Burning Mold

by Jefferson Nunn

  "I just received word from our scouting party that a civilian aircraft has impacted the Dallas International Airport, sir. Orders?" asked Colonel Baker, ready to go against orders if it was necessary to see that the situation did not develop into a hell on earth scenario.

  "Do what you have to do," said Senator Mynard before disconnecting from the call. The rest of the people involved in the call were immediately going into a panic as the Colonel tried to put order into the situation.

  "This is no time to go running around like headless chickens. We have to organize and continue with this operation. What civilian units are in the area?" asked Colonel Baker.

  "We have teams from Homeland Security approaching the airport through helicopters and land vehicles. Some members from other branches are also joining the effort to prevent the terrorist threat from moving out of the airport. The perimeter is the Dallas International Airport and the surrounding highway sections," said Reliable. Colonel Baker assumed that at this point if everything was moving forward as he suspected, there had to be more than one agent moving around Dallas who was effectively working in conjunction with others. "We also have units around Dallas that are currently mobilizing, including SWAT teams, local police, the Sheriff’s department, and other dependencies."

  "Good. Have them establish a hard perimeter and inspect vehicles trying to get out of the area. If the terrorist has already delivered his payload inside the airport, it is possible that they are doing so around Dallas," said Colonel Baker.

  "Loud and clear, Colonel. We will have units go around the Dallas area inspecting vehicles. We will also look at additional information on the main suspect and begin interrogations," said Reliable and disconnected from the call.

  "I believe I still have the CDC on the line with me?" asked Colonel Baker. Confirmation came from both Howard and Cheryl. "I need to know how we are going to build these bombs and deploy them in the airport. We need to have a way to clear this out as fast as possible."

  "Yes, Colonel, but you need to understand that deploying dioxide chlorine bombs inside such an area is dangerous to human beings in high concentrations," said Cheryl.

  "Understandable, but remember what Jefferson said about this," said Colonel Baker. Cheryl had no idea what he was talking about. "The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

  Cheryl was shocked by this statement. She could not and would not abide by this way of thinking, but Howard beat her to it.

  "Colonel, these are civilians and Americans. We also do not know how many foreigners may be involved in this, and we may be on the brink of an international incident if we take such drastic measures against one particular individual," said Howard. He could foresee that the political bomb this would drop in Washington and the international scene would have terrible repercussions in his career. Being the man that helped the military bomb civilians with chemical weapons during peacetime was not something he wanted in his resumé.

  "This is understandable and don't get me wrong. The only reason I am asking about this is to understand our possibilities. If it may come to that point we may need to have those ready to deploy for the worst-case scenario. For now, we will be deploying around the airport and trying to rescue as many civilians as possible while we neutralize the current threat," said Colonel Baker, but in his mind, he was already set on what had to be done. The fact that some civilians would die for the benefit of the rest meant that he was taking the best course of action instead of sacrificing his own men in what could potentially be a massacre.

  "Colonel, I do not trust that you have the best intentions here. I cannot in good will assist you in this matter, knowing that this is inside the main options that you have to deal with the situation," said Cheryl. Colonel Baker smiled and shook his head from side to side while licking his lips.

  "Look, lady, if you do not wish to help us, that is fine. We have our own team of people that can work on this. If you had not mentioned this solution to us, someone else would have, so don't take it personally, but you are making yourself look far too important," said Colonel Baker. Cheryl took it to heart to be dismissed so easily, but at the same time she did not want to fight with a person that had such a broken idea of how to fix this situation. "Now if you excuse me, I have a problem to solve. If I need something else from either one, I will contact you."

  Chapter 27

  Broken Arrow

  There was a horrible ringing going on. Jean could feel her body coming back to her, but for a moment she thought she was already gone from this world.

  It happened too quickly. There was a lot of noise coming from the outside, then a horrible shaking sensation that made her feel the floor would open up and swallow her. The next thing she knew there was debris covering her. Her body felt as if something had run her over, and an incessant whistle-like noise invaded both ears.

  She was a survivor in the complete sense of the word. As she slowly managed to get out of the debris, the sight was astounding and horrifying. Part of the Dallas International Airport had collapsed. There was a raging fire going on not too far from her. As her sight continued to fix itself onto one location, she thought there was something on the ground.

  Walking was a complete pain. Only a few steps forward did she notice the rebar that had crossed her left shoulder, but she was not in panic. The shock was so great that she could not comprehend what it was or why it was there in the first place.

  Once outside the security room she found herself in a nightmarish world. The hellfire that was consuming the airport was increasingly growing without control. What she had observed on the ground around her were corpses. She could not make out a number. Some had piled up from the impact.

  As she stood there for a moment to assess the situation, there was a terrible noise coming from one of the exits. A person engulfed in flames moved towards her. The howling screams were either coming from the person himself or from the terrible flames consuming him, but whichever was the case, the person continued to advance at a considerable speed.

  Jean began to walk as fast as she could, trying to sprint whenever her body allowed it.

  --

  Colonel Baker had landed with the 72nd Brigade Combat Team in the vicinity of the airport. His team was rapidly deploying communication arrays to re-establish links with his peers back at the base and with other units in case more support would be required.

  At the same time engineers were already engaging local communication channels to contact the local authorities, as well as the ones inside the airport. The Dallas area civilian units were advancing towards the airport, but the traffic had completely blocked them from this possibility any time soon. Assistance would be arriving through helicopters and on foot when feasible.

  Colonel Baker did not like this development. He had assumed that the terrorist would be taking over the local highways and any method of going in or out from the airport in order to prevent the local authorities from attending to the situation, but those local authorities were not counting on a special biowarfare unit being in the vicinity to move in as fast as they could. With other divisions coming in from Fort Hood and Fort Worth, the biowarfare unit was about to take this matter to a rapid resolution without making much public ruckus.

  An external assessment by recon units had revealed some disturbing information. With the airport ablaze and being engulfed completely by the rapidly advancing fire, there was a large concentration of people inside some of the common areas of the airport.

  They were not moving. They were either just standing around or walking very slowly without a particular direction. There was no indication as to how they were being manipulated by the terrorist, but it was clear that they were about to become victims of this madman’s actions.

  Colonel Baker had to act fast on this. He designated sniper teams to take the high ground and to use the control tower as their vantage point, coordinating the movements of other troops from the high ground as the rest of the team mov
ed in fast to rescue as many of the civilians as possible.

  Helicopters were still roaming around the airport, giving additional support and visual confirmations as soon as these were needed for a quick exit. They would drop off their cargo and move to a close support area they had set up next to Fort Worth.

  He was ready and getting everyone to move in when one of the communication engineers asked for his immediate attention.

  “Sir, we are getting contacted from the inside,” said the engineer. Colonel Baker had attended the exhibition and was as shocked as the rest of the engineers by what was showing up on a screen that was not intended for visual communication.

  “What the hell is that?” asked Colonel Baker at the sight of a man almost completely covered in black mold, his facial features stuck in weird shapes and his flesh slowly decaying in some spots.

  “Two can play the same game,” said Steve. His face made little effort to move. His lips were almost tight and his voice sounded more like a croak. “We will succeed and run you over. And from you our evolution will continue. Nothing can stop us.”

  “How did this get into our channels?” asked Colonel Baker. The engineers were doubtful of any hacking or interference as there was nothing could have been achieved in such a short span of time. Their communications were as secure as they could be, but they suspected that someone from their team or elsewhere could have provided the hacker with the information required to interfere.

  The other problem they were facing was how the visual signal was reaching them. None of the communication devices currently in their power had the capacity or need to do that.

  Steve laughed maniacally as they continued to discuss how or why this was feasible. At first they ignored this, but they remained silent when the laughter had ended and Steve continued talking.

  “You cannot hide from us. We can see you, Colonel Baker, and your unit, the 72nd Brigade Combat Team. You are no match for us. None of you or no matter who comes after you, we will kill and consume everything around us,” said Steve. Colonel Baker demanded to know how this communication continued to happen. Then the feed stopped.

  The engineers had been trying to trace the source and could only point at the inside of the airport. Nothing was certain as they could not properly identify what had produced this signal or how they had managed to get into the communication array.

  Colonel Baker was furious at this development and ordered their team to limit communications as little as possible through their feeds and to change channels as often as every fifteen minutes to prevent this person from getting sensitive information.

  --

  Steve now lived in a mixture of reality and the Well. He was in constant contact with his moldies and at the same time with the rest of the Collective and the Mastermind.

  -We continue to grow. Nothing can stop us.

  “Nothing will stop us,” said Steve as he walked around the first floor of the airport. His personal objective was to find Jean and consume her himself. His moldies, on the other hand, were on standby for when the eventual fighting began, and he had prepared his soldiers to take action.

  There was a mixture of civilians, police officers, and a contingent of troops from Forth Worth who were in transit back to their base. If they wanted to fight the Collective. he was more than ready to give them a beating and a lesson in violence.

  -If they come, we will consume them.

  Steve could see through the Collective the positions that the incoming soldiers had taken. They were using special hazmat suits that allowed them to intervene into the airport without the Collective being able to take over them.

  They had already made up their minds. They would kill them all and move on with their mission. They had enough pilots in their ranks to get everyone into the air and towards key cities where their expansion could rapidly advance. This was but a minor setback.

  --

  Jean had not managed to get too far into the airport when she heard the noise of people coming inside. She had found a place to hide for a moment as she recovered from her current stance and tried to figure out how to get the rebar out of her shoulder.

  For a moment she was shocked to hear voices (muttering, it would seem) from the people coming in. Then she felt some comfort in knowing that some type of special unit had arrived at the airport and was taking action against Steve.

  This feeling lasted for only a set of fleeting seconds when the first shots occurred. Then there was a firefight between different people coming from the outside and whatever was on the second floor. Jean crawled her way below one of the luggage conveyor belts and from it observed how the combat had intensified.

  The special unit continued to mobilize more and more troops. Dust and debris was flying everywhere as the figure continued to consume the airport. She was unsure what was worse at this point--the gunfight next to her, the fire surrounding the airport, or the fact that Steve had acquired some type of control over the mold,s which was now controlling everyone.

  --

  “What is the next action?” asked Chad as he observed the troops still advancing into the airport. Aries was unsure which unit it was but knew that his buddy had come through. He was alarmed at the terrible fight happening outside, which slightly triggered his memories of the horrors he had faced in boot camp.

  “We need to wait. If they are already taking action we cannot intervene or we will die in the crossfire,” answered Aries, who was still assessing the situation and found it better to wait for the battle to develop a bit more before going in.

  They had managed to get inside the airport, hiding in one of the hangars that faced towards the airport. When they saw some military planes passing by, their decision to hide was made through Aries’ perspective. They were not heroes, and the military would not care who they were or what were their intentions. Getting shot was a real possibility.

  One thing that had disturbed both as they pushed their way into the airport was the people that were under some sort of mind control. They behaved erratically, which had put them in a moral debacle as to how they should proceed to deal with the situation. If they were innocent civilians, they were committing a crime, but if not, then what?

  Both agreed that they would consider these “people” as zombies. From there they agreed that they would not continue to pursue this moral dilemma, lest they get into a more complex issue.

  Besides, Aries was still angry that Chad had lost his Beretta during their arrival at the airport. There was too much personal meaning behind it for him to just have simply lost it and to have him say, “Get another one.”

  “How is this such a big problem? What kind of firepower does an airport security team have?” asked Chad. He was worried that the unit moving into the airport was not enough.

  “I am unsure what measures the Dallas International Airport has. They may have increased security, since this is a common point where the military moves troops through back to some of the bases around this area,” said Aries. “There is always the possibility that there was some military equipment involved with the movements or returns. You never know and would be surprised at how things get moved in airplanes.”

  “How do you know?” asked Chad.

  “For a while, I also worked at an airport. We used to move things around through different flights, and sometimes your baggage would get there before you,” said Aries. He was still observing how the firefight had developed and could see a considerable amount of automatic fire going back and forth between the first and second floor. These were controlled bursts and from the looks of it, they knew how to handle weapons. His suspicions that the military was assisting this man seemed very real. “There was also a lot of military baggage and boxes that you would scan but did not really want to mess with. You never know. You really never know.”

  “Sounds like you know far too much about things you should not know about, Aries,” said Chad. He was not trying to push him to tell him more about his past, but Chad was becoming suspicious
that Aries was not exactly the person he was portraying himself to be.

  Or if he was, he was definitely hiding something. His military uniform was not there just because he wanted to serve.

  “I know some stuff,” said Aries. There was an explosion inside the airport, followed by other detonations. The firefight had stopped. “HE material. That’s not good.”

  “HE?” asked Chad.

  “Highly Explosive. Something is going on inside, and I think we may need to intervene soon on this,” said Aries while still assessing the situation. He wanted to make sure if the situation had been controlled but saw with disappointment that a far larger contingent of troops was moving into the airport.

  A set of sniper shots followed. The firefight had intensified as the troops continued to move on inside.

  “Are you sure about this?” asked Chad.

  “Not quite, but at this point what else do we have left? I think they are getting pummeled by whoever is inside,” said Aries.

  --

  Steve laughed non-stop as he had seen the initial wave of soldiers fall to his might. He had continued to arm his moldies with his newly acquired equipment and set up a defensive perimeter where he had the advantage of high ground from the second floor.

  The sniper fire made him snicker. One of the sniper bullets had hit him in the left side of his thorax with no consequence. The mold had formed around him to stop and consume it, only being pushed slightly back from where he stood.

  With the next wave trying to push through into the airport and his army growing stronger, he decided to get back to the business at hand. He screamed as loud as he could through his own mouth and that of all of his minions.

  “Jean, I’m coming for you. You can’t escape!”