by Pike, JJ
APRIL 3
Everything has changed. Everything.
The Atlantic is blanketed in green dots. Green dots = MELT.
The SAROPS models were right. The floating ship, the surfboard, and the molecules of MELT were mostly contained in New York Harbor. The garbage patch slowed what little MELT had made it out to the open waters. There was hope.
But we hadn’t figured in one crucial detail.
The rats.
The rats that once dominated Manhattan took their new disease into the water and floated away: Lighter than the surfboard, heavier than a molecule of MELT.
MELT has reached Europe on the backs and guts and fur of rats. No question.
People are fleeing east toward Russia. Nuclear warheads are pointed west. At us. At America. They want to nuke MELT out of existence. They’re willing to flatten the entire United States. Even though there’s no proof that will work.
The alternative is for us to do something.
There are maps and charts and whiteboards and scientists and everyone talking all at once. What they’re talking about is pure madness but if we don’t do something, NATO et al. will.
Someone, somehow (probably us; maybe me?) is going to force Nature’s hand.
Colonel Livio was curt and to the point. “We’re going to seed the clouds and halt the spread of MELT.”
“With what?” I asked.
“You tell me.” She turned back to the enormous screen that covered the far wall. “Seed the clouds. Rain anti-MELT on the infected region. Stop nuclear war.”
“That simple?” She either missed my sarcasm or chose to ignore it.
“That simple.” She marched away, her entourage matching her step for step. “You made this mess, you get to clean it up.”
Those are my marching orders: create anti-MELT. Now. Succeed where everyone else has failed. Create anti-MELT or face nuclear annihilation.
MELT Book 10
Available Here
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