by Ricky Sides
Sergeant Shannon waited a few seconds, and then he nodded his head and said, “Good. I want you all to remember that there are hundreds of innocent shoppers and employees in this facility so don’t get trigger happy. If you have to fire, you need to make certain that there isn’t anyone downrange of your target. Good luck. Corporal, it’s my understanding the back door is still open, but if it isn’t, then you open one, even if you have to destroy a lock.”
Herb was surprised that he was being placed in charge of one of the teams. Glancing around, he noted that the other sergeants weren’t present.
Sergeant Shannon handpicked his team of men who would enter the front with him. Herb took the remainder and they hurried around the back of the store. They jogged along until they came to an open door situated near a large dumpster. Herb stopped and gave the command for the men to load their weapons. “Make certain your safety is engaged,” he cautioned, and then he walked over to the door.
Herb paused at the door. Memories of the news broadcast of the doomed Special Forces Guard Unit entering Decatur General Hospital, and the disastrous results that followed filled his mind. He wondered if he were the only man present to feel a debilitating fear. He knew the best way to deal with that anxiety was to get on with the mission without delay, so Herb motioned for Randy and one of the other men to form up on him. “I go in first. Randy. I want you to follow and step right of the door. Zach, you take the left,” Herb instructed. He swallowed his fears, flicked the safety of his rifle to select fire, and then entered the building.
They found themselves in a large room that looked like a warehouse. Bundles of packages were sitting on pallets. But what really grabbed their attention was what was left of a man on the floor. He was the apparent victim of several zombies who must have swarmed over him the moment he opened the door. Most of the tissue of his neck had been ravaged. His nose was missing, as was one of his ears. Herb felt bile rise in his throat, and for a moment, he thought he was going to vomit.
Coarse screams came from deeper inside the building, which distracted Herb. He moved out past the body on the floor and headed toward another doorway he could see about a hundred feet from his position.
Behind Herb, the rest of his team entered the building. All of the men moved at a crouch. Their bodies moved with a fluid grace as they made their way toward the door. The last man in the team was passing the body when the victim’s hand reached out and caught him by the leg. The guardsman panicked and tightened his trigger finger, which sent a round into the floor in front of him. He spun toward the victim in time to see the body rise to a seated position. What was left of the man opened its mouth in order to attempt a moan, but with its throat ripped out, no sound emerged. Herb stepped up beside the man who had been grabbed and shot the victim in the head.
“How do you know he was like the zombies?” asked the man.
“I don’t know for certain, but I can’t see how any human could have survived that attack. He should have bled out. The carotid artery was ripped out, man. Use your head, unless you want to become a victim of these freaks.”
Turning to the rest of the men, Herb added, “I thought the news said it takes a couple of hours for these things to change. I don’t know if it was because so many zombies got to that guy or if there is another reason, but it looks like that two hour time frame isn’t always true. If you see anyone else who looks like he should be dead, put a bullet in their head to be certain.”
The men nodded their understanding. Herb moved back to the head of their team and led the way once more. They entered a short hallway with doors on both sides. More screams were coming from another open door down the hall and to the right. Herb headed toward it with his men following.
Herb entered that room and stepped into a nightmare the likes of which he had never envisioned. He found himself inside an employee break room. Three zombies were evident across the room. They had trapped several women in a corner and they were in the process of attacking one of them. Herb raised his rifle, but couldn’t get a clear shot at the zombies without endangering the victims. He charged across the floor, shouting as he ran.
The zombies, intent upon ripping the flesh from their current victim, paid no attention to him at first. When he reached the struggling mass of attackers, Herb placed the muzzle of his rifle against the skull of one of the zombies and pulled the trigger. That got the attention of the other two. Herb backed away several steps as the remaining zombies climbed to their feet and started toward him. He brought his rifle up to fire, but didn’t, because the women were directly behind them.
Randy and two other guardsmen had moved to the right. They had a clear field of fire, and they shot both of the zombies.
Human viscera was scattered across the floor a few feet away from Herb. A disemboweled body lay a few feet from the gore. “Kill me,” the man pleaded in a weak voice. “I don’t want to be like them,” he added.
Randy was standing to Herb’s right. He was the closest team member to the body of the victim, and the man had been addressing him. Randy looked to Herb, who nodded that he should grant the man’s request. There was no way the man could possibly live. Herb felt it likely that the disease running its course through his body that had kept him alive to that point.
Randy said, “I’m sorry,” and then he aimed at the man’s forehead and pulled the trigger.
Herb and the rest of the team turned their attention to the other victims in the room. The woman the zombies had been attacking was dead. The other three were still cowering in the corner, terrified by the horrors that they had witnessed. Herb could well understand their fear. What he saw the zombies doing to their victim was a sight that he didn’t think he would ever be able to forget. “Are you people injured?” Herb asked the women.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” one of the women answered.
“Stand up. Let me look at you,” Herb responded. One by one, he examined the exposed skin of the women. There were no apparent wounds. “Get them into the hallway,” Herb told Randy. “You two go with them,” he added as he pointed to the two men near Randy. “We’ll be along in a minute.”
Randy nodded his understanding and led the women out into the hallway. They heard a single shot and were soon joined by the rest of the team.
“Were there any more of the zombies? Herb asked the women.
“That’s all we saw,” replied a brunette whose nametag said her name was Joyce.
A short time later, their team linked up with Sergeant Shannon’s. They left the employees with medical personnel and the two teams returned to the employee section of the store where they searched every room to see if there were other zombies present. There were no incidents during the search.
A group of people in biohazard suits arrived and placed the remains of the zombies and their victims in body bags. They took samples of the blood and tissue that coated the floors in the vicinity, and then they began the cleanup process. One of the men, working with a camera to document the scene, photographed bloody rat tracks leading away from the dead zombies in the break room kill zone. One of the technicians, seeing the tracks, called in a report to his superiors.
Chapter 6
Once bitten
“Load up, men. Our work here is done,” Sergeant Shannon instructed the guardsmen. The store had closed for the rest of the day. A sign on the front doors informed customers that they would reopen at noon the next day.
Herb rode with Randy during the brief ride back to the National Guard Armory, which was located on Armory Street in Athens. They only had to travel for a few minutes, so there wasn’t time to try to formulate a plan, but Randy said, “We’re going to need to leave soon, or we may not make it out at all.”
“I know,” Herb responded. His mind was in a state of turmoil, brought on by the things he had seen and been forced to do that day. “We’ll play it by ear for now. I’m going to see what I can learn from Shannon. When the time comes, I’ll need you to trust me and follow my lead.”
“Don’t I always?” Randy replied.
“For the most part,” Herb conceded absently. He was watching the road ahead. “Is it just me, or does traffic seem a bit odd this afternoon?”
“Yeah, now that you mention it, it does. Everyone seems to be driving like maniacs.”
“Turn on the radio,” Herb said on a hunch. “Let’s see if they are talking about Athens.”
“Citizens are advised to get off the streets as soon as possible. I’ve just been informed that the local National Guardsmen will be assisting the police with patrolling the city and county. To repeat the top story of the day, three employees of the Athens Walmart were murdered today by what I’ll call zombies for lack of a better term,” the radio host explained. “National Guardsmen, entering the employee section of Walmart, located the zombies as they were in the process of killing their third victim. Joyce Kimbrough, an employee of the Supercenter, was present when the attack occurred, and was one of the people rescued by the guardsmen. She says that if the men of that unit had not interceded, there was little doubt in her mind that she and two other women who were trapped in the break room would have met the same fate as their unfortunate coworkers.”
“That same guard unit will be out in force tonight making the streets and roads of Athens and Limestone County safe for the rest of us.”
“In other news, the authorities have given up an attempt to contain the zombies in Decatur as a lost cause. Witnesses have reported seeing streams of people flooding the causeway as they exit the city and move north toward Athens. People living or working, who are along Highway 31 are advised to evacuate. Just where those people are supposed to go remains unclear. Nashville is reporting widespread outbreaks. There have also been numerous reports of sightings of zombies both east and west along the Tennessee River. At the moment, it seems the safest routes to travel for any attempted evacuation are east and west. However, I’d like to remind our listeners that this is an evolving situation and things are changing drastically in short period of time.”
“I have taken the liberty of contacting a security expert I know, and he has informed me that people planning to shelter in place should be prepared to defend their homes. My source says you should board up all ground floor windows, if you can. If that’s not possible, he says your best chance in this scenario is to remain undetected as the zombies pass through. That means you should do nothing to attract attention to your shelter. Maintain noise and light discipline. In case you’re wondering what that means, put simply, it means do not make noise and do not have lights on that will draw the zombies to your shelter.”
Herb was listening to the radio with such concentration that he hadn’t even noticed that they had arrived at the armory. He was surprised when Randy shut down the engine of his car and the radio went dead. “Hey! I was listening to that,” he protested.
“Sorry, but Sergeant Shannon is motioning for us to join him,” Randy replied.
The two men climbed out of Randy’s car and grabbed their rifles and gear out of the back seat.
“Corporal Bennett, good job back at the store. I understand you authorized shooting the victims,” Sergeant Shannon said in a neutral tone of voice.
“Those with wounds that would make it impossible for them to survive, yes, I did, Sergeant,” Herb clarified.
“Good. I didn’t have time to tell you earlier, but our orders are to do that from here on out. But don’t limit it to those with obvious mortal wounds. Anyone bitten is to be terminated. According to the CDC, they can’t find a way to stop the spread of the Akins parasites. Anything that will kill them will also kill their hosts. In short, there is no cure or vaccine to prevent them from dying and becoming a zombie. Once bitten, they are lost to humanity.”
Sergeant Shannon nodded. “There wasn’t time to give a full briefing earlier.” He frowned and said, “Not that it would matter where you’re concerned. You two were late, but never mind that now. There is about to be a full briefing. Get your gear inside and draw more ammo. Clean your weapons and be ready for the briefing in half an hour.”
Sergeant Shannon walked away from Herb without another word.
Herb was surprised later when the armorer issued additional magazines for the men to load. They were also issued another supply of ammunition. “From what I’ve been told, you men may see a lot of action later today and tonight. I don’t want you running out of ammunition at a critical time,” the old armorer explained.
“Yeah, that would suck,” one of the guardsmen replied.
“This patrol set may be the opportunity we need,” Herb said quietly to Randy after the armorer walked away. No one else heard the comment.
Randy looked up at his friend and nodded his understanding, but Herb noted a troubled look in his eyes.
“You men need to get a move on in here. It’s almost time for the briefing,” Sergeant Shannon said from the doorway of the room where the unit was cleaning their weapons and loading additional magazines with their ammunition. “Just finish cleaning the weapons. You can load the magazines later.”
After Sergeant Shannon left, the men completed their tasks and then headed out to the main room of the armory.
“Are you all right?” Herb asked Randy. “You’ve barely spoken since the mission at Walmart.”
“No, I’m not all right. I saw people rising from the dead and grabbing my friends. I saw...” He sighed and shook his head in frustration. “You were there. You know what I saw.”
“Yeah, I know. Try not to let it get to you. You did what had to be done.”
“That doesn’t mean it wasn’t some crazy shit. How is that even possible, man?”
“I’m hoping we’ll find out in this briefing,” Herb responded.
“All right, men, settle down. It’s time to start this briefing,” Sergeant Shannon said, calling the men to order.
“I wonder what happened to all of the officers? I don’t see them,” Herb murmured.
“By now, you may have noticed that most of our officers aren’t here for the deployment. That’s because they have been called into full time service. What you see here is all that remains of our unit that hasn’t been activated, and we are subject to call up too. Meanwhile, we will be patrolling the city streets and county roads this afternoon and tonight,” Sergeant Shannon explained.
“We’ll come back to the patrols later. Now, I’m sure you are all curious about the zombies. Well, the CDC has released some information and Homeland Security thinks you need to be briefed about it. After viewing this information, I agree. You do need to know about this. What I’m about to tell you is the most important briefing you are ever likely to attend, so listen up.”
“There is a new parasite on the loose. No one knows where the hell it came from. It’s microscopic, meaning you can’t see the individual parasites with the naked eye. They form clusters in the hosts that migrate through the body until they reach the brain. Those clusters then send out filaments into the brains.”
“Once the victim reaches that stage, his or her body will react with a high fever, a runny nose, and frequent sneezing. That’s the inflammatory system seeking to expel the microbes. At that point, the person is a threat to everyone around them. With every cough and sneeze, the victim is contaminating the area around them with the parasitic microbes. The good news is, once the parasites are outside the human body, you can kill them easily enough. Most common disinfectants kill them. Unfortunately, at that stage, the parasites shut down the respiratory systems of the hosts.”
“The CDC says that nothing they have tried to eliminate the parasites from living hosts has worked. Anything that will kill them would also kill the patient. Therefore, anyone who is bitten by them has to be terminated. Make no exceptions on that score, because if you do, you’ll just be prolonging the inevitable, as well as condemning them to a painful death.”
“Now, I’m sure you’re all wondering how these parasites can enter the human body. As of now, the CDC says by contact
with the body fluids of the victims, by a bite inflicted by them, or by contact with contaminated surfaces or items when their body is expelling the microbes.” Sergeant Shannon paused. “Does anyone have any questions regarding the spread of the parasites?”
When no one raised a hand, he continued, “Okay, now, as to the patrol schedules. First, you need to know what the news media isn’t reporting. The outbreaks are much more widespread than they know. All along the Tennessee River in Alabama, there have been spotty reports of lone zombies. Furthermore, the hordes coming out of Decatur aren’t just heading for Athens. They moved out along all of the major highways and side roads in every direction. This thing is going to spread like a wildfire, and if you’re not careful, you can get cut off and surrounded just like a firefighter fighting a forest fire.”
“Due to the nature of the spread of the zombies, it’s going to be necessary to patrol a lot more streets and roads than law enforcement can handle alone. Since Interstate 65 passes so near Athens, it is considered critical for the overall defense of the state. The same will be true of Birmingham and Montgomery, but those areas are other peoples’ problems. Ours is Athens. You’ll be going out in two man teams. It’s too dangerous to go out solo, or I’d break us down even more.”
“It’s not just going to be us. All reserve deputies and retired members of law enforcement are being asked to participate.”
Again, Sergeant Shannon paused and asked if anyone had any questions. This time, Herb raised his hand. “Yes, Corporal Bennett?” asked the sergeant.
“What are our long-term plans? If we couldn’t contain it in Decatur, what can we hope to do at this point?”