by Ricky Sides
The first thing they noticed when they pulled into the parking area was that the government research trailer was gone, as were most of the other vehicles associated with their visitors from the day before.
“Everyone, make sure you grab your weapons and magazine pouches!” Herb yelled as they got out of their vehicles.
Inside the armory, Herb saw the guardsmen present were already forming up for the assembly. He instructed the team to drop their gear on the floor near the door and get into the formation.
Sergeant Shannon walked out of his office with an agent of Homeland Security. He looked at the assembled guardsmen and spotted Herb standing with his team. He stopped at a podium that had been set up for the assembly and said, “All present and accounted for, Agent Marx.”
Herb was watching Sergeant Shannon carefully. The NCO’s face betrayed a tension that he had never seen before, and Herb had seen the man suffering plenty of stress in the recent past. Now the sergeant stepped aside and yielded the podium to Agent Marx with a defeated expression on his face.
“Good afternoon. I won’t waste time with a lot of meaningless information,” the agent said. “I’m here to inform you that our Commander-In-Chief has decided to exercise nuclear strikes against several locations across the country in an effort to halt the spread of the zombies.”
There was an outburst of chatter in the assembly hall. Sergeant Shannon took a step forward and shouted for the men to come to attention.
When silence once more reigned in the room, Marx continued, “You are all well aware that the attacks on Decatur did not halt the spread of the parasites in this region. Therefore, Decatur will be hit by a large nuclear weapon tonight. At the same time, Nashville will suffer a similar fate. There are also rural regions in Kentucky and Virginia that will be targeted in the hopes of stopping the spread there.”
“I thought Nashville had been cleansed!” one man shouted from the ranks.
“That’s what we originally believed. It appeared promising at first, but since then, there have been numerous reports of zombies around the city,” the agent stated bluntly.
The men in the assembly were stunned by the news. They stood waiting silently for the agent to continue.
“It is critical to the recovery effort that you men in the National Guard continue to serve our nation. To that end, the President has activated all National Guard Units. In the aftermath of the strikes, you’ll be needed to help assess the damage radius and maintain control of the population that is certain to panic,” Marx stated. “You’ll be alone here at first, but I’ve been told that there are plans to bring in units from other states that are unaffected by the spread of the parasites.”
“Critical to maintaining order will be the disarming of the population. Therefore, after the detonation of the nuclear bombs, your primary task will be door to door search and seizures.”
“Isn’t that unconstitutional?” asked one of the guardsmen.
“The Second Amendment is being suspended,” Agent Marx said brusquely.
Herb was stunned. He noted that Sergeant Shannon had gone pale and thought that he had probably been unaware of that detail until that very moment. The silence in the assembly hall was a palpable thing. Herb thought he could hear his own heartbeat in the stillness of the room for several seconds. Then pandemonium broke out as several guardsmen voiced their concerns at the same time.
This time, Sergeant Shannon was slower to call the men to order, but he finally did so when it became apparent that the yelling men had no inclination to stop of their own accord. “Attention!” Shannon screamed at the top of his lungs.
The outburst was slow to die out, but gradually the men came to attention and stopped talking. When silence once more filled the hall, Agent Marx said, “We anticipated your reaction. I’m prepared to address your questions at this time.”
“Good, because I’d like to know why I’m being told to violate my oath,” a private in the front row said.
“As a soldier, your primary duty is to obey the orders of your Commander-In-Chief. That trumps all other considerations.”
“Bullshit,” the soldier replied.
Agent Marx’s eyes narrowed in irritation. “Are you suggesting that you will not obey a lawful order by your Commander-In-Chief?”
“No. I’m saying that any order to violate the constitutional rights of Americans is an unlawful order. Therefore, I am under no obligation to obey it,” the private responded.
“Do you think you’re a lawyer or something? This isn’t a courtroom, son. You are in the National Guard and your unit is being activated. You will follow the chain of command and you will obey orders or suffer the consequences. Is that clear?”
“What part of no don’t you understand?” the private said, standing his ground despite the agent’s attempt to intimidate him into compliance.
“Sergeant Shannon, place that man under arrest,” the agent demanded.
“You may as well arrest me too, asshole,” another private down the line from the other said as he stepped forward. “Because I’m with him. I joined the Guard to contribute to the good of the community in times of emergency. Not to abuse the people by trying to take away their Constitutional rights.”
“Very well, add him to your list of arrestees, Sergeant,” the agent said dismissively.
Randy started to step forward, but Herb caught his arm. When Randy turned to look at him, he shook his head in the negative, indicating he shouldn’t speak up at this point.
“This is wrong,” Randy protested.
“I know, and we’re not about to do it,” Herb promised in a quiet tone of voice. “But keep quiet. I know what I’m doing.”
“Was there something you men wanted to share with us?” the agent asked.
Herb turned and saw that Agent Marx was staring in his direction. He assumed that he had noted the exchange and wanted to know what they had on their minds. He said, “If you mean me, then yes, I have a question.”
“Yes, I meant you and the man to your right,” Marx said, referring to Randy.
“We’d like to know when and how the nukes will be delivered,” Herb replied.
The agent visibly relaxed, since he was much more comfortable answering this type question. “As you know, no American President has ever ordered a nuclear attack on American soil. Prior to this zombie outbreak, such a thing was unthinkable.” Marx stared at the assembly assessing the mood of the people he was addressing. He frowned when he saw the stern faces on the men before him.
“Believe me when I say that this isn’t something the President wanted to undertake. A top level advisor suggested this action early on, but the President rejected it in favor of conventional warfare.”
“The attempts to contain the outbreak in Decatur with conventional forces failed, but you know that. What you don’t know is that, two days ago, the Army sent in an Infantry Battalion to try to eradicate the surviving zombies in Decatur. They came in from the south. At first, the 783 men involved in the mission, went in meeting little resistance. They were able to establish a firebase inside the city, but that base was overrun last night. It seems the zombies came from miles around. We think they were attracted by the sound of weapons fire. Bear in mind that, throughout that conflict, the Army had the close air support of several Apache helicopters. Yet, they were annihilated in a day and a half.”
“Holy shit!” one guardsman said.
Agent Marx nodded solemnly. “In answer to your questions, time is of the essence, so the strikes will be made tonight at midnight, so that most commuters should be off the roads after the shift changes. The President is using missiles. They will be ground burst only. Air bursts would be more efficient, but the EMPs from the air bursts would be much worse.”
“What can we expect here?” asked one of the guardsmen.
“They will be using 335 kt bombs. I expect you’ll see minor shockwave damage, but no firestorms here. Decatur will cease to exist. The fallout from the detonation will be
the primary concern here. You’ll have to follow strict decontamination procedures, and wear your protective gear.”
“When will we be ordered into the field to begin the recovery operation?” asked another of the soldiers.
“Tomorrow,” Agent Marx responded. “The prevailing winds tonight and tomorrow should keep the fallout here to a minimum. That could change in the days ahead, but long range forecasting has it holding that pattern for several days,” Agent Marx replied.
“So we are going to shelter in the armory?” asked Sergeant Shannon.
“Yes. The armory is your best place to be at the moment. I suggest you see to your equipment. If you need additional gear to work in a semi-hot radioactive environment for an extended period of time, then assemble a list of your needs and forward the requisitions.”
“What about the civilians between here and Decatur?” Herb asked the agent.
“You know yourself that there are very few. You’ve been guarding the civilian contractors, Corporal Bennett. Tell us, how many civilians have you seen along that road in the past two days?”
“I can’t recall,” Herb responded.
“Well then, let me refresh your memory, Corporal. According to your very thorough, reports, you have encountered five,” Agent Marx said. “And one of them was an eight-year-old boy, who has since tested positive for the parasites and had to be terminated.”
“You son of a bitch,” Randy said before Herb could stop him. “You didn’t have to tell us this way.”
“I’m assuming that you are Private Randy Lions, and that you were with the Corporal when he attempted to save the kid,” Agent Marx said. His dark eyes stared intently as he sought confirmation from Randy.
“That’s right. We’ve been trying to find out what happened to the boy.”
“He’s dead, Private, but before he died, he attempted to kill and eat a grown man who was sharing his quarantine cell. Both had tested positive for the parasites, so they were kept together. We had no idea that the one to change first would attack the other.”
“But you know now, don’t you,” Herb said quietly. It wasn’t a question. He believed that the agent probably had a role in an experiment to see what would happen. Most likely, in order to see if troops that had been infected could carry out their missions unmolested by the zombies. He wouldn’t put that sort of thing past the agent, or the government either for that matter.
The agent didn’t see the expression on Herb’s face because he was looking elsewhere in the room. “Yes, we know now,” he acknowledged.
“So you’re not planning to warn the civilians at all?” another man inquired.
“To what end? There is no way that they would be able to evacuate in time. All we would accomplish would be to paralyze the roadways in North Alabama with the mother of all traffic jams, and we need those open to bring in relief supplies. The death toll on the highways contributable to panicked drivers would be horrendous. More people would die trying to evacuate than would be the case with zero warning, because they would be trapped in their vehicles on the road instead of in their homes, where they would be afforded the greater protection of their shelters. Not to mention how many would be blinded when they stared at the detonation.”
“How many casualties are we expecting in the area?” another man asked.
“Two million plus,” the agent stated, once more plunging the room into utter silence. “Around a million will perish from the blast damage from the combined nuclear strikes, and another million from radiation poisoning, vehicular accidents as people panic, and lawlessness in the wake of the events.”
“You don’t have a problem with that?” asked the man who was supposed to be arrested for failing to follow orders.
“Of course I do,” Agent Marx said angrily. For the first time since the briefing began, the Homeland Security man’s veneer of calm acceptance slipped and his face betrayed his personal inner turmoil. “But the alternative is much worse, gentlemen. If we can’t stop the spread of this thing in the next five days, we will lose the entire country. Casualty estimates, if that happens, run into the hundreds of millions. In short, we’ll lose it all. The estimates run to almost one hundred percent.”
“Don’t you see that by disarming the population, you’ll be leaving them defenseless if they are attacked by zombies?” asked one of the men.
“That’s what the nuclear strikes are supposed to do,” countered the agent. “Look, I’m not naive enough to think we’ll get them all. Of course, a few will survive the nukes. Don’t worry. That’s where you people and law enforcement come into play, and if you need more manpower, remember that other National Guard units will be mobilizing to assist you.”
“You almost make it sound as if we should be grateful the government is about to nuke us and then order us to go out in the radiation to disarm our neighbors,” one of the men said angrily. “But you’ve yet to give us a valid reason as to why they should be disarmed.”
“What is it with you Southern men and firearms?” the agent asked in exasperation. “Look, we are going to be forcing some hard choices on some people in the near future. Emotions are going to be running high. The last thing we need is everybody with a firearm taking it upon themselves to resist the orders we’ll be giving in order to try to save as many lives as possible.”
“What is it with us? Mister, what is it with you? Most of our people believe in the Constitution. We feel the checks and balances are there for a very good reason. We don’t feel comfortable with orders that ask us to take away the rights our forefathers died to provide for us, and you can damned well tell your superiors in Washington what I said. I don’t give a shit. Our men will not be kicking in doors to take away the only means of protection the people of this area are about to have left to them. As my man already pointed out, that is an illegal order, and he would know. Private John Croft is an attorney. A damned good one, which is why I let him state the case for you,” Sergeant Shannon said with a grin on his face.
“You know you are throwing your career out the window, don’t you?” asked Agent Marx.
“You know, I frankly don’t give a damn.”
“Believe it or not, I wish you all the best of luck,” Agent Marx said, and then he turned on his heel and walked out of the assembly room. He went to his vehicle, got inside and left the parking lot.
Inside the armory, Sergeant Shannon said, “Corporal Bennett, you’re with me,” and then he left to go to his office.
“Get the ammo replaced, and requisition a lot more for the team,” Herb said quietly to Randy, and then he followed the sergeant who was just stepping through the door to his office.
“Come in and shut the door, Corporal,” Sergeant Shannon said.
Herb closed the door and then walked over to the sergeant’s desk.
“Have a seat,” the sergeant said as he stared at a map that lay open on his desktop.
Herb sat down and waited in silence as the sergeant studied the map before him. Finally, the NCO said, “Well, the shit’s going to hit the fan now. I’ll be replaced at some point tomorrow, if not sooner, and you can bet your ass that my replacement is going to order the unit to do the search and seizures.”
“What are we going to do when that happens?” Herb asked quietly.
“I can’t give you an answer to that question. I have no idea,” the sergeant replied. He sighed and ran his hand over his crew cut, as he often did when under stress. “I suppose some will still refuse. They’ll probably make an example of some men. Whether that example takes the form of imprisonment or a firing squad is the real question. Then again, they may just send in units from outside the community with the orders to disarm the population. They did that during the aftermath of Katrina, you know. Those Guardsmen followed the orders.”
“I’ve seen videos about that on the net and read articles as well,” Herb acknowledged.
“Either way, I’ll be replaced, and the next man to give you orders will not be as understanding about som
e things. You wanted to go feed your dog this afternoon. I expect you and Private Lions had better go handle that detail now.”
“Okay, Sergeant. I appreciate the chance to take care of Ox.”
“He’s a beauty. I saw him when I stopped by there yesterday afternoon. I noticed your walk-through garage door was ajar, and stopped to close and lock it for you. I took a look inside to ensure there hadn’t been a burglary,” the NCO said pointedly.
“Sergeant, I...”
Sergeant Shannon held up a hand for silence. “Stop right there. I don’t want to know the details. What I don’t know, I can’t repeat. I do know that you and Lions are best friends and suspect you two are thinking of pulling out. Tonight’s the night. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Oh, and when you go to feed the dog, make sure you take plenty of ammo. You might even want to draw a dozen grenades. It’s getting wild out there.”
“Sergeant, I don’t know what to say,” Herb said.
Sergeant Shannon grunted by way of reply, but didn’t look up from the map as he traced his finger along Highway 72 from Athens west toward Florence. “If I were leaving town, knowing what I know, I’d head due west until I could connect with Highway 20. I’d take that northwest into Tennessee.”
Sergeant Shannon glanced up at Herb then. “Leave the Humvee at your place. It’s too conspicuous. People would remember seeing it. Drop the diesel fuel cans it carries at the motor pool and get gasoline ones. Top them off at our pump before you leave. Call it a parting gift. You served me well, Herb. It’s been a pleasure knowing you.”
The sergeant stood up and offered his hand to Herb. Herb took it and shook the man’s hand firmly. “I’d like you to know that we had considered it, but decided to wait. We couldn’t leave you guys in a lurch.”
“Don’t let that stop you now. I’m about to inform the rest of the men that the smartest thing they can do is get out of town.” Sergeant Shannon’s eyes looked troubled as he added, “I don’t think Agent Marx was being completely honest with us. I think there’s more afoot than he was telling us at the assembly. Think about it. If they are prepared to nuke Nashville, then why the hell would they spare us when we’ve already had numerous outbreaks in Athens?”