by S. Ganley
The soldiers manning the Bradley's had been watching the unfolding scene through the scopes inside the armored fighting vehicles. The attacks on their comrades had happened so quickly they had not had any time to react, before they realized what was happening the two groups, refuges and soldiers, were intermixed in a squirming pile of flesh locked in brutal and deadly hand to hand combat. The commander of the first Bradley tried to lower the main 25mm gun to lock onto the last few refuges still tangled in the rolled wire strands strung between the wooden barriers. The slightly uphill angle that the vehicle was parked and the close range of the targets prevented the main gun from depressing low enough for a clear shot. He called for the gunner to open the topside hatch and start engaging targets with the M60 machine gun attached to a mount just outside the hatch. The gunner flipped the hatch open with a loud metallic clang and swung the turret into position to bring the machine gun in line with the ongoing fight just thirty feet away from the front of the vehicle. With all of the fighting taking place between him and the barricades the gunner was reluctant to attempt a shot at the fifteen or so people still caught in the wire and struggling to move forward. He also couldn't help any of his own men locked in their own struggles against multiple attackers without risking hitting them by mistake. While his attention was so intently focused on trying to locate a viable target, he did not see the two men and one woman who were clambering up the backside of the Bradley just out of his line of sight. His first indication that he was not alone on top of the vehicle was when a set of strong teeth clamped down hard on his shoulder. The suddenness of this attack caused his knees to go weak and along with the weight of his attacker now falling on top of him, he was driven straight down back into the Bradley, a man with teeth still sunk deep into his shoulder muscle following along right behind him. The other man and woman dropped themselves head first into the Bradley after the pair and in the confined space of the crew compartment they quickly overpowered the crew and began a gruesome feast on flesh and muscle filling the armored vehicle with the high pitched cries of men being torn to shreds.
The crew of the second Bradley saw the bodies tumbling into the turret of their commander’s vehicle and listened over the open radio net to the anguished cries of the crew before they finally switched off the speakers. With their commander lost and the remainder of their unit in the process of being brutalized just feet in front of them without any way for them to render aid, the ranking soldier in this Bradley was a weekend warrior at best and that was just to help pay for college, this was not what he had signed up for. He gave his driver the order to turn their vehicle around and run them at top speed as far from this scene as their fuel would allow.
#
Tyson Corner shopping mall complex was huge, two malls directly across the street from one another with five story parking garages packed to the gills for each. Garrett realized that deciding to do his shopping on a Saturday afternoon was not the brightest idea he had ever had. For the most part the mall seemed to be the gathering place for the entire teenage population within a hundred miles. Crowds of young men reeking of their father's high end cologne pursuing an endless gaggle of cackling young girls strutting about like peacocks in the most up to date fashion and accessories with makeup plastered on to a point that just about qualified them for circus clown tryouts. Maneuvering through this upscale yuppie playground in the midst of the teenage mating rituals as well as countless mothers pushing strollers full of screaming infants and toddlers desperately wailing for their parents to buy them this or that on top of his lingering hangover was pushing his tolerable limits. He had already visited two of the main anchor chains and shuttled four bags laden with part of his new wardrobe out to his truck parked a conservative half mile from the mall entrance in the bowels of a nearby parking garage. He had cut down his list by a little over half and had already dropped close to two thousand dollars, more than he had spent on clothes during his entire time in the military. The remaining items would be better found in the myriad of specialty stores lining each floor of the spacious mall. This was going to be the most challenging part of his day, swimming upstream against the confused flow of traffic going in multiple directions at once or just stopping suddenly to answer a phone call with little regard for those following along behind them as they turned into an inconsiderate road block.
Walking past an electronics store with several television sets displayed in the front window Garrett's attention was drawn to a breaking news story alert flashing on the screens of several large flat screen sets. He joined a small knot of shoppers who had also stopped in the window front and started reading the closed caption information scrolling across the screen over an image of Dulles Airport just down the road from the mall. The story concerned a security scare at the airport, information was reported as sketchy but what was known at this time was that passengers arriving at Dulles from a flight believed to have originated out of Philadelphia became unruly with airport and flight personnel shortly after the flight arrived in Virginia. Airport officials were originally notified by the flight crew of an unspecified medical emergency on board the plane with two passengers as well as a third passenger in the passenger walkway between the plane and terminal. After medical personnel arrived, a disturbance began which prompted notification to airport security and escalated into a shooting incident with multiple injuries. The section of the terminal where the incident occurred had been locked down by security and health officials and further information on the nature of the emergency or number of injured had not been made public at this time. Airport officials were advising travels that if possible to reroute their departure location to Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC or Baltimore International Airport in Baltimore, Maryland. An airport spokeswoman stated that while the majority of the airport was remaining open for normal flight operations health officials recommended a complete closure while inspections were conducted for possible contaminants. Speculation of a possible biological or chemical agent either being used had been heard but when questioned on those topics officials declined further comment.
As the closed caption continued to repeat the story, a buzz of excited conversation began between the shoppers gathered near Garrett watching from the store window. Garrett heard the phrase terrorist attack and biological weapons repeated between groups of onlookers and could only imagine that it wouldn't take long for rumors of Armageddon to start spreading throughout the region. He decided that he really needed to hurry up and get his shopping at the mall done and then hit the food store on his way home. Once stories like this started gaining momentum there would more than likely be a mad rush on food stores as people stocked up and prepared for the worst. He did find it interesting that the plane where the trouble started had originated out of Philly. If you looked at the quarantine in New Jersey and compared on a map how close that was to the airport, it wasn't hard to make the leap of a possible link between the two. Garrett wouldn't be surprised if some news services didn't start picking up on that as well and start really putting fear into people. What really bothered him was that since he was no longer in the know with information from direct military circles, he was now just like everyone else in relying on available information from news sources. He knew all too well that when officials released information to the media it was watered down as much as possible to avoid seeming alarmist and to help prevent panic from the general public. If what he had just seen on the news was only a watered down version of events he could only imagine just how bad the actual situation at the airport must be.
Garrett slipped back into the flow of foot traffic and headed for the nearest specialty store where he could select a professional looking briefcase or satchel. He wanted to get in and out of the last three shops as quickly as possible, the hour was already running late and now that he had added food shopping to this outing it would be well into the early evening hours before he finally made it home. He also really needed to call Calvin back and get the rest of the story on how their e
vening had played out the night before. Garrett though he would pick the former First Sergeant's brain for his own impressions on what was happening in New Jersey and now at Dulles Airport. With his contacts still on active duty he may have picked up some chatter about behind the scenes activities and know a little more than the news people were reporting. If this was traced back to terrorism and attacks inside the United States were under way or were imminent, it would be a good idea to know ahead of the general public.
Chapter 11
Tristan was well absorbed in a movie and had given up any meager efforts at monitoring the pair of stiffs laid out on metal slabs in the examination room next door. The bulky contamination suit had proved to unyielding to get comfortable in the office chair he was using to watch movies on the computer. With all the monitoring equipment hanging on the walls throughout this section of the field center, he felt safe enough dropping the suit to just below his waist to allow him to comfortably sit and enjoy the movie. Moving the chair sideways he was able to rest his feet on the desk and use the balled up excess of the suit as a comfortable backstop that made him feel like he was resting in a cushioned recliner. The computer speakers were set up overhead near either doorway and could be heard well into the surrounding rooms if he turned the volume up loud enough to enjoy the film. To get around the sound problem he had been lucky to find a pair of earbuds in one of the desk drawers, after cleaning a rather unsavory ball of earwax out of one of the small bullet shaped earpieces, he was able to use them to listen to his movie discreetly.
With his back now to the door of the room he had been tasked to monitor, he was unable to see the pair of bodies start to stir on the tables. The examination tables they had been laid out on were equipped with plastic straps connecting to metal eyelets on the underside of each table. The straps enabled a subject on the top of the table to be secured across their ankles, wrists and chest. Since the table was designed to only keep a body in place and stable and not for security, the plastic used in the straps was thin and pliable to give the examiner flexibility in making adjustments that would otherwise be more difficult with thicker and less pliable plastic or leather. There had been nothing in the lab to act as a sufficient gag so burlap sacks had been placed over both heads and tied off with twine around the neck. The scientists and technicians charged with following Dr. Woods instructions on securing the two bodies had worked side by side with both men for many years and were reluctant to treat their bodies with anything short of respect and tenderness so the twine around their necks was only loosely tied. The reanimation of both men was now complete and they slowly stirred against their bindings. The thin plastic straps holding their bodies in place were nothing more than a momentary obstacle and they easily ripped free and then reached up to tear the sacks from their heads and started to take stock of their surroundings. The smell of nearby prey was overwhelming to both of them, their acute sense of smell for living human flesh triggered their primal instinct to feed and they both turned at the same time and moved towards the door on the far side of the room.
With the pressure in the examination room released and now equalized with the corridor outside, the magnetic locks which would have sealed the room tight at high pressure no longer functioned. To lock the room while the air pressure was normalized, latches on the bottom and top of each door had to be manually set. Tristan had failed to engage the latches and only pulled the door closed when he had exited. All the pair of zombies had to do was push up against the door and it swung open giving them access to the short corridor directly behind Tristan.
Both zombies hit him at the same time, one sinking his teeth deep into the side of his neck while the other clasped onto the side of his face folding his ear forward and biting deep into Tristan's upper cheek. The weight of the two zombies on his upper body flipped him backwards onto the floor where his head struck hard against the side of desk knocking him unconscious before he could vocalize the agonized scream of pain and shock that was just working its way towards his trembling lips. Tristan Gant died without ever knowing what was happening to him, thus sparing him the knowledge of the grisly fate soon to be visited on his corpse.
At a little past five in the evening another security guard who had been on the day's schedule as the designated runner, a duty that most of them nicknamed the shit shift, entered the wing where Tristan had been working with a tray holding his dinner. Backing through the doors into the small corridor, he noticed the smell before anything else. The rich coppery scent of blood mingled with another deeper aroma like raw sewage. His gag reflex kicked in and caused him to flinch and he had to struggle to keep from spilling the tray full of food, in those few seconds he took three more steps into the corridor while the door swung shut behind him. Regaining his balance with the tray, he suddenly realized that he was not alone in the corridor, something he was not expecting because Tristan had been stationed in the next room and no one was scheduled to be on duty at this outer station. Seeing the white coat typical of one of the stations scientific staff bent over something on the floor on the opposite side of the desk, his immediate impression was that the man had dropped something and was in the process of picking it up. He moved towards the desk intending to put the tray down and offer his assistance while still reeling from the unsavory smell hanging over the small space.
"Jesus doc, what is that smell? Is there something down there I can help you with?"
The face of the second zombie that had been hidden on the far side of the desk suddenly popped up into view and the security guard froze in his tracks as he tried to digest what he was looking at. The deathly eyes and gore coated face took him by surprise and stopped him dead in his tracks. With his attention totally focused on the face of the zombie covered in the remnants of Tristan's destroyed stomach and bowels, he failed to register the danger of the other man until he was tackled across the stomach and knocked back hard into the closed door behind him. The tray of food fell against the guard’s chest and arms providing him with a unintended shield that he now instinctively pushed outward and was able to catch the zombie in the chest and hold him back just short of reaching his face with his snapping teeth. Recognition hit him all at once, the man he was struggling with was one of the doctors who had been attacked and killed just a short time ago in the autopsy suite. His survival instincts kicked in at that point, and he summoned up the strength to push his arms straight and using the tray as a battering ram he drove the dead man backwards enough for him to scramble off to the side and regain his footing. Free from his attacker, he swung around and smashed his palm against the button to open the door behind him, planning on stepping out of the corridor and closing the door where he would be able to trap this pair of abominations between the two rooms. The door started to slide open and he had just taken his first step through the opening when the second zombie launched his attack by climbing over the computer desk and throwing his own body forward catching the guard across his chest in a flying tackle that sent both of them tumbling into the next room where they crashed against a portable x-ray machine knocking it over onto of them. The heavy metal base of the machine landed on the guards forearm and broke the bone to splinters with a sickening crunch of shattering bone. Screaming out in pain, the guard momentarily lost track of this second attacker and twisted his body in a protective posture around his ruined arm. The first zombie had now recovered from being slung back into the corridor and emerged through the open door on his hands and knees where he was able to pounce onto the guards exposed side and sink his teeth into the soft skin on the underside of his arm. With his other arm broken and still pinned tightly under the x-ray machine, the guard was unable to defend himself and could only watch in utter horror as his tricep was ripped and chewed apart. The fight ended a few moments later as the second zombie finished off the guard with a bite across his neck leaving the man to strangle to death on puddles of blood that pooled in his ruined throat.
Their hunger for flesh had been satisfied from the fat and flesh o
f Tristan's body leaving them content with their fatal strikes against this second guard. Quickly losing interest in the still figure underneath them, the pair of zombies turned their attention back to the odor of more live prey wafting to them from further into the field center.
#
Still rattled from the scene at the airport, Miranda had lost a lot of her enthusiasm about the prospect of meticulously reviewing the apartment complexes she had planned on visiting. During the cab ride from the airport she went through the printouts she had in a small notebook in her purse and decided that as long as the three bedroom, furnished unit at the intersection of Route 7 and Dominion Drive was still available, she would take it. This was the one unit that was on the high end of her price range but the variety of amenities it offered and its proximity to shopping and easy access to the metro had always made it the most promising option for her.
She was met outside the complex office by a well-dressed older lady who introduced herself as Mrs. Shelly Carpenter, she presented herself as well educated, soft spoken and a competent business woman. What Miranda immediately liked about her was her caring, almost grandmotherly like, demeanor. Stepping out of the cab it must have been evident on her face that she was distressed about something. Mrs. Carpenter had greeted her and called for a young man dressed in a polo shirt with the name of the complex embroidered on the breast to take her bags into a small room next to the office. She had directed Miranda to a private office where she offered up a cup of fresh brewed coffee while directing Miranda to a seat around a table with information sheets pertaining to the different apartments, townhouses and amenities offered. Before getting down to business, she gently took hold of Miranda's hand. offered her a caring smile and inquired as to what was wrong. When Miranda meekly denied any sort of problem, Mrs. Carpenter chuckled softly and reassured her that she was not the first new tenant to arrive with apprehensions about moving to a strange new town. She explained how the pace of life in this area could sometimes be a culture shock to those coming from smaller and slower paced communities across the country. It took Miranda a moment to understand what she was getting at and then had to laugh as she felt herself starting to feel much more relaxed. She explained to Mrs. Carpenter that the move itself was not exactly a problem for her, coming from Philly with a similar fast pace of life she actually would feel right at home in this area. While she did have the normal apprehensions that she guessed most anyone would have about a big move like this, new home, new job and meeting new people, the challenge was something she had been pleasantly looking forward to for some time now. She explained how there had been some type of serious incident at the airport and that it had left her a little shook up. Having not even set foot outside the airport during her first few minutes in town she had experienced a possible act of terrorism and that was something that was completely new for her. Mrs. Carpenter gasped and expressed genuine concern that Miranda had been caught up in something so horrid. She said that she had seen a brief news clip about an incident at Dulles airport but had not made the connection that her visitor may have just been coming from that very scene. Miranda briefly explained what she had witnessed at the airport, she started with the sick couple that had been sitting behind her and then quickly wished she had left that part out when she noticed Mrs. Carpenter visibly shrink back in her chair a few inches further away from her. She imagined that the few tear tracks running down her cheeks must have smeared her makeup some and added to that what must still be puffy and red eyes, she was sure that she looked the part of someone not feeling well. She assured Mrs. Carpenter that she felt fine and did not think she had contracted whatever bug her fellow passengers may have been carrying. Even with that assertion she could not help but notice how the older woman maintained a more discreet distance from her for the remainder of their time together.
