by Ricky Sides
“Portions are. Some of our shipments were intercepted, just as we intercepted one of theirs. But they did a better job of stopping us,” the man said bitterly.
“How much was intercepted,” asked the president.
“Half, sir.”
“Half! Do we have any reason to hope that they won’t use it against us?” asked the president.
“It’s en route as we speak, sir.”
“Launch our bombers. Do it. Do it now!”
“Yes, Mr. President,” stated the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “How many of the eight nations do we target, sir?”
“All of them,” the president ordered.
“Mr. President, there’s one other thing you should know. The enemy is also targeting all of our allies and trade partners, although not to the extent that they are targeting us,” explained the Secretary of Defense.
“Warn them all and wish them luck. Follow protocol. Tell them only what they need to know to defend themselves. Deny any allegations that the compound was created by us,” ordered the president. Then as an afterthought, he said, “Target their allies and trade partners too.”
“Sir?” asked the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“The recovery from this war will be a race. That’s why they are targeting our friends and trading partners. The country that recovers first will be the most powerful in the world. If we don’t do likewise, they may end up winning by default,” explained the president.
“Yes, Mr. President, I understand, but do you? This means that most of the major nations of the world will be affected to one degree or another and the rest of the world is bound to have cross contamination and spillover damage.”
“Understood. Do it,” the president ordered.
“Do we move to exterminate all of the dogs and cats in the country, Mr. President?” asked the Secretary of Defense.
“No. There’s no way to know yet how they’ve utilized the formula. An extermination campaign is bound to generate massive resistance, which would go viral. We have to wait for the American public to demand such action. At least then we won’t be facing armed revolt.”
“Yes, Mr. President.”
***
Sixty-three year old Ida Malone stared out the window at the snow in disgust. For three days now, she had been trapped in her home with her cats. The roads were still icy, and Ida couldn’t drive on the icy roads. Heavy snow in the area was such a rare event that she had never needed to get out in it before.
She turned to address her cats that were waiting impatiently to be fed. She could hardly believe how much they had grown in recent weeks. They were almost as large as the tomcat that had invaded her kitchen a few weeks back.
She would run out of cat food two days ago. The cats were always hungry now, and had of late demanded more and more food. Ida searched her cupboards in vain. She’d searched them several times already, but she had no more cat food in the house.
The old woman took the last of her bread from a cabinet and tore it into little pieces. If she’d had any, she would have fed the cats bologna, but she’d fed them the last of that yesterday. She had fed them all of the hotdogs she had in the house the day before that. Now she was forced to try to feed them stale bread with a splash of milk.
Ida placed the feeding dish on the floor for her cats. The cats looked at the food in the dish with disdain. One of them turned to face Ida and hissed. It lowered its head, held its tail erect, and bristled as it continued to advance.
“What’s wrong with you, girl?” Ida asked, not yet frightened.
The cat lunged forward and clawed Ida’s bare ankle, drawing blood. Ida shrieked and backed away from the cat. The other two felines darted around the aggressive cat, and for a moment, Ida thought that they were coming to her rescue as they had done the day the tomcat visited. Then to her horror, they also lowered their heads and raised their tails in an aggressive stance, and then they began to stalk toward her.
Ida backed up until her back collided with the kitchen cabinets as the three cats advanced resolutely toward her.
Outside Ida’s house, the cold wind raged, blowing swirls of snow into drifts.
The occasional passing vehicles all had their windows sealed tightly against the winter cold. The drivers never heard Ida’s screams that went on for several minutes as most had the volume of their radios turned up, listening with growing shock as local disc jockeys discussed the outbreak of animal attacks in the area. “Most of the attacks have thus far involved cats, but there have been instances of dog and rat attacks as well. The authorities are advising people to keep a vigilant watch on their pets. Pet owners should keep them away from the very young or elderly. Do not, I repeat, do not leave babies alone, even for a moment. Early this morning, there were rat attacks on two babies in separate sections of town miles apart.”
The news stories went national by the end of the day.
By the next day, word of the tragic events had reached Russia and China, who were both waiting to see the results of Talbot’s demonstration in the target city before buying the formula. When they learned that Talbot was dead, both nations bought the formula from some of Talbot’s known customers. Within a week of the attacks in Athens, Alabama, they were rushing the secret formula into production and planning to add their strength to the all out attack on America, its allies and trading partners.
The Russians would not risk placing trust in their moles within the United States to carry out their assault. Rather than carrying out his mission, Talbot had gone into business for himself. Therefore, the Russian government no longer trusted their moles, which, like Talbot, had been inside the United States twenty-plus years. Like the Americans, they planned on seeding clouds with the compound.
The End
Epilog
January 19th
From California to the east coast, it rained across most of the continental United States. From Los Angeles to New York City, residents reported an odd, whitish-grey residue that coated everything.
Cats groomed the residue from their bodies, because that’s what cats do, and then they turned to their feed bowls with increasing hunger.
About the author
Ricky Sides was born in Florence, Alabama in May of 1958. He has a wife named Sue that he married at age 18. He has one adult son named Larry Dale.
The author studied martial arts from 1981 to the mid 1990s. He has been an avid camper and student of survival. The techniques described in his fight sequences are often from his personal experience and training. He has taught women's rape prevention seminars in the 1980's.
The author's writing experience includes:
The Birth of the Peacekeepers, and the other books in the Peacekeepers series.
The Brimstone and the Companions of Althea series which is a nine novel set based on the on line game t4c (the fourth coming) and was written by Ricky Sides under the pen name Raistlin and edited and collaborated on by a wonderful lady from Louisiana under the pen name Kittie Justice.
The author also wrote a book on women's self-defense named The Ultimate in Women's Self-Defense.
Another book by the author is titled Adventures in Reading. The book is a collection of short stories and the novella The North Room.
Excerpt from book one, The Birth of the Peacekeepers:
He’d just begun to walk away from the area of the crash when the earthquake that rocked that region that night began to rumble through the ground. By the light of the quarter moon, he watched in shocked awe as the surface of the earth undulated and rippled like the surface of the sea. He saw trees crashing to the ground not far from him, and twice he was thrown to the ground.
When the earth stopped shaking, Tim got back on his feet and stared about him at the damage. Like many soldiers who trained extensively for night operations, Tim had superb night vision. As he stood surveying the carnage wrought by the earthquake, he wished for the first time in his life that he didn’t have such excellent night vision.
As he walked, he was expecting the bombs to fall at any minute. In fact, he wasn’t sure that it hadn’t been a bomb that had caused the earth to shake so violently during the earthquake. However, he didn’t much believe that it had been a bomb for two reasons. There had been no flash of light in the night sky and there had been no shockwave. He felt reasonably sure that if he could feel the shockwave through the earth he would have experienced the atmospheric shockwave as well. “Unless the bombs detonated below the surface,” he told himself.
Walking all night long, he never saw a soul. Dawn found him on the outskirts of a small community that had been evacuated due to some of the natural disasters that had occurred two weeks prior to his arrival. He acquired some food and water there. More importantly, he acquired a motorcycle. He also found another few boxes of nine-millimeter ammunition, which he gratefully added to his meager supply.
Excerpt from book 2 of the peacekeeper series:
Lisa walked over to sit beside Sergeant Wilcox who always welcomed her to their conversations. The sergeant looked at her with sad eyes. She knew he was thinking about the captain’s orders and she said, “Sergeant, I overheard the orders. I know you don’t want to leave anyone behind, and you might wait too long,” then she turned to his men and added, “Or some of you may wait too long.”
She sighed then and said, “There are things you don’t know about me that I think I should tell you,” she said. Lisa was unaware that this team had rescued her. She had been unconscious then and woke up in the infirmary never certain how she had gotten there because no one in the crew would speak of it. Sighing again she said, “I was taken captive by a bad man. He did things to me. Bad things. He hurt me so bad,” she said, her young voice breaking. “He did things to another girl too but she died.”
Some of the soldiers had to look away so she wouldn’t see the pain in their eyes.
“If you don’t listen to the Captain and do as he says, then some of you will be taken captive by the bad men. And they will do bad things to you like what was done to me. Please, oh please don’t let that happen,” she begged and then she began to cry not for herself but in fear for them.
“We won’t Lisa, I promise,” Sergeant Wilcox said.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and thanked him. He gently patted her on the back and felt her body stiffen briefly. He cursed himself for forgetting. He’d never touched her before, but then she relaxed and wiped her eyes. She kissed him on the cheek and then walked around the circle of men, kissing each on the cheek. As she did so and the men patted her on the back in appreciation, a broken part in that little girl’s soul was mended. When she left the cargo bay, the sergeant looked each man in the eyes and saw the emotions that he was experiencing reflected in their eyes. “Well there you have it boys. We have our orders from the Captain and we have the request from Lisa. Each of us promised that little girl we’d do our jobs and not get captured in the process. Which of you will let her down and go back on his word? It sure as hell won’t be me.”
Excerpt from book 3 of the peacekeeper series:
Tom got up and crouched breathing heavily. “You’ll pay for that insult. No one slaps me and lives,” Tom threatened.
“That was for Lina,” Jim said smiling and stalked in closer to the man. He feigned a kick to Tom’s knee and then slapped him again so hard that the sound penetrated the skin of the ship without the need of the external feed. Tom launched a furious set of punches, palm strikes, and kicks in retaliation. Using circular footwork Jim blocked his opponent’s attacks but stayed near him. After that set of blocked strikes, Jim retaliated with a palm strike to the solar plexus, followed quickly by three more slaps. Tom staggered backwards away from his opponent. For the first time, there was fear in Tom’s eyes. “That was for Robert,” Jim said simply.
The peacekeeper captain closed with Tom again and this time he executed a series of better than a dozen punches, pummeling Tom’s face, chest, and midriff. The strikes were designed to disrupt the breathing of the opponent. His strikes were landing so fast that the men and women observing missed many of the hits. Tom was only able to block a fraction of those strikes. But the tyrant countered with a series of low kicks designed to take the legs out from under his enemy. If he could just get Jim off his feet, he thought that he could win this fight. Jim easily blocked the lower body attacks and with each blocked kick, he would move in and slap or punch Tom in the face. “That was for our dead pilots,” Jim said.
Backing off, the captain decided to let Tom try a move or two and he grinned as he taunted, “What’s the matter, Tommy boy? You have trouble when it comes to fighting men? Come on, Tommy boy. It’s just you and me now. Show me what you’ve got.”
Enraged, Tom charged Jim who had continued to back up a few paces. Jim caught a flailing fist and stepped around going with the flow of Tom’s motion. He threw Tom high over his shoulder toward the Peacekeeper. At the apex of the throw Tom’s upside down body slammed hard into the front end of the ship. The impact of his body with the hull of the ship caused it to reverberate. Tom’s feet and legs were visible in the windshield for a moment and then he fell to the ground at the front of the ship.
“Damn,” said one of the strike force members. “Remind me not to make the Captain mad!” General laughter greeted that statement as Jim continued to punish Tom.
Excerpt from book 4 of the peacekeeper series:
“Resume your search, Phoenix, and go to maximum altitude,” Jim ordered.
“Aye, sir,” Namid responded and throttled her fighter away from the victims, all too willing to put that scene behind her.
A bit later, she came to a larger city. “Oh my God!” Namid said in shock as she saw the hundreds of bodies lying where they had fallen along the streets of the city. “My God, sir. Are, are you getting this?” she asked quietly as she stared at the dead and detected not a single living soul in the city below.
“We see, Phoenix. Proceed to the next city. We have to determine the extent of the spread of this disease,” Jim replied.
“Roger, Peacekeeper, on my way,” Namid replied and tore her eyes from the scene below. She throttled up the fighter and soon she was back over the rural countryside. All too soon, she came to the next small community and saw a similar scene. In the streets below were scores of dead bodies.
It was the same at the next city, and the next. Finally, Namid flew within sight of columns of smoke rising into the air to the east. Turning on her camera, she sent the feed to the Peacekeeper and reported the sighting. Jim asked her to fly toward the nearest smoke column to see what she could learn. The flight to the designated smoke column took just minutes. Namid saw the source of the black oily smoke column and stared stunned at the tableau unfolding on the ground beneath her.
Excerpt from book 5 of the peacekeeper series:
Slamming the door of the truck, the lieutenant shot the man who’d stabbed the wounded peacekeeper. His mind was calm now. The base had been alerted, a report had been made, and the beacon was activated. Now all he had to do was kill the enemy attacking his people.
The lieutenant wadded into the enemy then with a ferocity that belied his normal calm and peaceful demeanor. He shot the enemy until he ran out of ammunition in his rifle and dropped that weapon. Moments later, he had his nine-millimeter aimed at a shadow and pulled the trigger. He saw three peacekeepers fighting back to back with knives. They had apparently run out of ammunition. Their discarded weapons lay near them on the ground. He made his way toward that small group of men to join them. One of the men went down with a knife in his chest. Another toppled aside as a small shadowy for
m leapt at him and bowled him over. The lieutenant reached the stricken man, and kicked hard at the shadowy form. He heard a yelp, and the obscure form ran away. He fired two shots at two more indistinct forms closing in on their position and spun about to check his left flank. He fired four rounds in that direction as dark forms closed in.
Spinning to check his right flank, the lieutenant felt the man behind him stiffen and fall. He turned his body and saw a dark shape atop the peacekeeper. The lieutenant emptied his pistol into the shadow’s side.
Dropping his now empty pistol the lieutenant drew his fighting knife and dropped into a crouched fighting stance. He spun in a slow, deliberate circle glaring at the enemy that was moving to encircle him. All around him, he saw the enemy closing, and he saw the bodies of the dead men and women he had sworn to protect with his life. In a fury the lieutenant leapt toward the nearest vague form and stabbed the man in the chest.
Excerpt from book 6 of the peacekeeper series:
Outside the shelter, he heard the bear begin to circle the tree. It was noisy as it scratched at the ground and leaves around the spruce tree. He waited until the bear was on the side of his shelter opposite the trail before making his move, and then Evan darted out from under the tree and lunged to his feet. He was almost to the trail when he heard the bear let out a roar. Behind him, Evan heard the sound of the bear running in pursuit.
The moment he made it to the trail, Evan turned toward the stream, running as fast as he could. He had a desperate hope of crossing the stream before the bear was in position to see him, and then hiding on the other side. He hoped that the bear would think he was in the water and seek him there. If he did so, then Evan planned to slip away and make his way to the open field. He’d hide there for the remainder of the night. In that field, he’d have a chance of seeing the bear coming.
