by Wick Welker
“We are so screwed,” Dave said as he unclipped a handgun from his side pocket.
“We’ve been screwed from the very beginning,” Michaels said as she walked in front of him toward the loading bay doors. “Let’s go find somewhere to relax.”
Dave looked back over his shoulder at the horde that swirled in erratic currents, stopping to chew on car doors, or to pick on sewer grates. One woman at the edge of the horde had found a screwdriver, which she shoved down her throat, with the skinny end first. The handle got caught in the back of her throat, so she pounded the back of it with the stub of her severed arm.
“Holy shit, they’re turning into a bunch of goats out there. What are they even doing?” Dave said.
“I don’t know, but for the first time ever, they don’t seem too interested in eating me, so I don’t really care right now.” Michaels hoisted herself up the concrete stoop of the loading bay and disappeared into the power plant with the rest of the ground teams following after.
*****
Stark had set up a work desk on top of a stack of wooden pallets in the corner of the warehouse. He was fidgeting with a satellite phone and a flashlight when Douglas stumbled in, shouting out orders, and setting up perimeter goals to the squad. He positioned them at open doorways and had them move metal cabinets in front of several other maintenance doors that led outside. The squad worked quickly, setting up defensive positions, and taking inventory of all gunpowder ammunition and explosive grenades that they had. Fortunately, there were few windows in their section of the power plant, with only a small amount of horizontal windows near the ceilings that Dave discovered once he climbed up into the catwalks in the ceiling above. He found Michaels sitting down on the metal grating of the catwalk floor, suspended high above the squad below, with her legs dangling in the air. She was looking out the small windows at the horde, with her forehead against a metal railing.
“Hey,” Dave said, touching her on the shoulder.
“Oh, hey,” she said, continuing to look out with a bright slit of light casting over her face from the window. “You should sit. Nothing else to do.” She slid over to let him squeeze in between the bars of the railing. “Or you could go back to scrambling down there like everybody else, trying to act like we have control.”
Dave sat down next to her and looked out as the horde continued to move in constant flux like a river, running through narrow rocks, and over logs. They moved in chaotic directions but also flowed in even rows. “If you were at home, back in Seattle before all of this started, what would you be doing right now? Middle of August at…” he looked at his watch, “eleven a.m.?”
“What difference does it make, Dave?”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“You usually don’t call me by my first name.”
“So what?” she said.
“Nothing, I’m just pointing it out.”
“It’s because I kind of like you,” she replied, staring out the window.
Dave looked over at her. “You do?”
“Cut the shit, we both know we’re kind of into each other.”
“Yeah, I don’t know, maybe. I don’t really know you all that well, but I could see something—”
“What do you want on your tombstone, Dave?” she interrupted.
“Um… I’m not sure. I’d have to think about it.”
“You better think quick.”
“Well, what would you want?”
“ ‘It could’ve been different.’ ”
“What could’ve been different?”
“No, that’s what I would put on my tombstone: ‘It Could Have Been Different.’ ”
“That’s kind of depressing.”
“It’s not depressing, it’s just… reality. Everything could’ve been different. There’s some parallel universe out there that is exactly like ours in every single way, except that some asshole scientist didn’t spawn the apocalypse in some podunk town in North Dakota. It is the only difference between our universe and theirs—just a single little virus was never made. For some reason, in this universe that we happen to find ourselves, we are surrounded by people that walk around after they die, and who also want to eat us. It’s just the way it goes, but it could’ve been different.”
“That’s pretty… fatalistic,” Dave said, looking over at her.
“It’s like me and you.”
“What do you mean?”
“In that other universe, maybe we met, but we didn’t have the army of the dead invading America. Maybe we could’ve worked out.”
“And we don’t work out in this universe?”
“If we tried, it would just be another false grab at hope like everybody downstairs who’s trying to guard the doorways, and watch for the horde. If I tried to kiss you right now it would be the exact same thing as Dr. Stark down there now trying to get his new little plans together to foil the virus yet again. We all started a new way of life two years ago and every single person in this country has been in denial ever since. We’re not the top dogs anymore, they are,” she said, pointing out the window. “Everybody needs to stop pretending that we can go back to our normal lives, so why don’t me and you be the first to stop the bullshit, and not get into some melodramatic… end-of-the-world romance?”
“I guess…”
“Hey!” someone yelled from below them. “I just killed one of them that got too close to the tanks!” A soldier came in through the loading bay doors below.
“Okay,” Douglas laughed, “you want a medal?”
“No, no, this one is different, way different.”
Stark got up from his small table and walked up to the soldier. “What’s going on?”
“Dr. Stark, I think you should just come look for yourself. Something really weird is going on with them.” The soldier waved him over to the outside doors and walked out.
Stark looked at Douglas, with exhaustion, and walked out to where the five shock tanks had crammed themselves into a nook in front of the loading bay doors, flanked by concrete walls of the power plant. “Where is it?” Stark asked.
“Just out there, a little bit in the parking lot. I sliced her right down the front of her chest and belly, and there is something weird inside. I didn’t really even look that hard. I just ran in to tell you.”
Stark walked through a narrow space between two tanks and back out to the parking lot, tiring of seeing the same mass of bodies moving through the streets. Several yards off, a stout woman was lying on the pavement with her cheek ripped open at the side, exposing her lower teeth and tongue.
As he approached, several bright reflections of sun shot into his eyes from the woman’s open chest and abdomen. “The hell?” Stark said as he stood over her. The woman’s sternum and abdomen had been ripped open in one seamless wound from the single blade. Her heart had been punctured by the blade and oozed with coagulated blood. Her abdominal cavity was full of already rotted intestines that had shriveled into hardened ropes. Along the open edges of the large wound, Stark saw what looked like a metallic mesh that was embedded just beneath the skin. It ran continuously from the abdomen all the way up to the top of the wound in the chest. The mesh glittered in the sunlight as Stark stared back, finally understanding what they had done.
“What they hell is that?” Douglas said as he ran up beside Stark. “What’s all that metal under the skin? Some sort of surgery that she had before?”
“I don’t think so.”
“What is it?”
“We’ve got to bring this body in.”
“Why?”
“I’m going to tear it apart.”
“What the hell is going on?”
“Extreme adaptability.” Stark shook his head as he walked back.
Chapter Twenty Two: Eau Claire, Wisconsin
“Benjamin, I really do understand what’s going on over there. I understand it because the exact same thing is happening over here,” Rambert said.
“No, no it is not. Your b
orders are still contained. You officially have not had an outbreak within your borders, Mr. President.”
“Do you have any idea how close Ciudad Juárez is to the United States? It’s a stone’s throw away. I’ve been getting reports that they have already spread into El Paso streets. Mr. Prime Minister, we are having a full blown outbreak inside American borders.”
Netanyahu let out a short sigh on the other end of the line and spoke again in his soft accent, “We need your help, Mr. President. I need your help. We are completely… lost over here. We will forever lose our great city without the aid of your military and navy.”
“I understand your situation, but you need to know that I have about twenty million infected human beings that are breaking into my southern border. It’s an army that the world has never seen before. Most of my Navy, Air Force, and military are down in El Paso right now. I lost two entire naval fleets in Venezuela, and the rest of my military force is tied up in Germany and South Korea. My hands are completely tied—they’re not even tied—they’re empty.”
“It’s not even help inside of Jerusalem that I need the most. It’s the Iranian Army…”
“Where are they now?”
“Jordan.” Netanyahu let out a deep breath.
“I’m sorry.” Rambert rubbed his eyes. “This whole time we’ve been playing games with them back and forth over the years, and when they see the chance, they just walk right in.”
“I need a no-fly-zone, Mr. President. Please.”
“I cannot give that to you right now. I want to help you, but I can’t.”
“Almost all our military bases have been taken by the infection. We don’t… we hardly do not have any other choice. I cannot let them come into Jerusalem. I would rather die. I would rather the entire city burn before they set foot here.”
“Mr. Prime Minister, I completely understand how you’re feeling. I would, however, advise you to not be hasty with… escalating your fire power.”
“Is it not what you have also been considering? We both know you do not have enough manpower to fight your own outbreak. You just said it yourself.”
“If you use a nuclear weapon on Iran, Pakistan will retaliate, and India will the flex its nuclear muscle in front of Pakistan.” Rambert slowed the cadence of his voice. “You will change the world if you use nuclear weapons.”
“Mr. President, you already changed the world when you detonated your own bombs in the atmosphere without advising any nation in the global community.”
“That was different. My country, our, our entire government was about to collapse. We were desperate to kill off the infected.”
“And am I not desperate now? Is my entire country not on the verge of utter collapse, Mr. President?”
“You can’t use nuclear weapons against Iran, you simply cannot do it. The repercussions will be… catastrophic.”
“The repercussions may be no worse than what the Sirr has already done to the world. I will defend my country, Mr. President. I’m running low on options.”
Rambert was leaning back in his chair when his new Secretary of Defense, Donald Novak walk into the room, with frightened eyes. Rambert had regretted even appointing the man to be the Army Secretary and now he had fallen into the Defense Secretary position by default. Rambert wasn’t sure the man was capable of original thought as he looked up at his wide eyes.
Rambert continued on the phone. “Mr. Prime Minister… Benjamin, please for the good of the planet, please don’t attack Iran. We can still get back what we once were. Give me time, and I’ll try to send you reserves.”
“When?”
“Give me one week. I’ll try to pull out of Asia.”
“I’ll give you one week or before Iran invades my capitol. Whichever happens first, but I will not stand idly by.”
“I would urge you to use the ATLAS-M in Jerusalem to disable their military if they do invade.”
Netanyahu laughed. “That may slow them, but it will not get them out of the city. Have you had to use your ATLAS-M yet?”
“No, I’m keeping it as a last resort. Fortunately, Washington D.C. hasn’t had an outbreak.”
“The machine has not worked well for us, I’ll warn you.”
“In what way?” Rambert stood and looked out of the conference room windows. He could see Mayberry sitting at a desk, talking on a phone. “Hasn’t it killed the infected?”
“It has, but only within about fifteen miles of its pulse. Beyond that, the infected still walk my streets, but…”
“What?”
“They no longer attack us.”
“What do you mean?”
“After we released our EMP pulse, the infected that were not inside the blast zone have stopped trying to attack my citizens. They act differently, Mr. President. They eat strange things like metal cans, tools, loose bullets on the ground… I’ve seen it myself. I don’t know what is going on, but I am happy that they no longer attack us. I’ve managed to evacuate much of our healthy people from Jerusalem.”
“Mr. President…” Novak spoke up, waiting for Rambert to notice him.
Annoyed, Rambert looked up, and bugged his eyes out at Novak. He spoke into the phone. “I’m happy to hear that you’ve been able to save so many of your people, Mr. Prime Minister.”
“Thank you. I hope the same fortune for your people during this… end time. Forgive me, but I must go now.”
“Yes, I understand. Please let me know before you make a decision about Iran.”
“I will, Mr. President. You let me know when you can send me help.”
“Yes, sir.” Rambert hung up the phone and looked at Novak.
Novak nervously rubbed his chin. “Mr. President?”
“Yes, Don, just speak up. All formalities are out the window at this point. What do you got have to say?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. President.”
“Don’t be sorry, just talk.”
“They turned on their ATLAS-M in Berlin and it… didn’t exactly work.”
“I could’ve guessed.”
“In Berlin it knocked down the closest core of the infected, but it didn’t reach as far as we had estimated, only about a third of the distance. From reports, it did knock down infected people in the outer rings of the pulse zone, but they got back up after a few minutes. There are still hundreds of thousands in the city there.”
Rambert looked out again through the conference windows and saw Mayberry still talking on the phone. The underground intelligence command center of Wisconsin was starting to feel like a prison. It had been two weeks since he had seen natural sunlight, and he felt the exhaustion of cabin fever creeping into his thoughts. “Okay,” he said quickly to Novak.
“Sir, do you still think it’s a good idea to use our ATLAS-M if we need to in D.C.?”
“Why wouldn’t we?”
“Well… because it’s not doing exactly what we thought it would do.”
“Is it killing infected people?”
“Well… yes.”
“Then we’ll use it.” Rambert scoffed, “Jeez, are we losing our minds here? Let’s keep doing the things that make sense.”
“Yes, sir.” Novak gave him a boyish smile that diminished when Rambert kept a dull stare on him.
“I’ve got to call Dr. Stark, why don’t you bring him up on the conference phone here?” Rambert said.
“Okay.” Novak fiddled with the intercom in the middle of the table.
Rambert saw Mayberry finally get up from his phone conversation through the windows and waved his hand at him until it caught his eye.
Mayberry looked once more down at his phone, and then walked over to the conference room. He opened the door and slumped himself in chair next to Rambert.
“We’re about to get an update from Dr. Stark. Who were you talking to?” Rambert asked.
“Everybody,” Mayberry said.
“Like who?”
“Well, our embassy in China for one. There are talks of the Chinese moving in
to North Korea.”
“That’s not a surprise. I’m thinking we just need to pull our forces out of there before we start a world war three, although Israel may just beat us to the punch. What do you think, Secretary Novak?”
Novak hesitated with a pause. “Yes, Mr. President, I think that would be a good idea. It would de-escalate tensions in that region.”
“All right, let’s get our update from Dr. Stark, and we can talk about that and everything else in the world that is going to hell,” Rambert said.
“First, Larry, can we talk about Dr. Stark?” Mayberry asked.
“Go ahead,” Rambert said, leaning back in his chair.
“What is our position right now about him?”
“Who can know?”
“Do you personally believe he is involved with the Sirr?”
“I have no idea. I’ve known the guy for over two years, which… isn’t much, I guess. What should we do about it?”
“I like him just where he is.”
“Mexico?”
“Stuck inside an outbreak.”
“You’re taking what your agent is saying pretty seriously.”
“Yes, I am.” Mayberry nodded. “He’s proven to be very reliable at this point.”
“Yeah, except he has no idea where his faction is heading. We need to find out what they plan to do,” Rambert said.
“Please don’t state the obvious to me,” Mayberry said with exhaustion in his throat.
“Let’s just start this call. See what Stark says,” Rambert said as he punched a button on the speakerphone, which rang for a few moments before Stark picked up.
“Larry?” Stark’s voice came into the room through static.
“Dr. Stark, I am joining you with Chuck, and our new Defense Secretary, Donald Novak.”
“New Defense Secretary? We have a third one now?” Stark asked.
“We do until I hear back from Colonel Raff in the Gulf of Paria…” Rambert replied.
“Oh, right, look, Larry, I’ve got some… strange news. Where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you for the past eight hours,” Stark said.
