by Mike Kraus
“They’ve completely surrounded the city.”
“How? That would take… more soldiers than I can imagine.”
“Nah. They’ve probably got a dozen drones circling the area all focused on watching the city. It looks like a lot from here because of all the barricades and tents they have set up but it’s not.” Linda switched from watching the perimeter around the city to looking at the city itself. It took her a few seconds to realize what she was seeing before she gasped. “Holy hell. The city’s flooded.”
“What?”
“The water mains must have burst or something because half the roads are underwater.”
“You think that’s why there’s a perimeter around the city?”
Linda shook her head firmly. “Nah. No way. I can’t see any sign of them sending troops in past the perimeter. Those Black Hawks are the only things going in over the city and they’re flying like they’re doing reconnaissance.”
Frank cast an uneasy eye to the sky, squinting as though he could see the drones thousands of feet up in the air. “Shouldn’t we be worried about the drones watching us right now and seeing you pointing a rifle down at those guys?”
Linda glanced up before peering back through the scope. “I’ll take my chances. The way they’re focused on the city so much almost makes it seem like they’re trying to keep people from getting out.” Linda lowered the rifle and frowned. “We should get moving. There’s a forward operating base down the road towards the city.”
“Wait a second.” Frank held his hands up. “You want to go towards the guys with guns who’ve surrounded an entire freaking city—which, by the way, is flooded—and just say ‘what’s up’ to them?”
“We’ll approach slowly and make it clear we’re not a threat.”
“Christ.” Frank rubbed his hands through his hair and took several deep breaths. “You’re the boss on this one, I guess.”
Linda slid the rifle into the backseat of the car and held out her hand. “Here, let me drive us in.”
“You? Drive? With your leg like it is?”
“Yep.”
“How do you figure that’s a good idea?”
“Frank.” Linda sighed and looked back out at the city. “I don’t want to get shot any more than you do. I’d feel a lot more comfortable if I drove us into what seems like certain doom given that it’s my idea. I suspect you’d feel more comfortable too.”
Frank shook his head and threw up his hands. “Whatever. If you start bleeding out again or run us off the road or something don’t look at me.”
Linda rolled her eyes and limped around to the driver’s side of the car. She and Frank got into their seats and Linda put the car into gear, taking them in towards the city. “Keep your hands up on the dashboard when we get close and do exactly what I tell you to do. Follow my lead here and we’ll be fine.”
“Got it.” Frank remained quiet for the rest of the fifteen-minute drive. When they were just outside the city the mess of vehicles on the highway abruptly vanished and the road was clear.
“Get ready.” Linda slowed down the car and rolled down her window, motioning for Frank to do the same. As they approached the perimeter series of loudspeakers squealed to life and a voice barked at them.
“Stop your vehicle immediately! Lethal force is authorized!”
Linda immediately stopped the car, put it in park and turned off the engine. She removed the keys next and placed them on the dashboard before whispering to Frank. “Hands on the dash, Frank. Don’t move a muscle unless they tell you to.”
Frank nodded as the voice shouted at them again. “Step slowly out of the vehicle, walk to the front and sit on the ground!”
“You gonna be okay getting out?” He gave Linda a concerned look.
“Be quiet and listen to them.” Linda and Frank opened their doors and stepped out. Linda winced in pain and nearly lowered her hand to put it on her wound but managed to resist. They both walked to the front of the car and sat down with their hands raised.
“Make no movements while you are approached! If you move then lethal force may be used!”
Frank and Linda glanced at each other, their arms already starting to feel sore from holding them up. Several more minutes ticked by before movement at the perimeter caught Frank’s eye and a pair of Humvees began driving toward them.
“Here we go.” Linda whispered, her eyes glued on the Humvees. “Remember to follow my lead and do what they tell you.”
The Humvees squealed to a stop a good fifty feet from Linda and Frank. When the doors opened, Linda’s eyes widened in surprise. Instead of the typical soldiers clad in camouflage the people who jumped out were dressed in full-body hazmat suits and carrying small black boxes attached to long wands. Four such men began running down the road toward Frank and Linda while six more soldiers piled out of the vehicles and followed behind. The other six soldiers were also clad in hazmat suits but four of them carried rifles and the other two carried flamethrowers.
“Linda?” Frank’s eyes were wide with panic as he watched the soldiers running toward them. “What the hell is going on?”
“Stay still!” One of the six soldiers carrying rifles shouted at Frank and Linda. The four carrying the strange devices stopped a few feet away and began waving the wands on the devices in the air. After a few seconds one of them pointed at Frank.
“You! Extend your arm and hold it still!” Frank looked at Linda as he slowly held out his arm. The man who shouted at him pressed the wand up against Frank’s hand and Frank felt a sharp pinch. He pulled his hand back and saw that his finger was bleeding.
“What the hell?” Frank balled his fingers into a fist and held it against his chest. The soldiers wielding rifles bristled at his action but two of the men carrying the strange devices held up their hands.
“Wait!” The man who had pricked Frank’s finger with the wand nodded as he looked at the box in his hand. “He’s clean. Check the woman, too, just to be safe.”
Linda held out her arm before being asked and the procedure was repeated on her. A few seconds later the man who performed the procedure held up his thumb. “She’s clean. No sign of infection.”
The men in the hazmat suits and carrying the strange devices turned and ran back to the Humvees while one of the soldiers wielding a rifle stepped forward and pulled off his hood. “Sir. Ma’am. Stand up, hands in the air.”
“What’s going on, soldier?” Linda grunted as she slowly stood to her feet.
The soldier who had spoken to them raised an eyebrow. “Are you not aware of the quarantine?”
“What quarantine?” Frank asked.
“What’s your name, soldier?” Linda ignored Frank’s question and adopted a harsher, more formal tone as she addressed the soldier speaking to her. The shift in her tone and facial expressions surprised him and he nearly stammered as he replied.
“Corporal Simmons, ma’am. Are you two—”
“Simmons. Good. I’m Sergeant Linda Rollins, USMC Raiders, retired. I need to speak to your commanding officer immediately.”
Corporal Simmons visibly relaxed and glanced at his fellow soldiers. “Ma’am, I’m going to need to clear this with base.”
“Corporal, I’ll make this very simple for you. My friend and I have been on the road for days. We’ve been to hell, visited all the sights and made it back. We are in desperate need of some information and then we’ll be on our way and out of your hair. The soonest you get us to whoever’s in charge around there the sooner we’ll be gone and the less paperwork you’ll have to deal with surrounding our presence.”
Simmons audibly gulped before looking back and forth between his fellow soldiers. “We’ll need to search you, ma’am. And you’ll have to leave your… vehicle behind.”
Linda nodded. “Carry on.”
After a brief search of their persons Simmons directed the soldiers to secure the Corvette before he and two others escorted Frank and Linda back to the Humvees. Directions given by the soldi
ers during and after the search were brief and as they walked back to the Humvees Frank whispered quietly to Linda.
“They don’t talk much, do they?”
“Heh.” Linda shook her head. “No. You’re doing fine, though.”
Frank was quiet for a moment before whispering again. “What’s with the suits and shit anyway?”
“Some kind of biological quarantine from the look and sound of it. I dunno, though. I’m hoping we can see whoever’s in charge and figure out what’s going on.”
The soldiers loaded Frank and Linda into the back of one of the Humvees and Frank noticed that while he and Linda were being treated far gentler than he would have expected, the soldiers were still keeping their rifles and sidearms at the ready. Their somewhat casual demeanor didn’t fool him in the slightest and he was certain that they could easily dispatch both himself and Linda if either of them made a wrong move.
The Humvee carrying Frank, Linda and a group of the soldiers headed towards the city while the other military vehicle rolled forward to the Corvette to link up with the soldiers tasked by Simmons. Frank kept his head on a swivel, watching the buildings fly past as the Humvee sped along.
The highway was still remarkable clear, though Frank finally understood why. A large section of it had been cleared with massive bulldozers to make a zone free of obstacles that the military could use as a zone to stop any vehicles passing through. As they got closer to the city he saw that the bulldozers had moved to clearing a single lane on each side of the highway nearest the median, making it easy for the military to move in and out on the road.
The main forward operating base (FOB) was situated in an industrial complex on the eastern edge of the city just off of the main highway. Guards were posted on the roof of the tallest building in the complex overlooking the river to the south. Inside the gate in a parking lot sat a large tent under which several drones were being repaired and refitted. Several large canvas-covered trucks were parked near the back of the complex and dozens of soldiers ran back and forth between the trucks and the buildings as they offloaded and delivered supplies.
The hustle and bustle of activity was moderately overwhelming for Frank but for Linda it felt like she was back home. After the Humvee stopped and the soldiers inside stepped out, the rest of them took off their hazmat suits. Simmons kept his on as he led Linda and Frank inside the warehouse. He escorted them to the back office of the warehouse and rapped on the door. Another soldier glanced out, gave Simmons a questioning look and then opened the door.
“Simmons. Who’re the civilians?”
“They’re clean. And here to see Colonel Garland.”
The soldier holding the door gave Linda and Frank a long look before nodding once. “Sir. Ma’am. Step inside, please.”
A small cluster of soldiers and officers were gathered around a table in the room as the soldier announced Linda and Frank’s presence. “Colonel Garland? Corporal Simmons sent these two in to see you, sir.”
Lieutenant Colonel James Garland was a tall, broad-shouldered man with the build of an ox and the demeanor to go along with it. His eyes were narrow and full of fire, his voice was low and gravely and he carried himself with the demeanor of a man who was in full control of both himself and those under his command.
“What the hell are two civilians doing in here?”
Linda jumped in with an answer before Garland could get it from anyone else. “Colonel Garland? Pleasure to meet you. Sergeant Linda Rollins, Marine Raiders, retired. This is a friend of mine, Frank Richards.”
The mix of suspicion and anger in Garland’s eyes evaporated almost instantly as he stuck out his hand to shake Frank and Linda’s hands one after the other. “Raider Rollins? You must’ve had more than a few jokes made about that, I’ll bet.”
Linda nodded and gave a slight smile. “That’s an understatement.”
“So what the hell’s a jarhead doing out here in the middle of all this shit anyway?”
“Long story, Colonel. I’m trying to get back home to Tennessee to my parents. Frank’s trying to get back to Texas.”
“A Texas man!” Garland smiled proudly. “You ever serve, son?”
Frank shook his head. “Afraid not, sir. My father did, though, as did my grandfather. Both were very proud to serve in the Army.”
“Ha!” Garland smiled and chuckled as he eyed the pair standing in front of him. “Damn straight. So you’re both trying to get home?” Garland’s smile evaporated and he scratched his chin. “I’m afraid you came to the wrong place if you’re looking for transportation. We’ve got just enough wheels running to keep the city locked down. The only birds cleared for flight are the two we’ve got running recon. Everything else is still being triple-checked before it’s being allowed into the air or on the ground.”
“Colonel, forgive me for sounding ignorant, but just what’s going on here? Why’s there a perimeter around the city?”
One of the Colonel’s bushy eyebrows went up and he looked around the room at the other officers and soldiers present. “Everyone take ten to get updates and get your bio breaks out. We’ll finish the planning shortly.” A moment later the room was empty and Garland motioned to a cluster of chairs in the corner. Linda tried to make it to the seats without limping but failed on the last few steps and both Frank and Garland reached out to steady her.
“You all right there, Rollins?”
“Just fine, Colonel. A meth-head tried to take my leg off. Only succeeded partially.”
“So you’ve seen this insanity up close, eh?” Garland nodded. “Good. Saves me the trouble of starting from square one.”
“We’ve seen plenty, yes.” Frank jumped in, glancing at Linda as he continued. “But you were going to tell us about the city, yes?”
“Hm. Yes. What’ve you two heard about what’s going on?”
Frank shrugged. “We heard bits and pieces on the radio and television. Some sort of massive terrorist attack. I was up in Maine when it happened—my truck was one of the ones hit.”
“Consider yourself lucky, then. Unofficial estimates peg the loss of our country’s truckers at over seventy percent. So not only did we lose a huge chunk of the trucks but we lost a lot of those who can drive them, too.”
“Good God.” Linda shook her head. “Do you know what’s going on with all this or who’s behind it all?”
“Most of it’s classified. Sorry. But I can tell you about the city, though it doesn’t much matter anymore. The virus has all but burned out at this point.”
“Virus?” Frank had a note of disbelief in his voice. “What kind of a virus?”
Garland took off his cap and rubbed his head and Linda detected a trace of sadness in his voice. “Right after the shit hit the fan the alphabet agencies started feeding us all sorts of information about the attacks. Both the ones that had already occurred and ones that were coming down the pipe. I’d wonder why they didn’t stop the first attacks but that’s way past my pay grade.
“A few hours in and we started getting orders to head out and start securing major cities. Most of them were in the Midwest, but more than a few were in the west, northeast and central south.”
“Securing the cities… against biological attacks?”
Garland nodded. “You got it, Rollins.” Garland stretched the next word out, exaggerating the syllables. “Bi-o-logi-cal attacks. Some kind of crazy shit. Makes Ebola look like the common cold. Lucky for us, though, it burns through the victims so fast that they’re gone before they can infect very many people.”
“So your perimeter is for… what?” Frank looked at Linda then back at Garland. “Keeping people inside the city until the virus burns itself out?”
Garland nodded slowly, clenching his jaw. “That’s correct.”
“What the…” Frank could scarcely believe what he was hearing. “So, what, you guys weren’t sent here to help these people?”
“What is it you’d like us to do, exactly, Mr. Richards? Pass out blankets and ch
icken noodle soup? Half the city was dead before we even got here. Most of the other half’s dead by now. We have twenty-four more hours before we sweep the city, pick up any survivors and start cleaning up the corpses.”
“I don’t know… what about vaccines or something?”
“Vaccines? For some sort of mysterious disease that nobody’s ever seen or heard of and can kill in hours?” Garland scoffed.
“How widespread is this?”
Garland licked his lips. “I’m afraid that’s classified. But it’s not isolated here, I can tell you that much.”
“Any particular places where it’s the most prevalent?”
“So far it seems to be every major city that isn’t on the east, west or gulf coasts.”
“Really? So LA, DC, New York—those haven’t been hit by it?”
Garland shook his head. “While I can’t confirm or deny that I can tell you that they’re having a lot of problems of their own. Nobody’s willing to risk driving a car, airports are all shut down, food stores are gone, water mains are broken. The warzone is on our doorsteps.”
“Holy shit.” Frank whispered to himself.
“No kidding.” Garland sighed.
As Frank continued to ask for details and Garland continued to provide occasional snippets of additional information, Linda quickly found herself lost in her own thoughts. It wasn’t until a few minutes later, after Frank had said her name three times in a row to get her attention, that he tapped her on the shoulder and she jumped in surprise.
“Linda?”
“What?” Linda’s eyes grew wide as she looked between Frank and Garland.
“You all right over there, Rollins?” Garland leaned forward in the chair he had finally planted himself in.
“Yeah, no, I’m fine. Listen, when you said it’s a fast-burning virus, do you happen to have any sort of research notes on it?”
“Nothing of any use. Why?”
“Just curious. I spent some time after I got out learning about that sort of thing.”
“Never met too many Marines interested in learning.” Garland grinned, then the smile evaporated. “Sorry about that. Old habits die hard.”
