“And I know!” Her voice rose.
“I know that the only way we are going to survive is if we help each other. And by extension we need to help others – as many as we can. Because we have been given a chance... We can do good. We need to do good!” She considered her next words. “Because if we do not, we will be filled with regret and shame, as I have been.”
Her face dropped. “As I am.”
Rosa struggled for a moment. So much so that Shelley grabbed a tighter hold of her, and Christine moved in to support her other side. Rosa stood there, practically being held up by the two other women. But the vigor and the conviction in her eyes had not faded at all. It kept the rest of the group frozen in place.
“We have a chance. Maybe just one chance. To save our souls. Jack gets it. And Maria. And now I do too. If this group wants to hunker down, well that’s fine. But if there is a cry for help, we need to answer it. If this group refuses to help those in need... Well then I guess I don’t want to be a part of this group.”
It looked like she had more to say, but she swayed dangerously at that moment. Half a dozen people sprung into action. Rosa was gathered up and carried back down to the clinic. Jack watched her being carried out by Joe, Keith, Shelley and Christine; attended by Nancy and Claire. It reminded Jack of royalty being carried by loyalists.
Jack looked around and saw firsthand the effects of Rosa’s speech. One or two still looked confused. Several others were deep in contemplation.
And the rest... The rest was converted.
Chapter Sixty-one
Kevin
November 3, 1:15 P.M., Undisclosed location.
The projector turned on with a soft hum. Several moments later the bulb had warmed up enough to splash light on the far wall. Four men sat around a table and one was standing, leaning against the near wall.
With a few clicks, the light was replaced by a slide. The presenter started to speak but was interrupted almost immediately.
“Hold on.” The man leaning against the wall had spoken. His voice was soft yet full of authority. “Tell me again. How, exactly, did this happen? How did we create a zombie apocalypse?”
The presenter, uncertain how to answer, looked around at the other three men seated at the table. One of them spoke up.
“Sir, the nanobots had broadcasting and networking abilities. We required that, in order for the kill switch command to spread across the world. They also had a cognitive survival directive within their programming. We needed this to ensure that the nanobots would seek out and travel to energy sources. Testing had proven that the nanobots would travel to the brain, which would in turn ensure its lethality. The extermination of the subject. This is how it worked in our tests.” The speaker said with a nervous glance toward his superior. The man returned a flat stare.
“Um, we have problems fully explaining it, but the bots... well, they hijacked the victim’s neural synapses. They effectively took over functions of the brain. But they also networked together, giving them a collective consciousness. They are working together to keep the body of the victim animated. Their primary programming still functions, but now they are using the host to find and destroy any non-networked entity. Basically, any living being. We did not foresee this...” The speaker’s voice faded.
“Did not foresee this...” The leader repeated under his breath.
“Look at it this way, sir.” A second man continued. “We have remained undiscovered, or even beyond suspicion, due to this distraction. It’s... It’s kind of a blessing in disguise.”
Kevin frowned and pushed himself off the wall. The man flinched, knowing he had said the wrong thing. Kevin was going to berate the man but instead stepped up to stand directly behind the presenter. “Ok.” He placed his hand on the presenter’s shoulder. “I’m ready. Show me.”
The presenter swallowed and launched into the slideshow.
Initial Infection Rates – Continental
Africa – 99.5%
Asia – 99.2%
Europe – 94.9%
Oceania – 96.8%
North America 96.5%
South America 99.1%
The infection rates were expected. But that was supposed to be the end of the story. They were supposed to die. Not get up again...
The next slide was scary. It showed higher than expected attrition rates. The leader had known that more people would die; Essential services would fail, survivors would have accidents, some people would lose the will to live.
And the babies... The babies would perish in their cribs. That was a difficult truth to accept.
But then the unexpected had occurred, and many people died at the hands of the undead. That included people of the Order. This was unacceptable.
Kevin briefly wondered how the other colony was doing. Certainly, Europe has more survivors? But then again, they didn’t have the freedom of gun ownership like they had here.
No, I need to worry about my piece of the puzzle.
“What’s happening over here. Show me the North American numbers.” He instructed.
“Yes sir.” The presenter started flipping through slides but was interrupted again.
“Wait. What’s the latest news from the president’s bunker?” Kevin asked.
Another man at the table answered. “Yes sir. As you know, it has been confirmed that the President is dead.”
As if that should cheer me up. Hell, I liked the guy.
“Our team is still in place and reports further attrition occurring as per plan. They will be ready to make their move within the next twenty-four hours. The team believes that this transition will be seamless.”
So, whatever is left of the armed forces will fall under our control tomorrow. Whomever survived, that is. But more importantly all the military assets will belong to us... Kevin nodded in satisfaction.
He looked up. The other men were waiting. He tapped the presenter on the shoulder to signal him to continue. Several seconds and slides later, he found the right one.
Population Burn-down – North America (Est.)
Estimated persons free of infection – 17,300,000
North America. Not Mexico, that’s for sure. Kevin mused.
Mexico had pretty much been wiped out. It was likely that there were more survivors in Canada than there were in Mexico.
Less: Estimated Attrition – 12,200,000
*US Government Events – 1,600,000
The leader focused briefly on that line. The government had used some hard-handed tactics in dealing with the situation. Initiating martial law had claimed its victims. But they had done much worse. They carpet-bombed San Diego, Los Angeles and Anaheim. And when they weren’t even sure of the results, they bombed San Jose and San Francisco too. All pointless. To no avail.
Safe Zone Failures – 5,700,000
What a goddamn disaster.
For once the government had acted too soon, rather than too late. By acting too soon they populated their safe zones with a bunch of infected. Practically all safe zones had fallen due to this oversight and other mismanagement.
Various/Other – 4,900,000
That one hurt. Images of mobs of undead tearing apart survivors flashed in Kevin’s mind. He knew that this included things like injury, sickness and starvation – but feared that the main culprit was violence. He also feared that this number included many members of the Order.
The last line summed it all up.
Estimated Surviving Population November 1 – 5,100,000
We’re down to five million living souls.
Kevin digested the statistic. That’s half of the ten million we were aiming for. And it’s not over! How many more are still going to perish?
He continued to look at statistics. He saw them, but hardly comprehended them. His mind kept going back to that total number.
Ninety-nine percent... Gone! Kevin knew that many more were going to die before it was over.
“This is a disaster.” He left those words hanging in the
air, as the men at the table shuffled uncomfortably under his gaze. Finally, he broke the silence again. “What can we do. Now. To save the people.”
One of the men gathered enough courage to speak up. “Yes, sir. I did get the following information that might interest you.” He said with a hopeful expression.
Kevin nodded, encouraging the man to continue. “Our research team has determined that an electromagnetic pulse can disable the nanobots.” The leader just stared at the man, so he rummaged through some papers in front of him and continued. “According to our estimates, we could disable over ninety percent of all nanobots in the United States by means of three tac–”
“United States?” The leader interrupted.
With a nod, the man apologized. “Sorry sir, the f–former United States.”
“Are you regretting what has occurred, Peter? Are you having second thoughts about our mission?”
“Oh no! Of course not, sir!” The man nearly leapt out of his chair in his haste to convince Kevin.
Kevin assessed the man. He was in his early thirties. Horn rimmed glasses perched firmly on a slightly crooked nose. Clear blue eyes stared back at him, with a healthy mix of respect and fear. Wispy blond hair combed slightly forward to cover a receding hair line.
“It’s ok to feel regret, Peter.”
Kevin’s expression had softened. He walked down the table and sat at his chair with a soft sigh. He could feel the heat blowing at him from the fan inside the projector. It was not altogether unpleasant.
“We’ve done something terrible. We believed. Or rather, we believe in what we did and why we did it. But it was terrible, just the same. Brenin... Our beloved Sentinel... He cried when we set this in motion.”
“He carries the burden of this... severe verdict. But carry it he does. For us, and the greater good. For the future we all desire.” He met the eyes of the others at the table as he said this. Looking for doubt. Looking for defiance.
He saw none. “Continue, Peter.”
Peter cleared his throat and unnecessarily pushed his glasses further onto the bridge of his nose.
“Well sir, we believe that we can disable most of the nanobots over North America if we were to explode three nuclear devices. We have the locations and altitudes worked out, and only n–”
“I’ll stop you there, Peter. This is out of the question.” Kevin stated calmly. “An EMP would also disable many facilities, and seriously harm our satellite groups.” The others at the table nodded their agreement at this.
With a small shake of the head, he continued. “No. No, that’s not going to work.”
The room was silent for several long moments. The only sound heard was the hum of the projector, it’s fan attempting to keep the temperature within the device within operational limits. The leader stared at the projector for a few moments, lost in thought.
He turned his head to face the presenter. “Sage Johnson, can you skip ahead to the status update pertaining to our operations. I want to know how we are doing.”
Please let there be some good news. Our Sentinel needs this!
Sage Johnson flipped through the next few slides to stop on one titled ‘Operation Sanctuary’.
Status as of November 1
Primary Domicile
HQ Pod – All systems operational.
224 members, Attrition 0
31 associates of Ministry, Attrition 2
Kevin frowned. Two apostles had committed suicide. He had very little use for apostles himself, but Brenin put a lot of stock in spiritual guidance. Apparently, two out of the ten apostles couldn’t handle the knowledge of what they had done.
‘We’re supposed to be the good guys’ One of them had written down before taking his own life. Fools. There are no ‘good guys’ in this world. Kevin thought bitterly.
He focused on the next slide as it came into view.
Pod 1 – All systems operational.
78 members, Attrition 0
2 associates of Ministry, Attrition 0
Pod 2 – All systems operational.
77 members, Attrition 0
2 associates of Ministry, Attrition 0
This continued for pods three through eight. No ‘attrition’ as they called it. It all sounded good.
But Kevin had expected that. They had the best security measures, plenty of stockpiles of food, water, medicine and fuel, as well as several redundancies built in for power and air.
It was the satellite locations that worried the Paladin. Sure enough, the next slide confirmed his fear.
Satellite Alpha – Status unknown
228 members, Attrition unknown
8 associates of Ministry, Attrition unknown
“Satellite Alpha. That’s in Phoenix, right?”
“Yes sir. We lost contact with Alpha on October 24th and have not been able to hail them since.
The paladin nodded and continued down the list.
Satellite Beta – All systems unresponsive, satellite considered destroyed
424 members, Attrition 100% (Est.)
12 associates of Ministry, Attrition 100% (Est.)
Satellite Beta was located in San Jose, California. One of the places that the government had bombed in all their wisdom.
Maybe some of them got out. Kevin hoped.
Satellite Charlie – Multiple system failures, considered overrun
Security – down
Comms – unresponsive, last transmission; distress signal
310 members, Attrition 100% (Est.)
12 associates of Ministry, Attrition 100% (Est.)
Sage Johnson rattled off the statistics, one satellite location after another.
The paladin put his elbows on the table and rested his forehead on his hands. Sage Johnson hesitated for a second, then continued. When the end of the list had been reached, Kevin tallied the results in his head.
Out of twenty-four satellite locations, only four were operating with all systems operational and little or no attrition. Another six had some problem or another but were most likely not in any serious trouble. The other fourteen satellite locations were unresponsive, considered overrun, or were transmitting a distress signal.
“How....” He couldn’t continue. There was a pregnant pause as he tried to come up with a cohesive thought. The paladin lowered his hands, but his head remained bowed. His eyes were closed.
When he spoke, his voice was little more than a whisper.
“I think that I know. But I need you to tell me. How did this happen?” The Paladin asked the question, hoping to hear something he did not know.
“I will have to tell Brenin, and pray to Summuh.”
The last member at the table spoke up. “Sir, we were simply not prepared for the dead to rise and attack the living. We assumed that they would simply pass away–”
He hesitated as the paladin looked up sharply. There was a moment of awkward silence, until the paladin nodded for the man to continue. “Go on, Sage Wang.”
“Um, ... As you know, the satellite facilities weren’t as secured as our home base.”
Sage Wang was right. Several satellite locations were nothing more than an apartment building in some downtown area. These buildings included the satellite population, but also usually a large group of others. Those others were supposed to get sick and die. Not rise up as nearly indestructible zombies to attack the people of the Order.
Most satellite locations had little to no security measures. One was little more than a tent city inside of a warehouse. Interestingly, that one was still operational...
They were prepared to deal with the odd looter. Prepared to weather the chaos as all services collapsed. They were never prepared to defend themselves against hordes of undead.
Sage Wang kept speaking, not noticing that the Paladin was far away with his thoughts.
“–ansport them to more secure locations.”
“Sorry, what did you say?” The paladin snapped out of his reverie, knowing he missed something vital
.
Sage Peter Torrance adjusted his glasses as he spoke. “What Sage Wang was referring to, sir, is that we need to act quickly. Before more satellite locations are overrun. It is imperative that we save as many people as we can.”
“I agree with you, Sage Wang.” Kevin nodded. “But we need our military in order to do this.”
The paladin turned to the last man seated at the table. “Sage Enright, what news do you have about our military?” Kevin had been getting intelligence reports every day, so knew that the news would not be good.
“Sir, as you know, we have lost contact with nearly all of our army infiltration teams. Up to last night, Captain Shaw had been the only one that we managed to establish contact with.” Sage Enright supplied.
“We had over a thousand soldiers out there. Are you saying they’re all dead?” Sage Wang was not privy to the daily intelligence reports. This news hit him like a slap in the face.
“No, Sage Wang. They may not be dead. However, we have failed in our attempts to contact them, and they were under orders not to attempt to contact us. We still have contact with three Optios in the field, and one Captain has re-established contact as of last night.”
“Three?” This surprised Kevin. Yesterday morning’s report had double that number.
“Yes sir. Three Optios have been in touch with us over the last twenty-four hours. The others... The others have not and are unaccounted for.”
“Oh Summuh!” Kevin exclaimed. “Those Optios were specially trained. There were twenty of them out there!” Kevin couldn’t hide the disappointment in his voice.
“But sir,” Sage Enright spoke up again. “The Optios were only to contact us when an opportunity to do so presents itself. It very well could be that all of them are still active!”
Kevin directed a half-hearted smile towards the Sage. “Ok. Who were they?”
“The Optio Silverman, Optio Mclhenny, and Optio Brown.”
“Alright. You mentioned one Captain... Who is it?”
“The Captain that made contact is Captain Janzen. He is in Boston. His unit is down to about half strength. That’s about a dozen men...” Sage Johnson trailed off as the Paladin grimaced.
Apocalypsis Immortuos | Book 1 | Syndrome Page 42