by David Spell
Scotty nodded and stepped back up to the door to watch. Bodies were stacked in the doorway. He began dragging them to the side so he could shut the door.
Chuck turned to check on the students. They were all in shock. Bell was standing over the girl zombie holding his baseball bat. He smiled at the big teenager. He wasn’t crying this time, McCain noticed.
“Sounds like more coming our way, Chuck,” said Smith.
He joined Scotty by the door and heard footsteps coming from both directions. “This is turning into the Alamo, Scotty.”
“At least they aren’t shooting back at us.”
“No, they just want to rip our throats out with their teeth and eat us.”
McCain’s radio crackled, “Team Two Alpha to Team One Alpha.”
“Team Two Alpha, we could use some help over here.” Scotty’s rifle barked once and then again as two more zombies came from the opposite end of the hall.
“That’s why I’m calling,” said Eddie. “We’re almost there. Don’t shoot us.”
The sound of several suppressed shots came from down the hallway. Jimmy stepped around the corner from where the biggest group of infected had come from. They moved cautiously towards the classroom. Chuck looked for Rebecca. She was in the middle of the stack and appeared to be fine. Eddie’s team surveyed the carnage. They had to work hard to get around all of the bodies in the hallway and the classroom. One enormous boy wearing a green and white letter jacket blocked half the hallway.
“You guys decide not to share?” said Jimmy. “I think you two have cleaned out the school on your own.”
“Team One Bravo to Team One Alpha,” Fleming called over the radio.
“Go ahead,” McCain answered. “Are you guys ok?”
“Yeah, I just wanted to let you know we’re almost to you. We would’ve gotten back sooner but we ran into another group of Zs and had to deal with them.”
A few minutes later, both teams were admiring the pile of dead zombies that littered the hallway. Rebecca snapped a few pictures on her cell phone.
“Not bad for a retired cop and a fireman,” Andy quipped.
“The few, the proud, the firefighters,” said Scotty, stealing the Marine’s tag line.
“Let’s get the rest of these kids out of here?” Chuck suggested.
Rebecca nodded. “Eddie and Chuck, let’s stay together and get everybody out and then check in at the CP. Plus, Chuck and Scotty are gonna need to reload. I think we can all use a break.”
Command Post, Peachtree Meadow High School, Friday, 1230 hours
By the time the two teams and the nine students had reached the side exit of the school, another twenty-three students and teachers had joined them. These had also been waiting for a chance to make an escape. In all, the two CDC teams rescued almost sixty students and teachers.
The other two police SWAT teams had just arrived and their team leaders were in the command post. Chuck, Eddie, Rebecca, and Josh joined them to give them what intel they could. Major Hughes was about to send the new SWAT teams in.
“So, can you guys give them a quick briefing on what to expect?”
Rebecca nodded. “We were able to get around sixty students and teachers out safely. They were all hiding in classrooms. There are so many hiding places inside that school, it may take a while to locate everybody and completely clear the building. Chuck, how many zombies do you think we put down?”
“Probably between a hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty. Does that sound right, Eddie?”
“I think it’s over a hundred and fifty. You and Scotty killed close to a hundred, just between the two of you.”
“Wow, that’s a lot infected people,” said one of the SWAT leaders. “Did any of your guys get hurt?”
“No, we were fortunate. Be careful, though. Me and that big guy over there,” pointing at Scotty, who was regaling his teammates with a combat story from Iraq, “we almost got overrun. This virus seems to have changed in just a couple of weeks. These infected seem to move faster, to be stronger, and to have better motor skills than the ones we encountered last time.”
The CDC teams drank some water and grabbed some sandwiches from a table set up next to the CP and reloaded their empty magazines. They had expended a lot of ammo, especially Chuck and Scotty. Rebecca was in the CP talking to the major, the Chief of Police, the principal, and several FBI agents. An Emergency Management Team from the CDC had just arrived to help the locals manage the incident.
Paramedics checked all the students that came out of the school and then turned their attention to the officers. Chuck and Scotty both had blood splatter on them from the close quarters fighting they had been involved in. The EMS personnel got them cleaned off.
McCain removed his kevlar lined jacket and wiped it down with the virus-killing solution. The girl who had bit him had left blood and saliva all over the right sleeve. He hung it across a chair to dry next to the CP. He put his body armor and web gear back on and slung his rifle over his chest.
After he had refilled his magazine pouches, Chuck noticed Jeffrey Bell standing by himself at the edge of the crowd in the parking lot. He was still holding the baseball bat. McCain walked over to him. “Jeffrey, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“My name’s Chuck,” he said, sticking his hand out.
Jeffrey shook it. “It’s nice to meet you. Thanks for getting us out of there. You and that other guy, that was, well, I thought we were all going to die. But you guys were good. I was so scared but you were so cool and calm. How do you do that?”
“I’ll tell you a little secret, Jeffrey. For a minute or two there, I thought we were all going to die, too. There were so many of those things and just the two of us shooting them. I really thought we were going to get overrun.”
“But you didn’t act like you were scared at all.”
“Fear is an interesting thing. We all have it. God gave us a fear reaction to protect us. It’s normal to feel afraid. In my line of work, though, I don’t have the option of running away so I have to figure out a way to override the fear factor. We do that by training, training, and more training. The fear’s still there but your training helps you keep fighting in spite of it.
“And that was what you did, as well,” Chuck continued. “You were scared. Sure. Who wouldn’t be scared when you have all those zombies coming at you? But you still stepped up and protected those other kids with your bat. I think you’re braver than you realize, Jeffrey.”
Bell hung his head. He’d never heard it put that way. Chuck’s words took some of the weight off of his shoulders. It would be a long time before he got over this but he was starting to feel a little better.
“Thanks for telling me that, Chuck. I’ve never thought of it like that before.”
“I see your jacket. You’re a football player, right?”
Jeffrey nodded. “I’m an offensive lineman.”
“You might want to think about trying out for the baseball team,” Chuck said with a smile.
Rebecca saw Chuck talking to the big boy on the edge of the crowd and then watched him walk towards the CP. She had been as shocked as everyone else at how many zombies he and Scotty had managed to put down. She also had a quick feeling of fear at how close he’d come to dying.
Johnson had been with Marshall’s team and they had had to shoot a number of infected students and teachers, also. They had only encountered a few at a time, though. It appeared that the zombies had converged on Smith and McCain. Thankfully, they were up to the challenge.
Chuck saw Rebecca looking at him and smiled. That was one of the things that she liked about him. Ok, two of the things she liked about him. His smile and the fact that nothing seemed to faze him.
“So, are we heading back in?” he asked.
“Not yet. Right now, we’re just on standby. The word from the two SWAT teams inside is that they’re not meeting many infected, just one or two, here and there. Maybe you and Scotty really did eliminate most of
them.”
“Just another day at the office,” he said. “So, maybe we can still go out tonight after all?”
Her first reaction was to say, “No.” After the tragedy and the carnage that they had encountered at the high school, she wasn’t sure she felt like being sociable or that she would even be good company. Seeing so many dead teen-agers had left her feeling numb inside.
When she looked into his eyes, though, she heard herself say, “I’d really like that, Chuck.”
He smiled and walked over to check on his men.
Flying over Atlanta, Friday, 1600 hours
Everyone was lost in their own thoughts as they flew back to the Centers for Disease Control Headquarters. Part of the reason that these men had been selected and offered jobs to work for the CDC was how they scored on the CIA’s proprietary software that was used in their hiring process. Of course, the officers didn’t know it was from the CIA. Each of the men was rated above average in how they handled stress and trauma.
Shooting infected teenagers could be one of those things that caused serious emotional stress for most people. Rebecca’s teams were able to process it quickly and move on. With the number and severity of the incidents increasing, there was no time to send men to counseling and therapy. The next call for help could be right around the corner.
The two other SWAT teams that had gone into the school after them had eliminated over fifty more zombies, but they were spread throughout the school. They had also located and rescued over a hundred more students and teachers. The high school would still need to be thoroughly cleared one more time before they could start the gruesome job of removing the bodies. And, of course, it was very likely that many of those bodies would reanimate because of the virus and would have to be put down. For the moment, however, the scene was secure.
Each of the CDC Response Team members had given a recorded statement to an FBI Agent. There were ten FBI Agents and forty police detectives on the scene. They would all be working together, interviewing police officers, students, faculty, reviewing video, and documenting and examining evidence.
It would be days and weeks before federal and local police had answers. The FBI and the CDC Emergency Management Team would be assisting the locals in reconstructing the crime scene and trying to find out how the infection in the school had started. Rebecca directed both Clean Up Teams to respond. They would help the local CSI units and the FBI in processing the location and in securing the hundreds of bodies.
It would also be days before the school had a good idea of the number of casualties. They would get a body count from inside and outside the school but they had no idea how many infected students might have fled to their homes after the attacks had started. This was a tragedy that was going to resonate deeply in the community and throughout the country.
The Chief of Police and the other brass in the command post understood that Rebecca’s two teams had turned the tide. They had rescued almost sixty students and faculty, but more importantly, they had eliminated the majority of the zombies. There was no doubt in anyone’s minds that the death toll would have been much higher if the CDC teams had not made entry when they did.
Besides the students, teachers, and parents that the response teams and SWAT officers rescued, at least another two hundred students and faculty had been able to escape out the front of the school because of the zombie hoard that Chuck and Scotty were fighting in the middle of the school. Those zombies were drawn to the sound of gunfire, which allowed many others to get out of the school safely.
The two teams would debrief when they got back to HQ and then head home for the weekend. Barring any other attacks like the one they had just left, they would be able to enjoy a weekend off. When the helicopter landed on the roof and discharged the officers, Rebecca handed out bottles of the anti-virus liquid so they could clean their boots before going inside.
The debriefing was finished and everyone was getting ready to leave. Scotty said, “So, who wants to go eat? I’m starving. Those little sandwiches that they had in the CP are long gone.”
Andy and Eddie bowed out. They were the only married guys in the unit and they both decided to go home and be with their families. Chuck was in his office, making sure he didn’t leave anything unfinished. Scotty stepped in, tapping on the open door as he did.
“Hey, boss, you going out to eat with us?”
“Not this time. I have something else going on.”
The big man nodded. “Rebecca said the same thing.”
“You guys have a good time,” Chuck said. “Try not to get arrested or end up on the news and I’ll see you on Monday.”
McCain stood and stepped towards his door, wanting to end the conversation. Rebecca was their boss and the men didn’t need to know that the two of them were going out on a date. Plus, if they found out, he would never hear the end of it.
Smith gave him a knowing grin. “Have a good weekend.”
“You too, Scotty. I’m glad you were there today.”
“We put a lot of Zs down, didn’t we? A few more and we might have both been going hand-to-hand. I saw you drill that girl who was chewing on your arm. It looked like you punched her so hard that you scrambled her brain and killed her. And the kick on that other one saved the day. Bad luck that we both ended up reloading at the same time.”
Scotty knew first-hand how hard McCain punched and kicked, having asked to spar with his team leader a while back. That was a mistake he would not make again. Chuck held up right his arm so Smith could see the bruising he had on his forearm.
“Yeah, for future reference, if you find yourself in that situation, try and punch them in the forehead. That’s where I hit her. It must have jarred her brain enough that she let me go. But, I think I still prefer shooting them to fighting them,” he said.
East of Atlanta, Friday, 1815 hours
Amir al-Razi sat in the one star hotel room and watched the television with delight. This attack at the infidel high school was an unprecedented success. The reporter on the local news channel did not have the exact numbers but estimated close to five hundred students and teachers had been infected and had died or had turned and then been killed by the responding police. That number was expected to rise. Sixteen police officers had also been killed with several others infected and not expected to live.
They were asking anyone who might have gotten bitten or injured by one of the zombies to report to a local hospital. The reporter stressed how dangerous this virus was and how easy it was to spread it to their friends and loved ones. An official with the CDC stated that, so far, the virus had proven to be fatal in every case. They were still working on a vaccine and felt that they were very close to having something that could be distributed. The goal now, however, must be to prevent the bio-terror virus from spreading.
The news report then showed a clip of the local Chief of Police talking to the media. He praised the efforts of his officers and other first-responders. He pledged that they would find those who were responsible for the attack and that they would be dealt with. Al-Razi laughed at this. Then the Chief thanked a federal law enforcement team, “whose quick and decisive response turned the tide of this terrible attack. Without these unnamed warriors’ help, this incident would’ve been much worse.”
Amir sat back in his chair. He knew exactly who these ‘unnamed warriors’ were. The Centers for Disease Control Response Teams, while not stopping him, had at least interfered in all of his attacks. They had kept him from being as successful as some of the brothers who had been entrusted with targeting other cities around the United States.
One of the reasons that he had targeted this school was that it was forty-five minutes from their headquarters. How had they managed to get to the school in time to make a difference? He had lost his only asset inside the CDC the previous week so he had no eyes and ears in that agency.
Azar Kasra had been trained by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security and had been one of his agents. She had worked as
an epidemiologist for the CDC and had provided him with some excellent intelligence over the last year. When he had received the order from his handler, Imam Ruhollah Ali Bukhari, to launch his attacks in Atlanta, he had passed the order on to Azar. She was to be his opening shot.
Kasra was given the green light to launch her attack inside of CDC Headquarters, infecting and killing as many as she could and then killing herself if the security officers or response teams did not kill her first. The goal was for her to inflict as much damage and cause as much confusion as she could. If successful, this would have pulled the CDC Response Teams back to their HQ and his warriors would have only had to worry about the local police.
Al-Razi had no idea what had happened. There had been no mention on the news about any attacks or incidents inside of the CDC. Kasra had just disappeared. He assumed that she had been arrested.
Amir had no way of knowing that when McCain had arrested her, he had recovered a number of other loaded syringes from her pocket, along with her .38 Special revolver. During her interrogation by Rebecca and Chuck, Azar had broken quickly and given up most of what she knew. That information had assisted the teams in their response to the coordinated attacks on Atlanta. Azar had then been whisked away by the CIA for further interrogation by a professional team of agents.
The reports from other parts of the country showed a slow but steady increase in the number of infected. The attacks from the previous week had local and federal law enforcement and National Guard units scurrying to contain it. Entire neighborhoods in some of the big cities had been infected. The goal of the government in Iran was to see America destroyed by this virus. The government of the United States had shown themselves weak and inept under the previous Presidential Administration. The Supreme Leader in Iran did not feel that the current President would be that much different.
Simultaneous attacks had been launched in Atlanta, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, and New Orleans. The news reports were now showing that the virus was being spread beyond those cities as infected people fled for the false security of the suburbs. The attacks in the Atlanta area, while significant, had not had the impact that the other cities had experienced.