Meanwhile, a few miles to the west of Team 1/Lion's position...

A/N: Just wanted to take a moment to say that this chapter will have a new POV character. One that we have only heard mentioned so far: the actual captain of the 12-woman-strong Special Forces Squad, whom LT Mills and her fellow claimed soldiers had not seen since they got separated a few days earlier. Kind of an important chapter as a result, if a bit shorter than the last one.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and happy reading, everyone.

Captain Elara Dorne's POV

You cursed under your breath as you blew the head off yet another zombie, realizing you had lost count of how many you had had to eliminate in the past ten minutes, but the count had to be in the many dozens by now. You quickly aimed at the next approaching rotten head and fired before starting to wince, knowing that you were going to run low on ammo long before you were able to destroy this large horde.

To your side, on the rooftop of the single-story house that you had been **** to climb, Intelligence Sergeant First Class Steris Meyer grunted as she took down another bitter on her own and started aiming for more of the herd that surrounded them. "We really should have shot down that stupid drone," She growled. "I hope whoever was using it to lure so many walkers right through the block where we were lying low had a great excuse because if I ever meet them, then so help me..."

"What's done, is done, Sergeant!" You yelled. "Less complaining and more precision headshots."

And so, the two of you resumed your rapid but methodical process of shooting down as many zombies as you possibly could. Blood continued to spill as you took down as many enemies as you were able but just a few more minutes later you heard Steris' gun making exactly the kind of click you do not want to hear while you are outnumbered in the middle of a battle.

She cursed. "I am out of ammo. And, hell, these mindless monsters are starting to climb on top of all the fully dead corpses instead of taking a hint."

Your comrade-in-arms repositioned herself closer to the edge of the rooftop and started using her sniper rifle's bayonet to stab at the faces of any approaching foe, and kicking them where able in order to throw them back to the street below. But there were still so many of them, and only half a dozen more shots later, you were also left without bullets to use.

Hardening your gaze, you also switched to bayonet mode and started slashing and stabbing away as much as you could. After all, even if this ravenous horde wanted to eat you, you had no intention of becoming part of the food chain without a fight.

So, the two of you kept going, with all the adrenaline and hard-wired sense of self-preservation working overdrive to help you ignore just how tired you were starting to get.

Eventually, however, you had to pause to wipe away the sweat that was obscuring your vision and couldn't help but wonder what was taking so long to execute Plan 9.

And then, like an answer to prayers, you heard a very familiar voice crackling from your radio.

"Brace yourselves," Weapons Sergeant First Class Maeve McKenna warned. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

And with that, the two of you reacted as planned: by getting to the center of the thick rooftop and slamming their respective bayonets on it for grip and support while you lowered yourselves. Before covering your face with your other hand, you looked up for a moment and, just as you had expected, you saw a woman on a red paraglider almost directly above them.

Mere moments later, you heard a familiar, metallic thud hitting the pavement around the rear ranks of the undead horde, almost a hundred feet away, and then, the even more familiar sound of an explosion that could only come out of a grenade.

Your teeth rattled for a long moment due to the vibrations, but the Weapons Sergeant had thrown her bomb far enough away to make sure they would avoid injuries or flying shrapnel. Uncovering your face to look at the aftermath of the explosion. Almost the entire horde had collapsed, even those outside the fiery portion of the blast radius; the decayed and rotting bodies were apparently unable to simply shrug off the impact.

Narrowing your eyes, you also noticed that the rear ranks had been so packed together with a crowd of the undead that, while you weren't sure how many would have been truly killed by the fire, shrapnel, or the sheer concussive **** of the blast injuring their brains, Maeve had easily managed to wipe out at least a couple hundred zombies with that well aimed, distant throw, and likely seriously injured the forms of hundreds more that were now going to have a harder time moving quickly to hunt for prey.

But then the ones closer to the house started to get up and, in their mindless confusion, turned towards the much bigger noise and snarled as they started to move, limp or crawl away; towards the scorched scars in the streets that pointed to the epicenter of the blast.

Exactly as you had hoped.

"Let's hurry back to our Stryker while they are distracted," You ordered.

Sergeant Meyers didn't need to be told twice, starting to climb down the portable ladder they had used to get up. You quickly followed, and right as your boots hit the ground, you looked up.

Just in time to see, Sergeant McKenna use her state-of-the-art flamethrower from above.

Making use of the wind currents instead of going against them, the scorching earth tactics started working really quickly; the fire spreading even faster than wildfire because it was expertly targeted.

And above, you could actually hear Maeve cackling as the monstrous horde below her burned.

"Oh yeah! That's the stuff! Burn, baby burn!" She shouted in glee as she literally rained down fire on their foes.

You shook your head in exasperation, but you were still glad that Maeve was finally able to channel her slightly pyromaniac tendencies towards something more productive than usual.

Like, ironically, pulling both their asses out of the fire.

But there was no time to watch the spectacle, so you hurried back to one of the three strykers that your squad had access to when this madness started, and your squad was called in to reinforce the National Guard forces in San Diego.

Before your group had been **** to split up three ways...

Once inside, you quickly started driving towards the estimated pick-up point; your efficient Weapon's Sergeant continuing with the stream of flames as she kept floating further down. Soon, however, you were able to finish your calculation by eyeballing the distance.

"Meyers!" You barked. "Open the upper hatch. NOW!"

Your creative Intelligence Sergeant rushed to comply, and before too long, you heard the thud of boots hitting the roof of the striker. You tried to drive in a straight line as slowly as you dared so that Maeve would have the time to remove her paraglider safely. With Meyers's assistance, they must have been able to finish more quickly than even you had anticipated because just a few minutes later, you could see from the rear view mirror that the two of them were back inside with the paraglider partially folded in Sergeant Maeve's arms. She chuckled long and hard as she put it down before taking her seat and removing her helm, her deep red hair shaking alongside her head.

"I know they are not the right kind of monster for that, but, heh, I was so tempted to shout "burn, witch, burn" at that massive horde of zombies!" She announced with a smirk. "Oh well, there is always next time."

Meyers scoffed at her antics. "What took you so long? That herd was, at most, 3 minutes away from climbing on top of their undead brethren we had dispatched. They were about to overwhelm us!"

"Hey, you are the one that came up with this contingency plan," She pointed out. "Don't blame me because those parameters required me to find a tall enough building to take off from the paraglider that was still not tall enough to be carried over too far away by the winds. That took a little while to find, and then I had to climb up the stairs because the elevator wasn't working."

"Can it, you two," You said, cutting off Meyer's upcoming reply. "You both did well, Sergeants. And we all got out in the end. That's what matters. "

Meyers finally sighed, exhaustion starting to become more obvious on her face out of the corner of your eye.

"Yes, but seriously, how long can we keep this up?" She asked, concern dripping from her voice. "First Mills and her group get separated from the rest of us, and then, the remaining members of our squad had to split off when we got separated during the other huge battle we fought last night. Even if we planned for a rendezvous point with them in case that happened, we are starting to run on fumes after taking down so many zombies without enough hours of sleep in between. To say nothing about the fact the three of us are getting dangerously low on ammo. If this keeps up, we will need to hole up somewhere to rest before we can even head toward that hotel where the rest of our squad should be, or we are all going to regret it."

You were quiet for a moment, processing the weight behind her words. Then you sighed softly. "You are right, of course," You acknowledged. "But we saw those purple flares in the shape of an X. And since that hotel was in the opposite direction, that means Mills or someone else from her team must have executed Plan 88. So, we have to continue heading where the sign leads us because if we miss that window of opportunity, we may lose their trail, and with the chaos and dangers all around the city, we just don't know if we will ever be able to pick it up again. The sooner our squad is fully reunited, the better all our chances."

The soldiers under your command didn't argue further. So, you settled into a solemn silence before deciding to go faster. Your armored vehicle raced through the streets, and you kept your eye on the lingering, smokey remnants of the center of the X-shaped flare on your sights...and the coded message that should be somewhere in the block below.

"Hang on, Mills," You thought, hoping against hope that she was alright despite all the new dangers that had beset them today. "We are coming."

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this first look at a new trio of members of the Special Forces Squad. Any new favorites yet? :P

On the next chapter, the MC and his team finally will return to the apartment building with all their supplies and new recruits. And given that they should last them for a long time, that means they may be able to...take it easy for a little while. Oh, and the MC may be inclined to reward the MVPs of the respective teams, such as Sergeants Zhang and Foreman, as well as the former Swedish reservist, Private Karlson, for a job well done all around. Any particular rewards you may be especially interested to see? XD

Anyway, thanks for reading. Please remember to leave a comment if you liked it and until next time.