Teel stood straight up and barked the order. The two men on the roof tossed the gas canisters down into the crowd that was running toward them. The ones on the ground had opened fire, sending bullets through the heads of the stragglers that were already wandering around the area. They took the fire and fell to the ground, only to slowly get back up with odd moans and continue to try and reach the building. One of them got hit in the neck. Its head nearly came off and was hanging by nothing but tissue against its back. It still kept coming. The canisters exploded loudly, sending the echo straight into Doctor Miles’ ears. It must have sounded ungodly up close. He had no idea how loud those smoke bombs were. About as loud as a grenade. The thick, white gas that looked like any early morning fog wafted through the air and straight into the crowd of the rushing dead. Doctor Miles and General Teel both stood, waiting for it to happen.
They kept running. They were now about one city block away from the exposed men.
“Fuck! It didn’t work! Get them OUTTA THERE!” Darin shouted.
“Pull back, you hear me? Pull back! Get the fuck out of there!” Teel screamed and grabbed Doctor Miles by the thick outer body vest. He turned with Darin in tow to run to the APV, when Darin tore himself away and out of the outer body armor.
“They’re not gonna make it! We can’t just leave them!”
“Miles! You are with me right now, so I am giving you an order! They know how to get out of shit like this and if they can’t, they knew what they were getting into. We can’t go back for them!”
Darin Miles broke free of the General’s grasp and ran toward the building with his rifle held in front of him.
“Goddamnit, Miles!” General Teel ran to the APV and opened the cargo hatch where the men would load themselves in. Through the thick smoke that was now covering the entire building, Darin could see nothing. It looked like it was engulfed in a cloud. As Darin neared the building, he ran into the fog of white. A figure was right in front of him with its arms outstretched. Its gangrenous fingers reached out for him, nearly touching him. Darin screamed and raised the weapon to fire. When his finger found the trigger, the thing stopped walking and stood there for a second before exploding from the waist up. The reaction was more violent than anything he’d seen. Everything inside of the thing exploded outward, sending all of its putrid, rotting guts right in Doctor Miles’ direction. The legs went less than five seconds later. The explosion was so fierce that he was nearly knocked over when one of its arms hit his mask, nearly knocking it off his face.
In rapid succession, he could hear the wet popping sounds of the others exploding from the inside. It sounded like someone planted an M-80 inside of a watermelon. The most sickening splattering sound escaped them as their insides were thrown around as if they were tossed into a juicer. One by one, the effects of the canisters spread through the crowd. The sounds of the explosions were louder than the incoherent cheers over the radio. The General called everybody out of the area as they stood and watched with their masks off at a safe distance. The infected simply stopped where they were and popped like balloons. The entire bodies exploded, leaving nothing but chunks of them no bigger than golf balls. They were nearly vaporized. Quite a lot of blood, sinew, pieces of bone and tissue were violently spraying everywhere, landing on the others and spreading it throughout the entire crowd. Within minutes, they were all dead.
“The city’s gonna need one hell of a power washer. I can see some spray two floors up! Man, those fuckers go, don’t they? Hardly anything left at all,” one of the older SEALS said with a grin.
“Back in the APV. We need to get back to the bunker. Gotta get on the horn with the others and tell them we are ready to go. How many canisters did you use?” General Teel said.
“One, boss. Just one. Jesus Christ, this can really do it, huh? If one can do all that, imagine what a handful of those things can do.”
For the first time since the day Darin met the General, as well as all of the other guys, Teel smiled. Some of those men had known Teel for upwards of twenty some-odd years and had never seen it. He was as sharp, concentrated and tough as they come. But today, he smiled. Turning to Doctor Miles with a hearty handshake, he collected himself and put on that stern face of his. For a moment though, he wasn’t a General anymore. He was a human being . . . a human being who was finally shown a ray of hope. “Well, then . . . let us go find out, gentlemen.”
III
He was on the roof of a nearby building, watching the team with an old pair of binoculars. When that little teargas bomb hit the ground and that thick, white smoke wafted out of that little thing, the view from up there was something to behold. From the front of the crowd all the way to the back, one by one, those things suffered the most glorious of full-body explosions. Nothing was left of them. Just little strands of shit that stuck to everything. He could even hear the nasty pop sounds thirteen stories up. Shit turned them into fucking soup. It was all over the street, probably ankle-deep. “Good job, boys . . .” he whispered to himself. The men loaded all of them back into one of those huge armored trucks that the Army uses and they sped away, no doubt heading to whatever safe rock the military was hiding under. They were all dead now . . . well, dead again, anyway. That nice little new weapon they had, though, was pretty nice. No coming back from that. No sense hanging around here, he thought as he walked to the stairway that led down to the street. Things to do . . . people to see.
IV
“This is how it is gonna go. As all of you know, the supply runs have gone off without a hitch. The Lynn bombs are working and due to the extensive briefings we have given to the remaining governments, there are no friendly casualties. As we speak, the supplies given to the countries we have been in contact with will be launching their own defenses immediately. The drops we have made for survivors in major cities with instructions on how to use the canisters will undoubtedly prove to be effective in ridding ourselves of this horrible mistake. The whole of the remaining American military force and its volunteers, aside from the few of you here, will be dispatched out and will not come back until every single city in this country is clear. Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen. We have all but won.” The President addressed the few remaining people inside the bunker. The whole facility was empty now. The few survivors with children were all in their living areas. With every single one of them, one parent stayed behind while the other volunteered. The level of help that they got was astounding. The human race had been taken from them . . . and now they were all going to take it back. The general consensus was the same. It wasn’t just the military’s job. It was the entire human race preventing its own destruction. Even the scientists elected to go out and clear the cities. Dennis Jackson, Victoria Rains, Darin Miles and Ana Garner stood with their twenty-man team of the military elite, most of them officers, while the President of a nearly deceased country addressed them. “Everyone has been cooperative for the most part, however . . . the Japanese government claims that they have successfully quarantined the outbreak and had done so successfully days afterwards. Various sources I have sent in indicate that this is not the case. Their remaining military have shut off a small, one-mile perimeter space around an area of Mount Fuji, where the Archies were first discovered. It seems that they either found out or knew from the get-go the repellent effect the plants have on the infected. The Japanese have not allowed anyone into their airspace. Planes from all over the world, including four of our own bombers have been shot down. I have been in contact with their leaders, attempting to negotiate a way to enter the country to assist them. They have not only denied this, but threatened retaliation if anyone even attempts to get near them. I personally believe the jig is up, ladies and gentlemen. They know that we are planning on going there to destroy what is left of those plants. This is something that absolutely must be done no matter what. Despite my reservations, the four survivors along with Doctor Miles have volunteered to go with my handpicked team to make sure those plants are destroyed.”
&n
bsp; Dennis Jackson raised his hand. “And just how do you plan on doing that?”
“There are people inside that don’t agree with what their government is doing. You gotta remember that these Archies were known about in that area for centuries. Legends and myths, yes, but word in that area gets around fast. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the American and Japanese Locke Research Labs had stumbled on something that had some truth to it. The government over there wants to hold onto those damn plants. They don’t even want to hear anything from us about a way to kill the infected.”
“We don’t even need the plants anymore,” Darin Miles said. “Since we arrived back here, I found a way to artificially synthesize LYNN004. If they are worried about a repeat outbreak, we can develop the weapon at any time. Are they aware of this?”
“Yes. Yes they are. I have informed them of that.”
The President dismissed them and they went on their separate ways. General Teel stayed behind and walked up to his superior, shaking his hand. “Mister President, may I suggest next time a little less transparency with what we‘ve prepared? There will be less of an incident when they get to the pickup point and realize what’s really going on.”
“Would you rather me tell them straight-up right now? We cannot risk them knowing anything.”
General Teel sneered and dropped the handshake they had together. “So, you make up this bullshit story about how there are people on their side that want to help us? They’re never gonna believe that.”
“Sure looked like they believed it to me. Think like a politician for a moment, not a grunt.”
“So, do we still need Doctor Miles?” General Teel said, offering his superior a cigar.
He shrugged it off. “No thanks. Of course we don’t. The other scientists here know how to synthesize the cure now. We just needed Miles to fill in the gaps for them. The notes on the drug were all we needed, anyway. The four of them . . . they’re the only ones who know where the remaining plants are, they have one with them that knows how to create Lynn . . . and all four of them know what has been omitted from the LYNN file. Miles told them everything. Unfortunate . . . because I like them, but we have to do what we have to do.” He sighed. “I want all of the Archies back, you understand? All of them . . . back here. Don’t leave one goddamn seed left. The Prime Minister wants to come back with them and head up the operation. Kinda funny . . . go back to World War II for a second and tell one of our guys that today we would actually be working with the Japs to develop potentially the biggest weapon known to man? Crazy how time changes.”
“You’re not really going to bring the Prime Minister and his people back, are you?”
“Of course not, for Christ sake. Why do you think we are bringing guns? Listen to me, Teel. Get those plants loaded. Tell them whatever you need to tell them. Then, toss the fucking Prime Minister out of the plane for all I give a damn. Poison his rice, I don’t care. Just get the Archies back here. Nathaniel Winters really stumbled on something amazing with his research. I blame myself for all this. I tried to pull him out and take over the drug’s development ourselves, but I gave him a chance to retaliate. I let him live. You know how these projects go if the research finds something successful . . . assimilation is just standard protocol and for damn good reason. Once Winters knew we were taking Lynn away from him, he just lost it. I wonder if he ever knew that we wanted the drug for the weapons program. I know my actions may seem harsh, but had I removed Doctor Winters like I should have, none of this would have happened. As for the four we have here . . . it is not an easy decision to make, but I’m not letting things get out of hand again. The plants will be brought back here and we do what needs done. All the research for Lynn will be done right here . . . in this bunker, on my watch. Like it should have been from the get-go.” The President frowned and decided to grab the cigar after all. “Miles and his friends will be remembered as heroes, hear me? No one knows what was discussed in this room. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, they were killed destroying the plants and their mission succeeded. Their names will go down in history and our lips stay sealed. Personal feelings cannot have anything to do with this. Hell of a deal . . . hell of a deal.”
“And Powers?” Teel asked.
“Him too.”
Sergeant Major Alexander Powers had already heard the conversation before he walked into the room to greet them. In a place like this, there wouldn’t be a reprimand or a court martial. Listening in to a conversation like that was punishable by the absolute worst . . . especially considering what they were talking about. Powers had his doubts lately. There were things he had done, especially in wartime like this, which had to be done no matter what. Orders were orders no matter how unethical or looked down upon. That was the way for him. He chose this. This, on the other hand. This was wrong. Alexander had been fighting a great battle within him already, but as he flattened himself on the far wall just outside the doorway where no one was supposed to be and heard their conversation, everything got jumbled up again. This stuff destroyed the world and they were wanting it back. The doctor that had invented the cure was someone they were still planning on taking out. Things didn’t used to be like this. Not like this. True, he had done some things in his career that were questionable. Some people would have disobeyed at times Powers actually followed orders. It is all about perception, he supposed. Personal limits. Every soldier is still just human inside, no matter how they are trained. Powers had heard stories now and again from his friends who had been in black project situations bigger than anything that happened in Quatar. Some of the stuff asked of those guys were downright horrible . . . if the stories were true. Powers really didn’t know if he would have gone the same way or not. It is always hard to tell unless you are actually in that situation. This, though . . . he knew what was coming. He knew what they were going to say. He was going along with the operation. Nothing about this seemed right. Powers, of all people. Teel knew he had befriended the four survivors including Darin Miles. For the first time in his career, Alexander Powers knew this was a mission he would not be returning from.
One of the General’s men had sent for him. He backed away from the door slowly, waited a moment and walked up to the both of them. He handed out his finest salute. They both casually saluted him back. “This is the guy,” Teel said to the Commander-in-Chief. “Pain in the fucking ass, but I’ll vouch for him. He can follow orders to the T. I will give him that.” He gave Powers a cold stare and walked away, his hands laced behind his back.
“The General has requested you,” the Commander in Chief said to Powers. Normally, it would have been nice to get any detail other that what he’d had lately. The only action he’d seen since getting to the base was repairing diesel engines for the bunker’s APVs until he was sent out to work with Teel’s men. “Nice to see you again, son. Listen . . . I will cut to the chase. How well do you know Doctor Miles, Dennis Jackson, Victoria Rains and Ana Garner?”
Powers stammered for a moment and looked at his President with a strange look on his face. “Sir?”
“I asked . . .” he leaned toward Powers, right into his face. He tried to back up, but the President made up for it by leaning forward even further. “I asked . . . do you know them?”
“Yes, sir I do. I had been re-assigned to do the orientations for survivors we bring in . . . alongside the engine shop. They are different than anyone else I’ve met here. I have . . . gotten close to the four of them. They are friends.”
“Son,” he smiled, backing off and standing with his back straight again. “I need to brief you on something . . .”
V
“How’d he take it, sir?”
“He’ll follow orders. The man may not agree with what we’re doing with the four of them, but he’ll follow orders. They trust him.”
“And how did you get him to do that? I hear Powers has quite the personal moral conviction. Guy wanted to be a priest before he joined the military.”
“I
wish you could read that file on the Quatar Pass incident. Then, you wouldn’t be doubting him. He has done things far worse under orders. Even if he had his doubts, I offered him something else. Powers is a Lieutenant now. I said that he will be up for a personal review from me again once the mission succeeds.”
“Oh, wow. That’s really something, huh?”
“Keep a close eye on Powers. When all of you arrive at the pickup area and the plants are secure . . . do what is necessary with them. All of them.”
CHAPTER 15
I
Drops were made all over the world. The LYNN-manufactured gas grenades worked just as Doctor Miles had told them. All over the world, the abominations that were created were overrun and destroyed. Survivors from places thought to be completely devoid of the living, emerged to assist in the relief. Government-run sanctions were beginning to be established in major cities. To those that battled the scourge of death that had taken over every street, it was beginning to appear that mankind would survive.
The plane arrived on the shore off the coast of Japan. A small group of militants met them where they landed and walked them to a place they called ‘The Citadel.’ On the two-day hike, Lieutenant Powers was assigned to the four civilian survivors. He was the one that trained them how to use firearms, how to use the protective equipment that the team used. They were also instructed in basic survival skills. The two-week training they received had hardened them. They were still pretty green, but Powers was amazed at how focused they were. If someone were to stumble upon the team of the military Special Forces elite, they would look into the eyes of the four survivors and have no idea they were civilians.
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