“We can’t be alone in this thing, Gordie. There have to be others in the town like us. Perhaps they’re hiding.”
“Maybe. What do you suggest?”
“While Fury is occupied, why don’t we have a look around. House-to-house in a designated area.”
“All right. We can use gathering up the bodies and bagging them as a cover.”
“All the military have volunteered. You were sleeping when this idea came to me.”
“Jackson needs to stay here to decode all the messages that are coming in. The rest can come along with the deputies.”
“You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
They filled up the beds of pickup trucks with body bags and moved out, a stake-bed bob truck moving out with them to haul away the bodies.
It was to be a gruesome day for all concerned, in more ways than one.
The men and women who were assigned to the body-bagging detail were forced to wear gas masks. In many cases they had to shoot carrion birds to get at the bodies, the big birds protecting their meals savagely. Against talons that could rip flesh like tissue paper, the body-baggers had no choice but to shoot any they could not shoo away. The bodies had to be cleared; it was now a major health hazard.
Watts, Lt. Kathy Smith, Chief Deputy Lee Evans, and Gordie started a house-to-house search along one block.
Gordie and Kathy did not have to enter the first house. They could smell death from the front door. Kathy moved to a window on the front porch and looked in. She shook her head.
“Slaughterhouse in there,” she said. “People literally ripped apart.”
Gordie lifted his handy walkie-talkie. Then he slowly lowered it, an odd look on his face.
“What’s the matter?” Kathy asked.
“I was going to order the power cut to any house that’s empty. But maybe that’s not a good idea.” His smile was a grim curving of the lips.
“What do you mean?”
He lifted the walkie-talkie. “Mack, ask the whiz kid if we’re clear.”
Howie had grinned when he was codenamed that the day before.
“You’re clear, One.”
“When we decide to make our break, Kathy, say several hours before we do – if we do – we move out and turn on every gas and electric stove and heater in every house in this town. But we don’t light the gas.”
She smiled, catching on. “Lots of explosions and a lot of fires with heavy smoke, right, Sheriff?”
“You got it.”
“I like it.”
“Senior to One,” Gordie’s walkie-talkie popped.
“Come on, Senior.”
Watts said, “Found a young couple. They seem to be all right. Just scared.”
“Meet you on the corner.”
“Gene and Donna Harvey,” Lee told him. “He’s a mechanic down at the Ford place; she teaches school.”
“Get us out of here!” Donna’s plea was almost a scream.
“We can’t leave, Miss Harvey. The Fury won’t let us.”
“The Fury?” Gene asked.
“It’s a long story. Lee, take them back to the station, and brief them on the way.”
When they had pulled away in Lee’s unit, Kathy said, “They look in pretty good shape to me.”
“Yeah,” Gordie said. “Too good a shape, for my way of thinking.” He lifted his communicator and called in on tach, hoping that Lee would not switch over.
“Mack, keep an eye on the pair that Lee is bringing in.”
“That’s ten-four, One.”
They moved on to the next house, the three of them staying together. Another slaughter-pen inside.
“Whiz kid says to watch it, One!” Mack’s voice crackled from the speaker.
AND WHAT MAY I ASK ARE YOU DOING, RIVERA?
“Bagging up the dead, Fury. Do you object to our doing that?”
I SUPPOSE NOT. IF YOU INSIST UPON BEING SO FASTIDIOUS. WHERE ARE YOUR BAGS?
“In that truck right over there.” Gordie pointed.
The Fury sighed. YOU ARE SO TRUTHFUL YOU MAKE ME SICK, RIVERA. AREN’T YOU PEOPLE GOING TO FIGHT ME?
“Well, goddamnit, how!” Gordie yelled. “Yeah. You put yourself in human form, and I’ll kick your stupid ass all over this town, you turd!”
Howling with laughter, the Fury left them.
“You took a chance,” Watts told him.
“Pissed me off,” Gordie said. “Come on, let’s start bagging up the bodies, and look busy, in case that bastard decides to return.”
“I wonder how things are going on the outside?” Kathy asked.
“Not as bad as in here, that’s for sure.”
The Rev. Willie Magee had traveled long and hard from Louisiana. He had set up his post under a shade tree, and with Bible in hand, and a few of his faithful flock gathered around, Magee went about drawing a crowd.
“Oh, Lord!” he cried to the heavens (and any reporter that might be listening). “There is evil in that there town yonder.” He pointed toward Willowdale. “Evil, I say! And it must be cut out like a cancer from the flesh!”
“Amen, Brother!” his flock called.
“When the roll is called up yonder,” Sister Adele sang sweetly.
Willie cut a good eye toward Sister Adele. Woman had a great ass on her, and could give a blow job that would put a vacuum cleaner to shame.
“When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there,” Sister Adele finished.
“Thank you, Sister,” Willie said. “We ain’t gettin’ no action here, gang. I think we picked us a bad spot. That damn preacher from Mississippi is drawin’ all the crowds.”
The Rev. Silas Marrner was working up a sweat, really putting on a show for the folks, and quite a few had gathered around.
Silas was jumping around on the ground like a man possessed. Speaking in tongues, as he sought to purge the town of Willowdale from whatever evil had befallen it.
Further down the barricades, Preacher Harold Jewelweed had traveled night and day from West Virginia to get to Willowdale. Along with some of his faithful flock and two crates of rattlesnakes.
Fortunately for Mister Jewelweed, the troopers did not know, yet, what was in the crates.
All that was about to change . . . among other things.
“My faithful flock,” Jewelweed cranked up. “We are facin’ Armageddon here. The beast is upon us, ah haw. But we know how to frighten the beast away, don’t we?”
“Amen!” his faithful called.
Jewelweed held up a much-used Bible. “Says so right here in the good book, don’t it, ah haw?’”
“Amen!” the flock intoned.
“This might be where he grabs ‘em,” Willie said. “I’ve seen this act before. It always gets ’em.”
“What’s he gonna do, Brother Willie?” Sister Adele asked.
“Watch.”
“Be not afraid to face your sins!” Jewelweed hollered.
“Amen!” his flock called.
“Be not afraid to pick up the serpent!”
“Amen!”
Jewelweed reached down, flipped open the lid on a crate, and hauled out a rattlesnake about five feet long.
“Behold!” he cried, holding up the writhing snake. “And fear not the beast.”
The crowd gasped, and the reporters told their camera crews to get it on tape.
The nearest Colorado State Patrol members had jerked iron and were preparing to blow the snake – and Jewelweed too, if he didn’t put that ugly fucker away – right straight to hell.
Jewelweed looped the snake around his neck and marched up to the line of troopers. The rattlesnake looked all around, its forked tongue testing the air.
A sergeant pointed a finger at Jewelweed, the other hand on the butt of his pistol. “You take one more step toward me with that ugly bastard around your neck, and you’re gonna be in Colorado for eternity.”
“The snake represents your sins, my son, ah haw,” Jewelweed told the man.
&n
bsp; “I got a bullet that looks like your ass, too,” the sergeant told him. “Back up.”
Jewelweed backed up, muttering about heathens and Philistines.
“As if we don’t have enough problems,” Martin Tobias said to Larry, as they watched from a distance.
“Yes, and here comes more,” Larry pointed out, as the press corps spotted them and came at a run.
“You ready for this, Larry?”
“No. But it has to be.”
Martin held up a hand, and the rampaging gang of newspeople came to a stop.
“Right over there,” he said, pointing to a spot where aides were setting up a rostrum. “Set your mikes up there, and I’ll give you a statement as soon as you’re ready.”
“Mr. Tobias!” a reporter called. “What is going on inside the barricades?”
“If you cannot comprehend simple English, young man,” Martin told him. “I might suggest that you seek other types of employment. Right over there is where I will take questions. And nowhere else.”
The White House chief of staff turned his back to the crowd and walked toward the rostrum, Larry with him.
“How to win friends and influence people?” Larry asked with a smile.
“They have a job to do, but so do we, Larry. It can all be done with some degree of protocol – or not at all.”
When everyone was ready, Martin stepped to the rostrum and nodded his head at a reporter.
“What is going on inside those barricades, Mr. Tobias?”
“Plague. On the order of bubonic. It is an entirely new strain, and our people at CDC are working around the clock to find some sort of vaccine.”
“It’s called fury?”
“That is correct. That is what it was codenamed.”
“How many lives has it claimed so far?”
“Five hundred at the latest count – and climbing.”
“Why is the White House involved?”
Martin fixed him with a look guaranteed to melt ice cubes. “That is a totally asinine question. We are facing a plague of monumental proportions. Naturally, President Marshall wants to stay on top of matters. That is why I am here.”
“It’s the Russians!” Willie hollered. “The Russians done started a germ war.”
“The Russians have done nothing,” Martin said, raising his voice to be heard over the babbling of Willie, the speaking in tongues of Marrner, and the snake-waving and shouting of Jewelweed. “We don’t know where the disease originated; but I can tell you in all honesty, that it did not come from any foreign country here on earth.”
“Great God Almighty!” Willie shouted. “Hit’s from outer space. The little green men’s done invaded us!” He dropped to his knees. “Oh, Lord!” he cried. “Give us a sign. Tell us what to do?”
Jewelweed walked over to him and held out a snake. “Here, Willie, take this.”
Willie recoiled backward. “Get that motherfucker away from me!”
“When the roll is called up yonder,” Sister Adele sang sweetly.
“Do you have people in the town?” the question was tossed at Martin. “From the White House?”
“Yes, we do. Megan LeMasters volunteered to enter the town and assess the situation.”
“And her report?”
“Grim.”
“When will she come out?”
“She won’t, until a vaccine is found, and the survivors have been inoculated. She is a very brave young lady.”
“I don’t feel very brave,” Megan said, listening to the radio. The press briefing was being heard around the world.
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO LEVEL WITH THE PEOPLE, BABY?
In his computer room, Howie shook his head. The Fury was bigger and stronger than ever. And it could now move so fast he had very little time to warn anyone that it was coming.
“That’s what you want, isn’t it?” Megan tossed the question into the air. “You want publicity.”
I WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW WHO I AM AND WHAT I AM. YES.
“It isn’t time for that,” Megan said, taking a chance. “You tip your hand now, and our scientists could very well find a way to destroy you. Think about that.”
UMMM. PERHAPS YOU’RE RIGHT. BUT WHY WOULD YOU WARN ME OF THAT REMOTE POSSIBILITY?
“To give us more time to live.”
YOU PEOPLE ARE SO DAMNED HONEST YOU MAKE ME WANT TO PUKE. WHAT A BUNCH OF BOY SCOUTS. BAH!
“It’s gone,” Howie called.
. “Came up pretty fast this time, didn’t it?” Maj. Jackson asked.
“So fast I couldn’t warn any of you,” Howie said. “That was quick thinking, Miss LeMasters.”
“Desperate thinking, Howie. And I may have bought us an extra day or two.”
Mack looked over at the newcomers, Gene and Donna Harvey. He had known the pair for years, and there was something about them now, that was all out of whack. Something just didn’t ring true.
Gene felt the old deputy’s eyes on him and turned his head, meeting Mack’s gaze.
His eyes, Mack thought. That’s what’s wrong. His eyes are ... dead, he found the word.
Mack forced himself to smile at the man, and Gene returned the smile.
“People running up the sidewalk,” Judy called. “Eight or ten of them. They’re not armed.”
Those in the office could hear the people outside yelling. “Let us in! For the love of God, please help us.”
“Let them in,” Lee ordered. “But keep an eye on them.”
Howie inserted a tape into a VCR that he had immediately requested when Gene and Donna entered the office. The sounds of a space battle drifted out to the main office. Megan and Judy exchanged glances and smiles. Howie was one sharp little boy. In the event those new survivors were imposters, he had quickly arranged it so they could report back to the Fury that Howie was indeed playing space games with his Buck Rogers ray gun.
“Oh, boy,” Judy said, cracking the door. “It’s the sheriffs wife among them.”
Chapter Six
Gordie and the others bagged up a hundred bodies and poured the fluid. The smell was gone as soon as the fluid hit bloated and maggot-covered flesh. Finally, the smell and the back-breaking work took its toll on them all, and they knocked off for the day.
I DON’T SUPPOSE YOU’D LIKE TO HAVE A PARTY TONIGHT, WOULD YOU, SHANTY IRISH-SPIC?
“I think I’ll pass, Fury.”
PITY. I’M IN UNUSUALLY FINE VOICE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR?
“Do I have a choice?”
NO. LISTEN: DO BOP DE DO BOP DE DO BOP, DE DO. DOESNT THAT TAKE YOU BACK TO THE GLORIOUS DAYS OF THE FIFTIES?
“I don’t remember anything about them, Fury.”
THAT’S PROBABLY WHY YOU’RE SUCH A DICKHEAD.
Fury left, but not before unzipping the last pile of body bags and dumping the bodies out onto the sidewalk.
“I wonder if that’s it?” Watts questioned.
“What do you mean?” Kathy asked, just as a hand closed around her boot-covered ankle and the smell of the grave wafted to her nostrils.
She stifled a scream and twisted, trying to break free of the dead hand. The man grinned up at her and opened his mouth to laugh. Bloated blowflies and maggots dropped out of the mouth. The tongue was blue black.
Watts picked up a heavy stick from the sidewalk and bashed the living dead corpse on the head. The head exploded like an overheated pressure cooker, showering those closest with brains and blood.
Kathy jerked out her Beretta 9mm and began methodically pulling the trigger, blowing the dead wrist apart and finally freeing her ankle.
The dead fingers clung to her boot as the shattered arm flopped on the sidewalk.
Gordie had to kneel down and pry the cold fingers from her ankles, first breaking the fingers, and then peeling them off as one would a leech.
“Jesus!” Kathy said, as the last finger was tossed to one side.
THAT WAS FUN, WASN’T IT? LET’S PLAY SOME MORE FUN GAMES.
The body bags began movi
ng, rolling from side to side, with muffled screams coming from each bag.
“They’re dead, people,” Gordie said, as much for his own benefit as for the others. “Keep that in mind. They’re all dead.”
THERE ARE DEGREES OF DEATH, GORDIE ME BOY. LET ME SHOW YOU.
A body bag suddenly burst open, and a man lumbered to his blackened bare feet, turning slowly to face the sheriff.
Kathy had already ran to the car and grabbed up two shotguns, tossing one to Watts. She pumped a round of double ought buckshot into the chamber and leveled the muzzle. She put a round into the dead man’s chest, and the second shot took off most of his face, knocking him down to the sidewalk.
GOOD SHOW, GANG. GOOD SHOW. NOW YOU’RE ALL GETTING INTO THE SPIRIT OF THINGS. NOW WE CAN HAVE SOME FUN. PARTY TIME.
Martin had returned from a newly installed mobile home close to the town, just in time to hear the shots booming out of town. He was immediately surrounded by reporters.
“What’s all the shooting about, Mr. Tobias?” he was asked.
“I have no idea, people. But you will know just as soon as I do, I promise you that.” He turned to Larry. “Find out what that was all about, Larry.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why can’t anybody call into the town, sir?” he was asked.
“All existing lines are being used for emergency use only. And I was told there was some damage to the telephone company’s terminals in there. We can’t risk any lives by sending people in to fix it.”
“Sir, there is unusual activity around the Russian, Canadian, Mexican, French, and German embassies in Washington. Do you have a comment on that?”
“No, I do not. This situation here in Willowdale is my immediate concern. I have not been briefed on any unusual activity in Washington.”
“Sir, why isn’t the governor of the state of Colorado present?”
“The governor is not feeling well. He caught a cold doing some late season skiing, and it turned into a mild case of pneumonia. I’m on the phone with him a half-dozen times a day.”
Actually, both leaders of the House and Senates – both Democrats – after being briefed by President Marshall – a Republican – had called Governor Siatos, and told him to get sick and maintain a very low profile until this matter was resolved. They did not want him blundering around, shooting off his mouth, and sticking his foot in it.
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