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A cloud of dust whipped up from the ground as the three Blackhawks sat down. It had been two days since the choppers had taken off on their current mission.

Debra met with the members of the medical crew as they ducked and quickly filed out to the LZ. As if synchronized, the doors of the helicopters opened even before they had fully landed.

"How much blood has he lost?" Debra yelled over the whining of the massive blades. She watched two members of her medical team pull the soldier from his harness and lay him down onto the gurney.

"A lot! Probably a couple 'a pints! But we ran an IV in him as soon as we took off. He seems stable but we need to get him to surgery." The team leader motioned at his pale subordinate.

"Move him to the O.R. and get him prepped! I want that blood replaced before I put him under!" Debra barked to her team. They nodded their acknowledgement and swept the fallen soldier toward one of the gray buildings.

Eight other soldiers poured out of the Blackhawk kicking their gear out and carrying various weapons as they did. All were dressed in thick leather and Kevlar armor from head to toe and each had black riot-gear helmets that covered their faces and met seamlessly against their shoulders. They immediately fell into a close-ranked group and stood at attention. No matter how many times Debra had seen the 'Out-Suits', she received a chill from their appearance.

"Alright men! Listen up!" Captain Robinson, the scout team leader said with his resonant voice. " I want you to head to the barracks and get a hot shower and some good food. I wanna see all of you at 1800 hours for a debriefing on this mission. Dismissed!" The troops did not need to be told twice.

Robinson held his helmet under his arm and carried his M-16 over his other shoulder as he headed toward the second helicopter. Debra stepped up quickly to him, barely able to match his long stride.

"We had a good mission this time. We managed to pull in seven civilians. They were holed up in a 10-story building that they had fortified. Looks like they had been there for a few months. They were just about out of food and water." Robinson nodded to the chopper as a soldier jumped out of the second helicopter and held his arms out for the small child that a filthy, bedraggled female held out to him.

Three members of the indoctrination team came forward to help as the remaining people stepped out of the slowly dying Blackhawk. All of them looked around at the new surroundings, and all, as usually, were speechless at what they saw.

Valhalla did that. To these people, and to all the humans that lived here, Valhalla was, to all intensive purposes, paradise.

Colonel Brian West stood in his office, looking out over the blue Pacific. She knows nothing, the ocean. Just one more day, one more year, in the endless march of time. The history of the earth rises and falls like her tides. Cities. Civilizations. Species.

How many species had the ocean seen come and go? The dinosaurs. Now that's a species that held out for a while. Two hundred? Three hundred million years? But they too fell to the ocean's relentless rhythm. Then there was MAN. What a dismal failure. Once we started to walk upright, our days started counting down. Barely a million years by most estimates. If the dead hadn't overtaken us, it's a sure bet that we would have done ourselves in anyway. How ironic. The dinosaurs had fallen victim to an asteroid. Man to an asteroid of his own making.

A knock at the door interrupted Colonel West's musings on history.

"Enter." He sighed. So much for his 'me-time'.

"Colonel West? I hope I'm not disturbing you." Professor Jennings says uneasily as he pushes his glasses up and steps into the room.

"Oh, Jennings, that's okay. Someone is ALWAYS disturbing me. It comes with the territory. Please have a seat." West smiles and motions to the chair opposite of his desk.

"Thank you sir. What was it you wanted to see me about?"

" I just wanted you to know about the pheromone. My men reported good findings with its use this mission. Whatever you did, it seems to have worked. Its not 100 percent, but it apparently was pretty damned effective. Congratulations are in order." Colonel West shook the professor's hand.

"Excellent! I knew that heating the solution would increase the zombie's detection range! But- you said it wasn't one hundred percent?" Jennings was barely able to contain himself.

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