What follows is a chronological order of events that take place in a series, written by an Agent within The Division who shall remain anonymous. He shares his nickname at the end of each entry, so that his friends and family will recognize, that they may keep up to date with his journey. The entries are date stamped the day they are received, which may not reflect the day they were written, as some entries may cover multiple days. They are posted as they come in, unaltered.

03-30-2016

Day 4

I was somewhere around Chelsea, on the edge of the park when I got the call over my Comm. I remember the voice saying something like: “JTF Officer trapped inside computer shop North-East of your position – Pennsylvania Plaza”. And suddenly I was standing, and my feet were me carrying off. 

How is it that we’ve been doing this for only a few short days, and yet it feels like a lifetime? I can’t sleep. That probably has something to do with it. My body moves me from one task to the next, mission after mission, my SCAR-L rifle is dead weight in my hands. If I came across a group of rebels, I don’t think I’d be able to defend myself. I robotically check the magazine anyways.

It was almost noon by the time I reached the corner of Barren Street and Empty Boulevard. There is no going back, I had an obligation to see the mission through, for good or ill. I almost stumbled over PIKEY and ARCHITECT who had arrived moments before. My solo expedition had expanded after I met a few Agents during the Benitez mission yesterday, they were the ones that helped me get back to HQ, and I’m forever grateful. We have our GPS’ linked up so we can track each other in case we need some backup. I had a nervous feeling this would be one of those cases. Not that I thought we’d need three agents to rescue the JTF Officer, but once you become reliant on someone watching your back, you kind of want that to be the permanent case.

The only thing that really worried me was ARCHITECT’s eagerness to “defend” himself. It seemed that he was starting to look for trouble. There had been some reports of some of the Agents going rogue, taking advantage of this situation, and their access to goods and weapons. Even as far as providing intel to assist the enemy groups. I’ll have to watch him.

The computer shop, it turns out, was not heavily defended. Two rebels inside, and one outside that showed up when the first chatter of gunfire echoed around the block. After calling HQ to request a pick-up for our rescued brother, we started off towards Manhattan Mall, the main mission for the day. Equipped with heavy duty filters, our mission was to extract some physical evidence from the teller machines in the shopping mall. The Medical Wing at HQ believes that we’ll be able to find some quality samples for testing. 

Continue the good fight, soldier.

How long can we maintain though? I realize its only been 4 days, but there’s rumours that no more help is coming from outside? That’s hard to believe. The outside world has got to start coming to the same grim realization that I am. There is no coming back from this outbreak. Are those of us in here doomed? We’re helping the medical teams in here so they can relay the information outside the quarantine to come up with a cure. But will that help us in here too? Or just the rest. Maybe that’s why some of the agents are going rogue? Making their stay worth it. While the rest of us remain oblivious.

We arrived at the Mall without hassle, but there was already smoke billowing out. The Cleaners had likely arrived and were torching everything.  PIKEY checked in with Comm and relayed that the power to the sprinkler systems needed to be restarted. He started off on his own, and left ARCHITECT and me to start the attack. 

Let’s get to the heart of this one: this is a very ominous assignment, with obviously an extreme amount of personal danger. Cleaners, Concentrated Contagion, and Fire. Triple checking my mask’s filter, which for all I know is just for show, I braced for the heat and ducked into the smokey Mall entrance. Comm had given us a short list of shops to check – those that deal in smaller transactions, hoping for more physical evidence – so ARCHITECT and I split up to cover more ground.

Three shops each had been cleared out when the Cleaners became aware of our presence, or more specifically – mine, and lets get the record straight: The Cleaners use flamethrowers. These handy filters of ours can block the smoke in the air, but not the heat. I needed to find an escape quickly. I started by calling PIKEY and ARCHITECT to my position to flank the attackers. The sprinklers erupted from the ceiling and started dousing some of the fires, but the Cleaners would not be deterred. Hell stilled spewed from down the hall in my general direction, and I was trapped. When the first Cleaner neared the entrance to my shop, I shot at the fuel tanks straddling his back, ensuring that he was now his own problem. PIKEY and ARCHITECT arrived shortly after to eliminate the others.

I’m sure adding fuel to the fire didn’t help what happened next. 

The vibrations shuddering the first floor announced the inevitable structural damage, and our need to leave. We bagged what bills we could get from the teller machines and escaped through another entrance to the bright, brisk, fire-free sunlight. Hopefully Medical can make use of what we did end up grabbing before the fire took the rest. Our primary responsibility, after all, is the survival of the rest of the human race. I will have to remind myself that when the next bleak news hits.

I’m back at HQ now. If anyone asks, I’ll just say that I’m writing a field report. They haven’t caught on to our little devious plan in dropping off the USB in the secure mail boxes. We change it up each day. I get the USB back in the same box as I dropped it off in, but inside the USB is a new file with a new mailbox number and code. It’s pretty smart. I guess I’m revealing my plan to those that cared to look, but I’ll take my chances.

Getting some extra rations for tonight and tomorrow took some extra negotiating but I got what I asked for. I have a rest day tomorrow thankfully, but I understand why they are trying to limit my take-home. The civilian rations are being controlled now, so it would seem unfair if an Agent walked out with more. I’ll just make sure I’m not followed home. Wouldn’t want any trouble.

-iRogan
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