Static blared out of Commander Shaw's walkie-talkie as soon as Ratliff finished offering his last words. After that, he completely snapped and swore at the top of his lungs.

"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!" he exclaimed, punching the wall of a nearby building.

"Bloody hell," Jonah said in shock. "An entire squad killed by one Deadman."

"O'CONNOR!" Shaw roared again.

Aaron slowly approached Shaw. He was already intimidated by the man even on his better days, but things went to hell as soon as he gets pissed. And like a natural disaster, everyone he'd encounter would endure his wrath.

"You called, sir?" he asked.

Shaw quickly slammed his walkie-talkie across Aaron's face, knocking him to the ground. Blood leaked out of his mouth and his nose. Kat and Jonah normally would've helped, but even they knew they couldn't get involved in Shaw's rage.

"Ten of my best soldiers are dead, O'Connor! Because of you!"

Aaron spat out some blood and stared up at Shaw with anger. "My idea was a suggestion, not an order! Being a dictator is your job!"

Shaw whacked Aaron upside the skull again with his walkie-talkie before kneeling down on his chest to shut him up. "Listen up, O'Connor," he growled. "I take my job very fucking serious. Every death in my squad means more meals for the Deadmen, more delay in human reestablishment, and more poor souls to abduct and force out into this ravaged world. Every wrongdoing has a punishment, and in this world it seems to affect everyone."

"I can see that. My entire life has been nothing but a punishment, so I can relate."

"Shut it, O'Connor!" Kat shouted.

"Stay out of this, Mathis!" Shaw shouted. He returned his stare back to Aaron. "If you thought your life was a shitstorm before, then wait 'till this mission is finally over. The total body count will equal the amount of times I beat you to the ground."

Aaron swallowed back his fear. "G-Got it, sir."

Shaw turned his view back to the road in front of him and continued walking. "Fucking disgrace," he muttered under his breath.

Jonah ran over to Aaron and helped him up. "How's your noggin holding up?"

"He might as well have beaten me with a goddamn hammer," Aaron replied with his hand on his head. "That hurt like hell."

"Don't worry, bruv. Pretty sure you'll be able to redeem yourself sooner or later." Jonah leaned in closer to Aaron. "But we seriously need to make sure no one else dies. Otherwise, and I hate to say this, you're toast."

"Thank you, Jonah," Aaron replied with an eye roll.

The DZI continued trekking down the street. Aaron kept peeking toward Shaw, only to find him staring back with pure rage. He looked like he could jump out and strangle him to death any minute. To avoid that, Aaron kept studying the abandoned homes around him, still intrigued by how stable they looked. Most of the cities and towns he's been to were full of destroyed houses and craters.

The entire street was surrounded by two long rows of grey houses, almost as if the houses were all just one long building. The most damage done to the street were cracked windows and a few scattered sheets of paper, most of which were just newspaper articles from the time of the outbreak. The only Deadmen they could fine strolled along the street like average citizens.

They turned at a corner and continued down a new street, this time passing by an abandoned school and a clinic. Greenery had overtaken the buildings, the windows curtained with moss and leaves. Once again, no damage was visible on either of the buildings' exteriors.

"Was this the place Ratliff and his men explored, Commander?" Kat asked.

"No," Shaw replied. "It took an hour for him to respond. His squad should be close. Probably another big building like a high school or the town hall."

The squad made their way around the corner of the deserted hospital. Aaron and even Kat still couldn't help but stare at the ivy dangling out of the windows of its top floor. Cars remained vacant in the parking lot, some with large cracks across the windshields. Even up the road, vehicles were left alone in the streets.

The DZI reached a neighborhood protected by walls of hedges. A few Deadmen lay motionless on the street, bullet holes decorating their skulls. They seemed to form a trail toward a high school. The same one that became a graveyard for Ratliff's squad.

Loud rustling noises were heard in the hedges. The DZI froze.

"Do you hear that?" Jonah asked.

The DZI stood still, their hearts racing. Something was hiding from them. Something was watching them. Aaron swore he could hear growling in the hedges.

"Don't. Fucking. Move," Kat whispered.

Jonah picked up a glass bottle from the ground and tossed it at a nearby window, watching as it shattered to pieces. Everyone around him stared with a mix of shock and anger. Fortunately, his plan worked.

Their stalker leaped out of the bush toward the source of the loud noise. It was revealed to be two Commoner Deadmen.

"Take them out!" Shaw said.

Aaron and Jonah shot them with their automatic guns, tearing their flesh apart and splitting their heads open. Both of the bodies collapsed to the ground in a puddle of their own blood.

"Easy peasy," Jonah said.

The moment was cut short when more rustling occurred in the hedges, notably more violent than the first Deadmen, like if it was trying to destroy the bushes. It let out a loud roar like no other creature. Its steps pounded against the ground, each step growing louder as it approached the nearest soldier.

The soldier froze in his place, aiming his gun at the portion of the hedges with the most movement. The gun fearfully shook in his hands and sweat slid down the side of his face.

"Beware..." a sinister voice said in the hedges. "The brain-dead's...bloodletting...butchery..."

That's when the soldier let out a terror-filled scream. He started firing his gun until the creature revealed itself from the bushes and sliced his head clean off with the blades that represented its arms. Its flesh was pale, its eyes were dead and colorless, and its arms seemed to be made of pure bone, now drenched a dark crimson.

"The Abnormal!" Shaw exclaimed, aiming his gun at it. "Light it up!"

Gunfire erupted in the street, bullets flying toward the White Scythe. The bullets only lodged in its flesh and not even deep enough to disappear into its body. Even its head seemed to be bulletproof.

"What the hell?" Shaw said.

The White Scythe let out another roar and charged into the crowd. It swiftly spun around with its blade arms, making impact with a few of the soldiers. Large slice marks carved into the flesh of the DZI soldiers, blood flying out of their wounds. Several limbs were lost in the carnage. One poor soul had his gun chopped in half, followed by both of his legs, and then a decapitation.

Since some of the soldiers weren't dying fast enough, many MercyMarks went off like cluster bombs. Blood spewed out of dying soldiers' orifices in unison. The displays were as disgusting as the Deadman's kills, but it spared them of the prolonged death of bleeding out.

Aaron and Jonah continued firing from afar, close to the house where Jonah destroyed one of the windows. A body flew toward Aaron and knocked him to the ground, slamming him against the pavement. He felt a small cut appear in the palm of his left hand. The body that landed on top of him was a female soldier with a deep laceration across her throat.

He shoved the body off and picked his gun back up. The White Scythe was marching toward him, the corpses of the other DZI crunching underneath its massive feet. Its boots were engulfed in the color red.

"Where is Troy Schaefer?!" the creature growled.

Aaron resumed shooting at it. "This ugly bitch is speaking to me! I don't think that's normal!"

The White Scythe stood above him. Aaron stared in horror at the bloody space where its bottom lip should've been. The ugliness in front of him motivated him to keep shooting.

"Take cover!" Shaw shouted.

The sound of a grenade being launched echoed through the air. The explosive made impact with the White Scythe's back. The creature exploded into a downpour of blood and body parts, and Aaron was launched off the ground. He crashed against a stone wall as blood rained down on him, staining his entire uniform red.

"What the bloody hell?" he wheezed, wiping gore off his face. He struggled to stand back up as the oxygen returned to his lungs.

Jonah chuckled. "Haha. Bloody hell. I get it."

"Commander Shaw did it!" one of the soldiers shouted in joy. "He killed the beast!"

All of the surviving DZI raised up their weapons in bittersweet victory. Out of the eleven soldiers who made up Shaw's group, seven survived the fight.

Aaron spotted Shaw holding his grenade launcher, smoke rising out of the barrel. Unlike everyone else, he still looked livid, especially as he made eye contact with Aaron.

"Give it a rest, Commander," Kat said, noticing Shaw's agitated mood. "You said earlier that not every mission is perfect. Quit treating O'Connor like he's—"

"Shut up, Mathis," Shaw muttered, walking toward Aaron.

Aaron held his hands up as if Shaw was holding him at gunpoint. "I didn't mean to put your men in harm's way, Commander! I swear!"

"Let's have a roll call, shall we?" Shaw said. "Anderson!"

"Sir!" a female soldier replied.

"Brunswick!"

"Sir!"

"Errol!"

Silence followed. The soldiers looked around to find their comrade dead on the ground with deep slashes in her stomach.

"Killed in action," Shaw muttered. He then punched Aaron in the face, planting his fist against his cheek.

Aaron fell back in a daze. He could feel a bruise forming already.

Shaw continued. "Franklin."

"Sir," Jonah replied.

"Garrison."

"Sir!"

"Hutchins."

No response. Hutchins was the first one to go; death by decapitation.

"KIA." Shaw punched Aaron again, this time in his nose. Blood streamed down to his mouth. "Kline."

Silence. The soldier known as Kline had his arms hacked off, dead on the street in a pool of his own blood.

"KIA." Shaw punched Aaron once more, again in his nose. "Lancelot."

No response. Lancelot was disemboweled on the street with his guts leaking out of a large hole in his abdomen.

"KIA." Another punch, this time in the eye. Aaron collapsed to the ground, kneeling to stay up. "Mathis."

"Sir, this is cruel and unusual punishment! Leave the boy alone!"

"O'Connor." Shaw stared down at Aaron's bruised and bloodied face. Aaron looked back at him and spat out some blood to his side. "Obviously you're here."

"Please," Aaron wheezed in pain.

"And finally, Commander Shaw. Unfortunately for you, O'Connor, I'm still alive and well."

It took one final punch--one that was stronger and more rage-fueled than the others--to make Aaron black out. The last thing he remembered was the sound of his nose crunching with the impact and the feeling of his head pounding against the sidewalk.