Morning everyone. Right, I have been burning the midnight oil again and present for your consideration Chapter Three: Operation Bulge. Hope it brightens up your Saturday!
The jeep headed at speed towards the detention block. The members of two section sat in silence. No one wanted to talk about what they had seen, fearing that to speak it out load would be to acknowledge the horrible reality of what was unfolding that night. That is until Mansfield Mike started to sing
"the zombie on the bus goes grunt grunt, grunt
Grunt, grunt, grunt
Grunt, grunt, grunt
But he was soon told to 'can it' by Major Morley.
Captain James looked across at the American "can you tell us what is going on sir?"
"We have been expecting an attack like this from the Taliban for a little while" began the Major.
"The Taliban sir?" Said Molly
"Oh yes private. They have started to fight this war on many fronts. It was only a matter of time before they tried the zombie angle"
The jeep pulled up outside the detention block and two section piled out.
In the distance a loud explosion was heard whilst the unmistakeable sound of small arms fire also reached their ears.
A US marine sergeant doubled over to the Major and saluted.
"Sir, that was warehouse two just being destroyed. They headed straight for it as if they knew what to look for"
"God dammit" said the Major. "We will need a plan B"
Turning to James the Major said "Captain we will need the help of you and your section. We are spread pretty thin tonight."
"Of course sir. What can we do?"
"Follow me" said the Major and led them through a door and into a briefing room.
"Take a seat, gentlemen and lady. What I am about to tell you is highly classified. For a number of months now we have been monitoring the activities of a small group of Taliban scientists who we suspected of developing a potent biological weapon, the results of which you have witnessed tonight."
"This pathogen has been developed from an organic based dye and has been packed into IEDs and ammunition. In this way it has affected the dead and wounded first, who can then go on to infect the living."
"Once infected the subject can be controlled through the use of biological markers such as pheromones. These have been employed to draw the victims from sometimes huge distances to this base"
Molly turned to James "that's how Geraint turned up here sir..and why he tried to jump you"
"Ere, is that because Bossman's got one of them ferret stones they like?" cut in Mansfield Mike
"Pheromones, penis head!" Rebuked Brains
Captain James looked at the Major. "You mentioned they make this stuff from some sort of dye?"
"Yes that's right" he confirmed. "Its most commonly used in ink"
Molly stiffened beside him "Sir, the pens! Bashira must have been sent out by her father to collect them for the scientists. Oh god this is all my fault!"
"No it isn't Molly, you can't blame yourself for this" James reassured her.
"Actually sir, she can. Molly gave her bloody hundreds" said Basvegas
"Yer" added Numbnuts "she was like a walking stationary cupboard."
"All right that's enough" ordered Kinders.
"So what's the plan?" Asked James.
"We have been able to infiltrate the scientists cell" Morley continued "We knew one of the ANA guys, Sohail, had stumbled across something but we couldn't risk anyone knowing we also had our suspicions. We, therefore, let him investigate his hunch, and monitored his activity through a highly sophisticated bugging device we were able to disguise within an item of novelty underwear"
Molly put her head in her hands "yep we have seen it"
"We called this surveillance 'operation bulge'"
A number of poorly disguised smirks broke out among some members of two section. Major Morley drew himself up "in honour of my grandfather"
Some barely suppressed giggling then broke out.
Major Morley glared at them "who fought in the WW2 battle of the same name!"
"Indeed" observed Captain James after a short pause.
The Major glared around the room then continued "From the information we were able to gather we think we have an antidote to the pathogen. It is a liquid solution within which the affected subject must be immersed. We have the antidote but our large holding container was in warehouse two and has been destroyed. If only we had something readily portable which can hold a large amount of liquid!"
All eyes in the room turned to Captain James.
"I might just be able to help you there" he said.
To be continued...,Chapter 4 In the Deep End