Operation: DeadMan

  CHAPTER-08: Restoration Restart

  “The sun crept over the horizon, casting a soft, golden light across the bloody streets of the now ghost town. Just yesterday, laughters and chatters echoed off the weathered walls, buzzing with people and vehicles. But now, nothing could be heard apart from the soft growls and shrugs of the same undead inhabitants that used to keep the place alive…”

  Shikto took a sip from his coffee as he studied the tv screen carefully. The live CCTV footage from the surroundings of the convenient store played on the big screen. The zombies outside didn’t seem so aggressive anymore as they only wandered around unstably, often times bumping into each other. He rests his back on the chair for a bit, puzzling the pieces together. He took out his pen and added another point to his list that he had been crafting throughout the night. *The zombie survival guide*, he wrote the title proudly as he puts down the notebook. He always wanted to make something like this just as he saw in the games. Only if the devastation of reality could’ve stung any lighter. He was still wondering if he had written down everything that could be of use. One wrong move could lead to utter misery. He gulped nervously as he sipped on his coffee again. He was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder.

  “Saw anythin’ new?” Megh asked as he studies the footages.

  “Nothing much…I’ve pretty much written all the things necessary.” Shikto replied.

  “Lemme see the notebook,” Megh said as he picked the notebook up from the desk and started scanning.

  “I pulled an all nighter writing them down…I deserve some rest maybe?” Shikto asked.

  “You can sleep through this? Even I hardly slept for an hour?” Megh raised an eyebrow. “I was with you most of the night too maybe,”

  “Yeah, thought so..” Shikto shrugged. “Well an hour will do you kn-”

  “So they only wander in daylight huh..” Shikto looked disheartened as Megh intentionally cuts him off.

  He continues, “It’s really creepy how they just stand completely still at night and don’t move until they see some form of light..I mean they’re already creepy but seeing all still in such fashion gives me chills..”

  “I know right, I was internally freaking out by how unsettling it looked. They looked like they were afk...” Shikto attempted at humor but he agreed. “So, it’s clear right...”

  Megh nodded, “Yeah…operation night time it is.”

  “So, you know…it’s only 9:30 AM, it’s long until dark, so…”

  “Yeah yeah, go sleep for a while…” Megh sighed.

  “Thanks….mom…” Shikto stood up from the chair and yawned.

  “Redwan, I believe you understand the mission...” said Lieutenant General Qasim as he rubbed his eyes in distress.

  “Yes, Sir. I am well aware of the situation at hand, Sir,” replied a 26-year-old young man with a name tag that read “Major Redwan” who was promoted quickly to control the ongoing situation.

  “Capture the area fair and square…after that you let the engineers do their stuff..” He paused for a while and started again, “Your team will restore Mirpur City’s mobile network, I’ve already told some other troops to restore the other cities…” Lieutenant General Qasim said as his voice roughened.

  Redwan nodded. There was an awkward pause between them. Qasim decided to break the silence, “Have something on mind?”

  “Sir, it might be rude to ask but…does any part of the Higher Officials actually even care about saving the nation from this situation?” Redwan asked boldly.

  “So…you already have the audacity to ask that question...Being only promoted yesterday…” Qasim asked with a sharp tone to his voice as he leaned forward on his desk.

  Not being intimidated by this, Redwan shot back with straight eyes, “I have to, sir...the way you locked the borders strangely bothers me, I mean...why not we just lock the infected lands?”

  “It’s normal, the infection could be in the entire country, we cannot be sure.” Qasim replied.

  “Why are there MBBS Majors and Forensic specialists in the DGFI sir? What is their job?” Redwan asked again unhinged.

  “Listen...Redwan, it takes time to roll a survey around such a massive piece of land, you should probably know.”

  “Then why are we not locking up the infected lands at all?? The areas we are sure about??”

  The tension rose as Qasim didn’t have an answer. He stood up from his chair as he directly looks into Redwan’s eyes, “Why do you think?”

  Redwan smiles a little, the smile of regret, the smile of pain, “Let me guess, our country is an experimental ground of super powers...”

  “Correct…” Qasim replied without any hesitation.

  “Then how long are you going to keep the act of trying to save the nation, sir?” Redwan smirks.

  “Get out of my office...” Qasim shot a death glare at Redwan.

  “Don’t worry sir, we’ll save the nation together, aren’t we?” Redwan’s smirk widened.

  “I SAID GET THE HELL OUT!” Qasim shouted on top of his lungs. Unable to continue arguing with his senior, Redwan stood there still having a smirk on his face.

  “Then I shall take my leave...” Redwan said as he left the room without waiting for a response.

  The second in command to Redwan, Captain Soumik Chakma, stood beside the office. As soon as he saw Redwan leaving, he walked up towards him.

  “Anything wrong sir? I heard him shouting.” Soumik asked.

  Redwan looked a little upset all of a sudden. “Nothing new…we have a new mission we can’t avoid…it’s just an eyewash.” He gave the documents to Soumik and he began to inspect.

  Soumik scratched his head, “Looks like a legitimate scenario, well….we have to do what we can now.”

  “Soumik…” Redwan called out with a very serious tone. “You recall what we discussed last night?”

  Soumik’s eyes light up, “Yes....sir, But…”

  “We can’t just let the country perish like this…if the world is doing this to us, we cant just turn our backs and listen to these old blood feet lickers..”

  Soumik looked down, there was shame in his eyes. He spoke quietly, “After this mission sir, I will contact Comilla and Chittagong cantonment regarding to your offer.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “The sooner the better…but I suppose the higher ups are at the edge of their seats for now, it’s better to do it after doing some missions and let them cool down.” Redwan spoke as he went through the documents once again.

  “What about the DGFI, sir?” Soumik asked.

  “About that…I believe you can handle that, Soumik.” Redwan smiled.

  Soumik hesitated a little, “I will try…sir.” there was clearly something that made him uncomfortable.

  “Well, we have a mission in our hands now, let’s go to the tank ground, come on!” Redwan spoke up to cut the tension as he started to walk.

  “Roger that, I’ll let the Aviation group know about the helicopters.” Soumik followed as they walked alongside across the hallway.

  The sun beamed up in the sky at mid-day, creating a golden glare upon the cityscape as the rhythmic thrum of helicopter blades echoed around the streets of Mirpur sector-2. A squadron of helicopters, their dark silhouettes stark against the light, moved in precise formation around the towering Mirpur Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Tower. The four attack helicopters, that were leading the front, formed the spearhead. While the rest were maintaining a circular perimeter around the block. M87 heavy machine guns were jutted from the sides of choppers like fangs, with only one goal in mind, “Blow the heads of anything that moves”. The tower stands the tallest among the parade of buildings which may as well be referred to as the wall street of Bangladesh. Attracted by the buzzing noise of the helicopters, all the zombies swarmed at the tower block leaving no spec of soil visible. The hordes of the undead looked like maggot swarms from the top.

  As the clock ticked to 12, Redwan declared the code word on his walkie-talkie, “Restoration restart”.

  The guns blazed with innumerable rounds of bullets, blasting through the shallow bodies of the undead. The tower block soon turned into a blood pool with hundreds of rotten corps lying on the ground. The area had a strong stink of rotten flesh. The attack helicopters successful fended off all the zombies approaching the surroundings of the block blasting herds after herds at once. However, the undead kept coming from every corner of the surrounding area.

  Minutes into the carnage, a column of tanks and missile launchers rolled onto the battlefield, the rumble of their approach sending tremors through the asphalt. The tanks formed a fortified ring around the tower, their turrets swiveling in synchronized lethality. Missiles whooshed into the air, obliterating entire clusters of zombies as the armored battalion systematically carved out a secured perimeter. Two helicopters broke off formation, hovering defensively over the missile carriers to safeguard their existence in the midst of chaos. The two attack helicopters focused on clearing the zombies inside the block as much as possible. They soon separated the block from the surroundings lands and cleared much of the zombies from the inside. The helicopters splat their ladders out as the infantry division soldiers started climbing down. As the soldiers landed one after another they started taking position on the ground while finishing off the remaining zombies from distance.

  Redwan climbed down with Soumik on the middle of the soldier formation. Redwan looked around the surroundings as he spoke in his walkie-talkie once again, “Send the engineers and extra troops.”

  He looked back at the soldiers, “Proceed.”

  The soldiers started moving forward towards the massive structure surrounding the central tower which hosted the telecommunication control and mobile switching server of the entire Mirpur City. When the troops approached the structures, they threw a few grenades at the entrance. The grenades exploded. The nearby zombies inside the structures rushed out Infront of the entrance with lightning speed. The front row soldiers blasted the gathering zombies with machine guns as more and more zombies lured out with the buzzing and blasting sounds. The soldiers away from the towers kept finishing off the few zombies left on the ground as they took position. Controlling the entire block now, Redwan felt confident.

  Soon enough another batch of helicopters flew towards the block. The new helicopters were larger and unarmed. More infantry soldiers started climbing down to the ground to join them. The machine gun carrying soldiers started moving inside the structure, taking position at the back now. The other soldiers moved in as they started to decimate every zombie of that level and a few took position on the first floor of the structure. Following this method, they started moving up from one floor to another by luring the zombies out into a kill zone and decimating every last one of them. They kept deploying soldiers on every floor for safety. The servers were located on the thirteenth floor, which stopped working due to some unknown reason. They soon reached the thirteenth story and cleared the level without damaging the servers much.

  Redwan got confirmed on his walkie-talkie that the thirteenth story has been successfully captured.

  He spoke up, “Soumik, hold the ground, I’ll move up.”

  Soumik nodded as he shifted his focus on the ground troops.

  The forces soon took after the entire tower and the structures around it without any losses. It was a total one-sided devastation as it was planned.

  With the whole block now free from the undead, Redwan ordered as he moved up the stairs, “Bring the engineers up, the area is successfully contained.”

  The engineer’s team climbed down from the helicopters as they got received by Soumik on the ground.

  “Mr. Siddique, the servers on the thirteenth floor are damaged by the zombies as expected, though it’s a coincidence that all the mobile switching servers from the Greater City of Dhaka have all been terminated…” Soumik reported to the telecom engineer team’s leader Altaf Siddique who looked to be in his mid-fifties with a shiny bald head.

  “I’ve heard the news, it’s truly a chaos that has spread all over the country…so some of the soldiers will help us correct? We didn’t bring any labors as you know.” Siddique raised an eyebrow.

  Soumik spoke, “Yes sir, you can ask my superior, Major Redwan, for extra forces, he’s on the thirteenth floor.”

  Siddique smiled, “Thank you Captain Soumik, we’ll be on our way then.” He gestured his team to follow him upstairs with two soldiers besides them.

  As the engineers reached the thirteenth floor, Redwan greeted them and ordered a few soldiers for their assistance. Siddique with his assistant Hasnat, Sarjis and a few other began inspecting several burned wires and broken server boxes.

  Hasnat spoke up, “Sir, the way it has been damaged, it seems like it’s almost intentional.”

  “It looks so…the power has been disabled as well.” Siddique responded with concern.

  “Well its not totally impossible to fix,” Sarjis replied.

  “Even then, all the main MSC’s located in every city, controlling all of the city’s call routes, have been disabled too.” Hasnat said after trying to relocate a few server boxes.

  “Let’s fix this server for now...” Siddique focused on the power generator.

  Redwan stood by quietly as he wondered to himself if even the tele connection and internet shut down was just another plan by the DGFI to keep the army busy and avoid military coups. He sighed as he couldn’t find any other way this could’ve happened. The higher ups barked for the superpowers. So, if anything were to go wrong, it was highly possible that they were behind it. He sighs as he kept recalling the memories with his family, his new born daughter, loving wife, the new life he started after being a lone orphan all his life…he couldn’t let go of the life he dreamt of. He reassured himself that they have been kept safely at the cantonment as he fiddled with his wedding ring.

  He shook himself up from the day dream, cursing internally for the moment of vulnerability, as he had a greater task at hand. He strolled around the level, quietly promising to himself that he will take the responsibility to re-do this nation…by any…and all means. Because the biggest duty of a soldier is to protect his nation from anything and everything.

  1:23 PM

  Shikto woke up abruptly. He saw the shadow of someone’s hand pushing the sleeping bag.

  “Wake up, oh sleeping beauty...” Mahi chanted from outside.

  “Shut the hell up!” Shikto groaned as he slowly got out of the sleeping bag with a big yawn. “What time is it?” he asked Mahi as he seemed somewhat annoyed due to suddenly being shaken up from sleep.

  “It’s probably 1 pm or something, Megh told me to wake you up.” Mahi replied as he yawned as well.

  “Such a bastard, what’s his deal all of a sudden, it’s still bright as hell outside.” Shikto kept mumbling and cursing as he went up to the security room.

  Megh was silently stuffing bread with some bananas on the security table. He turned as Shikto busted through the door.

  “Geez dude, what’s wrong?” Megh asked as his face was stuffed with food.

  “Bro, I told you to wake me up after evening, it’s only 1 pm or something??” Shikto asked as he was very annoyed.

  “I got the same amount of naptime so shut up, the network has been down since the outbreak, I can’t contact Yead.” Megh slowly stood from the chair as he finished eating.

  Shikto suddenly got worried, “He was attending a wedding at Manikganj, right? When was he supposed to return? Next week??”

  “Yesterday…” Megh looked down as he looked a little down.

  “Wh-why didn’t you tell me before?” Shikto asked as he was shocked.

  “He told me that he’ll be back after a week, but yesterday at the morning he sent me another bunch of texts saying that he’ll be back that day…but I didn’t check my DMS because of obvious reasons… the internet got cut off soon after too…I only saw the message a few minutes ago, it was loaded already….” Megh sighed.

  “I guess there’s no use blaming anyone now…we don’t know for sure if he came back yet though.” Shikto tried to focus on the positive possibility.

  “Even if he didn’t we have to ensure somehow…” Megh said.

  “The network is down.” Shikto responded.

  “Yeah...I can’t really think of any other way...” Megh agreed softly.

  “The power generator’s soon running out of juice too, that baby saved us big times though…” Shikto sighed.

  “Well lets hope it’s alive by the time we-”

  Suddenly Mahi shouted outside the security room, “Shiktoo…Megh…the network is back!!”

  “Stop shouting you maniac!” Megh responded with a smile as they both rushed up to Mahi with a hope in mind. A hope that their friend is safe…as they couldn’t bear the burden of losing another one of their closed ones... as they couldn’t bear to watch another one of them falling into the hands of the undead.