The Stray

NO!

November 19th 1966. Tracy Arnold.

It's been two years since the bombs fell.

Two fucking years.

Guess all that running makes time fly.

I had another nightmare starting to get Starting to get used to that.

Checked the house.

Found one of those things.

A kid.

His folk's dead.

A bullet to their head.

Loving parents.

Reminded me of the Hannons.

They were a good family MOM!

A family of three.

Mother, Gloria Hannon, her son, Kenny and her daughter Antoinette.

Couldn't break their spirit.

Well we did.

1964.

Eight skilled Marines handpicked by Uncle Sam himself.

Sergeant Lawrence Brown - Dodger.

The day Sgt. Brown left, the old man gave Dodger his prized bat.

Sergeant John Krystal - Hick.

And he was just that. Never felt nothing but hate that guy.

PFC James McKenna - or The Senator.

Guy's dad owned some Texas oil thing and was government friendly.

PFC Dominic Venelli - Wop.

Wop was one hell a crack shot. Never missed.

Corporal Jack Arnold - My older brother.

He never left my side.

PFC Amos Mclntyre - Boot.

Little Boot joined us a month before homecoming.

Smart, always had a plan and it always worked.

Captain Finnbar Griffith - War Pig.

We were all killers, tortures, insane bastards

but none like the captain

Judging by your instinct not to charge us I can only assume two things.

One.

You're friendlies who got out while the getting was good.

Or two.

You're foe.

Who have encountered the infected before and

you're low on ammunition so my question is

are you friend or are you foe?

Men!

What do they call me in the jungle?

War Pig, sir.

And why do they call me War Pig, Boot?

Because the other officers used to say that you like war

And you're fat, with all due respect sir.

That's ridiculous.

Why would I like war, I don't like war.

I love war.

And why do I love war?

Because I like to kill. I like to kill people.

Vietcong. Russian. Chinese. It doesn't matter.

Now I know you mother fuckers are out there.

So I'm going to give you to five to come on out.

One.

Two.

Wait!

We're friendly.

Prove it.

The first to go to hell and back.

Uncle Sam's hell hounds. That was us.

The troublemakers and the Hellraisers.

1st battalion 9th marines.

The walking dead.

You got to be kidding me.

Where is it.

Where's the rest of it.

FUCK!

The hell am I going to do.

November 20th 1966. The situation

I have almost no ammo.

These things are increasing in numbers every day.

I have no idea if I'm going the right way.

Conclusion?

I'm seriously fucked.

Jack.

We've been traveling with the Hannons for about a week, we were taking them

back to camp get shipped out with other civilians.

It was a warm day.

I was so relaxed that day.

There was two of them, breaking in the house, my

husband and I grabbed the children, we escaped out the back into the woods just

left with what we had on our backs.

We kept running, hiding in the woods until until you found us.

And your husband, where is he?

He's dead.

They... they mauled him... those creatures mauled him.

Thank you.

Amos, my name is Amos.

Fuck you talking about?

Your name's Boot and you shall forever be referred to as Boot.

Fuck out of here.

You better watch yourself Tony, Boot's an old hound dog with a bone.

Hey you know who was a horny motherfucker?! Denius!

Denius?

Lieutenant Andre Denius Liked to be known as Hercules.

So why'd he call himself Hercules?

Man knew a lot about Greek mythology and Hercules was

exactly how he saw himself. Strong.

Invincible.

Hell I bet he even thought he was a son of some Greek god.

It wouldn't surprise me, he was one tough motherfucker.

Remember when he killed that tiger?

Yeah, yeah he did!

So where is he? Did he get transferred or something?

Well, he, like so many good people over there didn't make it home with us.

Sorry I asked.

No, don't be. It's important to remember our brothers.

Man y'all are a bunch of fucking crybabies.

Why'd you show some damn respect.

Yeah man, Hercules was your brother.

May he rest in peace.

What's your fucking problem man?

Let me ask you something Tracey. You remember the first person you ever killed?

Yeah, I do.

Well so do I.

He was my old man.

I shot him dead in cold blood.

How could you do that to your own father?

Because he used to kick the fucking shit out of me every day that's why.

He beat my ma, my little sister too so I joined the Marines

so I could get the hell out of the house.

See he fought the Nazi's back in his day.

Stormed the beach, took out a shit ton of them Krauts.

Made it all the way through that war, barely a scratch on him.

Real fucking war hero.

See but all his scars was up here.

When he came home he was like a fucking monster

I was about two weeks into boot camp I get a letter from my aunt, said that ma,

sister Mary Jo is in the hospital, some kind of accident.

But I knew better.

So one night I snuck over to the house seen him passed out in his favorite easy

chair, son of a bitch was paranoid so always had a shotgun by side.

Snuck up there, put that barrel right up underneath his chin.

He knew what that felt like he had that barrel up against his

chin a few times himself.

Just never had the balls to pull the trigger

but I did.

Watched his head come apart like a goddamn watermelon.

Best thing I ever did with my life.

We've all had losses. My wife, Hercules

for fuck sake. You're sitting here bragging about taking a life.

Yeah well I heard a preacher say once,

tree of life only grows to heaven if its roots extend to hell.

Boy you need more than a preacher.

Amen.

Ah, what the fuck?!

Hit the deck!

Kenny! No! No! Kenny!

Boot, what the fuck are you doing?

Going to go check on the kid.

You stay put, you hear, you fucking play dead.

Fuck that, I'm going.

Shit!

Wop! Take out that fucker now!

Where are you?

If we send out a decoy, lure him out of his spot could you get your shot?

You get him out here, I'll give him a shot he won't believe.

What're you doing?

Distraction.

There's another way.

I don't see one.

I'm not gonna let you go out there, you'll get shot man.

I don't have a choice.

Damn it, Jack!

Are we cool?

No! No! No! Kenny! No! Kenny! No!

Let's, uh

have a moment of silence

for our fallen brothers.

Sgt. Lawrence Brown

last at bat.

No!

You fee that boy?

Speak.

You've got two seconds before I succumb to my trigger finger. Speak!

You son of a bitch!

Fuck you!

You don't want to do that son.

The fuck I do!

You best put that gun down mister!

Back the fuck off!

You military?

Yeah.

What are you?

Marines.

What's your name, marine?

Lance Corporal, Tracy Arnold.

Mr. Arnold, you're among friends.

Sergeant Earl Anthony Grey, United States Marine Corps. The Pacific.

Corporal Johnathan Daniel Grey, US Army. Germany.

Private Lee Nathaniel Grey, Marines. Vietnam.

We keep good look about this place.

We patrol it day and night since we're so far from the city, we haven't run into

anything we couldn't handle yet.

We got plenty of food, water, weapons, this