"I know how you feel brother. I don't know how to make heads or tails out of what we saw. We know for a fact those men should be dead, yet for some reason, they are walking around. And eating people, nonetheless." Seth lit a cigarette of his own, as they climbed the fire escape to their room. Swiping the card, he noticed the buzzing of a fire alarm. "What the hell..." He opened the door and saw Colton standing there, looking dumbfounded, with a scorch mark on the only table in the room.

Once again, he laughed. He walked in, patted Colton on the shoulder, and sat down on the bed. "So, I'm guessing there was some kind of message that self destructed because this agency is so enigmatic and cliched. It's kind of funny actually." Him and Jackson shared a laugh, thinking about a similar incident before hand, where Seth had actually been holding the tape player. "So, what did it say?"

"Damn...my suit is ruined..."

Colton moved over the Radio and found his favorite station, Kola 99.9...Chicago was playing.

"Said something about our apartment being teched up, camera, new opps base ready shortly, not to tamper with anything, cameras watching the bed...so no lady friends fellows..."

"Oh okay. Nothing new to a merc. Well, I'd suggest we try to get some rest. We're shipping out at 0800. Layover is at a base in Finland, where we will be armed and equipped. We're landing 5 to 10 miles from the target point. We'll trek on foot, eliminate target, retrieve samples, and then high tail it back home. Quick assassination, hit and run. Good luck everyone. We may need it."

Seth leaned back and looked at Travis.

"Did you, by chance, take a look at those pictures in the file?"

"Yah...unfortunatley. I just hope we arn't part of that. I've seen some messed of things in my day, but that...thats just wrong."

Colton stroked his white hair, and removed his glasses, revealing his odd red eyes. Seth stared at him, before looking away.

"Somethings just aren't meant to happen. And that's one. The little girl got the most...I had a daughter once. I was in Peru, doing a mission with Jackson here. While I was gone, somebody broke into the house. Both my wife and daughter were raped and then strangled to death...I feel for those people. You don't know pain until you lose your love and your child." Seth wiped away mist from his eyes.

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry...

The eyes startled him. He looked away quickly, trying not to look startled. The only thoughts going through his mind were...

"What the hell have I gotten myself into?"

Colton understood exactly what that felt like. He never talked about it though.

He saw Seth shudder at the sight of his eyes. He got that a lot. He felt that was a story for some other time.

"I just hope we won't have too much trouble. Seeing those...things...makes me wonder what we've gotten ourselves into. Is this really worth 2 mil..."

Seth pulled out the glock he recieved in the facility. "Worth the money? I'm not so sure. But you take what you can get in this line of work." He began to disassemble it, obviously in a vain hope to distract himself. He felt his eyelids start dropping, and he figured it might be time to rest.

"Let me just finish putting this back together..."

He fell asleep with a stripped down pistol in his hand.

"Seth Dancer, you are ours."

The men in front of him laughed, and then turned upon each other, until each was nothing more than a bleeding mass of flesh, consuming all alive near it. The entire room chewed at him until there was nothing but bones tied to the wall.

That was when he awoke. The clock read 0500. "Damnit," he thought, "may as well stay awake now."

He then noticed the man standing out the window. Snatching up the glock, he realized it was still disassembled. Realizing the man was laughing, he grabbed around for his other, personal handgun. He snatched it up, and ran out the door.

No one was there to be seen. He stood there, dumbfounded, confused by what had just happened. He looked down the hall, pointing the gun, until he was satisfied he hadn't looked over anything. He walked back into the room, and shut the door.

Feeling shaken up, he lit up a cigarette. Taking hits, he never let his hand stray away from the gun.

Nothing about this job felt right.

Luke sat up late into the night checking and rechecking his weapons. He'd taken his glock apart and put it back together innumerable times. He was still shaken up by the photographs earlier.

He nodded, the whiskey taking away some of his racing thoughts. Funny thing was, he hadn't even touched the stuff since the last time...but that was long ago, and he didn't like to focus on the past so much. He lit another cigarette and threw the empty pack in the trash can as he began to take the MP5 apart. He needed some variety.

Still, he couldn't shake the nightmarish images. Was this some kind of new bioterrorism thing? Were those people insane? Was he? He didn't know, and franky, he was too drunk to care. He went to sleep with his revolver in his hand and a knife under his pillow. Probably to fight off the nightmares. But they came anyway.

Colton would have dreamed about the nightmarish images in his mind if he wasnt to busy dreaming about the Sunday morning that ruined his life. He woke up with a start, a tear rolling down his face. He wiped it away and layed back down, counting the tiles on the ceiling. He could hear a clicking in the other room. He figured it was Seth. Dancer hadn't looked like he would be able to go to sleep.

Oddly, he pulled out the portfolio again ane began flipping through it. He studied each image with his bright red eyes. His short white hair was just visible over his brow. He shuddered as he turned from image to image. Then he started thinking.

'Bioterrorism...or genocide.'

He looked at the people in the images again, nothing the mark on their arm. He saw their rabid faces.

'How could we get ppictures of this...how could anyone get pictures of this.'

He went to sleep with knew thoughts plauging the dark canvas on his mind.

The nightmares came, one after another. Brutal killing of people, the strange marking on their arms, coming for him...coming for all of them...

He woke up.

3 in the morning.

He'd never had nightmares like this. Nightmares, after all, were part of the job. Generally, when you're a hired gun, you have bad dreams, but nothing like this. Nothing so brutal, so disturbing.

Sitting up on the bed, he picked up the portfolio of pictures and glanced through them again. He couldn't look at them for long, the images still fresh from his dreams. They indeed looked like something out of a nightmare.

He placed his gun on the nightstand and got up for a drink. He popped open the beer on the edge of the counter. It was warm and unsatisfying. He took another sip and threw it away and went to wash his face. Anything to wash away the nightmares. He sat down at the table and started playing solitaire, the rythmic sound of the cards on the table relaxing him. Jackson decided to just wait on the others to wake up. No sleep tonight.

Colton got out of bed and threw on the jacket to his tuxedo. He tucked a delicate red carnation into the pocket and stode out into the main room, where he saw Jackson playing solitare alone.

"I'm more of a Texas Hold 'Em man myself" he said aloud.

Jackson jumpred, but quickly revocered.

"It's okay, I'm jittery too. So tell me," Colton said as he pulled back a chair to sit down "how did you get into this mess...how do you know Dancer?"

He jumped when he heard Colton speak. Man, his nerves were still shot.

"Won't you sit down?" he said, "Me and Dancer go way back. We were in the Army together, and when we got out, we decided we didn't want to get a regular 9 to 5, so we got in with this group. Pay's good, keeps things interesting. I remember, though, I've seen some bad things before, but nothing like this. One time in Uganda, we were send to 'get rid of' some locals who were going cannibal. But at least they had the decency to kill somebody before they tried to eat them. Not like this...not like this at all."

He stopped and lit a cigarette and began dealing cards to himself and Colton. At least he'd have some company.

He remembered Uganda, vividly. And he'd been right, it was nothing at all like this. This, it was almost like the people were animals. If it was a virus, it was one hell of a virus.

Seth barged into the other room.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

He was completely shaken, pacing back and forth, waving his handgun. "There was somebody outside the damn window. I don't know who the f**k it was, but he's quick. Jesus, somebody tell me they know something!"

They looked at him, confused, and he sat down after lighting another cigarette. He noticed jackson had thrown his pack away, so he offered him one. "Sorry, guys. I shouldn't have lost my cool like that. Let's just say after what happened to my family, I'm not too keen on seeing somebody out my window." He began to retell what had happened, and he gradually put the gun back down.

Then his cell phone rang.

Restricted.

He answered it with a tentative "hello?" The voice on the other end was clear, but threatening. And with a heavy russian accent.

"Stay away, you f**king americans. This is none of your business."

Click.

Seth stared at his phone, completely flabbergasted. He shut the phone, then looked at Colton and Jackson.

"We have to do this. They're hiding something. Something big."

Any normal person would think Seth had gone nuts. But, Luke and known him for too long. So long he'd come to terms with the fact that neither one of them was a normal person anymore.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"
Despite knowing this, Jackson still jumped at the sudden outburst. He'd seen something at the window? Funny, he thought he'd seen something out of the corner of his eye too, and then the strange phone call...

Something was clearly more out of the norm than usual. The pictures, now people sneaking around outside, and the threats? Something wasn't right, Jackson said so to his companions, and they should figure out exactly what it was. He grabbed his leather jacket and put his revolver in his shoulder holster. The other two asked him where he was going.

"To see what the hell that was outside. You coming?"