“I have no doubt, son,” Williams assured him. “And you have my assistant Vicky’s direct line. So if you need anything, don’t hesitate to reach out.”
“I will do that, sir,” Ben said.
The President smiled. “We’ll be in touch, son.” He hit the button to turn off the phone. “Okay, I think that about covers everything for today. Unless someone has something else we need to discuss?”
Adams and John both shook their heads, but Whitney dug through her papers.
“Something else, Miss Hill?” Williams asked.
She pushed a stack of papers into the center of the table. “Yes, Mister President, there is,” she said. “We have to talk about isolating the east coast.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“I’m sorry, you want to do what?” the President exclaimed.
“We need to isolate the east coast, and do it sooner rather than later,” Whitney replied, voice even. “With reports coming in that zombie hordes are breaking out of the cities, we may not have a lot of time.”
“Time to do what?” Williams flattened his hands against the table in agitation. “You want to barricade the bridges over the Mississippi?”
She pursed her lips. “Not exactly.”
There was a moment of silence as she let the insinuation hang in the air.
Williams’ eyes widened when he realized what she meant. “No way in hell! You want to destroy the bridges over the Mississippi? There are a hundred and twenty million people east of the river!”
“It’s actually closer to a hundred and fifty million,” John piped up, “and that’s exactly the reason we need to do this. Most of those people are zombies now, and conceding the east coast to them will give us a much better chance at securing the other two thirds of the country.”
“Unacceptable,” the President clenched his fists. “Out of the question. What about the survivors who aren’t lucky enough to be in a self sustaining bunker like we are?”
“We can still provide supplies to them,” John replied.
Williams furrowed his brow. “If we destroy all the bridges, then how will we accomplish that?”
“Mister President, if I may?” Whitney piped up, and handed out sheets to everyone. “My team and I have identified six rail line bridges, circled on these maps, that are located in less populated areas,” she explained. “We will keep these bridges, as the number of zombie that find their way across them will be negligible. This will allow us to move massive amounts of goods across via rail car, and since these are in smaller towns, we can send in strike teams to clear them out and set up bases.”
Williams stared at the paper for a moment longer before tossing it down onto the table. “General, what are our capabilities?” he asked, sounding even more exhausted than he had at the beginning of the meeting.
“We have several carrier groups off of the east coast that are equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles, which will be able to eliminate a large number of the targets,” Adams replied. “For the Upper Mississippi River, we will have to rely on aircraft coming from some of the Kansas air bases that are still manned.”
“Very well, General,” Williams relented with a wave of his hand. “Make it happen.”
Adams nodded. “Yes, sir.”
The President pressed his lips into a thin line, staying quiet for a moment before folding his hands in front of him once again. “This is a dark time in our nation’s history,” he finally said. “I greatly appreciate each and everyone one of your efforts, as well as the pushback. No President in the history of our nation has ever faced a threat on his scale, so I’m in uncharted territory. So thank you, all of you.”
John nodded. “It’s our pleasure, Mister President.”
“Now, I want us to meet like this every two days,” Williams continued. “General, I want you to begin work on the Seattle invasion plan. Assume we’re going to have troops arriving by rail from the east and sea support from the west. Whitney, I want you to coordinate with General Stephens on getting the caravans going to survivor compounds. As well as cataloging where they are. And if you can spare the manpower, start searching for settlements we haven’t found yet. John, I need you to locate a vaccine facility and figure out how we can get to it, secure it, and manufacture what we need.”
There was a chorus of yes, sir through the room.
“And I want everyone to remember,” Williams declared, standing up from his seat and squaring his shoulders, “that even though things may be looking down and we have a tough road ahead of us, the state of our union is strong.”
END
Coming soon: The action shifts to a tiny community on the banks of the Mississippi River when the next series, Dead America: The Second Week kicks off.
Dead America The First Week (Book 7): Portland Page 8