Days Of Perdition: Voodoo Plague Book 6
Page 26
“Thought I’d start a harem.” I said, holding her hand. “Got an opening if you’re interested.”
“I’ll give it some thought and get back to you,” she started to smile then caught her breath and closed her eyes when Rachel pressed an instrument deeper into the bullet hole.
While Rachel worked on first Katie then Martinez, the Osprey came into view. Zemeck was in radio contact with them and before they picked us up he directed them to where we’d left Stephanie and the kids. Once they were safely on board the Osprey swooped down over the roof for us.
The helipad was occupied with the disabled Pave Hawk and the Marine pilot didn’t want to trust the casino roof with the weight of his aircraft so he did an extremely admirable job of holding the Osprey in a stable hover less than a foot above the roof. He held it there long enough for us all to get loaded, raising the rear ramp and gaining altitude as soon as Dog, bringing up the rear, leapt aboard.
The two Marines Zemeck had originally brought with him, as well as the five soldiers they had gone to pick up, made room for us. They pulled seats loose and created plenty of floor space for Katie and Martinez to lie flat, then squeezed against the walls with the captive women we’d brought out of the casino. I settled down between the two women, holding each of their hands as Rachel worked.
Katie was stable for the moment, but Martinez was in worse shape. She’d taken two rounds, one in the leg and one in the abdomen. Rachel still wasn’t sure how bad she was, but assured me that if Martinez had lasted this long the odds were good that we’d get her to the hospital at Tinker in time.
The Trident missile flew perfectly, following its preprogrammed trajectory, which was intended to place it 50 miles directly above the Kansas/Oklahoma border when the timer program added to the nuclear trigger reached zero. Everything worked as intended, the warhead firing when the computer code sent the command.
Without the Earth’s atmosphere a nuclear blast expands dramatically faster and farther. The fireball grew to immense size, clearly visible from everywhere in North America. Massive amounts of gamma rays shot out in all directions. Dozens of orbiting satellites were destroyed in that initial EMP or Electromagnetic Pulse by the rays that headed away from the Earth.
The gamma rays that didn’t shoot into space came in contact with the atmosphere and collided with air molecules, depositing their energy in the form of huge quantities of ions and recoil electrons which were then aligned and accelerated by the Earth’s magnetic field. As they traveled along the invisible magnetic highways they began to lose energy, but any electronic device within a 1,500 mile radius of the initial pulse was susceptible to damage. The closer to the source, the stronger the energy and the greater the damage.
There isn’t much on a modern aircraft that isn’t controlled by electronics. The military requires that all of its equipment is “hardened” against an EMP, but the feasibility of protecting every sensitive electronic circuit on an Osprey against a High Altitude EMP is poor. Even more so when the EMP source is massive and less than 200 miles away.
We were flying south and didn’t see the fireball directly, but the dark landscape beneath us lit up at the same time the aircraft’s engines shut down. There were panicked looks all around and Katie squeezed my hand, pulling me down to wrap her in my arms.
“We’re going down!” The pilot shouted. “Brace for crash!”
ALSO BY DIRK PATTON
Voodoo Plague: Book One
Crucifixion: Voodoo Plague Book Two
Rolling Thunder: Voodoo Plague Book Three
Red Hammer: Voodoo Plague Book Four
Transmission: Voodoo Plague Book Five
Rules Of Engagement: A John Chase Short Story
Afterword
Wow, Book 6 already. Seems like just yesterday that I was working on the first Voodoo Plague, which by the way was mostly written in hotels and airport waiting areas. It’s been an incredible year, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds for my little band of survivors.
As always, a sincere thank you to everyone who has taken the time to email me or leave a post or message on Facebook. I love hearing from you, and appreciate the wonderful comments as well as the constructive criticism. I really do take it all in and it has affected both the story line and my writing style.
To Katie, thank you for your unwavering faith and support, as well as your input. For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you know where the idea for the casino came from. For those who don’t…
A few months ago I was up early and sitting on the patio with Dog, enjoying my first coffee of the day. Katie walked outside and immediately called me an asshole.
“What?” I asked, putting on my best innocent look.
“I had a nightmare that I was trapped in a casino, being attacked by survivors and infected, and it’s all your fault.” She answered, and that’s when I knew there was an abandoned casino scene coming.
So… Roach is gone. Finally. It was time, and oh so satisfying to write his demise. Yes, I couldn’t resist a little poetic justice for the asshole, but in a strange way I’ll miss him. I had thought about maybe doing something with him where he has a change of heart and saves the day. Kind of like the Grinch or Gollum, but in the end decided it was more fun to send him out with his ass in a sling (yes – pun intended).
Finally, to answer the most commonly asked question when I release a new book, yes there will be another book in the series. No, I don’t know yet if it will be the final one or not. I’ve always said I’ll end the series when the story ends, not stretch it out just to keep publishing books. I probably won’t know until I start work on Book 7.
Also, you can always correspond with me via email at voodooplague@gmail.com and if you’re on Facebook, please like my page at www.facebook.com/FearThePlague
I enjoy interacting with my fans on Facebook and I answer all of my email… eventually.
Thanks again for reading!
Dirk Patton
January 2015