A few feet away, A woman could be seen fighting off two of the walkers with a backpack. She defensively shuffled to the side, as to not get backed into a corner. Lt. John Hartstock saw that it was his wife’s friend Tracy, but his son was not with her.
John took aim and fired two carefully aimed shots into the heads of the two walkers attacking the woman. Pink mist filled the air and the walkers fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Tracy looked up and met John’s stern gaze.

“Where’s my son!” John growled.
Tracy’s eyes were wide with excitement. “The Marines took him and put him the helicopter. I knew he would be safer with them.”
John shifted his gaze to the last remaining Super Stallion. Its rotors were already spinning violently, and the last of the Marines could be seen running up the loading ramp. John shot out at a full-on sprint towards the aircraft, frantically waving his hands in the air as he ran.

“Hey! Wait! My son’s in there!” John screamed, but his voice was drowned out by the deafening WUP WUP WUP of the rotors. Before he could get any closer, the Stallion took off and lifted up into the night sky. John’s heart sank. He lowered his hands and dropped to his knees in absolute frustration and anguish. Gunnery Sergeant Shull caught up and knelt down beside him. Screams of the remaining civilians could be heard from behind them, in addition to the mad howls and roars of the walkers.

“Sir, we need to move. Come on, get up.” The Gunny helped John to his feet and placed his arm around him. “We’ll find your boy. I promise we will.” 
John and Shull made their way back to their Humvee, which wasn’t very hard to find. Private Barns had been busy creating a symphony of destruction with the .50 caliber machine gun mounted on top of the vehicle. The Humvee rocked back and forth to the recoil of the gun. Barns was having a good time.

BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM! 

“Yeah! Get some! Motherfu---“ BLAM “…ckers!” BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM! “Woooo!” Barns exclaimed. This was the most John had ever heard him speak. 
Upon their return, John and the Gunny jumped back in the Humvee and hurriedly slammed the doors behind them. Sykes hit the gas and the Humvee started to move. As their Humvee coasted forward, a woman darted in front of the vehicle and desperately held her hands out to try to stop them. It was Tracy. She was so bruised and bloodied, it was obvious that she had been infected.

“Get out of the way!” John yelled from inside the vehicle. 

“Please!” Tracy cried, “Let me come with you!”

“There’s no room!” John hollered back.

“Please John!” Tracy limped forward.
At this point the walkers that surrounded them were approaching and getting closer. John looked over to his driver and made eye contact. Sykes tightly gripped the steering wheel and looked back at him anxiously. “Punch it, Sykes!” John ordered. The Humvee bolted forward and rolled over Tracy where she stood. Blood splattered the windshield and her agonizing scream was silenced by the bump of the second wheel. 
It was at that moment that John realized something inside of him had changed. The sound of the wheels crushing the body of poor Tracy led John to admit one irrefutable fact about himself. He was going to stop at nothing to find his son and keep him safe.