The Last Guards (Elric and Felicity)

Elric Languine was a solider through choice, unlike quite a few men and women who had just kind of ended up there because they couldn't think what else to do with themselves. And recently a lot of civilians had been trying to pass themselves off as soldiers in an attempt to get to the 'front lines'.

Idiots didn't realise that the front lines could, overnight, be in your own freaking living room.

He was a paratrooper by trade but had been lumped together with bits and pieces of other regiments when the shit started hitting the fan so hard that he would actually be surprised if there were enough Paras left to ever form a single company.

So he had been called back to here, an army base attached to some crappy little outpost near Oxford. Sighing a little bit as he stood watch at the guard tower with a couple of morons, he was the only one really watching the road.

Hence why he was the only one to see the infected man come running round a bend in the road towards them. Lining up a shot on the man's head, he was about to fire when he glanced up and saw hundreds of them following this one infected round the bend.

His eyes widened,

"INFECTED!" he yelled out as loudly as he could before grabbing hold of his radio as his two fellow soldiers began to panic fire into the crowd with their heavy machine gun, "This is west gate, we are under heavy Infected attack over. I say again, we are under heavy Infected attack, please advise. Over."

Climbing down the tower when he didn't get a response, he began running to the main command building as dozens of frightened soldiers went to go and hold the gate. Elric burst into the command building,

"We've got infected coming at us from the West gate!"

Flick had been wanting to climb up the ranks of the army for quite a while now, but when it looked like her time was finally coming close the biggest clusterfuck to hit the country for years had started and it was going to bring them to their knees she knew it. That meant that there was scare time for official promotion although through this situation there would be times direction was needed and she wasn't afraid to be the one to give that direction.

Returning from her brief rest break Flick hummed to herself while she walked the safety of the paths within the army base, there had been no infected sighted here yet. The operative word being yet, there was always time for the freaks to turn up and start causing trouble.

It appeared that her very thoughts had jinxed her...the shooting began and she almost didn't need anyone to confirm it was infected. Seeing one of the tower guards rushing into the command center, Flick frowned and wondered why he would leave where he was stationed, someone should have responded to advise him on what to do.

Jogging after him Flick frowned when she saw that the command building had gone dark as it were, there was nobody there and no contact on the radio, no paper message to relay where they had gone.

"The fuck?" she hissed "Bosses all decide to take a coffee break at the exact same fucking time? You, soldier, how many infected have we got on our hands here? They spread around the defenses or centered in one place?"

As she turned and made her way to the tower herself Flick scowled, checking out of habit her magazine before climbing up the structure to see for herself what was going on out there.

"We need more guys up high...incendiaries and maybe some snipers to pick them off before they break the whole wall down." she murmured, picking up her walkie she radioed through to see if she could make contact with any officer in the base, she had no authority to be commanding anyone to do anything.

Elric looked around the commander centre.

They were fucking GONE. Where the fuck would they even go to? For fucks sake they were the British Army! They were supposed to be one of the most professional fighting forces on the planet! This kind of piss-poor performance was best left to the Yanks and the Frogs, not the British Army. They were supposed to be better than this.

Almost shooting the female soldier who came in after him, Elric cursed his reflexes and shook his head in disgust,

"I don't even know what the fuck is going on in here." he muttered, "Fuckers probably all offed themselves when they heard the call over the radio... left us all out in the cold."

Shaking his head a little bit, Elric flicked the safety off on his gun as dozens more guns opened fire,

"One point. Which is much worse." he growled, "There were hundreds of them... no idea how many past the first few hundred. They're going to break down that fucking gate any second."

Even as he said that Infected heads were popping up over the top of the gate, which was groaning from all the weight on it. Firing off a couple of rounds, Elric kept any living Infected from making it over the top for now before following the woman,

"The wall will break down and we're going to run out of ammo before we make a dent..." he reasoned as he began emptying his clip into the masses of Infected, "We need some heavy fire power! Can we get a chopper from a nearby base?"

Flick cursed when she heard, and saw that the Zeke were coming over the top of the wall and they were piling up against it, it meant that they were going to lose the base if someone didn't do something fast and seeing as most of the soldiers were looking like headless chickens shooting at anything and everything that wasn't human, they needed some kind of leader figure.

Well this was her time to shine then wasn't it?

"Well shit, we need something to take out a whole lot of them and take them out fast. We need tanks out there and we need them now." she stated quickly "Steamroll the fuckers until we get some of the numbers down..."

Pressing down the call button on the walkie talkie Flick called for any and every trained body to operate a tank to be in one now, and assemble around the front of the base. When they asked under who's authority, the harsh swearing they received let them know there would be no fucking around and they were to do what they were told otherwise, they'd be dead in a matter of minutes.

"They're sending three of out tanks around the front as we speak." she stated to herself mostly, before gesturing to the other soldiers standing there looking gormless "You! Keep a watch on the top of that gate, shoot any zeke you see coming over the top."

At the idea to send in a chopper, Flick bit her lip, it was risky they needed to be a good shot with any ammo they carried but they could at least airlift them to safety if they needed to. They would after all probably need to.

"Good call." she smiled gently, calling for a chopper "This is Oxford Outpost, do you copy, over? This is Oxford Outpost requesting immediate air assistance and evac. Over. There is a high concentration of infected attacking, over 500 in number. Over."

Listening to the little crackle on the end, Flick cursed and motioned to the soldier she had bumped into at the command center; "Help me find something we can blow these fuckers up with. Might not neutralise them completely but if they're in bits they're no threat right now."

Tanks huh? Well it was a better idea than anything else they had and the fuckers would be more attracted to the big moving targets than anything else. And it was hard to get bitten when you were encased by inches of solid steel. And the things weighed literal tonnes so there was no way they'd be able to flip them like he'd seen the Zs do against smaller vehicles,

"Good call. Wake the tank jockeys up and let them do some fucking work for a change!" he agreed as he continued to rain down fire onto the massing Infected, "Left side, left side! If these fuckers get over the gate we're fucked so keep watching the sides!"

Running down to the bottom of the tower, Elric grabbed one of the soldiers by the shirt roughly and pushed him to the left,

"Take your fire team and secure the left section of the gate god damn it!" he shouted before gesturing for two other soldiers to follow him back up to the top of the tower to give them a better viewpoint, "The men are acting like god damn frightened children... lucky they know better than to fuck with a para. If they don't follow your order pat me on the back and I'll back you up. Without clear command they might question you, even if you're making sense."

A chopper! Thank fucking god! Elric absolutely hated choppers himself but he would love nothing more right now than to have one of those Air Cavalry types come swooping in and unload some fifty calibre rounds into the mess of Zs,

"Some good news for once! Alright guys... grenades out!" he threw his only grenade and a lot of others did the same. It made a mess but otherwise didn't do much, "Damn it... maybe... maybe see if you can raise the mortar team on the radio? Less than a tank but more than some damn grenades..."

Flick looked down from the tower she was standing on and saw the sheer amount of zeke and she couldn't help but feel that it might be a little bit of a lost cause, if and when the chopper got here they should be getting on it and getting the fuck out of here, but if they won against these zekes then that meant that they would be neutralised and prevented from hurting any civilians and therefore...it was her duty to prevent them from doing so.

As the tanks began to roll out very slowly Flick watched as they hit the zeke and immediately they were rolling over the ones that were too slow to climb on top of the tanks themselves;

"Cover the tanks! Keep them from being too overloaded by zeke." she ordered, shooting her own gun to take out some of the masses of zombies climbing up on top of the tanks, trying to slow them down and succeeding by the sheer amount of them clambering up "If they pile up on the top they can jump on in here, keep them down!"

The tanks were doing a good job of taking some of the zeke down and she could see that the soldiers were keeping them from the top but they were too fast and they would break through any second now if they didn't do something. Tanks weren't enough. Grenades didn't do anything. The only hope was that the chopper would get here and they could get the mortar team on the radio.

"Mortar team, come in over. We need you set up asap on high vantage point! We have zeke breaking through. Over. Do you copy?!" she yelled

"Copy! We're on our way. Two teams, set up on top of mess hall and command center. Over. First fire in five minutes."

"Get there asap! We can't hold them much longer. As soon as you're assembled fire!" Flick ordered, taking her gun up again and shooting down the leading zekes coming over the top of the wall, adjusting her aim to their head level and taking most of them down, even though they were immediately replaced.

Turning to the soldiers on the ground Flick bellowed;

"Mortars in T-Minus FOUR MINUTES. Keep them back! We've got this!" she encouraged.

The tanks were rolling out but it didn't seem to be doing a blind bit of difference. Oh sure they were flattening hundreds of the damn things but there were just too many of them. Swearing loudly, Elric waved for another heavy machine gun team of two soldiers to come up to the tower with them to help by giving suppressing fire,

"Shoot the fuckers! Don't worry about the tanks... none of our bullets or grenades are strong enough to even scratch the paint!" he declared before swearing a little bit as another surge of Zs swept forwards, "Pour on the fire! First man to let up personally gets my foot up his ass!"

Mortar team were inbound but right now five minutes was going to seem like an eternity. He reached for his own radio,

"This is West Gate calling motorpool, do you copy? Over." he paused and when he got a positive response he immediately barked, "We've got multiple hostiles here at the gate over. Get your asses into some of those jeeps and bring us some more fire and ammo out!"

A couple of jeeps came speeding from around a corner, pulling up behind the soldiers and letting loose with two heavy machine guns as the soldiers quickly rearmed themselves. Looking up at the skyline, Elric spotted some choppers. But they weren't exactly the kind he was expecting,

"Hey... hey!" he patted Felicity on the shoulder to get her attention of the sound of the bullets raining down, "We've got three choppers inbound... they're Chinooks. Fucking transport choppers... they're either pulling us out or they've just strapped guns to the ramp and are hoping for the best."

Looking down, Elric swore as yet more Zs began arriving on the scene. One surge was so large...

"Holy shit!"

They managed to flip one of the tanks onto it's side. A telltale whistling sound began to be heard and Elric immediately shouted out,

"MORTARS INCOMING! HIT THE DECK!"

Dozens of high explosive shells began peppering the road in front of the West Gate as the soldiers hugged the tarmac to avoid being slaughtered. The explosions died off as the mortar team went to reload and there was a second lull before a fresh group of Infected replaced those that had been blown to pieces,

"Fuck... what's the plan? Get the choppers down behind our lines and fallback into them?"

Flick swore loudly when the mortars came flying out, flattening herself to the floor she was glad when she heard that they had made contact and they were killing as many zekes as possible. Hopping back up she looked over the wall and grinned, hoping to see a few zekez stumbling around on the ground they could easily pick off...but that wasn't the case. It seemed to only give them a minute or so of respite before they were on them again.

There were too many.

Looking up at the choppers, Flick saw that they were coming into land in the base and she knew that they had to draw back, they had to leave and there was nothing they could do about it.

"Fall back! Fall back to the choppers!" Flick roared, motioning for the men to run to the rooftops where the choppers were landing, they needed to get on them before the zekes overran them and she radioed the mortar teams one last time "Repeat! Then get yourselves out of there, fall back to the choppers."

Running, Flick looked over her shoulder to see the mortars going towards the zekes who were just coming over the top of the gate at this time. It would give them a few seconds and that was all they needed to get up to the choppers.

Clambering up the stairs outside of the building, Flick kept covering the soldiers as they got onto the chopper until it was just her and the one who had been supporting her left. Tugging him into the chopper and strapping herself in, Flick gritted her teeth, now they just needed to get the fuck out of here.

Elric had to admit that he didn't like this situation one bit.

Falling back was not something he was accustomed to doing in the paras but here he was falling back to be picked up by some weekend warrior who could fly a chopper. Shaking his head a little bit, he waved for the stragglers to fall back with the rest of them but quite a few of them fell behind and were dragged down by the Infected.

Nasty way to go.

Two of the transport choppers were resting behind them, each with a man one a heavy machine gun attached to the entry ramp. With them providing cover a lot of the men made it aboard the second chopper and Elric continued to provide cover for the first one until he was yanked inside. The chopper began to take off and it was then that he noticed the third chopper was evacing the Mortar teams from the rooftops. He groaned a little bit as he sat down on the bench beside the woman he'd been fighting with. He held out his hand for her to shake,

"Elric Languine... pleased to meet you." he told her tiredly before adding, with a tired smirk, "I'd hit on your but I think we're both a bit too dog-tired."

Looking down at the base as all three choppers grouped together before moving on, Elric grabbed his radio,

"Hey tank jockeys..." he called down the radio to the two remaining tanks, "Guys just keep moving forwards, see if you can meet up with us at the next base. Good luck guys. Out."

He paused before glancing at the woman,

"Never thought I'd be sad about a tank jockey but here we are..."

Flick turned and shook the hand of the man that she had been fighting alongside, she was thankful to him for allowing her to take control and supporting her whenever she was questioned. It was good to have gotten these men out of there alive, if they hadn't have gotten themselves organised she didn't know if any of them would still be here right now. They would have been overrun much earlier and not taken out as many zekes.

"Nice to meet you Elric. I'm Flick Jones." she stated with a small smile on her lips "Thank you for your help back there, we would have been fucked sideways if we hadn't have clubbed together like that."

When he said that he would have hit on her if they weren't so tired, Flick realised that now she was sitting down her gear felt ten times as heavy and she didn't want to get up again now that she was here. Despite getting away, it felt like a hollow victory for her, they were going to have to fight the infected again and again anyway...it didn't seem like they were ever going to win.

"Maybe another time huh?" Flick teased with a grin "I could sleep for a week after that!" she groaned resting her head against the back of the bench.

The tank jockeys were still in their tanks obviously but it was one of the safest places to be when she thought about it. They were all fuelled up and if they just kept going then they would be able to get to the next base along and from there they would get out and be able to resupply and refuel in case they needed to move out again.

"They'll make it. I'd rather be in a tank right now than a chopper. Didn't you hear the stories about zekes climbing on top of each other so high they could pull a chopper from the air?" she asked with a shake of her head "I'd rather have my feet on the ground thanks."

Elric hummed a little bit and shook her hand when she introduced herself to him. But when she thanked him for helping pull the men together he shook his head a little bit. The men were good soldiers. They hadn't run like so many other soldiers had done when first encountering the Infected. But they had been a bit unruly,

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can keep them together until we find someone high enough on the food chain to take them off your hands." he told her before raising an eyebrow with a small, tired, smirk, "Unless you don't want them to."

He chuckled a little bit. Another time to flirt with her? He made a mental note to do just that. He could always make time for someone like Felicity that was for damn sure. He shook his head,

"With all this adrenaline? Fuck sleep!" he laughed a little bit, "Seriously I feel like I've just been given a shot of speed, caffeine, Viagra and pure sugar. I think I'm ready to take on the whole damn world! I am just really dreading the come down from this..."

He looked down at the ground and shrugged a little bit,

"Maybe when it's taking off and dropping down yeah but when we're in the air this high there's no way they can climb onto us. We're travelling at the height of most skyscrapers around places where the tallest building is five stories." he argued before shuddering, "But touching down and taking off? Yeah that's going to be a bitch... lucky these things are sturdy as fuck. Two propellers means we're better balanced than other choppers. Got to count for something right?"