Emergence (Book 4): Eradication

by Sawyer, JT

  ***

  Along the seashell-lined beach four miles northwest of MacDill, fifteen alphas sat shivering in the cold tidepools. Their bodies had turned a blueish-green color from the hypothermic effects of the water and the retreat of the parasites from their surface capillaries. With their body-core temperatures drastically reduced, they waited and watched for the signal to begin their surreptitious entry into the base while legions of their brethren marched to the south of them.

  Chapter 30

  Selene barely noticed the throbbing in her sore heels from standing continuously for seven hours in the Lachesis’ lab as she, Tso, and a handful of young assistants continued creating more canisters of the bioagent. The constant influx of coffee and sugary foods was ebbing in her body, and she felt like she could lie down and sleep for a week, but the constant adrenaline bursts prevented that as she heard each update from MacDill piercing the audio speakers in the ceiling. The countdown had begun and nothing could turn back the tide of destruction that was about to befall the region.

  She blew a strand of loose hair off her nose, trying to calm her breathing and wondering if MacDill would still be there in the morning. She had only seen a glimpse of it while transferring from the plane from Nevada to a helicopter that whisked her and her team to the Lachesis, but she knew it was the largest settlement of humans left in the country, possibly the world. Is it really the last bastion of military might remaining in our nation? God, it has to survive.

  Selene leaned back, resting on the edge of a steel table covered with laptops and centrifuges. She recalled the ominous weather report, hoping there would be even a small break in the storm pounding the coast so they could spread the aerosol. We could win this war. She shook her head then massaged her temples, wanting the chaos and bloodshed to end. As she stood up and stretched her arms up, she looked into the containment room ahead at the comatose alpha on the gurney. Her stride quickened as she walked to the observation window, and her fatigue washed away as she stared at the creature. Maybe there is another way.

  Chapter 31

  The dust in the air smelled like a mixture of sea salt and powdered cement as Special Forces Sergeant Major Carlos Martinez peered at the approaching cloud of dust through his binoculars atop the roof of the Sunscape Financial Center in East Tampa. The growing legion of drones two miles distant had increased their pace during the past hour, knowing that the earlier air strikes would no longer be coming. With the air force’s F-15s depleted of their stockpiles, this was about to turn into an ugly ground war, with Martinez’s force of six hundred-plus men and women trying to stem the tide of close to forty thousand drones. He hadn’t revealed that last figure to his already tense operators spread out on the buildings and streets around him—the massive gray cloud of dust about to envelope them and the increased trembling of the ground revealed the magnitude of the enemy’s numbers. The intense rainfall from the tropical storm had done little to dampen the vortex of dust from the drones’ movement—almost as if they had created their own weather cyclone from the sheer volume of their ranks.

  Two miles across the bay was MacDill, and Martinez knew he and his troops were the lions at that base’s gate. MacDill was strategically located on a peninsula of land jutting out from south Tampa, so any attacking force would have to first pass through Martinez’s chokepoint and then sweep up to the north before dropping back down to the location of the base.

  He scanned the streets below, taking in the phalanx of Bradley tanks on Riverview Drive a mile distant. Beyond that, every approach avenue was rigged with explosives designed to both eliminate the first wave of drones and simultaneously seal off their routes, forcing them into the Bradleys’ line of fire. After that, his snipers on the rooftops would concentrate their efforts on removing any alphas and lighting up any of the hundreds of vehicles lining the streets to create further chaos while the rest of his units would engage the main force channeled down Riverview Drive with RPGs and mortars.

  Martinez felt the rain pelting against his green camouflage jacket, and swiveled his head around to study the sky. He heard General Dorr’s voice crackle over his headset.

  “What is your SITREP, Sergeant Major?”

  “The enemy’s front line is now just under two miles out, but we’re ready, sir.” He deepened his voice as he spoke while thrusting his shoulders back as he marched behind the line of snipers squatting on either side of him. “They’re in for a hell of a fight.” He stepped away from the other soldiers and moved towards the center of the roof. “Any chance you can provide a break in the weather about now and a hundred canisters of that new bioweapon?”

  “Not yet, but we’re working on a few things on this end that just might give us an edge.”

  Martinez heard the first round of explosions on the streets below and spun around, trotting back over to the edge of the roof. The junction of Riverview and I-75 had just erupted in flames, followed by more blasts that tore through the initial rows of drones to the east. The chain of explosions tore through the first quarter-mile of creatures, destroying buildings and bone with the same ferocity. The remaining drones simply rerouted their movement around the demolished streets like water flowing around a pile of boulders in a swift mountain river.

  “Whatever you have planned, sir, you can surprise us at any time.”

  “You’ll be the first to know, Carlos, I promise.” He knew the outlook must be grim from the tac-ops center if Dorr was addressing him by his first name.

  He signed off and then knelt down between his snipers, picking up his Barrett rifle. As he looked at the approaching horde, Martinez felt a burning rage inside him. He surged with hatred for the enemy and for all they had taken from this world and from his own life—his wife, his three daughters, and so many brothers-in-arms. He knew that their actions here would only buy the personnel at MacDill more time and that he would probably be dead by sunrise, if they lasted that long. He shouted down the line, looking at the fine warriors he had sweated and bled with over the years. “Just remember—though we walk through valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for we are the meanest motherfuckers in this great nation.”

  He settled into position and centered the sights on his scope as he prepared to take the first shot. “Now, let’s unleash hell on these streets and take back what is ours.”

  Chapter 32

  Ivins barely felt the turbulence as he bounced in his seat in the C-130 enroute to Tampa. He took the small doll head out of his vest and stared at the blue eyes, recalling the sweet face of his daughter. He leaned forward and placed it inside a side pocket of his rucksack, then removed a small black pouch and emptied it into his calloused palm. He put two of the items back and held up the gold wedding ring, gently sliding it onto his finger. He had gotten used to not wearing it on missions, always leaving it in his locker on the Reagan. At the end of each deployment, he ritualistically donned it again, knowing he would be coming home soon, to his lovely wife. This time, he didn’t know if either comfort would present itself again, but he couldn’t give up hope. But he knew even before the pandemic that life was too unpredictable, and he clenched his fist, staring at the ring as a spiritual talisman. I will see you again, Kelly, in this world or the next one that we are also wedded in. I will always be with you. I love you.

  As the C-130 transport plane circled around the outskirts of Tampa, Ivins leaned out the window and saw a massive cloud of dust to the south. He felt his stomach coil up as he studied the five-mile-wide swath of highway that was being churned into rubble as an army of drones three miles long extended into the horizon.

  “My God—this is worse than Dorr described,” he said.

  Both Ivins and Reisner’s teams stared out at the sight. With each mile of progression that the army advanced, the main column was joined by smaller streams of drones trotting in from the sides as the neighboring cities and towns were cleared out of creatures.

  “There must be over fifty thousand creatures,” whispered Porter.

/>   They saw a stream of mortar fire coming from the surrounding subdivisions to the south of MacDill, where the remaining elements of the Ranger Battalion and Special Operations units were concentrated, along with a half-dozen Bradley tanks.

  “Looks like the sorties from the F-15s we heard about earlier didn’t put much of a dent in their numbers,” said Reisner. “They’re still advancing.”

  Ivins traced the route from where the enemy was located to the periphery of MacDill, which had just come into sight. “They’re going to be on top of the base within the hour.” The view out the window was obscured as heavy rain pelted the plane. Ivins sat back in his seat as the announcement from the pilot came on that they would be landing.

  He knew their teams would be immediately thrust into the fight.

  The battle for MacDill had already begun.

  Chapter 33

  After they had made their way down below into the powerhouse that held the dam’s generators and turbines, Engel led the group past several empty work stations and a small office that had three technicians inside, who were monitoring the output dials on the wall inside. At least, Kelly thought they were technicians from the white lab coats they were clad in, but they looked more like weathered ranchers with their leathery skin.

  Passing by a row of empty offices near the last turbine, Engel stopped and turned around. Steepling his fingers, he addressed the group as if he was a dam engineer about to relay a story about the facility.

  “Kelly, you and your friend asked up top about how we can live so peacefully here. Usually, I don’t divulge what you’re about to see to new arrivals for a few days, but I’m betting you can handle it.” He leaned forward, patting her on the arm, which made her take a small step back. “You seem like a sharp lady, and I don’t like to keep things from people here—that just creates discord, and there was enough of that in the old world. So, I’m going to let you in on our little secret here.”

  She was starting to feel like a contestant on a game show and was wondering if his little speech was going to be followed up with the offer of some prize. Either he is just the charismatic leader he appears to be or he’s a whacked-out egomaniac. Either way, I better play along. “Well, you’ve certainly got my interest.”

  He spun around on his heels then continued forward, his pace quickening as they headed down a semi-circular cement staircase. The damp air was a relief from the dry desert sun she had endured, and Kelly figured they must be near one of the internal dam spillways from the sound of roaring water in the distance. The arched chamber ahead was eight feet across and had a low ceiling, easy enough to reach. Engel walked past each row of rooms, pausing every few feet to rattle off some tidbits about the output of the facility. To her right was a wall lined with control panels and gauges for monitoring the dam output and hydroelectric functions. To the left was a row of a dozen empty rooms, their doors ajar, except one at the end. Kelly squinted into the faintly lit cubicle that looked like a service entrance to the spillway below. She saw what looked like a dark-skinned man leaning against the wall inside, but then the figure slumped out of sight as if something had pulled him down.

  At the closed door, Engel stopped, his body blocking the large rectangular window into the room. He slowly turned around, his index finger raised. “You know the native cultures in these regions used to say that they emerged into this world from the last one through a portal in the Grand Canyon. It’s so fascinating that every indigenous culture had its own creation story. What will ours be like generations from now as the survivors of this pandemic?”

  “You seem pretty confident that the human race is going to pull through this and be around to even tell our story.”

  “I am, Kelly. There won’t be a return to our former world, nor even life in our big cities, but we won’t be living in the stone-age either. We will recover from this by having small communities like this one. I am certain of it.”

  “You haven’t been out on the road like I and most of the others here have, I’m assuming. From what Jared said, you were from the area and retreated here after the pandemic started—is that right?”

  “Indeed, my father used to be the chief engineer here and I spent my teenager years after high school working on this very platform. When the virus struck and the cities in western Arizona fell, I sought refuge here along with a handful of others.”

  “So that’s your creation story?”

  He tilted his head and let out a crooked smile. “Part of it. The rest is, well,” he paused to stroke his chin, “more interesting. You see, we had only been holed up at the dam for a few days—about twenty of us who had fled here from our homes near Lake Havasu up the road. We had just returned from a resupply trip onshore, hitting a small grocery store on the outskirts of Lake Havasu. After we began to unload the boats on the landing outside the dam, the crags started coming—from the streets, the desert, the houses down near the town of Parker—God, they were everywhere. I told my people to close the doors on the dam as I and my boat crews tried to get away on the river.”

  Engel leaned back against the cement wall. “The first boat crew sped off safely, but my crew was surprised by some crags that came out of a culvert along the shoreline. One of the creatures moved like a lion in heat, and he was more coordinated than the others. I had heard about these kinds—the alphas is what they were called on the shortwave transmissions around the country. This thing took down one of my men as it climbed on board. I shot it in the chest and watched it fall back into the propellers, getting its legs chopped all to smithereens.” He began pacing before the group as if giving a performance, his hands gesticulating in the air. “It was then that the other creatures—thousands of them on the beach—stopped in unison to stare at the mangled thing at our stern. The alpha tried to swim away, its arms flopping wildly. As it moved, the other creatures resumed their assault. I grabbed the gaffing hook from the side of the boat and pulled the shredded beast back into the boat propellers, watching the army of crags on the beach come to a halt again. It was like some kind of fucking puppet show—whenever I yanked the alpha into the propellers, the creatures stopped and were devoid of fuel for the fight.”

  Engel folded his arms, his eyes gazing down at the ground. “In fact, they seemed to be in as much pain as the thing thrashing at my stern. I knew then that there was something more than mere grunts and body signals given off between the alpha and the other crags. I hoisted the exhausted creature up to the edge of the boat. Its legs were completely gone at this point so I hacked off its arms with my machete then tied it to the side of the boat by the neck.” He raised one arm up, his hand clenched and his face aglow with fury. “Holding my blade above its head seemed to drive home the message to the crags, who slowly began dispersing. The alpha clearly knew what the fuck was going to happen and either relayed something, or the crags knew they were about to literally lose the head of their group.” He patted the red-stained wooden handle of the machete hanging off his belt, then he stepped aside from the door. Inside the dimly lit room, Kelly could now make out the full form of the thing she had seen earlier, an inanimate creature with only a scarred torso and scabbed head resting on the ground. Its face began contorting as the interior light flickered on, followed by its eyelids fluttering. She pulled Cassie back as she stared in horror at the ghastly sight of the disfigured alpha.

  “Fuck—that’s brilliant, man,” whispered Erica. “Never would’ve thought of that.”

  “As long as we’ve got this monstrous abomination here, we’re safe—those things outside won’t come within five miles of this place. The pathetic minions of this thing fear losing their leader, and this beast clearly lives to protect its own kind, which would probably be lost without him—or it, rather.”

  “And what if this creature decides to end its own existence somehow or it just plain dies on you?” said Erica.

  “I’ve pondered those very questions myself, young lady,” said Engel. “All I can say is this: wouldn’t it have offed itself by
now if it was capable of self-destruction?” He twirled his right hand in the air as if he was a maestro before an orchestra. “No, these things seem more like insects, and I believe that this creature here is incapable of bringing harm to the colony at large through sacrificing itself.”

  He held up his arms. “We’ve got a nice little sanctuary here, loaded with supplies gathered from the city, and this secret weapon locked away in this room to keep it that way. Plus, I haven’t lost a single member of our community since that night—no more battles, no risky resupply missions where we get attacked, and no loss of life. Probably not many places around the world can make that claim.”

  “Is that why you were broadcasting about this place—trying to get the word out about what you had done?” said Kelly, her stomach still churning from the marred beast lying helpless on the ground.

  Engel chewed on his lower lip for a minute then raised an eyebrow. “Of course, but we realized we were reaching our carrying capacity a few days ago and needed to shut that down for a while.”

  “And the military—are you in touch with any of them or any remnants of our government? I heard that some of our bases had survived around the country.”

  “In time, we will reach out. When I tried to make contact with one of the air force bases in Nevada, they said the government was still restructuring itself and would eventually send out rescue teams. All we had to do was wait it out until that time, though no one could give me a concrete answer on when the hell that might be.”

  Kelly nervously rubbed the side of her arm, averting her eyes from the alpha as she spoke in a shaky voice. “That’s a unique solution alright.”