The sound startled Blake, and he could see the soldier with the little girl seemed dumbfounded, as he stared at the little girl’s bright yellow eyes. Her lips curled into a smile, and he jumped back. Before the he could take cover on the ground, she had reached into the pocket of her pink dress and pressed the plunger on the detonator.
As Blake watched and heard all this unfold he froze for a second, and the only thought that came to his head was, “Oh shit!”
“Get out there and gather your soldiers and take your defensive positions! This might be a prelude to an all-out attack.”
The orders barked by the commander brought Blake out of his shock, and they ran out of the building.
Blake knew the smell of explosives well. Soldiers ran in every direction, and Blake noticed a medic running past him. He reached out and grabbed the medic’s arm.
“Are we under attack?” he yelled through the chaos.
“I’m not sure. I just know we have men down at the north and south gates,” the medic said as he pulled his arm out of Blake’s grasp.
“Captain Reynolds, you and your men make a quick perimeter sweep to the south and see if the two attacks are just the beginning of a much larger one or if this is a well-coordinated, isolated incident,” Major Williams commanded. “Munns, you lead a patrol to the east. I will take some men to the north and west. Now move out!”
Blake saluted and then yelled commands at his men who had been gathering to him. They raced to the southern area of the clean zone, and Blake peered through his binoculars. In the center of the street, he could see a Jeep speeding away towards the direction of the white church.
It didn’t take long for Blake’s patrols to report back that there was no enemy activity to be reported. He ordered them to stay behind and guard the gates while he reported back to Major Williams.
Blake entered the office and noticed that Major Williams seemed concerned. He stood at attention with the other men and saluted.
Major Williams saluted back. “At ease. As you know, an hour ago the enemy launched their first attack. Now I don’t know if you would call it lucky, but only one soldier was killed and three were wounded. One of the wounded is in critical condition and might not make it, and the other two should be OK. You might have heard that the enemy recruited small AB children to strap suicide vests to their bodies and detonate them when they were in close proximity of our guards at the north and south gates. Our humanity is what got these soldiers killed and injured. From now on, we can’t afford to let our humanity get in the way of preserving our species.
“From the preliminary reports that I have received from around the country, we’re experiencing something completely different than everywhere else. Most places report constant skirmishes between military and civilian forces and the ABs. There are damn few civilians still alive who aren’t armed. In some cases, we are holding our own or even entirely clearing out some areas of the ABs, but in a lot of places there are no uninfected humans left.”
Blake glanced at the other patrol leaders nervously. “Why is he telling us this?” he thought.
“I’m telling you all this because I want to know what is different here. Why are we seeing so little resistance? Captain Reynolds, starting at 0600 I want you to send out round-the-clock patrols that penetrate deeper into town to find out what is going on out there. Take as many men as you need. If we have to, we will put camp defense in the hands of the civilians. Dismissed.”
Blake stood saluted and walked outside with the other men. He gave orders to relieve the men patrolling the perimeter so they could get some sleep.
The sky was dark and cloudy by the time he reached his family’s tent. Kaya had been asleep for an hour already, but Tara was still waiting for him. As Blake unzipped the tent, Tara rushed over and wrapped him in her arms.
“How is it going out there?” she asked after she kissed him.
“Things are pretty strange. We found out that in most parts of the country, the fighting is pretty intense. But around here, with the exception of the explosions this morning, it has been relatively quiet.”
Tara nodded. “Rumors have been flying around camp here. It’s getting a little scary. I even heard someone say that starting tomorrow they are going to start to arm the civilians.”
Blake sighed. “That one is true. I haven’t heard the time frame for that yet, though. But if anyone can handle a gun, it’s you.”
Tara looked Blake in the eyes and returned an uncertain smile.
Day 7: Blake
When the men reported for patrol duty at 0600, Blake reduced the patrols down to three. He knew there wasn’t too much habitation northeast of the school, which meant no people or ABs nearby. This also gave each of the other three patrols an extra two men. The major told Blake that he could have all the men he wanted, but from his previous experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blake knew that larger patrols slowed things down.
Blake quickly gathered the other two patrol leaders. “This is a fact-finding mission only. You are not to engage the enemy unless it is necessary. This time, Munns, scout northwest. Collins, take your platoon to the southeast, and I am headed southwest towards the church.”
Blake knew he would most likely have the highest chance of encountering the enemy, and he wanted to be in the middle of the other two groups just in case they needed his help.
The three patrol leaders shook hands, and the platoons embarked on foot. Once Blake and his platoon were out of sight of the others, he pulled his men together for a short briefing of their mission.
“Men, we are going to scout south towards the old white church. There is something going on there, and it seems to be the center of a lot of activity. We should avoid contact as much as possible, and at no time should we engage the enemy unless we are fired upon. Is everyone clear?”
“Yes sir!” the men said in unison.
Blade nodded, and they started walking. In the first few miles, they didn’t run into any ABs. But as they made it closer to the church, they saw a few small AB groups. They noticed that some were loading bodies into the backs of a truck and hauling them to their compound, and others were going house to house to gather food supplies. Blake noted that there were remarkably few armed groups patrolling the area. At first he was relieved, but then he was worried. “Why aren’t they guarding themselves?” he thought.
They watched one of the trucks that carried the dead. It drove about a mile down the road and stopped at a small warehouse. Since there was little activity in that direction, Blake ordered his platoon to make their way to the warehouse and see what was happening there.
Once they were within a couple hundred yards, the familiar stench of rotten flesh filled the air. One of the privates started to heave up his breakfast, and one of the other men pulled his bandanna over his face in hopes of reducing the smell. Blake and two of his men quietly made their way to the back of the building while the others stayed behind to provided cover fire if needed. Slowly, the three men crept up to the windows in the back of the building and peered inside.
It took their eyes some time to adjust to the dim light inside, but once they could see, each man gasped in horror. The warehouse had been set up as some kind of meat-processing plant, but instead of animals, the ABs were processing humans for meat.
Bodies were placed on hooks then pushed down the track in line. First, the bodies were stripped of all clothing, disemboweled, and washed. Once cleaned, the flesh was stripped, and the meat was removed from the bone. Finally, the skeleton was removed from the hook and thrown into a dumpster by the loading bay doors.
Blake could only stand the horror inside the building for a minute before he led the three men back to the rest of the platoon. Once they were reunited, the three were speechless. The others stared at them nervously.
After a brief explanation, Blake ordered the patrol to remain hidden in the foothills, observing the ABs. Each AB seemed to be performing some kind of task, gathering food, hauling bodies to the processi
ng plant, and cleaning up debris.
As they made their way to the church, they occasionally came across patrols armed with some weapons, but mostly sticks or shovels. The patrol stopped for a break on the top of a small hill. Through his binoculars, in the distance, Blake could see more and more ABs walking north along I-5 in the direction of the old white church.
The patrol ran from tree to tree and building to building until they got within a couple of miles of the church before they ran into too many AB patrols.
Blake climbed the tallest tree in the park and placed the binoculars to his eyes. In the distance, he could see the old white church. The warehouse was closer, so he could see it better. He noticed that it was heavily guarded and had a lot of activity going on inside.
On top of the warehouse there were ABs installing a large satellite dish. Blake could see cables strung all over the place and he could hear the distinct sound of generators. He saw the flash of welders inside the open doors of the warehouse.
”How do I get in there and find out what they are building. I wonder if I should go off mission and capture one of the ABs to get more information. But I have my orders,” Blake thought to himself.
The patrol traveled as far south as the main city golf course. The orders Blake had been given earlier in the day finally took over his reasoning, and he gathered his platoon.
“We need to head back to base and let command know what we have discovered. Hernandez, you take point. Take out any ABs that you come across. We need to run silent, so keep your noise suppresser on your gun. We don’t want to alert the enemy that we are here.”
The platoon started heading north, running from one cover position to the next. Hernandez on point let loose with a short burst as he rounded a corner of the building they were taking cover behind. Blake quickly ran up to his position. Hernandez signaled him that there were two more ABs approaching from the west. Blake signaled two of his men on the west flanking position that there were two enemies approaching. It was only seconds before the two soldiers let loose and the ABs hit the ground with their blood turning the pavement red. This went on for a nearly an hour. The further away they got, the fewer ABs they came across.
One of the young privates approached Blake.
“Sir, they aren’t even fighting back. It doesn’t seem right that we are killing so many of them.”
“Private, I hear what you are saying. Let’s see what the others think.”
Within seconds the platoon had gathered inside an abandoned convenience store.
“Soldiers, I don’t know how you feel about killing all of these AB drones but I am getting tired of killing what used to be our friends and neighbors, so from here on out you are not to fire unless fired upon. Anybody have a problem with that?”
Blake quickly scanned the group and could see everybody nodding.
“OK then, let’s move out. From what we have seen, most of the infected should just ignore us.”
As they moved north, most of the wandering ABs acted like they didn’t notice the patrol, but at the last minute a few would look up from the ground, point at them, and start squealing like a pig. They were killed immediately by the point man with the silencer.
The weary patrol walked through the gates of the base just after sunset. Blake dismissed the men and headed to base headquarters.
Blake knocked on the commander’s door, and he waved him in. Blake walked to the nearest chair and plopped into it almost completely exhausted.
Munns was sitting in the chair next to him and looked at him. “You’re getting old?” He smiled.
Blake was too tired to respond; he just closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
The commander stood and looked at both his patrol leaders. “I have just received word that the last patrol has just entered through the north gate. Their leader will be here momentarily.”
With his eyes still closed, Blake mumbled, “That will be just fine with me.”
“On second hand, let’s meet at 0800,” the commander said with a slight grin.
Day 8: Blake
At the meeting the next morning, a communication link was established with the main Marine base. Most of the patrols’ reports were extremely similar: all the ABs from the surrounding areas were gathering at the old white church. The closer to the church they were, the more organized they seemed to be. Blake gave a similar report with the addition of the horror he saw at the processing plant and that something was being built in the warehouse by the church.
Once the three patrol leaders had given their reports, the general stood up and paced back and forth in front of the computer’s webcam. He kept stroking his face with his hand.
“There are two things that we need to know. First, why are all of them gathering in one spot? Second, what is going on in that warehouse behind the church? Any ideas on how we can get more information?” he asked.
“We have noticed from our few brief encounters that some of the ABs seem to be able to communicate normally, so we could understand them. It might be worth taking a patrol back to the area and capturing a couple of the AB soldiers to bring them back for interrogation,” Blake said. The other two patrol leaders nodded their heads in agreement.
The general continued to pace back and forth for a second before sitting in his chair. “Men, tomorrow I want you to come up with a plan that will allow us to penetrate deep into enemy territory near the church and warehouse to capture some of those sons of bitches and bring them back here. Use whatever force is necessary. Captain Reynolds, you will be in charge because you have the most experience down there. I want you to report back to me at 0900 tomorrow with what men and resources you need.”
“Will do.”
Day 8: Lord Dameon
Lord Dameon walked outside to enjoy the warm morning sun on his face. His plans were coming together better than he could have hoped for. Every day, there were more brothers and sisters joining the glorious mission. If anything, things were proceeding too well. It was starting to become difficult to keep everyone busy and fed. But he knew that they were all being drawn to this great cause.
He sometimes wondered how they all knew to gather at his position but assumed they had all received the call as he did. He decided to take a walk out to the warehouse to see how the work was progressing on the transmitter.
As he reached the building, he was met at the main door by the small, frail-looking man who had made the most momentous mission of the newly created brethren. The man extended a small, gnarled hand to Lord Dameon. “My Lord, how are you this great morning?”
Lord Dameon grasped the man’s hand warmly with both of his and smiled. “I am wonderful. How are you?”
“I am honored to be working on this project!”
“And what is your progress in the last forty-eight hours?”
“My Lord, we should have the transmitter ready in a week or so. We have retrieved all the supplies that we needed from the university, but it is still slow progress putting things together. Sadly, most of our brothers and sisters don’t possess the knowledge to complete the necessary tasks.”
“Well, they are doing what they can. Each has a part to play in the grand scheme of things. I know you will do the best you can.”
The man nodded and bowed his head in submission. Lord Dameon turned and walked back to the church for his morning briefing with his lieutenants. He sat down in his office, and his lead soldiers entered the room.
“Brothers, it is good to see you.”
Each man returned his warm smile and sat in a chair.
“So what do you have to report from the night patrols?”
A tall, muscular man stood up. His red eyes shone brightly against his dark skin. “My Lord, our recruits have increased by twenty-five percent in the last two days. We should have enough soldiers to wipe out the unclean north of here within seven days. One problem that we have is finding ways to arm them. We have very few weapons, and most aren’t capable of firing them, anyway.”
&nbs
p; Lord Dameon pondered on the problem for a moment. “If they aren’t capable of carrying a weapon of some kind, then let them carry stick and stones. They all should be able to handle that at least.”
The man nodded his head in acknowledgment. “Sir, there is one other thing… One of our patrols spotted a group of unclean soldiers yesterday, about a mile out. They seemed to be scouting out our position. By the time the patrol was able to get to the area where they were spotted, they had disappeared.”
Lord Dameon stood and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “I was wondering when the unclean would make their way to our pure sanctuary. We can’t let this happen anymore. Not until we are ready and have the numbers to carry out our main assault. Make every effort to guarantee that they never make it this far south again.”
The patrol leaders stood in unison and nodded their heads in compliance.
“One other thing… The unclean are extremely arrogant beings; they will probably try and use the same route again to spy on us. Send out scouts so we know if they are coming, and we will plan a little surprise for them.”
Day 9: Captain John Nellis
Just before the infection hit the U.S., the content of the U.S. government medical records of all personnel and all civilian contractor records had been transferred to the USNS Mercy. As it had sped back to the U.S. coast, several of its medical personnel were scouring its database for potential Vel blood type personnel. Most potential people had sadly been mistyped.
Captain Nellis was called into a conference room. After days of searching the database and following many false leads, he was told that they might have something to report.
The captain walked into the data room. The two technicians, who had been seated, stood and saluted the captain.
“Please be seated.”
John took a seat in front of them.
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