Pandora (Book 5): Behold A Pale Horse

by McCrohan, Richard

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  Breakfast was being served at the Shannon household. The five people now there were just sitting down when they heard heavy vehicles on the street. Dwayne got up and looked out the window. He had forgotten about the quarantine and was stunned by what he saw.

  “Hey, Dad,” he said, “there’s a bunch of police cars and army trucks outside.”

  They all got up and ran to the windows. Patrick opened the front door and looked out. A police sergeant was standing next to his squad car with the large clipboard. He looked down at it, and then pointed to several houses on the block. The officers standing there then split up and each went to a residence that the sergeant had pointed to. Two Humvees and two army trucks were on the road. As the cops went to each house they were accompanied by one or two national guardsmen.

  Patrick watched them closely. They went up to five houses on the left of his. The first was Mrs. VanDerLinden, an old lady who was widowed and lived alone. They rang her doorbell and waited. He could see them look questioningly at one another. One of the guardsmen leaned over and looked into the living room window. He immediately stepped back and nodded to the cop. He, in turn, reached into his utility belt and came up with a can of spray paint. He shook it, then reached up and sprayed a large red X on the front door. Then he wrote the number 1 and circled it.

  Looking to the next house, Patrick watched another two walk up to his neighbor three houses down. That was Tom Cody and his wife Helen. They had two kids. He lost track of them behind a row of hedges that went around the house. He then noticed the police and guardsmen going up to the two houses directly across the street from his. One was the house owned by Ray Cortes and his wife Angelina. The other was the Dwyer house.

  “They’re going to my house,” Billy said.

  After knocking on the door, he saw the two men jumped back. The cop reached down and took out his spray can. He drew big X on the door and after pausing a second, wrote a 3 and circled it.

  “What are they doing?” asked Billy. What he saw really disturbed him. “Why did they write on my door?”

  “I think they are marking houses that have infected inside,” said Patrick, grimacing.

  He then saw the sergeant point to his house. But just before they began to come over, a disturbance started up the street. It seemed to be coming from the Cody house. He could hear shouts and then shooting. Several guardsmen quickly ran to the house, holding their rifles up. As they converged on the house Patrick again lost sight of them. He heard a scream, then shouts and a barrage of rifle shots. The guard leader, who was in the street, held his hand to his ear and spoke; he then quickly turned and shouted something. Two soldiers emerged from one of the Humvees carrying a stretcher. The sound of an ambulance came from another block, heading toward them. All of the police and soldiers were suddenly hyper-alert and on their guard. Simultaneously, shouting started from the Cortes household. Another cop ran up to their door.

  Everyone standing and watching kept shifting their gaze from house to house. The ambulance they had heard appeared on the street and pulled up in front of the Cody house. Two guardsmen came down the sidewalk; one of them holding his arm as his comrade escorted him to the ambulance. Then two guardsmen came down the walk holding the stretcher. On it was the police officer who first went to the house. He was bleeding profusely while another cop was holding something to his neck to stop the flow of blood. The EMS workers quickly took over.

  As they loaded both wounded man into the ambulance, two police officers came out of the Cortes house holding Ray Cortes between them. He looked very sick. His wife was following behind screaming at the police and crying. She kept hitting and kicking the two police officers walking with her husband. After the wounding of their two men, the police and guardsmen looked grim. Angelina started yanking on one of the cop’s arms, when another policeman rushed over and roughly threw her to the ground. She was cursing and yelling at them. He quickly grabbed her arms while kneeling on her back and then handcuffed them behind her. Another officer came and they dragged her to a squad car placed her inside. Patrick and the kids stared open mouthed in disbelief.

  A police officer and guardsmen walked up the sidewalk to Patrick’s front entranceway. He opened the door and stepped out.

  “Mr. Shannon?” the police officer said.

  “Yes sir, I’m Patrick Shannon,” he replied.

  “I’m sorry, sir, but we’re here for your wife, Anne Shannon,” the officer replied. “We have records that she was infected with the Pandora virus and had been to a clinic.”

  “That’s correct officer,” Patrick said, “but, she’s not here.”

  The cop stared at him hard. He was not in the mood for a runaround. “And where is she?” he asked.

  Dwayne and Erica came up beside their father and he put his arms around both.

  “She went out yesterday to run errands and she never came back. I phoned her over and over, but she never answered her cell. I… I don’t know where she is.”

  The officer nodded, unconvinced, and said, “All right, sir. Then you won’t mind letting us come in and check.”

  Patrick looked at him in surprise, saying, “What? You can do that?”

  The officer took a deep breath and blew it out. He was struggling to remain calm. Putting his hand on top of his service revolver, he looked at Patrick with a tired, yet deadly serious expression.

  “Look,” he said, “I’ve been dicked around all morning by people trying to hide their family members that were infected. Then, we go in and find them hiding behind the door. I’ve lost too many fellow officers who’ve gotten attacked by some infected zombie or whatever you call them by. And I’m real tired of this shit. So… I’d really appreciate it if you told me the truth.”

  “Honest,” Patrick said, “she’s not here. I wish to God she was.” He stepped aside. “Go and look if you want. I don’t care.”

  The cop nodded to the guardsmen and they both checked the house from top to bottom. Finding no one else, they left. The police officer paused that the door before leaving and said apologetically, “Sorry for your loss.” Then he went out.

  Patrick felt deflated as he watched them go. The finality of the cop’s parting words, Sorry for your loss, just knocked the wind right out of him. Erica and Dwayne stood with him. Both were angry.

  “Oh, my God,” Erica spat, “what a Stormtrooper.”

  Shaking his head, Patrick said, “No, Erica. No, he’s not. He’s just a man trying to do his job in an insane world and scared to death he’s not going to live through the day.” Then remembering the X on the door of the Dwyer house, Patrick said to his kids, “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

  Patrick walked across the lawn into the street. He walked to the police sergeant directing operations, who turned as he watched him approach.

  “What can I do for you?” he said.

  “I see you put a three on the door of the Dwyer house,” Patrick said pointing their door.

  “Yes,” the sergeant said glancing over, “two adults and a teen.”

  Patrick smiled and said, “Their son, Billy, is with me across the street. He was with my son today and I kept him at my house. I knew his parents were infected.”

  “Oh,” the sergeant said, “do you want us to take him? We have several children that have lost their parents.”

  “No,” replied Patrick, “it’s okay. I’ll keep him with us.”

  The sergeant nodded and said, “That’s a decent thing to do. You’re a good man.”

  “Billy is a nice kid,” Patrick said. “Besides, he’s my son’s best friend.” Changing the subject, Patrick continued, “This must be pretty rough.” He swung his arm toward the police and guardsmen on the street.

  The sergeant relaxed a bit and said with a weary grin, “You can’t even begin to know how bad. We’re down one third of our force because of the virus. I’ve lost an additional six officers to attacks by the infected. Even with the National Guard here, we’re struggling. The
y’re short men, too.”

  “Tell me, Patrick said. “Are they really zombies? Is this what happens to them?”

  The sergeant and looked at his shoes and took a deep breath. Looking back at Patrick, he hesitated, and then shrugging, said, “Zombies? I don’t know. People who’ve had Pandora before come down with this new mutation. And this one kills them. Yes, they die. That I know. But, then they… I don’t know, wake up? And then they attack other people. So… maybe yes. Maybe there are zombies.” He shook his head in frustration. “Shit, all I know is we’re fucked. And fucked royally. This shit has just started and already were losing.”

  Patrick looked at one of the army trucks. It had at least eight people inside. Most of them sat listless and half slumped over.

  “What about them?” he asked.

  The sergeant looked over. “Those poor bastards?” he said. “They’re already infected. We’re basically just waiting for them to die.”

  Looking at him with surprise at his candor, Patrick asked, “Then what?”

  The sergeant’s face turned to stone. “Then we kill them,” he said bluntly. He looked at Patrick who had a shocked expression. “Before they kill us.”

  Somebody twenty feet away yelled out, “Look out! There’s one coming out of the yard.”

  Everyone turned. The zombie came shambling out of the back of the brick home two houses down. It was a middle-aged man in his underwear. His T-shirt and boxers were drenched with blood. They could see that his neck and shoulders had ragged teeth marks covering them. Seeing the soldiers and police on the street, he hissed and began to come in their direction. He was moving at a brisk, stiff-legged walk. His teeth clicked together as he opened and closed his mouth.

  Then nearest four soldiers put their weapons to their shoulders and opened fire. The zombie’s head exploded in a mist of red and gray brain matter.

  As the zombie fell forward onto his lawn, another one appeared from the back. This one was a woman in a nightgown. Her chin and chest dripped blood. She paused, milky white eyes glaring, and snarled at them. The soldiers shot her as she began to move forward. She, too, crumpled in a heap.

  The sergeant paused, looking at the carnage, and then looked back down to his list. After a second, he looked back up and said, “Hm… 54 Brookside. That must be the Deavers. She was on our list.”

  He checked the name off on the list, then and then nodded at the guard lieutenant who turned around and gave orders.

  “All right. Donaldson, take the truck back to the high school and unload them in the gymnasium with the rest. Cpl. Cmeski, let’s move on down. We have a lot more streets to go.”

  Another cop approached the sergeant and pointed to the squad car that held Angelina Cortes. “What about her?” he asked.

  The sergeant glanced over. The woman had her head down and was crying.

  “I think she’s calmed down,” he said. “If so, screw it. Let her go back home. We are going to have a lot more problems as today goes on. She just lost her husband. Let her go. Come on, let’s move on.” He turned to Patrick. “I think you had better go back inside, sir. This is going to get much worse. I don’t think you want to attract attention here in the middle of the street.”

  “Thanks,” Patrick said as he turned toward home. “Good luck to you.”

  “We’ll need it,” the sergeant replied.

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  Jason and his parents sat in front of the television, watching the continual news programs and specials in horror. Their town’s quarantine program didn’t reach their street yet. In fact, it had only barely begun. The town of West Branston found themselves with a problem. The local police department had been hit particularly hard by the Pandora virus. More than half of local law enforcement had been out sick with the original virus symptoms. Now, with the new mutation happening, and with the symptoms of that appearing so rapidly, a number of officers have decided to tough it out and show up for roll call. Most had collapsed before they even went on patrol, but others turned in their cars. As a result, the police station in this upscale community had become a war zone. Coupled with the fact that the National Guard unit assigned to them had been siphoned off to assist in the city of Albany, this had left them with only three cars left to patrol with. These were completely overwhelmed with emergency 911 calls primarily involving the infected. So Jason, his parents Carl and Rachel sat and waited for the quarantine that would never happen.

  The news anchor for the local NBC affiliate had just finished a report out Boston. South Boston was ablaze. No one knew how the fire started, but now that whole section of the city was burning. The fire trucks fighting the fires were starting to come under attack from the infected.

  Now she was stating that the city of Chicago was declaring martial law.

  “This is happening so fast,” Carl exclaimed. “I thought we would be able to handle this better than the rest of the world did.”

  “What’s the president doing?” Rachel asked.

  As if in answer to her question, the newswoman had just announced that there was a special bulletin from the White House. The screenshot changed to a podium bearing the presidential seal that was located in the press room of the White House. The press secretary was standing in front of the microphones. She looked out at the audience of reporters and said simply, “Ladies and gentlemen… The President of the United States.”

  Striding out the side door with several officials and Secret Service, the president walked to the podium grim faced.

  “Good morning,” he said, brusquely, “I will make this brief and take no questions afterwards. As you already know, I have ordered the Pentagon to immediately begin withdrawing all of our military forces from overseas bases and bring them back to the United States. We will only leave a small holding force in each country.

  “In concurrence with that order, I have, in conjunction with Congress, temporarily suspended the Posse Comitatus Act. I am declaring this horrific Pandora 2 Mutation pandemic a National Emergency. And as such, the military will be used to protect our bases at home and to formulate and enforce a plan to take control of the situation and work with local law enforcement and National Guard to deal with the effects of Pandora.”

  Immediately, all of the reporters in the room started shouting questions at him. The President raised his hands and said, “That’s it. No questions.” And then he turned and walked off, leaving the room in turmoil.

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  The planes weren’t flying. That was the latest news. International flights had been discontinued almost a week ago, but now all domestic flights were canceled; and in fact the major airports themselves were closed. Only small local airports were running and even these were spotty.

  A large number of people had tried to fly when infected. This led to attacks in the airports as the sick individuals either succumbed to the virus in bathroom stalls or while sitting at the gates waiting. A few had even gotten on board and turned mid-flight. This led to a number of disastrous plane crashes throughout the country.

  Patrick and his now extended family were sitting in the living room flipping from one television channel to the next. New York City, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles – all were reporting massive outbreaks of infected attacks. The newscasters had now been telling everyone that all of those people who had been attacked and bitten by an infected person were themselves now infected. The CDC and WHO spokespersons were quoted as stating that research into the Pandora virus and its mutation to the Pandora 2 Mutation still had scientists baffled as to how the disease worked. They understood what he did, but because the initial virus was of extraterrestrial origin, they did not determine how it infected human beings. They did say that all of the world’s scientific organizations were feverishly working together at solving this puzzle and finding a cure. But as of now, an answer was not going to be forthcoming for a while.

  The only positive news was the uplifting videos of our troops landing at various military bases throughout the count
ry. The multiple broadcasting networks were playing this up; although the broadcasting networks were not as multiple as they used to be. The majority of cable channels were off-line. Any live programming, game shows and the like had gone on temporary hiatus.