

"Sky?", she asked, "why the hell are you on a tank?"

"It's a long story", I said, "the virus has mutated again, it's not safe here by ourselves anymore, but Ryu has the area around the hotel secure."

"Ryu?", Chy asked, "I thought he was a threat?"

"So did I", I said, "but trust me, he's a friend. I need you to get everyone packed up and ready to go, we leave nothing behind."

Chy sighed, "okay, I trust you."

She grabbed her rifle again and disappeared behind the wall.

"Were good to go", I told the commander.

"Alright the commander said as the tank started again, "let's roll out, get the civilians and get home."