by Gary Chesla
“Sounds like a plan,” Mike smiled.
“Just watch your back,” Tony replied, “I don’t want to have to go looking for another book keeper this soon.”
“Tell you what,” Mike said. “If we get out of this, I will take that job you offered me.”
“If we get out of this, I plan on holding you to that,” Tony replied. “We go on three.”
On three, Mike and Tony crawled out from under the front of the cabin.
They quickly jumped to their feet and ran over and picked up the boards.
Tony signaled to Mike to follow him and they both began to run towards the outhouse where Ryan’s body would be.
They had run about thirty feet before the staggering bodies noticed them.
The gruesome creatures all stopped and turned.
They began to slowly move towards Mike and Tony.
“Hurry,” Tony said as they ran. “I think we can make it to Ryan’s body before they reach us.”
Mike sprinted ahead and ran past the outhouse and stopped.
He was looking around confused when Tony caught up to him.
“Where’s Ryan’s body?” Tony asked as he ran to Mike’s side. “This is the spot, right?”
“This is the spot, but Ryan’s body isn’t here,” Mike answered.
“Are you sure?” Tony asked.
“I’m positive,” Mike replied pointing to the blood-stained grass on the ground. “He was right there? I remember coming out of the outhouse and taking no more than about five steps and saw him here on this spot with that thing on top of him. I remember I was laughing. I could plainly hear Ryan out here talking, he was getting nervous out here by himself. I could tell he was getting scared. I came out and called him a chicken shit, that’s when I saw him on the ground with that thing tearing at his face. I’m positive that it was here.”
Mike began to move around the clearing, “I don’t see anything to show that anyone dragged his body away.”
Mike said and turned when he heard the sound of a two by four making contact with something solid.
“Well, he’s gone now,” Tony said as he stared down at a grisly gray body struggling to get back to its feet, “and I don’t think we are going to have the time to go look for him.”
Mike looked up from the body and scanned the clearing to see at least a dozen more bodies coming around from each side of the cabin.
“Shit,” Mike said.
“We better move before we get ourselves surrounded,” Tony said. “As I see it, we have three choices. We can go back under the cabin and keep any eye out for where Ryan’s body is and try this again, we can try to break out the car windows to get our phones and call for help or we can make a run for it.”
“I say we make a run for it,” Mike replied as he watched at least fifty awkward shapes coming out of the woods near the jeep.
“That’s my choice too,” Tony said. “Hopefully we can out run them.”
Mike and Tony began to run for the edge of the clearing where the path started that they had driven the jeep to get to the cabin.
If they could make it, it was the path that would take them home.
Chapter 15
May 9th, Fallon Naval Air Station, Nevada
Petty Officer Chervanak nervously walked into the room and sat down at the table next to Doc Kennedy.
Six other officers sat around the table and quietly talked amongst themselves.
“I’ve never been to one of these staff meetings before,” Chervy said to the doctor.
“Since you are the temporary head of your department,” the Doc smiled, “You get to rub shoulders with the brass now.”
“Lucky me,” Chervy replied seriously then asked. “What all happened last night? I guess it’s a good sign that we are still here.”
“Captain Holman will fill us all in on last night when he gets here,” Doc replied, “but from what I heard it wasn’t good.”
“How bad was it?” Chervy asked.
“I can only guess from what I’ve seen at the infirmary and from what I saw outside on my way over to the meeting, but from what I can determine, we are lucky to still be here,” Doc replied. “I had a brief meeting with the Captain early this morning and updated him on what I’ve learned about the Z virus. I could tell he was disturbed by what I told him.”
“What did you tell him?” Chervy asked.
“Besides what you already know, I told him I believe this situation is just getting started,” Doc replied.
“Did he say what he is going to do?” Chervy asked.
“I believe that is what we are going to find out this morning,” Doc replied, “and hopefully he will fill us in on what’s going on outside the base. Since my last conversation with doctor Anderson, I haven’t had a chance to speak with anyone off the base.”
Commander Holman walked into the room and stood at the head of the table.
The officers all got silent and looked at the Captain in anticipation of what he had to say.
The Captain began, “This meeting will be short. With what is happening out there, if we sit around having meetings, soon there will not be anything left for us to meet about, so let’s get to the point.
I am having this briefing to update you on last night and to inform you on what is taking place around the country as we speak, and how the military plans to respond.
In the event we lose contact with the outside world over the next few days, which may be a real possibility, hopefully we will all know the objective and can still all be working towards the same goal.
First, I am going to bring you up to date on what happened on the base last night, much of which you all know. However, I am sure many of you may not be clear on what has really occurred and why.
Second, I’m going to inform you about what you may or not be aware of, and third, I will give you information on what you do not know.
First, last night, we were taken by surprise. Doctor Kennedy had informed me about his theory about the Russian Z virus two days ago. The Commander at Scott Air Force Base called me to discuss what Doctor Kennedy and Doctor Anderson believed was happening. Needless to say, he and I were reluctant to buy in to his theory.
We have both been proven wrong as you know by now.
Because we were slow to accept the meaning of the events that led up to last night, we were unprepared for what happened here.
Command feels that based upon the unusual nature of the present threat we are facing, the military’s reluctance to take action earlier is completely understandable.
Dead men rising from the dead to attack the living ranks right up there next to little green men.”
The men around the room chuckled quietly at the Captains comparison.
“Last night we were invaded by those that have been infected by a variant of the Russian Z virus. At this point you have all been informed about the origins of this virus and how it was spread over our country. Discussing the wisdom of that operation at this point is useless.
Our job now is to decide what to do about it.
After reluctantly facing the facts and the seriousness of the situation, last night I gave the orders to use deadly force to protect the base when it became a kill or be killed situation.
The use of deadly force had mixed results.
I will discuss what I mean by mixed results in a few moments.
As you know we were attacked form outside the base and also from within. All the MPs that were involved in the incident at the infirmary, were infected, died and were changed by the virus. They were responsible for the attack on the base from within.
The attack from outside came from the good citizens of Salt Lake City and the surrounding areas that were infected and changed by the Z virus.
As I said, after I became aware of the sheer number of the infected that flooded onto the base last night, which was frankly alarming, I knew I had to change my thinking.
Regular crowd control efforts using riot gear was ineffective and
resulted in numerous unfortunate casualties.
With the doctor’s assurance that the infected attackers were in reality dead men, I felt I had no choice but to authorize deadly or extreme force.
Regular gun fire again proved to be ineffective as the doctor had warned.
It appears his advice was accurate.
I, along with the entire military chain of command, are now convinced, even though we still do not fully understand how or why, that the infected are in fact reanimated dead bodies.
At this point I accept that conclusion and will let the how and why up to the doctors and scientists.
It is our job to face and defeat the enemy, whoever or whatever they may be.
As I said, the effectiveness of gun fire was minimal at best.
Gun fire will not kill those that are already dead.
However, it can slow them down by destroying the usefulness of their limbs, but that still does not stop them.
In a few cases, gun fire may, for lack of a better word, kill one of the infected, but that is the exception.
Why some of the infected can be stopped by gunfire and others are not stopped, at this point we do not know.
With the large number of the infected swarming around our forces last night, we didn’t have the opportunity to examine the remains of those that appeared to have been killed by gun fire.
Hopefully as we remove the remains of the infected from the base this morning, we will be able to develop some insight into that situation.
What was reported to us by the men involved in last night’s attack was that the situation was terrifying.
The mob that surrounded them showed no fear of our men or their weapons. When our men began to fear for their lives, they opened fire. The mob showed no reaction, they just kept coming at and attacking our men.
Our men reported that after they had used all their ammo, they had barely slowed down the mass mob attacking them.
As a result, I authorized the use of automatic weapons and explosives in the form of grenades and bombs.
By the use of these weapons, we were able to destroy the invaders and those attacking us from within.”
The Captain paused.
“Second, the casualties of last night’s attack amounted to twenty percent of our forces. Another twenty percent of our troops suffered various types of injuries.
According to the doctor, the twenty percent that were wounded should be considered dangerous as it is anticipated that their wounds will result in them becoming infected by the Z virus carried by the attackers. You are to put them under guard and secure them before they are affected by the virus. I know this may cause a moral conflict with many of you, but based on what we have experienced, and from what I have seen, for our own security and safety, at this point we have no other options.
Second, even though explosives were able to destroy the invaders, the doctor has pointed out a problem with this means of defense. That problem is that we are contaminating the air and land with the Z virus, making it hazardous to breath the air or travel over the infected soil.
Blowing up the dead causes infected flesh particles to saturate the air we breathe.
Until further notice we need to wear surgical face masks or air filters when outside to avoid the chance of infection.
Already a large number of uninjured men that were involved in last night’s operation have been admitted to the infirmary according to the doctor which he has attributed this to breathing in infected matter.
So at this point, the number of casualties from last night’s attack is considered unknown as they are still increasing.
Based on what we have experienced and learned from last night’s operation, and after consulting with command, I have ordered search and destroy operations to go out and search for the roving masses of the infected beyond the borders of the base.
They are to find and engage the infected before they can reach the base, so we can preserve the base as a safe point of operations. This will help avoid further infection here at the base.
We have helicopter crews that will fly in close to any large groups in order to make a determination as to whether the group is made up of infected or if they are normal living refugees.
If they are determined to be infected, a strike force will be sent in to destroy them.”
The Captain paused and took a deep breath.
“Third, some things you may not be aware of.
In the last few days, this outbreak has spread through many of our countries major cities at an alarming rate. The unfortunate result of this is that we now consider these cities uninhabitable for the living.
These cities include St Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Phoenix, New York, Salt Lake City and Washington.
Even more concerning is that there have been numerous reports of cases of infection showing up in most of the country’s other cities and urban areas.
It has been suggested that people fleeing from the infected cities have carried the virus into these other areas.
The infection is spreading out from the cities.
Even in the West Coast cities where they weren’t originally contaminated with the Z virus from the destroyed satellites, they have had reports of the infection popping up there.
From what we have observed about how quickly this infection spreads, it is feared that any reported cases of infection in those locations will soon result in that city being overrun by the infected.
So as you can see, we are facing the possibility of the situation in our country becoming much worse before it can be brought under control.
For now, across the country, the military’s objective is to secure our bases, send out search and destroy units to take the fight to the enemy and to increase the safe area around the bases under our control as far as our resources will allow.
I’ve asked San Diego to send us reinforcements, but all our stateside bases are in the same position as we are.
They are fighting for their lives while at the same time, trying to obtain their objectives.
The Navy is recalling many of our men and ships back to the mainland to assist in defending the country from this infection, but we do not anticipate most of them will arrive stateside for a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately, many bases have been overwhelmed before they knew what they were dealing with.
Scott Air Force Base near St Louis was hit the hardest from day one and all communications have been lost with the base.
Other bases, once having some of their men infected, have been lost due to the sheer speed in which this infection spreads.
Hopefully we have learned enough to prevent that from happening here.
The President has declared martial law throughout the country until we can get this under control.
So I doubt we can expect any help for some time, everyone has their hands full.
We are basically on our own.
In the meantime, after the meeting, each of you will be given your assignments on the way out. Each of your units will be assigned an area of responsibility. One unit will be assigned defense and cleanup of the base, the other units will be assigned to search operations while others will be assigned to destroy operations.
Mr. Chervanak, your unit will be assigned a part in the search operations. The new functions recently introduced into the satellite monitoring systems will be repurposed to use the space based cameras and monitors to search for the movement of large groups throughout the Midwest, around our base and begin to study the situations in the cities.
Hopefully, the use of the space based systems will provide us with enough advanced notice to not be caught off guard again.”
“Yes Sir,” Chervy replied nervously.
“Any questions before we get to work?” the Captain asked.
“Sir, what are the Military’s plans for retaking the infected cities?” asked the officer across from Chervy.
“As of this time, we have no pla
ns to attempt to retake the cities from the infected. We could bomb the cities to destroy the infected, but it would result in a lose-lose situation. We would lose the infrastructure and everything that the cities could potentially provide in the future. We would be taking an unacceptable amount of risk for a limited amount of reward. For now, our objective is to secure as much of the country as we can and to contain the infected in the cities. As we learn more about what we are facing, it is command’s thinking that in the future we may be able to lure the infected out of the cities to destroy them without damaging or contaminating the cities themselves.
In other words, survive for now, secure our positions then deal with the massive hordes of infected in the cities on our terms.”
The Captain looked around, “Any more questions?”
“What about the cities that haven’t had their population infected?” another man asked. “What will be our role there?”
“I have heard reports that say the infection is appearing in just about every major city, either from travelers coming into the city or storms bringing down the virus that is still in the atmosphere above the cities. The doctors, scientists and police will be front and center in defense of the cities that are still in a fairly normal state. It will be the military’s objective, as they secure the areas around their bases, to find and destroy any large groups of the infected that try to move into the cities.”
“Anything else?” the Captain asked.
When no one else raised a question, the Captain added, “Let’s be clear, the events of the last week are frightening. We have been invaded by an enemy far different than we have ever faced before. We must put out of our minds that the enemy is actually our own citizens, friends and comrades, because that is no longer who they are. Don’t be fooled by their appearance. Make no mistake, even though they are slow and awkward, they are far deadlier than we can even understand at this point. We are truly at war and fighting for our country and our lives. We are fighting for our families.