by David Achord
It was a one-story brick building and the unlocked door was located in the back. The rock had not been moved, which was seemingly a good sign. He parked his bike and opened the door.
He was immediately struck by the orderliness. Most buildings he’d entered were trashed, in disarray, and often there were and abundance of vermin. Things were often broken or vandalized. Not this one. Melvin interpreted it as a sign someone was caring for this building. He searched it in his deliberate, methodical procedure. The labs were dusty but otherwise clean, but there were no signs of life. The computer system was still intact. Melvin tried a few light switches. No power.
It took him three hours in total. The entire time he found himself continuously asking himself what he should do with Savannah. She wasn’t a plant or a spy, he was sure of it. She looked like death warmed over. If she were healthy, he’d be suspicious. So, it came down to two choices; kick her loose or take her back with him when the mission was finished?
The Mount Weather people, the originals, the ones who’d had it rather easy the last three years, could be rather snarky to newcomers. Not physically, no. Those people were passive-aggressive types; they were cowards at heart after all. Instead of telling someone outright they were not liked, they’d act snotty, make snide remarks, and talk about them behind their backs.
Melvin knew it was especially going to be true when it came to Savannah. The girl looked like a concentration camp survivor, it was obvious her formal education was limited, and it was doubtful she had any special skills that would ingratiate herself with the community.
When he emerged outside, it was raining again. It was going to push his plan forward for part two of his mission: to check out the national laboratory.
Melvin peddled back to the auto detail business, once again soaking wet from the rain. He’d tried riding with a poncho once, but it got in the way.
“Hey,” Melvin said when he walked inside. There was no answer. He walked in the backroom and found Savannah huddled in the bathroom. She looked frightened, anxious.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“You were gone,” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, I had something I needed to do. I left a note, didn’t you see it?”
She nodded, but it didn’t seem to help. “I didn’t think you were coming back.”
“My truck is still here,” Melvin responded as he gestured toward the garage bay. “I’m not going anywhere without it. Okay?”
She looked uncertain, but finally nodded her head.
“Come on out,” he said. “Maybe you can eat a little bit.”
She looked at him uncertainly. He held out a hand and helped her up.
“Okay.” Her tone was still tentative, frazzled, but she willingly let Melvin lead her to the front office. He pointed at the open MRE.
“If you’re not hungry don’t eat, but if you think you can, try a bite or two.”
“Where did you go?” she asked after she’d eaten a cracker with some peanut butter on it.
“I had to go check out a building,” Melvin answered.
“Why?”
“That’s my job,” he said.
“What do you mean?” Savannah asked.
“I’m from Mount Weather and I do missions for them.”
“Mount Weather, what’s that?” she asked.
“Back in the day, it was the FEMA command center. When it went bad, they relocated the majority of the executive and legislative branch there.”
“Why?”
“Because they have an underground bunker and housing,” Melvin said.
“Okay, but why? We don’t have a government anymore,” she replied. Melvin grunted and didn’t explain. He was tired of talking.
“Anyway, I’ve got to send them a message.”
Savannah watched as Melvin set up a military-looking radio and attached a satellite antenna. He prepared a message and sent it on burst mode. He left it on for several minutes as he ate lunch. Savannah listened in silence.
After ten minutes, he received an incoming message. He went through the decryption and listened. So did Savannah.
“You’re going to check out the lab? Isn’t that where they build nuclear bombs or something?”
“Sort of,” Melvin said. “There’s no actual bombs stored there, but there is nuclear material and a supercomputer there. We have reason to believe it’s occupied, so I’m going to check it out.”
“A supercomputer? What’s so special about a computer?” Savannah asked.
“Smart people can do all kinds of things with it,” Melvin replied. He thought about the two computer geeks back at Weather. Garret and Grace. They were twins. They took him to a section in the east tunnel and showed him Mount Weather’s Cray supercomputer. They said it was close to the same model as the Titan, the name of the Oak Ridge computer, and went on and on about its capabilities. They dazzled him with numbers and the computer’s performance.
Most of it went over Melvin’s head. The only thing he got out of it was the Titan was too large for him to dismantle and load up on the back of his truck. The politicians were adamant the computer didn’t fall into the wrong hands. If worse came to worse, he had some C-4 to deal with the issue.
“Alright,” Melvin said. “I’m going to be gone the rest of the day. You’ll be okay here.”
He looked and saw Savannah’s big brown eyes starting to water up.
“Can’t I go with you?” she implored.
Melvin thought about it and found himself shaking his head. “I can’t guarantee your safety. I don’t know if there’s anyone there or what.”
“I’ll be okay,” she countered and her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “I don’t want to be left alone.”
Melvin sighed. “Yeah, alright,” he said. “But, you have to do exactly what I say. If I tell you to run, you don’t ask me to explain, you do it. If I tell you to shut up, you don’t ask why or back talk, you stop talking. It’s not that I’m bossy or like ordering people around, it’s a matter of life and death. I’ve survived on my own for a long time now, partly because I didn’t have someone with me doing stupid things and endangering my life.”
“Okay,” Savannah said.
Melvin gave her a hard stare for a long minute. “Alright then,” he finally said. “Let’s get loaded up.”
Chapter 10 – The Mission
Raymond appeared right when I was about to get a second helping of powdered eggs.
“Good morning, everyone,” he said with mock cheerfulness. “I need Zach, Major Parsons, and Major Fowkes to come with me.” Without waiting for a response, he motioned us to follow him.
We walked to the bunker entrance and waited at the elevators. I waited for him to explain what we were about to get into. He saw me looking and grinned.
“I think we’re going to be in for a lot of rain today,” he said. “There was a hurricane that formed in the Atlantic and hit landfall a couple of days ago.”
“That’s nice,” I said. “So, what are we doing?”
Raymond grinned again. “Patience, Zach, patience.”
We went down at least two floors below the living quarters, and the elevator opened up into a rather large room with several tables of computers and yet another conference table. There were also unmarked doors in the back of the room, which lead to I don’t know where.
“The situation room,” Raymond informed us. It was impressive. There were multiple computer terminals, large flat screens mounted on the walls, and I even saw a soundproof room that looked like a recording studio.
“We use it as command and control for the away missions,” President Richmond said. He had emerged from a side room, holding a steaming cup of coffee, and sat at the head of a conference table. Soon, others started trickling in and taking what I assumed was their reserved seats. Justin along with a couple of his Marines came in, and there were a couple of those secretaries I saw at the debriefing. Raymond gestured for Justin and me to sit together.
�
��What’s going on?” I whispered to him.
He grinned at me. “Big mission,” he said, but wouldn’t elaborate.
Raymond walked over to the president and whispered in his ear before sitting. POTUS nodded and stood.
“It appears most everyone is here, so why don’t we get started.” He gestured at me. “Did something happen after our initial meeting, Mister Gunderson?”
“Yes, sir,” I answered. “I caught two people breaking into my trailer and stealing stuff out of it. I was told they are the adult children of Senator Rhinehart.”
He furrowed his brow, which seemed more of an act rather than genuine concern. “I will have to address that issue immediately,” he declared.
“No need, sir. I took care of it.” I looked at all of them. I noticed one of those secretaries was trying hard not to grin. He must have heard the details of how I took care of it. I couldn’t help but throw in one last barb.
“I don’t know why an SOP isn’t already in place to deal with criminal behavior. It seems rather odd for a group of supposedly enlightened people.”
I heard Justin give a quiet guffaw, but the rest of the room was quiet.
“Yes, you make a valid point,” President Richmond said. “We’ll look into it. In the meantime, let me show all of you the purpose of this meeting.” He nodded at Seth, who stood.
“The previous forty-five months have been bad, but all of you know that.” He gestured toward one of two people who was sitting in front of a computer console.
“This is Garret and Grace Anderson. If you haven’t figured it out, they’re twins.”
“Fraternal,” Garret quickly said.
The woman gave a cheerful wave. Both of them were pale, skinny, mousy brown hair, and looked like they were in their mid-twenties. The woman’s hair was longer and she was wearing nerd glasses, but otherwise, there was no mistaking they were brother and sister.
The man began clicking his mouse and the flat screens came to life. It was a scene of chaos, people attacking each other, soldiers shooting people, people attacking soldiers. I recognized the location from a news video.
“Cairo, Egypt,” Seth said. “We are reasonably certain Cairo was ground zero. The origin is still unknown, but what is known is how quickly the pathogen spread.” The image changed to a world map and a graphical overlay of red lines began forming. The lines would start in one city and move to other cities, and wherever the lines stopped, the cities would turn red.
“The model has been sped up, but I’m sure all of you know the entire world was infected within two weeks.”
Seth gave a running commentary as the images on the screens changed. The next series showed video feeds of military bases, naval ships, missile silos, and other fortified facilities I could not identify.
“Because the pathogen was so contagious, it infiltrated most of our military personnel before we were even aware of its presence.”
The images were interspersed with what looked like closed-circuit TV cameras, surveillance cameras perhaps. They showed the same thing over and over again. Normal people getting attacked by infected people. I looked over at the president.
“Am I correct to assume you watched these events while sitting here in relative safety?”
President Richmond gazed steadily at me. “Yes, Mister Gunderson, we all did.” He took a moment to make direct eye contact with all of the recent arrivals.
“We did not sit idly by, Mister Gunderson,” Secretary Stark said. “There were multiple actions taken, but the virus had delivered a knockout blow before we even knew we were in a fight.”
“We were lucky to get it contained here before all of us got infected,” General Fosswell added.
“And there are other survivors you’ve been in contact with, sir?” Sarah asked.
“Yes, Major,” the president said. “I am happy to report that as of this date, we’ve made contact with over twenty pockets of survivors within the United States. The largest group we have been in contact with is sixty-five.”
“Sixty-five? That’s a decent-sized number. Where are they at?” Sarah asked.
“Kansas,” he answered. Now, he leaned forward slightly in his chair. “There is a possible issue we have identified though.”
We all waited. President Richmond took his time and finished his tea before responding.
“The human population is in peril,” he declared in a somber voice. “This zombie virus has created a chain of events which threaten our very existence.”
He then nodded at Seth.
“Famine, pestilence, disease, a lack of health care, violence, and even nuclear events are taking their toll,” Seth said and looked at Grace. She took her cue and clicked her mouse.
The next screen was raw numbers of the population of each major city and the projected infection rate. The last number was the predicted number of initial deaths, and annual deaths each year after. There was a cross reference of the birth rate, which had declined to practically zero within a couple of years.
“If you will note, the projections show the human population steadily declining. The extinction event is projected to occur within the next fifty years.”
Everyone was quiet now. The members of Mount Weather were watching us newcomers with somber amusement. I looked around and tentatively raised my hand.
Seth looked at me. “Yes, Zach?”
“How many people became infected while locked up in here?” I asked.
“Thirteen,” a man answered. He’d been quiet during the entire presentation, but I noticed he’d been watching me the entire time. “And, all of them were tested prior to being admitted into Mount Weather.”
Seth spoke up. “This is Doctor Kincaid, and his colleague there is Doctor Smeltzer. At the time of the outbreak, the two doctors were assigned to USAMRIID, which is the United States Army Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and based out of Fort Detrick, Maryland.”
I looked at them thoughtfully. The two men looked like mad scientists straight out of a low-budget movie. Both were in their mid-to-late sixties, disheveled white hair that hadn’t been on the receiving end of an experienced barber in a while, identical furry eyebrows, and both were wearing horn-rimmed glasses. Kincaid looked a little bit heavier and had a larger, rounder face, but that was about it.
Seth continued. “In early December, during the first year of the outbreak, Doctors Kincaid, Smeltzer, and a third virologist, Doctor Mayo Craddock were at Fort Detrick. Unfortunately, the infection spread throughout the facility within a matter of hours. The three doctors were trapped and had to be rescued.” He gestured toward the screens. “For the first two years, Fort Detrick was swarming with thousands of infected. This is a live satellite feed of it now.”
Fort Detrick appeared to be a neatly arranged conglomeration of buildings. There was nothing I saw that would indicate anything amazing or horrifying. The screen went to a close-up and the image was frozen into a still-shot. There were two abandoned military vehicles with maybe a hundred zombie corpses lying around.
“One hundred and seventy-seven,” Garret said. He must have seen me trying to make a count. I nodded in thanks.
“Fort Detrick is forty-four miles from here. Seven days ago, we sent a task force to the location in order to neutralize all hostile threats and secure the facility. Doctor Craddock insisted on going with them. The contingent used those two Strykers parked in front of the main lab. We lost contact with them ninety minutes after their arrival.” Seth paused a moment to let us newcomers digest it. I started to raise my hand, but Seth cut me off.
“I believe you are about to ask if we know what happened to them,” he said. “Short answer, we don’t know.” Seth looked over at one of the computer geeks. “Garret was monitoring the live feed at that time. Garret?”
Garret clicked his mouse a couple of times. The image on the screens changed once again.
“They arrived at Detrick with no issues and checked in accordingly,” he said and pointed at the screens wit
h a miniature laser light. “You can see them unloading from the Strykers and forming a defensive perimeter.” He sat back in his chair while we watched a team of soldiers entering one of the buildings while another team maintained security outside. Garret then sat up and clicked something with his mouse.
“Fourteen minutes after their arrival is when they had their first contact.”
We watched as a horde of around twenty infected approached them at what can best be described as a slow jog. The soldiers had no problem taking care of business and made short work of them.
“Now watch,” Garret said. Another horde, this one about fifty in size, came around a building from behind and began running toward the soldiers. One of the soldiers that was manning the machine gun from the Stryker was guarding the rear. He opened up and appeared to have killed off at least half of them by himself before the rest joined in. As we watched, this happened three more times.
“They’re timing is off,” Justin whispered. I nodded in agreement. If it was a planned attack, the waves should have been overlapping and not at intervals.
“So, I’m sitting here, watching the whole thing and listening to them talk to each other on the radio,” Garret said. “The team inside had no contact, and they were going to come back out and assist the soldiers outside, but Sergeant Rivera told them not to worry about it, they had it under control.” He looked at us. “I mean, they sounded like they were having a good time. Everyone was joking and they were having a competition to see who could kill the most.”
“I take it something happened,” Justin said.
“That would be affirmative, Lieutenant,” Garret said.
Seth cleared his throat. “Show the eighty-eight-minute mark, please, Garret.” He waited until the appropriate image was now on the screen. It showed the soldiers still maintaining a defensive perimeter, and there was one soldier in the middle. Seth used his pointer and put a small red dot on the soldier.
“That’s Sergeant Rivera. Now listen.”
We listened to the audio of Sergeant Rivera having a one-sided conversation. From what I could tell, he was speaking with the people inside the building and they were requesting assistance. And then, the screens once again became nothing but snow.
