The armed soldiers slowly approached the well fortified house. More men circled around from the back, but they were there strictly for containment purposes in case of an incident. It was the easy part of the mission. The men going in the front door had the hard part.

The perimeter inspection checked out okay. The house was still secure, no signs of any entrances or exits. The three of them slowly approached the front door and peered in the windows to the kitchen. No sign of activity, but that only meant their jobs would be harder.

The lieutenant walked to the front door and did his best to look in through the window, but there was just no good way to see the floor behind the door. Someone could be hiding there. He signaled to the two privates, then unlocked the door and quickly pushed it open. No one there.

Weapons drawn, the three of them entered the house. There was a small hallway with a door to the kitchen on the left and the garage on the right. The garage had passed a visual inspection from outside, so they went for the kitchen.

The scent of decaying meat wafted over them when the private opened the door. Weapons drawn, they stepped into the room.

It had obviously been torn up. Chairs were overturned, cabinet doors were open, and the table cloth was half off. But no sign of who did it. Cautiously, they left the dining room and entered the hall to the bedrooms. In the back, the doors to the master bedroom were open and the eviscerated corpse of the father was clearly visible on the bed. Blood pooled on the floor and footprints lead into and out from it.

"It's a small house, men. Don't worry, she's in here. We'll get her, then we go home." The lieutenant tried to soothe his troops. He knew it was a routine sweep, but they were inexperienced and jumpy. That's why they were along, this mission was only a step up from training.

A board creaked under the weight of their boots. They froze and listened for activity. A second board creaked in reply in the rear bedroom, followed by a moan. Shuffling footsteps approached the doorway, and then the undead form of the mother appeared and approached them, mouth agape and caked in dried blood.

The lead private fired two quick shots to her forehead and she dropped immediately. He tentatively walked up to the corpse and fired a third shot into the back of her head, just to be safe.

The rear private radioed in that the situation was secure, target nullified, and to send in the clean up crew. The lieutenant was already on his way out, mentally filling out the paperwork he'd need to file. The woman had probably had a heartattack in her sleep, then killed her husband. No one suspected anything, so she hadn't been monitored as a Near-Death. Just another day.