“I’m not either, okay. I’m trying to think. Damn it! There must be some way outta here!” He punches his leg and stares at the objects in the room.
“I’d rather take a bullet than get eaten alive.”
“It’s not going to come to that. I’ll think of somethin’. I’ll work some way out of it.”
Kathleen starts crying and speaks through her sobs. “We can’t stay down here Jackson. The baby won’t survive it, and neither will we.” Her body goes rigid, and she squeezes Jackson’s arm. “I can feel it! It’s coming soon.”
“Okay, just hold on Kat, just hold on!” He looks at the doors shaking on their hinges and grits his teeth. “Hold on.”
The door creaks, and the pummeling grows louder. The broom bows outward, and fingertips peek through the crack.
✹✹✹
The convoy travels the road in a long line. They pass a sign reading: PURDAH-2 MILES swaying back and forth as each vehicle races past. The captain hooks a thumb back at the sign and looks over at his driver. “That’s the last town before the Cherokee National Forest. We’re on its doorstep. Keep a sharp eye out for anything strange. Wrap this up, and we should be home within a few hours.”
The driver nods. “Yes sir.”
Houses tucked into hollows on a country road give way to Main Street. The road widens and the front of the convoy can see into town. Soldiers steel their faces when they see the street teeming with the undead.
The captain’s eyes widen when he sees the Humvee in the middle of the road, and he leans forward in his chair while pointing. “Look there. That’s one of ours. We’ve probably got some boys still alive in there.”
The driver looks at the Humvee and nods, then the image blurs as a deluge begins. The windshield wipers swing into action slicing water away in sheets. The wind picks up and blows water back onto the windshield. A tree, barely visible in the distance, sways as several leaves catch the wind and glide away. The wind picks up to a steady gale and blows in rain at an angle. The captain looks up and sees the storm clouds shutting out the last rays of sunshine with a brew of rolling charcoal. He puffs out his cheeks and looks over at his driver. “Now it gets interesting.”
Humvees flick on their headlights in succession, and pearls of rain dance in the wash as the light bathes them.
Captain Gruger steps out of his vehicle and tilts his head to let water drum his face. He shakes the water out of his eyes, situates his mouthpiece near his chin, and straightens his hat. “Everybody dismount. Make a firing line here.” He walks up and down an imaginary line with his arm extended as soldiers pour in and bring his air strokes to life. “Push those filthy things back. That vehicle is one of ours. Some of our boys might be inside. Do not shoot the vehicle. I repeat, do not shoot that vehicle.”
The soldiers form a line and beyond them the undead continue to pound the vehicle, some slipping off and climbing back again.
“Open fire,” Captain Gruger utters into his mouthpiece and squints his eyes.
The first bullet rips into one of the creatures’ heads, and a crimson spray dapples the Humvee’s windshield then gets carried away in a sheet of water. The others turn around as several more heads snap back and drop to the ground.
✹✹✹
“Breath! Don’t forget to breath.” Jackson looks into Kathleen’s eyes and cups the back of her head in his hand. “Breath, you have to breath.”
Her face contorts, and she drives her nails into his arm. “My contractions are closer together. It’s coming! Can you see the head yet?”
“No, keep pushing.”
She screams as her entire body tenses.
“I can see the head! Keep pushing baby. You’re doing great.”
The banging on the door intensifies as the smell wafts around the room. Outside the pack becomes unhinged.
Kathleen falls back, breathing heavily. “I can’t push anymore!”
“Yes, you can! You’re doing great! One more push Kat, one more push!”
Kathleen grits her teeth and turns blood red from the top of her head down to her chest, and a vein pops up on her temple. All the muscles on her neck tense up resembling suspension cables, as she hisses air out in a spray of saliva. She screams and growls at the same time, and then she falls back as a new voice pierces the darkness. She looks down and sees Jackson holding a baby boy with rouge skin, and she smiles, then her head snaps to the side as the doors continue rumbling.
Jackson cuts the umbilical cord with gardening shears. “Not ideal, but it’ll have to do.”
He takes off his shirt, wraps the baby up, and kneels beside her, carefully lifting the folds of her coat and placing the baby in her arms. All three sit together, a family, as the banging on the doors continues, and then a snap rings out as a large splinter juts from the broom handle.
✹✹✹
Every creature in town turns toward the fight as gunfire reverberates through houses and buildings. En masse they pour out of alleys and from behind houses, an army flowing together.
Bullet after bullet finds head and neck in body after body. Some of them drop and stand back up, others find peace, but they keep flowing forward.
Four flamethrowers, two on each flank, push the horde into the center as the soldiers shoot them down. Every trigger pull illuminates the soldiers’ faces as the liquid hell spits forth. Their blistering stream washes over heads, limbs, and torsos, but the flames extinguish before they engulf the horde and leave smoldering bodies still staggering onward.
The headlights illuminate an arc but fall away and leave the rain to its darkness. A group of soldiers on the flank fire short bursts into the crowd, screaming as they deal out their punishment. Suddenly their tracers sail over their targets and disappear into dim showers. Several other soldiers spot the errant tracers and follow the path back to their comrades, and their jaws drop when their eyes fall on hands wrapped around heads. Before anyone can react, teeth seize ears, noses, hands, necks, and lips, anything not covered in body armor. The soldiers standing nearby back up and point their guns at the carnage, and their brothers in arms, but cannot find a shot.
Captain Gruger watches as the undead clamber around his soldiers and pull them in. He looks away and nudges his microphone. “You know what to do.”
Upon hearing the captain’s order, a lieutenant fighting amongst the soldiers points at the attack. “Light ‘em up! We can’t save them now.”
“No!” One of the infected soldiers sticks the palm of his hand out as he screams.
The most immediate flamethrower turns and sprays the group, as several other soldiers discharge rounds into the fold. The still human victims flail and scamper violently as fire chars their flesh and bullets rip into them. The soldiers cease firing as the last one in the welter collapses.
Captain Gruger closes his eyes, and drops his head. “Finish the rest.”
The remaining soldiers turn and see the main wave getting closer. All raise their guns and commence firing down the street. The road contains a red river as the rain pours on even thicker.
Click. “I’m out! Somebody give me another magazine!” The soldier backs away, pulls out his sidearm, and fires into the crowd.
Then more magazines empty until up and down the line soldiers draw their side arms.
Captain Gruger stands outside his vehicle looking on with a growing frown. When he sees several more soldiers switch to their secondary weapons, he slaps the hood of his vehicle and adjusts his mouthpiece. “Cease fire! Fall back and mount up! Olmsted, get on the horn and call me air support now!”
The soldier turns a knob on the radio set and mashes the receiver to his mouth. “This is Fuller Company requesting air support, location west side of Purdah, repeat west side of Purdah, coordinates…”
“Pull back! An Aluminum Cloud on Alert 5 is en route!” Captain Gruger yells into his headset. Everyone returns to their vehicles, and the first Humvee in the convoy turns around and leads them out.
A minute later two F-14
’s come screaming in low. As they pass over Purdah, the two planes drop canisters on opposite sides of town. In midair each bomb explodes and releases thousands of bomblets that spread out. A second later, explosions rip through town tearing into cars, houses, the undead, mailboxes, trees, and the Humvee that has run out of gas.
✹✹✹
The smoke settles and the soldiers come walking through town with flashlights to look for survivors. The beams of light catch raindrops as they fall, resembling crystals from heaven. It washes away all the blood, revealing the extent of the carnage, but also makes it look less objectionable, somehow cleaner. Occasional gun fire rings out as one of them comes across a creature with its body ripped apart threshing on the ground.
Ron and Ann poke their heads out and look around then slowly step out on the road.
Ron turns and looks at Lewis who cuts the air with his hand as he shakes his head. “I’ve seen enough for an entire lifetime.” He remains in the vehicle with Cassius and strokes his head.
As a group of soldiers approaches the Humvee with guns raised, they see that all of its doors hang open. Large chunks have been blown out of it, leaving behind a charred shell that resembles a cheese grater more than a machine of conveyance. A soldier looks inside and steps away shaking his head. “Damn it! They were alive. We just killed ‘em.”
Captain Gruger brushes past him and peers inside. His steely eyes study the interior, and he steps away massaging his chin with thick fingers, and then he holds his head up high, straightens his back, and looks over at the other soldiers gathering around and focuses on the one who found the bodies. “Pull it together son. We did the best we could. There’s always collateral damage in war.” He points at a group of soldiers looking inside. “You three bag ‘em, at least they’ll get a proper burial. Make sure the brains are neutralized.”
“Yes sir.” They glance inside again and run back to the convoy.
The others continue through town sweeping their flashlights over cars and houses. Occasionally they yell out to see if anyone can respond. Gradually their search reaches the Jeep trapped in the ditch. Just like everything else, the bombs have riddled it with holes and gashes.
One soldier standing by the driver’s side looks around and squints as his eyes come to rest on the side of a house. He points and walks toward it. “Look over there. There’s a bunch around those cellar doors.”
Several soldiers walk over and inspect the remains. With weapons ready, they peer around the corner into the cellar. Their flashlights catch a few faces rising up from carcasses with blood seeping out of their mouths. In a split-second bullets find skulls and the undead drop, forever silenced. The soldiers quickly brush their lights across the inside, see nothing else, and move on.
Jackson walks up to the cellar and looks in. He sees two bodies, with several of the undead littered around them, all horribly disfigured. He can tell the two in the middle died recently from the anguish still fixed on their faces and their color. He turns to walk away and suddenly stops when he hears a noise. He puts his head back in and looks. He begins to back away and shakes his head, and then a cry from inside pulls his head back. “Ann! Come here!” He waves her over as he goes down inside. The cries grow louder as he moves toward the back. He sees a mound of objects thrown together roughly, and his eyes burn with intensity as he pulls off an old sheet of scrap metal, an old blanket, and lifts a box to reveal a little bundle. Underneath, a newborn baby wrapped in a bloody shirt lies partially covered by a coat. It screams and cries out at its new world, helpless to move within it.
Ann comes up behind him. “Oh my God!” She nudges Ron out of the way and cradles the baby in her arms.
Ron points at the bodies with his eyes. “Those must’ve been his parents.”
“Ron, this baby’s just been born, only minutes ago. If we had gotten here ten minutes sooner.”
“I know…I know.” He shakes his head and frowns.
The soldiers finishing their sweep of the town rejoin the convoy, and engines rev as they jump inside.
Captain Gruger approaches a group wandering back. “Any survivors?”
The lead soldier has a long face and shakes his head. “No Sir, we didn’t find any.”
“We did.” Ron and Ann walk up hovering over the bundle in Ann’s arms.
Captain Gruger cranes his neck and peeks inside the blanket. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He waves a hand over the destruction. “All this, and only this baby boy survives.”
Ron’s eyes study the captain. “Maybe the first born into a new world. We found him hidden under a box, his parents dead right beside him.”
“Christ.” The captain brushes a finger over the baby’s hand. He steps away and studies the sky for a moment and then points at a group of soldiers still huddled close to the destroyed Humvee. “Clear out that basement too. Pile the bodies in the road and burn them all.” He looks back at the baby and shakes his head. “What kind of a sick joke is it when he’ll inherit a world like this?”
Just as the captain finishes his words an explosion rocks a line of trees off to the south. Everybody’s shoulders jump as they crane their heads over to see flames reaching for the clouds from a tree line close to town. The baby screams and cries. Then an Apache helicopter rises up from behind the fire and glides forward leaving eddies of soot black smoke in its wake. It passes over the convoy and continues on a wide arc around the town.
The captain cups a hand over his earpiece. “Copy that.” He looks up and studies everyone’s faces. “There were more in those woods. Apparently, hundreds of RV’s and trailers are parked over that way somewhere, on roads and campgrounds, any place they could find. Gradually they wandered this way, I guess. That’s why we met so much more resistance here than expected. But they’ve been neutralized. I know it’s been a rough day, but you can all pat yourselves on the backs. We suffered minimal casualties and neutralized a strong gathering of Romeos here.” The captain looks down for a second and purses his lips and then raises his head with a tight face. “All right, wrap it up! Clear the area! Burn those bodies! The sooner you finish, the sooner we can return to base.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Two Weeks Later
General Riggs walks into his office with a cup of coffee, and a stack of bound papers in hand. He sets the steaming cup down on his desk, and reclines in his armchair, looking at the title of the first sheet with a twinkle in his eyes—VIRUS SUPPOSITION—and crinkles his forehead. He starts leafing through the pages, and reaches for his cup of coffee. As he brings the cup to his lip his eyes fall on one sentence and shoot wide open. He leans forward and droplets of coffee slosh over the lip of his mug and land on his leg. He slams the report down on the desk and mashes a button on his phone. He presses the microphone up to his ear as he taps the desk with his thumb repeatedly. He grates his teeth until he hears a click on the other side. “Doctor, get in here now!”
Minutes later Doctor Linkmen stands in front of him squeezing his hands behind his back as the General leafs through the document.
“What the hell is this, Doctor?” He plants his index finger on the stack of papers like a dagger. “Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
“Not at all, Sir, I’m trying to tell you the truth.”
The General raises his eyebrows and squeezes the report in his fists. He leafs through a few more crinkled pages, stops on one, and reads a sentence aloud. “The virus shows curious characteristics of DNA tampering evident in certain base pairs’ hydrogen bonds.” The General looks up. “Tampering? You know this gets presented to the Joint Chiefs, right? And whatever this report says invariably reflects my judgment. You better explain this to me in a way that makes me feel like you haven’t lost it or so help me: you will rue the day you chose these words, Doctor.” General Riggs leans forward with his hands clasped and rests them on his desk.
Doctor Linkmen swallows and straightens his glasses. “The virus did not occur randomly.”
“Care to expla
in that?”
“Okay, let me start at the beginning.” He pulls off his glasses and massages his temples with one hand and sits down in front of General Riggs. “We’ve thought all along that it probably arrived with the asteroid, and that’s really not surprising. There is a relatively popular belief within the scientific community, what’s left of it anyway, that life can travel to other planets from outer space, and that the first life on Earth may have arrived that way.”
“Okay, I’ve heard this theory before, Doctor. What’s your point?”
“Well, what is surprising is the virus’ DNA analysis. I found something out of place with the base pairs. Now, I’ve checked, double checked, and even triple checked this.”
“Get to the point Doctor! And spare me the jargon. I’ve got a war to run as well.”
“Sir, the virus isn’t natural. Well, it was once, but it’s not anymore.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s been weaponized.”
The general slaps his hands on the table and leans back, raising his arms into the air as he puts his head back. “Weaponized by who, the Chinese?”
Doctor Linkmen shakes his head with a slight grin and knowing eyes. “No Sir, the Chinese didn’t do this, nor did any other country. This thing’s well beyond our technology. If it had been developed here, we would have wiped each other off the planet years ago. I’ve been mulling this over for days, just to be sure, before I came to you with it. Now I need you to think for a second, and think hard. Please listen to me carefully. It arrived on this planet modified.” Doctor Linkmen enunciates each word.
The General looks at him for a second, and then one eye squints. “Come on. You must have overlooked something. How many times have you been over the evidence, and is your evidence valid?”
“It is, Sir, and like I said, I’ve been over it several times.”
“So, let me get this straight.” The General brushes a hand through his hair. “You’re telling me that a weaponized virus arrived here in that asteroid and caused the plague?”
The Inroad Chronicles (Book 1): Legion Seed Page 31