by Gary Chesla
On your assignments, don’t underestimate your enemy, take nothing for granted and please report anything new or unusual you see. We are just beginning to understand what happened and what we can do to defend ourselves. Anything you see but don’t understand, bring it to our attention. At this point it is all trial and error until we can get enough facts to know what we are doing.
We dodged a bullet last night and this situation is far from over.
Let’s take what we’ve learned and make the most of it.
Dismissed.”
As the men began to leave the room, the Captain called out to the doctor.
“Yes Sir,” Doc replied.
“I hate to be the one to tell you, but Doctor Anderson has been confirmed dead,” the Captain said. “I understand that the two of you have worked together for a long time.”
“I was afraid that was what happened,” Doc replied. “On the second day after the outbreak, he called me.
By the time I got to the phone, the line was dead. I assumed he was calling to warn me about what was happening at Scott. He was a good man. We could have used his insight and knowledge now.”
“This entire situation is unbelievable,” the Captain said. “In your research, how likely are you to find something to counter this virus anytime soon?”
“Unknown Sir,” the Doc replied.
“What percentage of the men involved in last night’s battle do you think will become infected from breathing the air on the battlefield” the Captain asked again.
“That is also unknown at this point,” Doc replied. “But if I had to guess, I would say at least fifty percent, but that would only be a guess.”
“You don’t know much do you doctor?” the Captain said with a slight smile.
“No Sir I don’t” the doctor replied. “This is all uncharted territory. All I know is that there is more that we don’t know than we know at this point. I do know we are facing something that is so explosive, it could mean the end of life as we know it. But I will keep at it and hope to get lucky.”
“In that case, good luck Doc,” The Captain said as he turned and left the room.
Chervanak was waiting at the back of the room for the doctor.
“Doc, it sounds like we are in deep shit,” Chervy said.
“That we are,” Doc replied. “The Bible said that God created the earth in six days. This virus could destroy it all in less than six days. It’s only been three days since that virus rained down on us and look what it has done in just that amount of time. From where I sit, this situation is out of control. It’s like a row of dominos. The destruction of the Russian satellites knocked over the first domino and the others are quickly falling. I don’t believe we have much time to figure out how to stop the chain of events that has been put in motion.”
“The Captain’s plan of going out and taking the fight to the infected sounds good,” Chervy said. “That should keep them away from the base and buy us some time.”
“Yeah, it could but there is one problem with that plan,” Doc replied. “As fast as the virus is spreading, it’s adding millions more to the ranks of the infected every day. The Navy is a powerful force, but they only have a limited supply of weapons. What happens when they run out of bombs?”
“We get more,” Chervy replied.
“Who do you think is making all those bombs for the Navy?” Doc asked and smiled. “I think most of the bombs the Navy has were made in cities located in the Midwest and Southern states.
I believe that most of those cities have been devastated by the infection. I read a report before the infection started that the Air Force was dropping bombs in the Middle East faster than we could produce them back here at home. We’re looking at, in the mainland U.S., an area ten times larger than the Middle East and our population is many more times larger than countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. How long do you think the present bomb inventory is going to last? That also isn’t taking into account the supply of fuel we have for the planes or the parts needed to keep them flying.”
“I never thought about that,” Chervy replied.
“I can only hope they last long enough for the medical community to come up with something,” Doc smiled.
Chervy looked concerned as he thought about what the doctor said.
“Well good luck Doc,” Chervy said. “I guess I better get back and reposition a few satellites and start looking for the dead before they come looking for me. If you need me, you know where you can find me.”
“Before you go back, why don’t you follow me over to the infirmary and pick up a few masks for you and the guys. Make sure you wear them anytime you go outside,” Doc said.
“How about when we are inside?” Chervy asked.
“For now, I think the environmental system should filter out the worst of it, you should be fine indoors,” Doc replied.
“Just most of it?” Chervy said looking startled. “That doesn’t sound very comforting, Doc.”
“It’s all uncharted territory. It’s trial and error like I told the Captain,” Doc smiled. “When someone gets infected indoors, then we’ll know you need to wear a mask indoors too.”
“You just destroyed the all-knowing image I’ve always had of doctors. I guess you guys aren’t any different than car mechanics. The last time I took my car in for service, the guy said, well if that doesn’t work we can try this.” Chervy said. “All this time I thought doctors knew what they were doing.”
The Doc laughed, “Car mechanics, body mechanics, base commanders and even computer people like yourself, we are all the same. We just work with different materials. We all know a few things, but the rest is trial and error and take your best guess. Come on. Let’s go get those masks.”
Chervanak shook his head, “Damn, I guess we are all in deeper shit than I thought.”
Chapter 16
May 9th, Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Linda went into Jamie’s room and nervously walked over to the window and looked down in the yard.
She turned back and saw Jamie dragging George out from under the bed.
“George is scared of something, again!” Jamie said. “He keeps trying to hide under the bed.”
Linda looked down as Jamie held the struggling kitten that was trying to get out of Jamie’s grasp.
Jamie was patting George on the head and talking to the kitten.
She looked up at Linda.
“I told George not to worry,” Jamie grinned. “I told him before he was in trouble when Daddy got home. I guess he is afraid he is going to get a spanking. I told him not to worry, Daddy yells sometimes but he never spanks anyone. I told him Daddy has never spanked me or you, but I guess he is still worried. I don’t know how you would spank George anyhow, his butt is too little.”
Linda couldn’t help but smile at Jamie’s comments.
“Maybe he is afraid of those stinky people out back,” Jamie continued. Cats have very sensitive noses. When George smells things sometimes it makes him sneeze.”
Linda walked back over to the window as she listened to Jamie continue to ramble on.
The streets were now full of the awkward swaying people.
The procession of staggering bodies continued into their yard from the street out back.
Linda watched as a blue Honda Civic turned onto the back street and slowly maneuvered around the people on the street.
It was their neighbor’s car, the Ramseys, trying to get through the crowded street to get to their driveway.
She could see that Mr. Ramsey was driving.
Mrs. Ramsey was in the passenger’s seat. Her eyes were wide as they darted from the figures in front of the car, then to the figures beginning to crowd against the side of the car.
Their son, Jimmy, was in the back seat, securely strapped into his car seat.
The car’s horn began blaring as Mr. Ramsey began to get frustrated with all the people in the road blocking his way.
Linda watched as the crowd began to surr
ound the car as the horn continued to blast in a more frantic pattern of long honks.
Linda became concerned as the crowd around the car began to pound against the car’s windows.
From her position at the upstairs window, she could clearly see what looked to be bloody hand prints smearing across the windows of the car.
Then she began to see long cracks begin to spread across the glass in the windshield and side windows.
Linda grabbed her phone and tried to call 911 again, but like before the phone ran for what seemed to be an eternity in her ear.
She felt relief when she heard the phone click and a voice began to speak, but that relief lasted only a few seconds as a recording began to play, “All circuits are busy at this time, please hang up and try your call again later.”
She clicked off the phone and slid it back into her pocket as she nervously watched the scene out on the street.
Suddenly the driver’s side window imploded.
Linda didn’t know if she had heard the sound of the glass breaking or if her mind had filled in the missing sound one would have expected to hear as the glass shattered.
It didn’t matter as she quickly forgot about the sound of shattering glass as her mind now focused on the real sound of screaming that she could clearly hear even from this distance.
She stared in shock as the mob dragged Mr. Ramsey out through the open window.
His clothes were ripped and the red color of blood began to spread across his body as he was dragged across the jagged shards of glass that remained in the window frame of the door.
Linda could hear Mr. Ramsey continue to scream as the mob finally had pulled him completely out of the car.
She tried to look away from the horrible scene, as she deplored this kind of senseless violence, but she couldn’t pull herself away from the window.
When the screaming stopped, she figured that the mob had beaten Mr. Ramsey into unconsciousness and hoped that they would now leave the poor man alone.
The mob began to get up from the ground where Mr. Ramsey had fallen, but what Linda saw next, made her entire body tense up with fear.
The figures standing were covered in blood.
As they turned, blood ran from their mouths as their jaws chewed on large chunks of bloody flesh.
The last of the mob to get up, pulled long bloody objects from Mr. Ramsey’s body.
Two figures remained on the ground, viciously tearing at and biting Mr. Ramsey’s bloody mangled remains, as the rest of the group turned back to the car.
Mrs. Ramsey was now screaming hysterically as the mob began to pound against the windshield and passenger’s side window.
The windshield was the next window to shatter.
The grotesque bodies began to climb into the car through the windshield and driver’s side window as Mrs. Ramsey tried to fight them off.
She couldn’t hear if Jimmy was crying as he remained securely strapped in the car seat, but she could see him desperately struggling in his seat.
Linda turned from the window and walked back over to Jamie’s bed and sat down, clearly shaken.
Linda pulled Jamie against her and hugged her tightly against her body as she began to cry.
The horrible vision still clearly in her mind.
She wiped her eyes and tried to sit up and appear as if nothing was wrong when she saw Jamie looking at her, confused.
“What’s wrong, Mommy?” Jamie asked.
Linda took a deep breath and tried to think of something to explain her sudden outburst of tears, when the sound of the window in the back door breaking sent chills through her body.
George let out a loud hiss, jumped out of Jamie’s hands and ran back under the bed.
Linda looked down as Jamie rubbed at the long thin scratch across her arm.
“I don’t care if George’s butt is too little for a spanking or not,” Jamie complained. “He is in big trouble now.”
“Crawl under the bed with George,” Linda said urgently.
“What?” Jamie asked.
Linda took Jamie by the shoulders and looked at her.
“Crawl under the bed with George and don’t come out until I call you,” Linda said. “There are some bad people trying to get into the house to rob us and I have to go chase them away.”
Jamie’s eyes grew large as she listened to her mother.
“It is going to be OK,” Linda flashed a quick smile before her face changed back to a worried look. “Just do what I tell you. Go!”
Jamie jumped down off the bed, got on her stomach and scurried under the bed.
She turned herself around and looked up at Linda.
“All the way under,” Linda said and Jamie’s head disappeared back under the bed.
“Good,” Linda thought, then her next thought was, “OK, now what do I do?”
Linda got up and quietly walked over to the door and listened for a moment before opening the door.
As quietly as she could, she stepped out into the upstairs hallway and pulled the door shut behind her.
She stood and listened again before starting down the hall to the top of the stairs.
She could hear a sound like something scraping against the walls somewhere down stairs.
Linda had an idea who is was, or at least what it was making that sound.
Someone was in the house.
“Something is in the house is more accurate,” Linda thought.
But then the terrifying reality of her situation crept into her mind, “Now what do I do about it?”
“What can I do about it?” Linda thought as her body began to tremble. “Mr. Ramsey is a lot bigger than me and he didn’t appear to be able to defend himself against the monsters that dragged him from his car. Neither could Mrs. Ramsey,”
Then she stopped as tears began to run down her cheeks as she continued to think, “and neither could little Jimmy!”
Linda tried to get herself under control, because if she didn’t do something, tears continued to run down her cheeks as she visualized Jamie in the back seat of the Ramsey’s car.
Linda began to carefully go down the steps, one step at a time, listening after landing on each step.
She didn’t know what she was going to do when she got to the bottom, but she continued hoping that something would give her an idea by the time she reached the bottom step.
She stared nervously at the doorway as she continued down the steps, dreading the idea that something would appear at the bottom of the steps before she got to the bottom.
If she didn’t know what she was going to do when she reached the bottom step, she definitely didn’t know what she would do if she was discovered standing half way down the steps.
She stopped and thought about being discovered on the steps, “Maybe I should just go back up with Jamie and wait? If they see me on the steps, they will know where we are and come up the stairs after us.”
The idea of being trapped upstairs with nowhere to go terrified her.
She listened again as she tried to decide if she should continue down to the main floor to see if there was something she could do or if she should go back to Jamie’s room.
She stared down the stairwell.
From here all she could see was the back of the front door that was fortunately closed tight.
“The front door?” Linda thought. Mike had always complained that the one feature of the house that drove him crazy was how, when the front door was open, it blocked the way to the stairs. He complained that every time he wanted to come upstairs that he had to shut the front door. “Maybe if I can open the front door and block the way to the stairs, they won’t find the steps and come upstairs?”
“It’s not much of a plan, but it is something,” Linda thought and started to move down the steps again.
As she neared the last few steps, the sounds coming from the first floor grew louder.
She could hear glass crunching, apparently caused as those things walked over the broken glass fro
m the back door in the kitchen.
“They must have gotten the back door open somehow after they broke the window,” Linda thought as she took another step.
Now she could also hear what sounded like something thumping against the walls somewhere down on the first floor.
“One more step,” she thought as she put her foot down on the last step.
In front of her now was the archway of the enclosed staircase. Jutting off the one side of the archway at a ninety-degree angle, was the metal front door.
All she needed to do was drop down onto the floor, open the door and pull it open to cover the archway to the steps.
Again, it wasn’t much of a plan, but the door was metal and it didn’t have any windows to break or look through.
She looked down at the leather belt that ran through the belt loops of her shorts.
“I can tie the door handle to the railing to keep the door closed,” she thought, feeling a little better about her plan.
Linda took a deep breath and tried to summon her courage to grab the front door handle as the scraping sounds appeared to be getting louder now from where she stood.
Linda slowly leaned out to look down the short hallway that went passed the living room, opening up into the dining room and kitchen area of the house.
She hadn’t pushed her head out no more than a few inches when she gasped.
The hallway, dining room and kitchen were packed with ugly staggering bodies.
A mere six inches in front of her face, staring into her eyes was the ravaged bloody body of Mr. Ramsey.
He opened his mouth and began to moan.
The smell that hit her in the face made the contents of her stomach begin to shoot up through her throat, fill her mouth and run down over her chin.