Code Black
By Sheri Velarde
Copyright © 2016
Code Black © 2016 Sheri Velarde
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This book would not have been possible without the following people.
Original Editor: Leona Bushman
Re-edited by Sheri Velarde-Stoker and William Stoker
Cover Artist: Sheri Velarde-Stoker
Proofreader: Charlotte Isaac
Stoker Publishing
Dedication:
As always I want to thank my biggest supporter and fan, my wonderful husband William. He is helping me on this journey in so many ways and I would be lost without him. Thank you love. I also want to thank my wonderful proofreader Charlotte who is the best cheerleader of my books! And thank you to my long time editor Leona for all of the encouragement.
Code Black
By Sheri Velarde
© 2016
“What the hell do you mean ‘the bridge is closed’? Something odd is going on here. We’ve never had the National Guard here for an evacuation, and you are telling me that you just expect us to wait it out here on the island and not ask questions? I heard the warning sirens. We are supposed to be evacuating! Let us through!” Sara demanded, trying to push past the mass of muscle in a National Guard uniform blocking her way.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. We have orders that no one is to cross the bridge. No one is allowed to enter Miami at this time,” the officer said, not budging an inch.
“I just told you that the evacuation sounded, e-v-a-c-u-a-t-i-o-n, and you’re telling me that we can’t leave? It’s probably a late season hurricane, and you expect us all just to hope we make it through that here in the Keys? We need to get to the mainland!” Sara threw up her hands in frustration. The memory of the last hurricane which destroyed her family home remained clear in her mind. She should have moved after her family had lost almost everything, but something held her in Key Largo.
“It is not a hurricane warning, ma’am. Please go back to your home, stay inside until the all clear is given and you will be fine.”
Just then, the officer’s walkie-talkie went off. “Miami has been lost. Move everyone away from the bridge. We must prevent the spread and contamination. This is a Code Black. Repeat, this is a Code Black. All civilians must be moved a safe distance from the bridge. You have five minutes.”
“Ma’am, I must insist that you move away from the bridge.” The guard grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back the way she came. The rest of the guards were doing the same with others who refused to move on their own accord. Their darting eyes and shaking voices betrayed the panic running through their ranks, though they tried to maintain calm and follow orders. She’d never seen trained military acting so scared.
“What did they mean that Miami is lost? Why do we have to move away from the bridge? What the hell is really going on here?” Sara demanded, panic bubbling in her stomach, yet she still demanded answers.
The guard seemed to be at his wits’ end and finally snapped. “Fine! Since you already heard more than you should and it probably won’t matter in a few hours, they are going to blow up the bridge. A contaminant of some sort has infected residents of Miami. It is spreading quickly, and we cannot let the infected reach us here. Our only chance is to stay isolated and hope that someone can figure out how the hell to stop this thing. Now will you please move? We don’t want to be in the blast zone.”
Sara’s mind could not fully comprehend what he said. It seemed too surreal, but her feet received the message from his panicked tone, and they began moving fast. She was about to ask more questions when a loud explosion went off behind them, sending them both flying forward from the blast. They hadn’t even given them five minutes to evacuate the area. ‘They’ being the US military had just blown up the bridge and stranded hundreds of people on the island, not to mention people still caught in the blast zone were injured or worse. These were American citizens and no care had been given to that fact. She glanced towards the guard whom she’d been speaking with and saw him bleeding pretty badly from the head. He must have struck a rock when he went down. As soon as the ringing in her ears calmed down, she reached for him. “Come here. The hospital is small, but they can patch you up.”
“No, it’s nothing. I’ll be fine. Most medical professionals were called to Miami when the outbreak began yesterday. Those left are going to be needed for more than a little scratch on my head.”
“Well, then come to my house. It’s not far. I’ll fix you up the best I can, I know basic first aid thanks to being a life guard as a teen.” She tried to smile despite the fear and tension coursing through her body. “I’m Sara, by the way. No more ‘ma’am’, please. It makes me feel old.”
He gave a weak grimace that might have been a smile. “Cameron. Sergeant First Class Cameron Matthews.”
He stood up, and she led him back towards her car before realizing others had fled their vehicles, leaving her completely blocked in. “Well, it looks like we’ll be walking until this gets sorted out.” Cameron simply nodded and followed her. All of his fight and vigor seemed to have slipped out of him when the bridge exploded. The rest of the military personnel seemed to have fled with the civilians after the explosion, though she saw a few bodies in uniform as well. The government seemed to have killed some of their own men as well as some people from the island. How could that be true? “Since it appears that we’re on our own, tell me the truth. What the hell is going on here? What the hell happened in Miami? Why would the military just blow up a bridge, killing civilians as well as their own, and stranding us here? Aren’t they charged with protecting us anymore?”
Cameron sighed. “I don’t really know. Everything is crazy there. I came in from Georgia with my unit, and I’ve never been so relieved to be assigned to guard a bridge away from the action. Just passing through Miami on the way here was insane. We were told some sort of contagion had been released, some sort of biological warfare from the sound of things. I expected sick and dying, but not what I saw as we drove through the city. It’s like the people were turning feral and rabid. They attacked each other like animals.” He paused, his face suddenly pale with sweat breaking out on his forehead, his hand over his mouth, clearly sick to his stomach, “They were eating each other. I served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I never saw anything so disgusting in my life. Have you ever seen a rabid dog? Well imagine that, but in thousands of people all at once. I think by stranding us here the government is trying to protect us.”
Sara stopped in her tracks. “What? People were attacking and eating each other? No biological warfare causes that!”
“Last I heard, and this is completely unofficial, but we rode down here with some folks from the CDC, they are working on the assumption that this is come sort of mutated and fast acting form of rabies or something. The thing is that it also appears to be airborne and have an incubation period of less than a day. That doesn’t exist either, but that is the only logical explanation the doctors could come up with for what is causing this and how it is spreading so quickly. Truth is, they have no fucking idea what they are dealing with or how to stop it.” He shrugged, “I don’t understand any of that. All I know is that this is the scariest shit I have ever seen, and now we are basically cut off from the world here on the Keys. No help is going to come until they get this
under control and stop the spread. And if they even think that the contagion can make its way here, well, you see some of my fallen brothers. They will kill us all if they think it will help contain the situation, that I can promise you.”
“If they can’t get this under control we’re all going to die then,” Sara managed to squeak despite her fear.
“Exactly, one way or another,” Cameron answered glumly.
They walked in silence until they got to her house. Sara led Cameron to the bathroom and started cleaning and bandaging his wound quietly. Like a true soldier, he didn’t even flinch when she poured alcohol in the cut. There was a deadened look in his eyes which worried Sara more than what he told her. He had the look of someone who knew the end was coming and who’d just shut down. He’d survived wars, but whatever was going on in Miami and the explosion at the bridge had defeated him somehow. That chilled her to her very soul, giving the contagion a more ominous feel, making it real. She finished bandaging the wound, and he gave her a small nod of thanks and followed her out of the bathroom.
Not knowing what else to do, she went into the living room and turned on the television. None of the stations located in Miami were on the air, only static, but the satellite still worked, and she turned to the 24 hours news stations. “Government officials say that the entire city of Miami and surrounding areas are under a strict quarantine. No one is being allowed in or out. There are also reports that news helicopters that have tried to get into the no fly zone have been shot down. The government will not state as to why Miami and most of southern Florida has been locked down, but some reports claim that chemical weapons may have been deployed and that people are dying by the thousands. There have also been reports of explosions as if bombs are being dropped. An unknown source has even indicated that the U.S. government is actually contemplating the impossible; dropping an atomic bomb on an American city. Multiple high ranking sources have confirmed that this is indeed an option on the table. We will of course keep you up to date on this shocking turn of events and pass any new information as it becomes available.”
She flipped the channel. “This just confirmed, the President and Vice President as well as several members of their staffs and select members of congress have been evacuated to a secure and secret location. No official word has been made on Florida other than no one is being allowed in or out of the state. Neighboring states are being urged to evacuate as well. Disturbing reports of mass hysteria are coming out, though no one can confirm what is going on. The government has issued warnings that anyone attempting to enter or leave Florida will be dealt with using extreme force.”
Sara turned to Cameron. “How the hell can they get away with not telling us anything? Talk of a nuclear bomb? We will be in the fall-out here in the Keys won’t we, if they really drop one?”
“It won’t matter. If they decide Florida is lost they will bomb the entire state leaving no survivors.”
“They can’t do that!”
“They can, and they will. And considering what I saw in Miami, it might be for the best. I’d rather die than become like those people.”
Sara’s mind raced. If all of this were true, the last thing they should be doing was sitting there waiting for the inevitable to happen. “Well, come on then. We need to get the hell out of here! My uncle has a boat. Many people around here do. We’ll evacuate ourselves. Screw the government. We can always head to the Caribbean nations, get as far from here as possible.”
Cameron still seemed to be in some sort of zombie-like trance, but when she physically pushed him, he began to move. She ran to her closet and yanked out some carryon bags. She thrust one in his hands. “Let’s grab all the food, water, and medical supplies we can carry, and we get the hell out of here.” He nodded and began filling the bag with food he found in her kitchen. In the meantime, Sara tried to call her uncle, but no good. The phones were down. They’d have to run to his house on the other side of the island. That made sense anyhow, the boats were docked there, and she could try to convince some others to go with them. She needed to get those she cared about off the island before someone blew up more than the bridge.
It felt odd when they went outside, Sara expected others to have come to the same conclusion as her but, instead it was almost as if the island were deserted. She didn’t see a soul anywhere. “Dammit, people are hiding in their homes when they should be fleeing! We’re going to have to knock on doors as we go, try to get as many people as we can to leave with us. Some of the boats might be cramped, but we can take as many as we possibly can.”
Cameron simply nodded and followed her. There seemed to be little left of the soldier who had stopped her getting on the bridge and who first told her what was really going on. Now he seemed to be a shell, just doing what he was told. Sara began to wonder if he was having some sort of PTSD response, the bomb could have brought back memories from when he was overseas. She needed some way to snap him out of it. She was strong, but if their own country started dropping bombs on them, someone with military training could mean the difference between getting away and being blown to bits.
As she pondered what to do with Cameron, she went to her neighbor’s door and pounded while shouting to be let in. No one answered, so she went to the next house and the same thing. Her arms broke out in goose bumps. Something was seriously wrong here. Could the odd virus have already spread? Could it be something else since no one seemed to be killing one another? How many outbreaks could be taking place at one time? The more houses she tried with no response, the more frantic she became.
“Where the hell do you think everyone is?” she shouted at Cameron, who simply shrugged his shoulders, so she slapped him hard across his face. “What’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you more upset? Why aren’t you trying to help me get people off of this island? Aren’t you trained to protect and serve? There are people here that need your help!”
For a moment, she thought that he wasn’t going to answer her. There seemed to be nothing going on behind his eyes, but finally, she saw a spark of life in there. “You’re right. Just because the government has forsaken me, does not mean that I should forget those I swore to help. Let’s split up and bang on doors. If we don’t get someone to answer soon, we’ll start breaking down some and see what we find then.”
Sara nodded and couldn’t help but smile a little. At least Cameron seemed to be coming back into himself. Sure, she’d been annoyed with him on the bridge before she knew what was really happening, but now with the truth out, she found his presence somewhat comforting. A soldier wasn’t a bad thing to have around in a time of crisis. Now, if only he would stay with her and not disappear into his own mind again. A lot of the people whom remained behind on the island after the devastation of the last hurricane were the old timers. She would need Cameron’s youth and muscle to get them through this.
The longer they ran down the street with no one in sight, made Sara more and more nervous. Finally, after a few more houses, she turned to Cameron, “Let’s break down doors. I need to know if people are in there and ignoring us or if they have already fled. This quiet is getting to be too much for me to handle.”
Cameron nodded and kicked the door of Mrs. Hennigan’s house in with one swift move. He immediately went in shouting, “National Guard! Is anyone in here? We are attempting to evacuate the island. Please answer if you can hear me.”
As comforted as she was by Cameron’s take charge actions once again, the silence seemed to be growing in her neighborhood. She turned and checked out the door Cameron had just destroyed. A chain dangled from the door itself, which could only mean that the door had been locked from the inside and Mrs. Hennigan was still somewhere inside, not answering their calls. Chills began to creep down her spine. Something was wrong here.
Just then, Cameron called from the back of the house, “Sara come here. Now!”
Dreading what she might find, Sara ran to where he stood. Taking a deep breath before looking in the master bedroom, she steadied
herself for what laid beyond. Closing her eyes and turning, she couldn’t keep vomit from rising in her throat, burning her esophagus as she tried to swallow it back down. There sat her sweet old neighbor Mrs. Hennigan next to a suitcase, her throat ripped out, still fresh blood running down her entire front and a look of shock frozen on her face.
Cameron said her deepest fear for them. “It’s already here.”
“But the door, the door was locked from the inside. The only person who could have done this would be her granddaughter, a child of eight. No way could Allison have done that to her own grandmother.” She backed away in denial.
“We need to find her and kill her before she gets out.” Cameron looked grim but determined.
“No! She’s a child! You can’t kill an innocent child.” Sara shook her head.
This time Cameron came to her and shook her. “You need to get ahold of yourself. An innocent child would never have done that.” He motioned towards the dead old woman on the bed. “What was once a sweet little girl is now a monster and probably not the only one loose here on the island. If you don’t want to kill her, we need to get out of here and off the island as quickly as possible before the others who’ve turned find us.”
“Yes, let’s get out of here.” Sara made a break for the door with Cameron fast on her heels. As they were reached the door, Allison darted out from seemingly nowhere and knocked Cameron down. The girl that Sara had babysat in the past was almost unrecognizable. She was covered in blood, scrambled around on all fours instead of walking like a human being and her eyes… her eyes were utterly crazed and soulless. The child she’d seen just days before was gone. Sara saw that now. The beast that had taken over her attacked Cameron with such viciousness that Sara had no idea how to stop her. The soldier with all his strength even struggled to get free. The beast snapped at Cameron, gnashing her teeth, hungering for human flesh. Sara grabbed the coatrack by the door and hit the creature as hard as she could. What was once Allison shrieked in pain, hissed at Sara, and then ran off back to its hiding spot. Making sure the creature was gone, she rushed over to Cameron. “Are you alright?”
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