He snarled and bore his teeth at me. I began shooting, but it didn’t have any effect on him. Behind me I could hear the snarling and gurgling of carriers. Looking back, I saw that they were just standing there. They didn’t make any attempt to come closer. My eyes were now facing forward, meeting with X’s gaze. A bright flash illuminated before me followed by a deafening concussion. Then, all at once I felt hands grabbing on me. Fighting for my life, I kicked and tried to break the grasps using the butt of my gun, but to no avail. My eyes were still adjusting to the light, and my ears kept ringing.
All I could hear was muffled noises, and I could barely make out anything with my eyes. My vision began to clear, but there was still ringing in my ears. A light was flashed into my eyes, and I made out a figure holding a pen-light to my face. The blurriness in my eyes began to fade, and I could see what was going on. There were two people clad in black body armor, with protective masks over their faces. Water was splashed onto my face, and I rubbed the rest of the grogginess away.
“Sir, you’re just feeling the effects of the flash bang. It will wear off momentarily. Can you stand?”
I nodded, and grabbed their hand as support. My weapon was placed into my hand, and I reloaded another magazine.
“Who are you?” I queried.
“Sargent Masterson, with the security force, sir. I have to get you out of here. That’s a direct order from higher.”
“I can’t leave without the research data and samples. I need to get to the lab. There’s already a team in place, and they’re waiting for me. Contact Captain Valentine on channel thirteen, and alert him of the situation. We need to do this on the move.”
With that, the three of us were zipping down hallways, going through massive double doors, evading the hungry infested that awaited us at every turn. To get to section D of the West Wing, we had to go through the botanical garden, and down the elevator through the western corridor. The garden was a massive area, one could easily get lost. Up ahead was the door to the garden, Sargent Masterson and his companion went in first. They began to open fire as they entered the garden.

I heard the hissing and snarling of carriers all around us. I turned my head to the left and saw three carriers salivating from the mouth. I opened fire aiming for the head. The first round I squeezed off took one down; the other two began to sprint towards me. Firing out of fear, I began to panic. As I pulled the trigger again, my gun only clicked. I had wasted my second magazine. I was tackled to the floor, and I fought viciously against the oncoming carrier. Their strength was overpowering.

The warm breath and stench of death was on my face, and I almost vomited because of the putrid odor. Grabbing a hold of the head of the carrier that was on top of me, I twisted with all of my strength. The sound of bone crunching gave me chills and made me cringe. Still on the ground, I pushed the carrier off of me only to have myself pinned by the other. I managed to kick it off of me against the door stunning it. Reaching for my belt, I pulled my last magazine out and loaded. Two shots delivered into the creature’s head.

I entered the garden to find Sargent Masterson by himself. At my feet was the body of the other security force member. He was barely breathing, and began to seizure. I shot him in the head, and he stopped. It was a coup de grace. If I hadn’t had done that, he would have been another carrier to kill.

I grabbed his weapon, which was an M16 A4 Service Rifle, and his remaining ammunition. I Pulled the bolt to the rear, and set it on single fire. I ran up alongside Masterson and began clearing the room with him. Carriers began to pour in all around us, we were getting boxed in.