Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 02

by Rescue

  "In times of war, people are going to die..." Marshal spat.

  "And how about in training, huh? How many are supposed to die then?" Donovan stared Marshal down, face to face and nose to nose. "Countless men and women were hurt, maimed and even killed because of this man and his quote unquote, leadership skills. My best friend died in one of his training exercises after he order some of the soldiers to use live ammunition. Tell me again he didn't deserve EVERYTHING he got." Donovan's voice was raising to the point of hysteria and Alex stepped in.

  "Bring it down, Donovan," he said. "You're pissed, but if you keep up the way you're going, we are going to have every deader in a six block radius come calling."

  Donovan stayed where he was, his eyes locked on Marshal's. It was Marshal who finally gave in. "Fine," he nearly whimpered. "Okay, I understand. The man had it coming." His eyes darted in Alex's direction. "You did what was right, okay? Call him off."

  A smile spread across Alex's face again and he whispered softly and patted his thigh. "Come on boy. Heel." Liam laughed behind Alex, and the laughter quickly spread to the other men in the room. Even Donovan cracked a smile before easing off the man he had pinned to the wall.

  "Glad you understand," Donovan quipped and turned back to the group. "Sorry about that. Ghosts in my past and all," he said shrugging his shoulders.

  "No harm, no foul," Liam said.

  Donovan crossed the open floor to Alex and put an arm around his shoulder. "I'll follow you," he said. "Let me know what you need from me."

  "Same here," Liam chimed in. Agreements came in rapid succession from the others in the room, including a timid reply from the far corner. Rod was sitting up now, his arms wrapped around his knees. He had apparently been watching the whole thing.

  "Thanks, kid," Liam said. "But I don't think this is really the right thing for you."

  "And just what am I supposed to do?" he snapped. "Sit here, alone, and wait for the things out there to get me? I've already done that for too long. You don't know what it's like..."

  "No, we don't," Alex interrupted Rod. "We never could. And you're right, we can't just leave you here to die, which is what would happen." Alex looked to each of the men in the room. "You're coming with us, Rod. Get some sleep...you're going to need it."

  Relief spread across the boy's face. "Thank you. Thank you..."

  "Don't thank me yet," Alex said. "When God wants to punish man, he answers their prayers." Puzzled looks were thrown in Alex's direction. "Get into a bed, Rod. You need the rest." The boy quickly did as he was told and headed off into the adjoining room.

  The puzzled looks continued until Donovan finally spoke up. "So," he started with a chipper tone in his voice, "just what were these plans of yours that you came up with? You know, the ones that were supposed to be used in the event of a, on I don't know, zombie outbreak?" The man was playing with Alex, but didn't really know what he was asking for.

  "You don't want to know, seriously. The designs for dealing with this kind of thing are barbaric and arcane; drastic and horrifying." Alex had already relived enough of his past, and he truly did not wish to go over the details of the plan he had designed to deal with this.

  "Come on, man," Donovan pushed. "Just how bad could it be?"

  "How bad? Really? It's the end of the world, worst case scenario any way you look at it. There is not one single decision that could be made that would make anyone content. Everyone losses when armageddon rains down." Alex's voice was verging on angry, but he knew that once they smelled blood, no one was going to let him off the hook.

  "Spill it, Alex. How bad could it really be?" Donovan had no idea.

  -----

  "Okay," Alex agreed and glanced towards Marshal, "but you all are going to set Marshal off again."

  "Why do you say that?" Liam asked.

  "Because, at what point in any real world scenario, do any of you think that everyone could be saved?" Alex said.

  "I'm not sure I follow," Dr. Cahn said.

  Alex turned to face the man. "What I'm saying is that there is no conceivable way to save everyone. There have to be sacrifices. And sacrifices on a large scale." Alex crossed his arms and looked towards the ground before continuing. "Initial estimates, on the good side, would put the casualty rate at upwards of sixty percent. Looking at what we've seen so far," Alex shrugged his shoulders, "we would have to revise those numbers to seventy, seventy-five percent?"

  The was a collective gasp amongst the group. "You can't be serious," Marshal demanded. "Really? Seventy-five percent?"

  Alex looked to the man, a grim expression on his face. "I don't think you quite understand," Alex said. "This is no ordinary problem you are dealing with. This is the first time in human history that we are dealing with a one hundred percent mortality rate. One hundred percent, gentlemen." Alex emphasized. "There is no recovery if you are wounded by one of these creatures. You will die...horribly in most cases."

  "But I still don't understand something," Dr. Cahn asked. "Even with that high a mortality rate, seventy-five percent seems obscenely high."

  "And you'd be right," Alex conceded, "if all we were talking about was mortality by zombie attack only. Give it about fifty percent then. But your whole infrastructure, everything that our economy has been built on is now gone. No more delivery trucks, no more grocery stores. Now how do you think those people are going to get food and water?"

  "But even then, people will survive. They will find a way..." Dr. Cahn started to say.

  "If they are given the chance," Alex interjected. "That's where the contingency plan gets in the way."

  "What do you mean?" Liam asked.

  "There is no way that, in this state of emergency, you can defend and support every person in this country. The first phase of the operation would be to seal off and secure strategic cities. You couldn't let anyone in or out. And the larger cities could not be supported. They would be left to their own," Alex said. Someone made to say something, but Alex interrupted.

  "Once those cities were secured, you begin to ferret out any infected," Alex said.

  "Quarantine," the doctor said.

  "No," Alex said, his tone serious. "You can't keep infected people around. Remember, this infection brings about a one hundred percent mortality, but those infected with the virus don't just lie down. They rise again and work to infect and kill anything else. And they don't get tired; they don't sleep; they don't give up." Alex's words sunk in. Everyone's face went white. "You eradicate the infection, by eradicating the infected."

  Silence engulfed the group for what seemed an eternity. When someone finally spoke, it was Marshal. "That is barbaric."

  "That is necessary," Alex cut in quickly. "Unless you want a true, one hundred percent morality, with everyone dead. Everyone." Alex paused to let everyone understand what he was getting at. "If you want to save anyone, you have to make sacrifices. In this case, you are also sacrificing people to save the whole. It sucks, completely, but it has to be."

  "Bullshit," Marshal said.

  "Oh, shut up, Marshal," Liam scolded. "Seriously, man. Just shut up and listen. You've already been schooled once tonight by Donovan, and really, I'm just waiting for my turn. Shut up and let the man talk."

  Marshal fumed at having been reprimanded for the second time tonight, but in no way felt like enduring the embarrassment that Donovan had forced on him.

  Dr. Cahn spoke up, trying to break some of the tension. "There had to be more to the plan than just containment and extermination."

  "There was," Alex continued. "Once the city-states were at least somewhat secured by the military, expeditionary forces would then head out into the countryside to secure sources of food. Farms, ranches, orchards...all were fair game and of vital importance to the survival of the country."

  "Wait a minute," Donovan said. "Phase two was to take over farms and ranches? Alex, are you sure that this plan of yours was trashed? It sounds to me like what happened at New Hope is exactly along those lines, doe
sn't it?"

  Alex nodded his head in agreement. "I think you might be right. But for sure, the plan wasn't instituted immediately or even in its full measure. Securing the farms and ranches was slated to begin within two to three weeks after the initial outbreak was determined. We were at New Hope, what...between two and three months before the military arrived? No, I'd say that, while it looks like at least some of the plan has been put into action, it was done quite a while after the initial outbreak, and possibly changed quite a bit before it was used."

  "How can you be sure that it was changed?" Marshal asked. Alex turned to him with a look that seemed he had forgotten the man was even there. "Because, the major cities haven't been firebombed yet."

  "What?!" It wasn't clear who made the exclamation, but it came from numerous voices at the same time.

  "Why would you do something like that?" Marshal cried.

  "Again, it's simple." Alex stated as a matter of fact. "Where are you biggest concentrations of infected going to be?"

  The question hung in the air and not one person wanted to answer it.

  "The biggest concentrations of infected individuals are going to be where there are large numbers of people in a small area. Mainly large, heavily populated areas. Especially in areas where there are large hospitals. People get sick, or think they are sick, and they rush the emergency rooms. The virus spreads like mad." Alex shook his head again. "The hard choices, remember? The smaller city-states were ferreting out the infections and exterminating them. You have to do the same with the large cities, but on a much larger scale. Target the areas of highest concentration -- hospitals, government buildings, schools -- and you drop a fire bomb, effectively burning away those areas of infections."

  "Schools? Schools?! You would fire bomb little kids?" This time it was Liam who sounded shocked.

  "It's horrific, but unfortunately..." Dr. Cahn was coming to Alex's aid this time. "He's right. Many communities use schools and town halls, gathering places, and emergency shelters. They are going to draw as many infected as the hospitals, if not more." Dr. Cahn looked hard at Alex. "And if I'm following your thought, the city centers would be next."

  Alex nodded. "Correct. People will already be scared when the hospitals and schools go up. You add the city centers with their government offices, and you can almost guarantee that most of the people will shut themselves inside until everything dies down. If they are inside, they are contained, effectively containing any infections that they may be carrying. All you can pray for now is that any family members inside with the infected don't let them out. That's going to happen and there is nothing you can do about it. High estimates say that you can effectively contain fifteen percent of the infected this way. Fifteen is better than zero."

  "But a long way from one hundred," Liam broke in.

  "Fifteen percent is pretty good considering what we are faced with. Here in the States we have open cities with many roads leading in and out. England has is a bit easier with the number of actual walled cities from their past. There is also lots and lots of people who don't live in or near a populated area. People in this country like their space and work hard to purchase property where they can spread out. That in itself makes containment very hard if not near impossible." Alex shrugged his shoulders as if what he was saying was nothing special. "If your goal is to slow down the infection by eliminating large portions of it at one time, well, you hit it where it is."

  "Okay, fine," Marshal said. "But why only the big cities? Why are only small towns included in the isolation process?"

  "It's really simple, actually," Donovan offered. "Smaller cities usually have a more spread out community. Their distance away from major populated areas and large hospitals will make them less likely to come into contact with the infection, greatly reducing the number of individuals that you have to screen and deal with. Also, the smaller the town, the easier it is to effectively seal off that community from the outside world and keep the contagion out."

  Alex smirked at Donovan. "Damn. Where were you when I was doing all of this? I could have used you."

  "But if you take out the larger cities...there are universities, business, government. You'd be destroying the great minds that could help rebuild this country after the infection was cured." Marshal just didn't seem to have the right mindset for planning the containment of a global killer.

  "There are smart people in small towns, too, you know." Liam sounded genuinely offended by what Marshal had said.

  "No...wait. That's not what I mean..." Marshal quickly back-peddled when he realized what he had implied.

  "Calm down, you two. Both of you are right," Alex said. "During the first phase, the President, Vice President and key members of Congress and the government would be moved to secure locations and quarantined. This evacuation of essential personnel would also include some of the great minds in our society today. This is relatively the same kind of evacuation plan that is in place should the country come under attack, with the key difference being the implementation of a strict quarantine of all personnel at the site. Anyone showing to be infected..." The rest did not need explanation.

  "And the city-states? They would just fend for themselves?" Dr. Cahn asked.

  "Not exactly," Alex responded. "It's no secret that the US Government has massive stockpiles of food and supplies in the event of a national emergency. These resources would be airlifted into the quarantined areas keeping those survivors supplied throughout the initiation of the plan. This could, in reality, be anywhere from six to eighteen months, depending on the size of the outbreak and the effectiveness of the containment procedures."

  "And after the initial quarantine period was over? What then? What do we do to take back this country?" Donovan asked.

  Alex laughed at this question. A great belly laugh that he struggled to keep under control. "And that, dear friends, I really did get from a book." He laughed again and everyone looked to one another, not sure what the joke was all about.

  "Don't you remember?" Alex asked. "I told you all that I knew what I was doing because I had read a book about it? Well, I did. 'The Zombie Survival Guide' by Max Brooks. And I'll be damned if he didn't have some pretty good ideas. Even struck gold with them more than once."

  "So what was his great idea that you stole?" Liam asked, very curious.

  "Simple. You form a line of men, arms with apart, from the southern to the norther borders of the continental United States. You start, literally, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and you walk. Step after step, mile after mile, destroying anything that isn't alive." Alex laughed again at the thought. "Genius. Pure genius."

  Marshal spoke up again. "That's it? Seriously...that's it? You 'walk' across the US, and that will get rid of every zombie?"

  "In essence, yes," Alex replied. "It really is that simple, Marshal. You walk across every inch of this country, keeping a solid, unbroken line all the way across. When you meet a threat, a section of the line breaks off to encircle and eradicate the problem. A second line following behind then moves into the place of the missing section, reforming the line and continuing on. Threat is removed, those men rejoin the ranks."

  "And this is supposed to work? Just how long would it take?" Marshal asked.

  "Years," Dr. Cahn spoke in a reverent tone. "Many, many years," he said looking to Alex.

  Alex nodded his agreement. "Three to five is our best guess. And it will work," Alex said to Marshal. "I won't get rid of EVERY zombie. Because of their physiology, there are places that they could in essence hide while the lines made their way across. It will take another five to six years after that march for the remaining threats that slipped through to be dealt with, and even then it will never go away completely. There is always the risk that someone will become infected again, keeping the cycle going." Alex shrugged his shoulders again. "But twelve years after the initial outbreak? People will know what to look for and how to deal with that threat when it comes around. God willing."

  Heads no
dded throughout the room. The shock of first hearing about the containment process had worn away under the logic of Alex's plan. They understood, even if none of them condoned it.

  "So what is our plan, Alex?" Donovan asked. All eyes turned to their de facto leader.

  "We are going to Austin, as quickly and quietly as we can." He looked to each of the men in turn. "And, God willing, each and every one of us will return to our families unharmed. You've probably figured this out by now, but this is no walk in the park. There are going to have to be tough choices made; sacrifices that you may not agree with. But if we all keep our heads about us and work together, I promise that we will get out of this."

  Heads continued to nod their assent at Alex's promise. Each man had made their decision to follow through with their mission, even if it had been forced upon them.

  "Well, we need a name for this rescue mission, don't we? Every military operation has one," Donovan said. "And how about a name for this team? Might as well do it up right, huh?"

  Dubious looks were thrown in the man's direction, but Liam just laughed. "The Buccaneers," he chuckled, "or even The Corsairs." Liam was given numerous strange looks. "Oh, come on. The Corsairs...pirates? Pirates versus zombies?" Liam laughed out loud at his own joke, and soon others were joining him.

  "Sounds good to me," Dr. Cahn spoke up. "I vote 'corsairs."

  "Corsairs."

  "Corsairs."

  "Bucks, man."

  "Bucks, too."

  "Corsairs," came the call from the next room. Hayden had been listening to as much of the conversation as he could hear and now felt the need to interject his opinion.

  "Okay, corsairs it is. Mission name?" Alex asked.

  "Forced Compassion," Marshal offered. All eyes turned to the man who had until this point only argued the opposition. The doctor put a hand on Marshal's shoulder and squeezed. All were in agreement.

  "Okay," Alex said. "Operation Forced Compassion it is. Now, Corsair Force, it's time to get some rest. First shift is up. Donovan, Marshal, and Liam, you're on watch. Everyone else," Alex said looking around the room, "enough digging up ghosts in my past. Now you know everything I know..."