One Year, Fourteen Days: Chapter One

It's been twenty-seven years, seven months, and three days since the first sighting of mutated humans in Seattle, Washington. 

It's been one year, fourteen days since Diana Anderson went missing from her mission into the heart of the mutation wave in hopes of finding more information. 

"Went missing" is no longer the correct term to describe Diana, but Liam refused to refer to his soulmate, the love of his life, and his best friend as legally dead. Her frequent radio contact for the first three months of the mission was abruptly cut off, and on the one-year anniversary her status was changed. There was no physical proof of her death, but it would be foolish to send in a team to retrieve one person who most likely either became mutated or was eaten by one of them, according to the Chief of Operations. Apparently, not as foolish to send a rookie into that mess in the first place. 

Of course, only Diana would be the type of person to jump head-first into something like that. Her abilities were impressive, her intelligence even more, but it sadly gave her a bad case of overestimating herself sometimes. She was a child prodigy through and through, perfecting everything she put her mind to. Like Liam, her parents were CIA agents who were moved to the National Emergency branch, which was made specifically for fighting against the mutation slowly eating away the country. The two of them bonded as children, at first unwillingly, due to them being only months apart in age. Liam thought her nose was too far up her butt to put it nicely, and Diana thought he was too slow to keep up with her. 

However, as the workers in the branch met more and more, the two started to tolerate, and befriend each other as they started seeing each other more often. Diana taught him the intricacies of chess, figure skating, and ballet (though he never dared to attempt the last two himself), and Liam introduced her to the exciting, though not as grueling, world of video games. At the age of sixteen, their romance became official, and they both joined the National Emergency branch at eighteen to follow in their parents' footsteps. They both wanted in on the action and joined the combat group, who were sent out periodically to eliminate the mutated to slow the spread. 

However, the combat group was never sent deep into the wave, only dealing with the mutated that had just changed over. Otis Kennedy, the Chief of Operations in the branch, decided that needed to be changed. A yet to be decided number of people would be sent into the heart of the wave to collect information and even eliminate some of the source issue. Seattle went twenty-six years untouched by civilized society, and that was about to change. 

No one would volunteer themselves for the task obviously. It was a death wish and they had enough brain to know it. Even though Diana was a genius, she lacked enough common sense to realize this and was the only one who wanted to do it. Her parents did everything in their power to keep this from happening, but they didn't make executive decisions and Chief Kennedy was happy to see some enthusiasm. Liam wanted to go along with her, but Kennedy insisted one person would be fine for now. The wave traveled in all directions, going up into Canada as well, so the only safe way to transport her was to travel on water, dropping her off on the western side of the state by the Pacific Ocean. 

There wasn't a time limit for the mission, as traveling by foot to Seattle and back would take forever. All that was asked of her was to radio in at least once a day to let everyone know she was still alive. For three months, she did just that, giving updates on the number of mutated she encountered and how they got worse the closer she got to Seattle. Then, it stopped. Everyone at first believed the walkie had simply broke or got lost, but that false hope dwindled day by day. One year after she was sent on the mission, she was declared legally dead. 

Diana's parents quit the moment the decision was handed out. They had intentions to sue, but they never did. Liam and his parents stayed and tried to continue as normal, but he struggled. It was clear the only reason he still had the job was because Kennedy felt bad. Even a year after, everyone spoke to him in what he felt like was riddles, because what can you say to the man whose girlfriend was most likely slaughtered by a bunch of the mutated? 

Even with all of his struggles, Liam still found himself in Kennedy's office under the premise of a mission. He was sure he was getting fired and that Kennedy was trying to cover up and soften the blow, but he was shocked to find out there actually was a mission for him.

"You need your sense of purpose back, boy," Kennedy told him. "When you first started you were one of the hardest working rookies I've ever seen. You stood your ground against the older guys trying to test you. I get that you're struggling, and recent news has probably made it worse-" 

"Please just tell me what you want me to do," Liam said dryly. 

Kennedy coughed a few times and shuffled some papers he had no intentions of showing, clearly stalling. "We want to try again. You know, with the mission that we tried with Diana. In any other circumstance I wouldn't even entertain the thought, but it's getting worse. It's spread into the Dakotas and there's been rumors of some stragglers in northern Texas, which means it's also going south. It's never spread this fast and the tactics we've been using aren't working anymore. We need to go back into Seattle. We have more advanced weapons, we know a little more about how the mutated work, we-" 

"Put me on," Liam interrupted, followed by a wince. No one, rookie or not, gets to interrupt Kennedy unscathed, and he just did it twice in a row. In seems he didn't seem to mind this time around, as the only response given was a nod. 

"It's just going to be you this round. I'm sure you've noticed our decline in recruits lately. We can't just be going around sending our limited number of people into a situation like this. Thanks to Diana, we know more about how they work, so you have an idea of what to expect for most of the area."

"When do I leave?" 

"Next month, at the latest. Members of the Navy will transport you by boat to western Washington, just like we did the first time. They're all ready to go, we just needed your word on it." 

Liam chuckled a bit at the absurdity of the statement. "You're saying that like you knew for sure I was going to say yes." 

"That's because I did know." Kennedy stood up from his desk and walked towards the door, Liam following behind him. "You like to play hero, and you loved that girl. Sending you out given your circumstances might be even dumber than sending out Diana, but I know no one else would." The two men walked down the hall in silence for a few moments before they reached the elevator, where Kennedy continued to talk when the doors shut.

"I just have one request Liam." Kennedy turned to look Liam directly in the eye, which intimidated him a bit. He wasn't a small man by any means, but somehow Kennedy managed to be bigger. "You follow only the orders I give you. You are not there to rescue civilians, which I doubt there would be anyway, and you are not there to look for Diana. You are there to find more information - pick up where she left off. You have the blessing of knowledge on your side, don't waste it. Kill a couple of those bastards while you're at it." 

Liam nodded silently and continued his path back to the conference room he was pulled out of. A combat group he wasn't deployed with was presenting to the others what they experienced on their recent trip. However, he might as well not have come back at all with the way his brain was scrambling itself like a bunch of eggs. He knew Diana; she was smart and strong enough to get her way out of a fight, and she was stubborn enough to not die. He was assigned one mission, that much was clear, but his heart was planning out an additional mission to complete, and for once it seemed his brain and heart finally agreed on something; he was finding her, dead or alive.