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  “Really? What the hell is wrong with people? We’re all Americans here doc, we’re supposed to band together, overcome disasters and all that, not fight like animals amongst ourselves.”

  “The situation in the camps isn’t nearly as bad as it is in the countryside. Even though only a relatively small portion of the nation has been destroyed, there’s been mass chaos all across the states. It’s getting better every day, but the trucking routes are still shut down and people are beginning to get truly hungry, especially in the cities. If the president can’t get the food moving again, we may have an even bigger problem in the next couple of weeks.”

  What the hell is wrong with people, Bryce repeated to himself.

  ***

  04 May, 1525 hrs local

  Military Decontamination and Infection Control Site #7

  Fauquier County, Virginia

  “Alright Sergeant Dawson, tell us what happened,” the general said as he leaned back and placed his hands on his stomach. As a Lieutenant General, Jasper Reeves had let himself go a little softer than he was in his youth. He would never again lead troops on organizational runs or be in front of formations where his personal appearance was the first thing the young men and women under his command would notice. The years of riding a desk were starting to show in his posture and in the slight pooch in his abdomen, but he chalked it up to middle age and a long, distinguished military career.

  The two soldiers facing the general and Doctor Collins looked at each other briefly. They’d showered and shaved since the last time the doctor had seen them in the medical tent early this morning. They were even wearing the standard Army uniform instead of the different type of camouflage that he’d always seen them wear. Hell, he didn’t even know what their ranks were until two minutes ago when the men were escorted into the room.

  “Sir, we were inserted on 27 April, five days ago, near what used to be Arlington,” Hank said gazing directly into the eyes of the general. “We were advised to set up a perimeter and stay on site to conduct observation until we were relieved. Sergeant First Class Owen’s HAZMAT team was attached to us for the duration of the operation. If attacked, we were cleared to defend ourselves, but not to pursue the creatures beyond our perimeter.

  “Basically, we were ordered to conduct a hasty defense and not authorized offensive maneuver, which is Delta’s specialty, sir,” Hank continued, barely keeping his temper in check. “We didn’t have any contact in our sector; it was mostly over in Delta 456 and Delta 234’s areas. We underwent a mandatory decon every twelve hours, fifty percent of the men at a time. The situation changed at approximately one am last night when we were attacked from the rubble in the east.

  “This attack was different than our experience with them at the Pentagon. There was no probing or waves of attackers, they just rushed us. Thousands of them. The bulk of the force that attacked us was a different kind of zombie than we’ve seen before. The original men and women from the Pentagon have this pale, almost waxy complexion with patches of what appear to be bruises, and they’re fairly smart, as I’ve indicated in previous reports.

  “This new type, well, they looked different. They had a blue-gray skin tone with sores that leaked pus or something. They moved a lot slower than the other kind, but they more than made up for their lack of speed with sheer numbers. It’s my personal opinion that they aren’t as smart as the other ones either.”

  “Sir, the original type, the ones that are faster and smarter, appear to be the ones that were contaminated in the initial release of the pathogens at the Pentagon,” Dr. Collins interjected. “The newer versions, from what I can tell, are the results of secondary infections from exposure to the originals. Everyone I’ve examined that have become infected as a result of the transfer of fluids has been of the secondary variety. And I support Hank’s, I mean Master Sergeant Dawson’s, assessment that the primary group is faster, stronger and smarter than the secondaries.”

  “So now we have two different kinds of zombies running around Washington. Shit, make sure that makes it into our report to the president,” General Reeves said. He gestured to Hank, “Go on.”

  “We killed a lot of them, but when we started running low on ammo and it looked like we’d be overrun, I made the call to get my team up on top of the decon container and fight from there. We made it to the top without any real difficulty and were able to pull the crates up with us that we’d used as steps, by then the zombies were able to bull-rush their way through the wire within a few minutes. That’s when we began to actually run out of ammo. Sir, we burned through literally 8,000 rounds of ammunition between fourteen men.

  “The resupply helos said they were less than five minutes out, but my guys started taking some losses. We were totally out of ammo and the men were using whatever they had. M4’s became clubs and I used the short sword that I carry to cut and hack as many of these things as I could, they just continued to attack, climbing on top of each other to reach us on top of the container.

  “The resupply helos finally made it to our location and the Apaches that were with them made several gun runs across the large mass of zombies. They stayed and took the assault for, I believe, the first two runs, but then they turned as a group and high-tailed it back into the ruins. The gunships continued firing into the zombies and were lighting them up with both the 20mm and the 2.75-inch rockets.

  “We threw the ammo off the resupply helos and used them to evac us out. I put all seven of our wounded onto the first bird and it returned to the hospital right away. Two of my men were dead and we loaded them into the second bird, there was no sign of my three missing guys, literally nothing. The two dead men, Staff Sergeant Herion and Sergeant First Class Gutierrez began to turn while we were circling the site looking for my guys. Sergeant First Class Sanders and I,” he gestured to the man sitting beside him, “put them down. We stayed for an extra fifteen minutes searching the dead zombies but when the Apaches began to get low on fuel and informed us they had to leave, the Blackhawk we were riding on decided to leave as well.

  “By the time we got back to the hospital at Decon Site Three and were checked out by the medics to see if we had any bites, our teammates were already being treated in the ER. We ran as fast as we could to see if there was anything we could do. When we got there, Doctor Collins was already on site and you know the rest, sir.”

  Doctor Collins cleared his throat and looked at the general. “Sir, all seven of Master Sergeant Dawson’s teammates that were brought in turned into what the men are calling ‘zombies’. That’s a one-hundred percent infection rate for the secondary infection and a nearly one-hundred percent infection for the primary infection.”

  “What did we do with the men from Delta who turned? I can’t justify taking those men and using them to experiment on. Hell, we might get a mutiny from the troops if they knew that was their fate.”

  “I assure you general, all of them were ‘put down’ as Sergeant Dawson call’s it. Unfortunately we have plenty of test subjects that have been collected by our teams over the past week.”

  The doctor turned back to the two noncommissioned officers beside him. “You say they all retreated as a group after the helicopters fired on them. Was it like a frightened animal running away from harm or did it appear that they moved away as if they were obeying a command?”

  For the first time Jeff spoke up, “Doctor, those things aren’t afraid of shit. They kept coming right into a wall of lead. Hell, like Sergeant Dawson said, they stayed put and continued to press their attack even after the Apaches made a couple of runs. It was like they all turned at once and left en masse like they were following an order. It reminds me of that freak that we saw right when they escaped us at the Pentagon.”

  “Shit, I’d forgotten about that,” Hank said. “Doctor, remember that part in my report about the creature who seemed to direct the others to attack us so it could escape?”

  “Yes. I’ve went over your report several times and I find that part disturb
ing. That’s why I asked you if they seemed like they were running in fear or if they were conducting a sort of tactical withdrawal to save their troops, if you will.”

  General Reeves rubbed his temples, “So you think these things are communicating somehow, that there’s one that’s in charge and you think they’re using coordinated tactics?”

  “Sir, that’s roughly how I described it in my after action report when the creatures escaped from the Pentagon. They were definitely using some type of rudimentary tactics. They would attack us just a little bit differently each time, trying different formations and actions. It turned out that their short little probing attacks were really just to keep us busy and pinned in the courtyard until they could dig their way out.”

  “Well boys, this just got a lot more complicated with the addition of a second “variety” of zombies and these things showing communication skills. I’ve got to tell General Thompson these developments right away so he can inform the president.” The general stood up signifying that the meeting was over, “And Collins, I’ve given your request on that Air Force fellow some thought. You can tell Colton that he’s allowed out of solitary, but he is in no way allowed to leave the decontamination facility. He may be the only chance we have to cure this.”

  The remaining two members of Delta 378 jumped to their feet and saluted. The general rushed out of the conference room without even acknowledging that they were there.

  ***

  06 May, 0007 hrs local

  Mount Weather

  Fauquier County, Virginia

  “Well that changes things a bit, doesn’t it?” President Holmes asked.

  “Yes sir. The behavior was in an earlier report, but apparently it was overlooked.”

  “Who the hell overlooked it Pete? That’s a pretty damned big omission,” President Holmes asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

  “Sir, apparently the person who made the report wasn’t sure that the zombie had gestured towards them and that the others had reacted, so it was discounted as the soldier trying to attribute human characteristics to these things by one of our analysts.”

  “Look, I don’t care if it’s coming from the goddamned janitor, if there’s some type of intelligence on these fucking creatures, I want to know about it. This may be the biggest threat our nation has ever faced and I am not going to let this ship go down because we didn’t pay attention to all the available intel. Do you gentlemen understand me?”

  The president’s defense counsel all nodded their heads in agreement. “I’ve seen damned zombie movies people. If we don’t get this situation contained fast, it’s going to get out of control,” the president continued.

  “Did you see the video that came out on the internet yesterday? Those damn terrorists are actually praising the French for ‘saving humanity’ from the infidels’ medical experiment,” he said as he made quotation marks in the air. “So not only did they cause the situation, now they’re claiming the bigger, more destructive attack was the only way to save the population of the Earth. Why can’t we have these guys’ marketing team? I want our troops surrounding the city to begin moving in and closing the net to wipe out these zombies. Have we got our troops out of Afghanistan yet?” he asked looking at the Chairman.

  “Sir, the first of our light units should be back this evening. My last update was two hours ago, we had approximately 2,000 troops in transit over the Atlantic. We’re in the process of consolidating every piece of rolling stock at Bagram Airbase and at Kandahar to be lifted out.”

  “Good. Those first troops back go directly into the line around the city. How fast can we get more troops in here?”

  “Sir, we can expect about 3,500 troops a day for the first week, that’s roughly a brigade a day from the installations within driving distance, and then it drops significantly as we have to fly out our equipment as well,” the Chairman responded again.

  “Alright, keep our boys moving. We can’t afford for the UN to step in here and decide they want to place troops on our soil to take care of this. What else have you got?”

  “The First Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas retook Fort Sill, but they lost, let’s see,” the general shuffled through some papers laid out in front of him. “They suffered over 2,200 casualties because of the artillery the militia captured and used against our troops, of those 819 were killed. Final death toll from the militia attack on Sill is not in yet but reports say there are well over 4,000 bodies of soldiers, mostly trainees killed when their barracks were bombed. Looks like several of the barracks had been destroyed while the trainees were asleep.

  “At Fort Riley, the ousted First Infantry Division was able to retake the installation. The fighting wasn’t as severe there, but they still suffered 576 casualties between initially losing the base and the counterattack. Right now the death toll stands at over 158 for that division…”

  “Jesus, Pete. Anything else from that issue?” the president asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

  “No sir. Once we finalize securing those two installations, we can put another 15,000 troops into the fight here in D.C. But as it stands we’ve currently got about 35,000 troops surrounding the destruction zone from all of the services. We had to expand beyond just securing the city, sir,” the general explained. “We had to re-set our perimeter to include a much wider area because there have been reports of zombies behind our initial formations. Still no reports of anything outside of the radiation death zone, but we’ve decided to pull back and encompass the entire DelMarVa[18] area. After we get fully in place, we’ll be ready to begin closing the loop and filling behind them with the inbound troops. We can’t afford for a single one of those things to survive our sweep so we’re going to leave troops in each position and close slowly. As more troops arrive we want to set up concentric rings and keep going until we clear the city.”

  “Sounds like a solid plan to me. We just need all the troops we can get. Okay Rob, your turn,” the president said. “What’s the status of the civil unrest?”

  Robert Griffith, previously the Director of the FBI, but recently promoted to the Secretary of Homeland Security when the former secretary could not be found in time to be evacuated, cleared his throat and spread out a few pieces of paper in front of him on the table. “Sir, the situation continues to be grim in most areas of the country. As General Thompson told you, we’ve been able to retake control of the military installations that we’d lost, but at a significant loss of life.

  “The cities are starting to get back under control as the police and National Guard work together. It’s slow going, but we’re also seeing a rising number of average citizens who are fighting back against their local gangs then turning over control of the area to the law enforcement officials once they’re able to make it into the area.”

  “Christ, I knew our administration and congress was unpopular, but I had no idea that it would boil over like this, especially in such a short period of time…” the president said as his thoughts drifted and he shook his head.

  “Sir, it’s not all bad. We’ve secured Atlanta and with those militias being wiped out in Kansas and Oklahoma, we believe the large organized groups that had been training and planning for a collapse of society during the end of the world in December 2012 are gone. Now it’s a street battle with the gangs, something the cops have been doing for decades…”

  “Yeah, but on a hell of a lot larger scale,” the Chief of Staff cut in.

  “Now John, let the man finish,” the president admonished him. He held up his hands in a gesture of apology.

  The secretary glared at the president’s Chief of Staff. “As I was saying, the police have been fighting these gangs on the streets for decades, with varying degrees of violence. Now they are going at it full force and taking them out. It’s been a bloodbath sir, but we’re getting the country back together. One major question remains though sir, will the people who’ve formed groups to keep themselves safe be punished as criminals?”

  “
Let me make myself clear gentlemen,” the president said solemnly. “We cannot afford to lose this nation to either the zombie threat or the civil unrest. The citizens that are defending themselves, their families and their homes are not criminals. Hell, they’re heroes. Obviously, when everything is sorted out, there may be some who’ve went too far and they’ll be dealt with. This isn’t the goddamned apocalypse and I’m not going to let the memory of Allan Gosebeck or my current presidency be tarnished by this. We will persevere and we will take this country back. On our own,” he emphasized.

  “We can’t let the United Nations put troops on our soil. We need to get this resolved very quickly before the Security Council decides to take matters into their own hands. You all remember Libya and Syria a couple of years ago. It’s a little different since we’re not facing a cohesive group of rebels looking to overthrow the government, but those monkey-fuckers at the UN have been looking for ways to become the supreme force in the world and this would be a perfect excuse for them to come in here and demonstrate their power.”

  The president looked around the table, “Do I make myself clear? We need to resolve these issues now.”

  TWELVE

  09 May, 0939 hrs local

  Three Pillars Estates

  Indianapolis, Indiana

  A week had passed since Grayson was rescued at the pizza shop. In that time he’d helped the neighborhood watch set up a defensive perimeter, conduct two attacks to clear out a gang near the area and had almost been killed by a crazed drug addict with a screwdriver during a separate raid of a house that a bunch of drug dealers were staying in.