Chapter I - Grapple

It was approaching 23:00 when the frosted windows of the snow covered complex in central Russia were finally bathed in light from the ceiling lamp inside a few of its many laboratories.

Snow swirled around it practically blocking it from view against the high snow covered mountains beyond it, only five minutes had passed and already more lights had flickered into light, announcing the presence of more people.

Mikhail Jurek stared out of one of the frost covered windows, staring through the harsh snow into the darkness beyond, stars glittered in the jet black sky, but none of this interested him, he turned back around to face a few scientists who worked in the complex, all observing a diagram of their latest work and talking in Russian, it was all very complex, Mikhail didn't understand much of it, he was only one of the few security officers on duty at the complex that night.

Shortly after pretending to be pleasantly interested in the busy scientists work he silently left the lab and returned to the guards office, put the kettle on and then kept watch via the many cameras dotted around the complex.

He slowly felt himself becoming tired, he wasn't a young man anymore, he was approaching his Forty-Eighth birthday, his hair was starting to go grey and he wasn't as skilled as he used to be.

He could remember training to become an police officer in Moscow, he had succeeded and became one of the best, up until the terrible day when his home was raided by a gang of criminals who's ringleader Mikhail had locked up. He had rushed home with his partner only to find his wife in the hold of one of the criminals, his arm around her neck, they killed his partner instantly, Mikhail had tried to return fire but had ended up killing his poor wife in the process, he left the force shortly after and looked for a quieter job, which he found, out in the scientific complex, kept away from civilisation, here, where absolutely nothing happened, it was perfect.

It was approaching midnight when a snow white van prowled forward towards the building undetected, its lights were off and it was having no trouble ploughing through the howling snow towards the scientific complex.

It came to a halt a while from the complex and a group of people, all men, all wearing alpine camouflage jumped out armed with assault rifles, recognisable as AK-47's.

They all walked towards the complex's back entrance, their weapons aimed at the approaching complex, they had no idea how powerful a defence the complex may contain.

They were in full view of one of the many cameras linked to the guards office, but the swirling snow kept them concealed for a while until they were right in front of it, as soon as Mikhail's eyes jumped to the screen, his heart leapt in fear, 8 men clothed in body armour, camouflage & balaclavas were all sprinting towards the back entrance.

He panicked and reached under the desk, his weakened fingers slipped on the hold of the Pump-Action shotgun and it dropped to the floor noisily, he collected it from the floor, stood up, picked up his radio and said in his tired low voice,

"All security officers fall in to the office immediately, we have intruders at the back entrance" He croaked

All of the officers reported and collected an arsenal of weapons from the hold at the back of the room, Mikhail had always wondered why they would need them, now he knew.

All of the officers strapped on body armour and walked to the back entrance where they grabbed bookcases and boxes and set them up as barricades, Mikhail remained in the office, speaking to the other officers via their radios, he watched the intruders outside breaking open the locking system on the metal door at the back entrance.

"prepare yourselves people, remember, only fire if fired on first" He said quietly in Russian

For a few precious seconds there was silence, then all of a sudden the door was blown open off its hinges and a rattle of gunfire reached Mikhail's ears.

The intruders had burst through rapidly, bringing in a blinding amount of snow and a barrage of gun fire, one of the officers was hit and slammed against the wall to his left, the other officers opened fire, avenging the officer by eliminating one of the intruders.

Within 10 minutes the fire fight was over and the officers were all sprawled on the floor, dead or dieing.

Mikhail's heart was racing, his eyes watered as each of his friends and allies had been gunned down, the terrorists didn't stop to observe their carnage, they progressed into the labs, dragging out blood covered scientists and locking them all in one room, which was guarded by two of the seven remaining terrorists.

He collected himself quickly and came up with a plan, he would hide, and then he would try to free the prisoners locked away, he grabbed some armour and his shotgun and walked to the back of the room, looking over his shoulder every few steps, when he got to the other end he climbed on top of on of the desks and then proceeded to make his way into a ventilation shaft leading from the guard room to every other room in the complex, he crawled into it, doubled back, pulled up the vent cover and waited.

He only had to wait a few seconds because shortly after the door was kicked open followed by one of the terrorists, dragging a female scientist who worked at the complex, he pushed her to the floor, locked the door and aimed his weapon to the pleading woman, he then shot her in the head without warning and knelt down by her, he tore off her clothes and continued with his sick sport.

When he was done, he disabled the cameras, Mikhail's eyes were full of tears of anger, he felt horribly sick,

Before the terrorist left the room his radio crackled to life and Mikhail heard a Russian voice speak.

"We have already started work on the virus, have you found any more prisoners?"

"Negative" Replied the terrorist
Mikhail climbed out once the terrorist had gone, he tried not to look at the poor woman and instead proceeded to the door, he was standing in a long white hallway, he crept to the left until he arrived at a corner, he carefully peered around it, his fingers clammy with sweat as he gripped the shotgun, he saw the two guards, unmoving and silent, his breathing slowed, his grip grew tighter and all of a sudden everything seemed to go slower.
From what he could remember, he had darted from behind the corner and charged at full speed towards the terrorists, he had fired the shotgun twice, the first burst hit the closest terrorist sending his bloodied lifeless corpse a distance from where it was standing previously, he pumped the shotgun and fired the second burst.
This burst missed the other terrorist who then tackled Mikhail to the ground and grappled the shotgun from him with ease.

He had then head butted Mikhail and threw him into the room with the other prisoners.

Mikhail fell unconscious shortly after.

Eventually, he woke up, his eyes stung with pain as he stared into a bright light above him, he sat up and looked around, he was locked in what appeared to be one of the many spare rooms of the complex with five other prisoners.
he thought about what he had heard previously.

"So they are developing a virus in secret? Why?-" He thought to himself

but his thoughts were interrupted by one of his cellmates violently coughing.

Many months passed with hardly any food to eat and by now Mikhail was the only one left in his "Cell", others had died or been executed in the name of whatever religion these intruders believed in, he had heard a lot from terrorists passing by, they must of reinforced their numbers as their were definitely new voices now.

From what he had heard this is what he knew; they were inventing a virus in secret that would cause genocide at a huge level, it is a virus that lives inside a human body and causes horrible effects.

More months passed before the governments of the world got news of the terrorists plans by a data transfer leak on one of the terrorists laptops.

All of the earth's nations agreed they must dispose of this threat and it was quickly surrounded by many soldiers from many counties, but these forces got no where and from the well fortified complex the terrorists killed more soldiers than they did lose men, and there was enough supplies to last years.

The governments of earth came to a swift final decision after hacking into the terrorists computers and finding that the virus was nearing completion, they bombed it.

The bomb hit the Complex at 20:34, it exploded and everything inside was incinerated into dust and debris, Mikhail and the other prisoners were all incinerated, only their skeletons remain in the blanket of snow.

The governments all celebrated in their victory, thinking that they had done a good thing for humankind, but actually they had mutated the virus and released it into the open and into Russia were it quickly took hold of the population.

Mikhail and his wife were reunited, and this was the only good thing, Mikhail Jurek would not live to see what was to become of planet Earth.