The Dying of the Light (Book 1): End

by Jason Kristopher

  I felt like I’d been punched in the gut as I listened to the general tell us about 7th Team’s fight in Washington. Tom is gone. Probably dead. How many more will die?

  “Sir, there’s a chance…” I said.

  “They were surrounded by a couple hundred screaming, angry, crazy religious people last I heard, son,” Maxwell replied, putting his foot down hard on any hope we might be harboring for our fallen comrades. “Tom Reynolds and Adrian Masters were two of the toughest sons of bitches I’ve ever met, but even they couldn’t pull their asses out of that fire. No, they’re gone. And that’s the end of it. Clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” I said, getting the message. “So, if we can’t truck the supplies in…”

  “Choppers. We’ve conscripted every Chinook and Skycrane we could find, in and out of the service. Those bad boys can move more than ten tons each, and we’re getting nearly a hundred of them.”

  “What about their bunker, sir?” asked Kimberly.

  “They were assigned to Bunker Seven, a hundred klicks or so outside Austin. Frank and I have already discussed this, and he’s headed there to recruit any likely folks he can and get them trained up. He’ll be staying with them there. It’s the only thing we can do.”

  Maxwell stood up and began pacing behind his desk. “There’s something else you need to know. Evacuations of lottery selectees have already started. They will continue until everyone is inside and lockdown is initiated. We’re not sure when that’ll be, but things are progressing even faster than we expected.”

  “Any idea at all when we’ll be going, sir?” I asked, hoping I didn’t already know the answer.

  “Soon, Mr. Blake, soon. We’ve completely lost southeastern Asia, it appears. Africa is bad, as is South America. No reports out of China, but that’s not a surprise. Australia is holding on, lots of people retreating to the Outback.” He snorted. “That’s a helluva comeuppance for them, having to depend on the aborigines for once.”

  Maxwell stopped pacing and turned back to us. “Our best analysts have put our most optimistic timetable at a month, maybe two at the absolute most. Personally, I think that’s horseshit. I expect us to get the evac orders within a couple weeks. But asking questions isn’t why we get the big bucks, is it?”

  There was good-natured chuckling, and Maxwell nodded. “Good, at least some of you can still find some humor in something. That’s all for now; there’ll be a general briefing in one hour. I expect you all to be there. Dismissed.”

  We stood and saluted, filing out. I looked at Kim as we crossed the field toward the barracks.

  “You think he’s right?”

  “I don’t know. I hope not,” she said. “But there’s something to be said for being safe and secure inside a bunker. Better than not knowing if you’re going to live through the next day.”

  “True enough. Still, we’ve got each other.”

  She half-turned and flashed me that radiant smile. “You bet your sweet ass we do.” She grabbed my hand as we continued walking, squeezing it tight. “I miss Tom. And Rachel. And Victor.”

  “Me, too, love.” I could see tears in her eyes, and put my arm around her shoulder. “Me, too.”

  Apple Valley, Minnesota

  Just outside Minneapolis, a stranger spied a road-side revival tent city. His walking staff in hand and his pistol weighing heavy in its concealed holster, he entered the haphazard layout, joining a few other stragglers still approaching the event, and found a stage of some sort set up just outside the biggest tent. A man was on the stage in front of a crowd of hundreds, preaching about the end of the world, and how only the truly good shall be saved from the divine retribution overtaking the land. The stranger waited at the edge of the crowd, watching the rapt faces of the preacher’s listeners and wondering how they could be so blind to the truth.

  The preacher was going full-steam now, and his speech and gestures grew more and more wild, culminating in a roar, as he commanded the crowd to attend to the ‘salvation arena.’

  Intrigued, the stranger followed the crowd to the other side of the tent city, and was astonished to see a temporary cattle corral set up, with several walkers crashing against the barriers. His hand darted to his pistol, but he stopped when he saw the concrete the barriers were set in. He looked at the makeshift stage set to one side and overlooking the corral, where the maddened preacher now held a young girl by the arm.

  More preaching, more deranged ravings, and the stranger grew nervous as the rantings took a darker turn, and the clergyman demanded a trial of salvation. It was clear what the madman intended, and the stranger used his walking staffto clear a path as he moved to the stage. Dropping the staff and taking the few steps of the stage in a single bound, he grabbed the girl’s other arm, swinging her back onto the stage just as the preacher flung her forward into the corral.

  In an instant, quiet descended over the crowd, except for the moaning of the undead below, eager for their feast. The stranger turned and looked at the preacher, his contempt and disgust clear and evident in his face.

  Gently, he said to the girl, “You’re safe now, miss,” and she collapsed against his chest, sobbing. He never took his eyes off the preacher, who was seething.

  “How dare you?” roared the preacher. “You have forsaken your salvation with this desecration of a sacred rite!”

  “Sacred, my ass,” said the stranger, and unzipped his jacket, revealing a clerical collar and a cross around his neck. “There’s nothing sacred about human sacrifice.”

  A gasp from the crowd at this new revelation, and the preacher snarled. “If she was truly pure, she would not be harmed! You are a traitor to your faith!”

  The stranger shook his head, stepped to one side away from the girl, and drew his pistol. In the blink of an eye, the .357 magnum roared three times, dispatching all three walkers in the corral with a shot to the head for each. He then turned back to the preacher.

  “No more.”

  Completely insane now, the preacher screamed and charged the stranger, who sidestepped the man and let him fall into the corral, then turned to address the crowd.

  “You’re not evil, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said as they looked at him. “You’ve just been deceived by someone who’s very, very good at it. This plague is evil, not a divine judgment. If you’re bit, you will die, no matter how many times a day you pray. Now go home. Pray. Pray for us all. Be with your families. Or better yet, evacuate with the National Guard and the Army.”

  He stood there a moment longer, putting away his pistol and checking the girl for bite marks and other injuries, which he was happy not to find. He whispered calming words to her, and she nodded through her tears and ran off.

  Headed for home, I hope.

  The crowd dispersed, and as he turned to leave, zipping his coat once more, he heard a faint cry for help from the corral. He glanced back, and noticed there were four walkers in the corral, not three. The fourth was crawling along the ground toward the stunned preacher. Its legs those of a crippled person, shriveled and useless.

  He turned his back on the corral, picking up his walking stick and moving out of the tent city. He was at the edge of the last row when the screams began.

  He didn’t turn back.

  “I say again, brothers and sisters, that this is our time to unite against the evils of this world, brought upon us by the military and industrial demons of our past. They have sewn evil for hundreds of years, despite our warnings, and now the reaping has come!”

  Reverend Sebastian Wright had never looked more stately, more godly than he did at that moment, preaching to his followers from every radio and television station and satellite channel he could get his hands on.

  “Let the future know us as the ones who redeemed this foul, cruel, evil world! Let them not remember the failed sinners who have succumbed to the righteous justice that is this plague upon the world! Let the naysayers and so-called ‘scientists’ talk about prions and illness; we know the truth of our
Lord God when we hear it!”

  His message reached large groups of followers throughout the United States and the world. In Maryland, they chanted slogans and hurled insults outside the offices of USAMRIID. In Washington, D.C., hundreds had been arrested outside the White House and on the steps of Congress. Military installations across the country were on their highest alerts, and more than a few followers of the Church of the Divine Judgment had been killed in self-defense by those who did not believe as they did.

  In Atlanta, soldiers from the Georgia National Guard were supplemented by those from Fort McPherson, to the southwest. They patrolled the grounds of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after some Church members attacked personnel there, claiming that it was God’s will that the plague go uncured.

  “We shall overcome this plague, just as the last one, my Children. For we are chosen, the Chosen of God himself. Uninfected by this judgment, we are instead filled with the light of the Heavenly Father and the Son. We are his instruments on Earth to bring about this change, helping to keep those who would do evil from stopping his grand design.”

  In Seattle and Tacoma, the mob had grown by hundreds in past weeks, then by the day. More and more adherents of the Church flocked to the only thing they had — faith.

  “We will survive, my chosen. Not because we’re better, but because we believe. We are not evil, and therefore we will not be purged. We will rise up and cast down the sinners, the unbelievers, and the faithless. They will burn in the fiery pits of their own making, and yes, we will watch and laugh. For it is joyous to witness the end to sin, and that can only happen with the Lord’s righteous fury.

  “Let not evil survive among you, my children. Seek out he who would hide his evil from our sight, who would cover the marks of the devil and the filthy lusting for the flesh of his kin. Seek out those who hide themselves among you, pretending their evil does not exist. Find them, and show them no mercy, for they are of the devil, and must be destroyed.”

  Wright had really worked himself into a lather, and was nearly foaming at the mouth.

  “All the power and the glory be to God, to Jesus and to His holy followers! Long live the Church of the Divine Judgment!”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  “This is a HealthWatch Special Report. I’m…” Tabitha broke down for a moment, her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and continued in a breaking voice. “I’m Tabitha Greene.

  “This is our final report. We will be going off the air in a few moments, as will all satellite and television stations. We will leave our channels broadcasting emergency service messages around the clock as long as the equipment continues to function.

  “Here’s what we know: Zombie outbreaks have occurred in every major city, in every state and on every continent around the globe, with scattered civilian resistance. The Army and National Guard are on full alert, helping to evacuate cities that are being overrun, and coordinating defense plans for others.

  “There are some areas in some of the larger cities that have been cordoned off. What reports we have from inside seem to indicate that these areas are under the control of local militias, many of whom are well-armed and self-trained, and who are holding their own against the zombies outside the barricades. Those who seek to join these militia-controlled areas are cautioned that living persons have been reported to have been cast out of them to the zombies, for reasons unknown.

  “The list of cities that have not and cannot now be evacuated is too long to provide. Here are brief reports on the largest cities.

  “Chicago, New York, and Houston have succumbed.

  "In Manhattan, both tunnels to New Jersey have been deliberately collapsed by the Army Corps of Engineers. Please be advised that there is no longer any passage to or from the island.”

  “San Diego, Denver, and Atlanta have reported massive outbreaks in the last twenty-four hours. Seattle and its suburb of Tacoma are a raging inferno, as is Los Angeles.

  “Oklahoma City Kansas City and Minneapolis are reporting successful evacuations in progress.”

  “Dallas and Fort Worth are gone, as are Memphis, New Orleans and Detroit. Here in Washington, D.C., we have had several large outbreaks.

  “There have been reports of civilian attacks on the entrances to the government bunkers, but these attacks have been met with overwhelming force. Thousands are dead, many left lying where they fell as the Army continues to defend humanity’s last hope for survival. For your own safety, please do not attempt to force your way into a bunker.”

  She took a deep breath. “It has been reported that the president and top government officials have begun their evacuations to their top-secret bunkers.

  “Latest reports tell us that nearly 90% of those selected have arrived at the bunkers or been accounted for. If you have received a notification letter, government sources tell us that you must arrive at the bunkers in short order or the doors will be closed.

  “For those of you still watching, and not evacuating: Remember to isolate anyone who is infected. Bar your doors. Collect what water and food you can. Pool your resources, but only with those willing to prove that they are uninfected. Store drinking water in your bathtubs –” Tabitha broke off and put one hand to her ear, listening through her earpiece. Her face turned ashen. Her voice was halting as she continued.

  “Ladies and gentlemen…” she said, and paused once more, taking several deep breaths but failing to get herself under control. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve just been informed that China has made good on their threat. Seven minutes ago, multiple nuclear weapons were detonated along the Chinese southern border with Myanmar, Laos, and India. The damage… the damage is incalculable. Millions have perished, and millions more will die from radiation poisoning.

  “Our weather analysts are already predicting that the fallout will be blown south-southeast, reaching as far south as Indonesia and possibly far northern Australia, in coming weeks.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, go to your families, if you can. Be with those you love, and pray for our survival. From all of us here at HealthWatch, good luck, and may God be with us all.”

  Fort Detrick, Maryland

  The gates that normally barred visitors to the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) were bent and twisted. One of the many trucks that had slammed through them was a flaming wreck just past the entrance.

  The bodies of nearly a full platoon of soldiers were scattered nearby, some apparently torn apart by the mob that milled around the entrances to the buildings of the facility itself. Many wore religious symbols of every faith and creed, and carried signs proclaiming the end of days and the glory of the divine judgment sent to earth by God’s hand.

  More than a few were covered in blood. Whether it was their own or someone else’s was impossible to discern.

  At first, none of the followers of the Church of the Divine Judgment noticed their members falling. They continued to shout and scream at the top of their lungs, demanding entry into the buildings that were, of course, locked up as tight as the prepared defenders can make them.

  It was only when those crowding the biggest of the buildings finally heard the screams from the rear of the crowd that they noticed the walkers among them.

  The zombies had found a mobile feast. And they were hungry.

  The church members didn’t have long to worry. Another follower came roaring over the lawn in his over-sized, extended-cab Ford Excursion. Eyes red and hair uncombed, he was more than a bit overwrought, but he was focused on his target. He ignores the pleas of his brethren, and ran down walkers and humans alike who stood between him and his goal.

  It was only when he crashed through the front door of the facility — foot never leaving the gas pedal — that the smarter followers realized that something isn’t right, and turned to run.

  Even the fastest of them couldn’t outpace the fireball that reached for them with violent speed. The would-be martyr had
learned well from the lessons of Timothy McVeigh, and his ammonium nitrate-fueled truck bomb decimated everything within nearly a half-mile of the building.

  The hot, stinking wind from the explosion threw parts of buildings, people and the truck outward, and the shrapnel tore through the flesh of the unfortunates standing near. Broken and severed limbs from the walkers caught in the blast rained in a ghastly downpour over those merely knocked off their feet, their eardrums punctured by the blast.

  Church members, walkers, and uninfected humans working hard on a cure: in a moment of blazing light and incomparable sound, all were lost and gone forever.

  Atlanta, Georgia

  Reverend Sebastian Wright’s voice blared from the shortwave radios carried by his followers, many of whom were protesting and shouting outside the concrete and steel barriers of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Several had already been shot trying to gain entrance. The soldiers guarding the gates and patrolling the grounds had itchy trigger fingers and weren’t taking any chances.