"...of Homeland Security is advising all citizens remain in their homes until the situation has been dealt with. Please stay tuned for further details as they become available. This message will repeat every ten minutes." It had been ten minutes since the first message had come through and no one had dared breathe a single word. Alex sat stunned in her seat, a single section of the message repeating endlessly through her head. Alabama, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Texas, Virginia. The whole damn country for all she knew had fallen to the dead. Maybe the entire world was gone by this point. The outbreak seemed to have begun over a week ago. If it moved as quickly as it had on the mountain, everything might already be gone.
So, where could they go? If the entire country had fallen into chaos, where could they go? The plan had been Dallas, the closest major city to the Dharma Lodge. Surely whatever had happened, a city like Dallas would be safe. The message had called that line of thought into question. Dallas might not be as safe as they thought.
"We're coming up on twenty miles out from the mountain and I still can't get a cell signal," Alex heard her dad telling Frank. "What's in the area around here? We need to get our bearings and make a plan."
"We need some answers, Jack," said Frank pointedly. "Ain't much point in doing anything else. First course of action needs to be figuring out what the hell happened."
"Agreed, but how are we supposed to do that without a cell signal?" Jack wondered. "If those things from the mountain are down here too... they could be anywhere... everywhere. We can't just drive around aimlessly hoping to run into someone who can help."
"Might be our only option if we can't make a call," said Frank. "Might be we could track down a landline somewhere nearby. There's a gas station a couple miles up the road. Even if no one's there, there'll be a phone."
"Let's start there, then," said Jack. "I'll make sure we..." He broke off as a burst of steam erupted from beneath the bus's hood and the engine hissed furiously.
"Well... titty sprinkles," Frank grumbled as he eased the bus to a stop. "That's not good."
"Can you fix it?" Jack asked, earning a glare from Frank.
"Gotta figure out what the hell's wrong first," Frank snapped. He jerked his head toward a young, dark haired man sitting in the second row of seats. "C'mon, Lucas. Give me a hand."
"Sawyer, Brandon, you two with me," said Jack. "We're going to keep watch around the bus. You know how to kill those things now, so if you see one don't hesitate to put it down." Sawyer and Brandon both grabbed their rifles and headed outside. Jack turned to Alex, his eyes narrowed slightly.
"Alex, I hate to ask this but we could use another pair of eyes. If we boost you up onto the roof of the bus, you can get us a good view of the area with your rifle."
"I can do it," Alex volunteered, doing her best to keep her voice calm and even. She didn't want to, but it was the one thing she could do to help.
"Good girl," said Jack, holding out his hand to help his daughter to her feet. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and followed her father outside. Brandon and Sawyer were already walking a perimeter around the bus, rifles at the ready. Frank and Lucas had busied themselves beneath the bus's hood, trying to determine the cause of the breakdown. Quickly and quietly, Jack boosted Alex up onto the roof of the bus. She walked to the front and lay down, steadying her rifle on its bipod and taking a quick look around. The bus had broken down at the edge of a wide open valley that spread out for miles before them. The sun was only just beginning to rise, blazing brightly across the valley. Alex raised her rifle and peered down the scope, subconsciously pulling back the bolt and chambering a round as she did so.
The road ahead curved off to the left a mile or so ahead and then curved again right before it reached a small town. She surveyed the town for quite a while, but she saw no signs of life. The storefronts she could see were dark and some of the windows were broken. There were cars parked in strange places, many of them with their doors left wide open as though their owners had abandoned them in a hurry. Finding nothing in the town, she shifted her rifle and followed the road off to the right. A half mile outside of town she found what she thought must be an old church. It was an old building built out of stone and had a rather impressive stone wall around the grounds.
The closer Alex looked, however, the stranger the church became. There were tarps over the stained glass windows and barbed wire had been wrapped around the wrought-iron posts along the top of the wall. It was then that she saw what was clearly a guard tower built just inside the church's gate. She was just investigating the tower when she caught sight of a glint at the top of the tower and instantly lowered her rifle and placed the cover over the lens of her scope.
"Dad," she called quietly, drawing her father's attention.
"Did you see something?" Jack asked. Alex nodded.
"There's a church a couple of miles up the road," she told him. "There's a wall and a guard tower. There's at least one person there and they've got a rifle. I saw the sun reflecting off of their scope. I covered mine, but I don't know if he saw me or not."
"We're not exactly camouflaged out here," Jack observed. "If there's anyone out there looking, they'll probably have seen us. We should..."
"Well, shit on a shingle," Frank grumbled from the front of the bus. Alex grinned slightly in spite of everything. She imagined that if she spent much more time with Frank, she would learn all sorts of swear words she hadn't heard before.
"Keep your voice down," Jack admonished Frank as he joined him at the front of the bus. "We don't want to attract any more of those damn things. Did you figure out what the problem is?"
"Yes, we did," said Frank, holding up the radiator hose. It was clearly quite old and had split completely in half. "Without this, we're not going anywhere. We don't have a spare and I don't think a roll of duct tape will help fix this one."
"We could check the town," Alex suggested quietly. "I... there's a lot of cars there. Maybe we can scrounge up a replacement?"
"That's a good idea, Lexi," said Frank thoughtfully. "But honestly, I don't want to be wandering through a strange town without a better idea of what's going on."
"Agreed," said Jack. He turned to look in the direction of the church Alex had pointed out. "Alex, get back in that scope. Do you see anybody else at that church?"
Alex returned to her rifle and sighted the scope back on the church. She looked at the watchtower first, this time getting a better view of the man sitting in a fold up chair at the top of the tower holding a rifle. She held the sight on him for a moment and she noticed he was aiming right back at her. Then, surprisingly, he waved.
"Um... Dad?" She called. "The guy with the rifle is waving at us."
"Does he look friendly?" Brandon asked curiously. Alex rolled her eyes.
"He's aiming a rifle at me, so no, not so much," Alex replied. "How the hell am I supposed to know?"
"Okay, settle down," said Jack. He chewed his lower lip thoughtfully. "Okay, we need answers. I think we go to the church and see if maybe whoever is there can tell us what's been happening. After that, we can worry about fixing the bus."
Alex fully expected Frank to argue, but he held his tongue. Soon enough, the survivors from Dharma Lodge were walking in a loose group down the road toward the church. Jack and Frank led the group while Sawyer and Brandon covered the flanks, keeping watch. Alex followed along near the rear, side by side with Lily.
As far as Alex knew, Lily hadn't uttered a word since they had left the lodge. It seemed that she was still very much in shock and Alex couldn't blame her. Still, back at the lodge she had seemed so unfazed by it all. Alex still refused to think about what was happening. The things she had seen, the loved ones she'd lost... No, she couldn't think about it. At least not until they found safety. Just keep moving, on and on to the next thing in their path. It was the only thing that kept her going.
"Um... hey, Lily?" Alex said, hoping to draw the blonde girl out of the deep reverie she seemed to have fallen into. "I... um... I..."
"Don't," Lily said hotly, her green eyes flashing dangerously. "I'm warning you right now. Don't."
"I was just..."
"I know what the fuck you were doing and I don't want you to," Lily snapped. "Leave me alone, Alex. We aren't friends, so don't act like we are." She wrapped her arms around herself and walked faster, leaving Alex behind.
Alex spent the rest of the walk to the church wondering what she'd done wrong. Perhaps it hadn't been her, perhaps Lily was simply too distraught over the loss of her sister and no one would have been able to console her then. Still, Alex couldn't help but wonder if she could have approached the situation differently. Not that Lily had given her much of a chance, of course.
Alex didn't have much time to ponder how she could best help Lily as the church's wrought iron gate swung open as they approached, and three people carrying rifles stepped forward. The first was an elderly man with dark skin and deep brown eyes.
His graying hair was thin and wiry and he looked frail quite frail. His grip on his rifle, however, was strong. To his left was a woman that could only be his daughter, for she looked just like him. She clutched a hunting rifle in her hands and she watched the new arrivals with narrowed, suspicious eyes. To the woman's left stood a young Hispanic man, staring glumly at them with an almost bored expression on his face.
"Stop right there," the elderly man growled, raising his rifle as the group came to a halt. "If you folks know what's good for you you'll turn around and walk your asses back the way you came."
"Whoa there," Frank said quickly, stepping forward with his hands outstretched. "We just need a little help. We only just managed to escape the Dharma Lodge up on the mountain. People started eating other people last night and we were hoping..."
"Wait," said the woman suddenly, her eyes widening slightly. "You... you came from the mountain? You don't know, do you?"
"All we know is that people started eating people," said Jack plainly. "It started last night and in a matter of minutes the entire campground was overrun. We picked up that radio signal that said..."
"That fucking thing," the old man grumbled. "That's about all you'll hear on the radio these days. They sound so confident too… fat lot of good it did them. Doesn't matter, my initial point stands. Turn around and walk your asses back to your bus. Now."
"Dad, they need help," said the woman, confirming Alex's earlier belief that she was the elderly man's daughter. "Shouldn't we...?"
"Not after last time," the old man snapped. "We can't, we... Nia, they killed your mother."
"I know, Dad, but that was them not these people," the woman called Nia said gently. "We can't turn away the whole world just because of one experience. We need to help them... and who knows? Maybe they can help us. We need it." Nia's father sighed heavily and shook his head.
"The things you make me do, Nia," he grumbled. "Hell, fine. Bring them inside, but this is on your head. And I'm warning all of you right now; try anything, blink in a way I don't like, and I'll put a bullet through your skull." The old man turned and walked away without another word. Nia sighed heavily and shook her head.
“Well, c’mon in,” she told them. “I’m sure if you’ve been up on the mountain all this time you have a lot of questions.”
“Really just one,” said Sawyer. “What happened?”
"It started about a week and a half ago," Nia told them, shaking her head wearily. "Where exactly this thing comes from, I couldn't tell you. All the news ever said was that it was happening everywhere. Russia, the UK, Mexico, Australia… It's global, that much we know for sure. It spread more rapidly than any other disease in history."
"That sounds about right," said Frank. "The campground was overrun in minutes."
"I'm sure it was," said Nia dryly. "As far as we know, very little is known about this virus or pathogen or whatever the hell it is. The CDC was looking into a cure, but by the time we lost communications nothing had come of it. All we know for sure is that the damn thing is airborne and it’s everywhere. If you’ve seen one of the dead, you’ve been exposed. It seems to have anywhere from a six to twenty-four hour incubation period. Luckily, and I use that word loosely, roughly ninety-eight percent of the population is immune from the airborne pathogen. Those that aren’t get exposed, get sick, and then die. Then you come back… only you’re not you anymore.”
“There was a guy on the mountain,” said Alex in a quiet voice, nervous speaking in front of the entire group. “He… he didn’t get sick, he just died… from other causes.” Her eyes flickered nervously toward Sawyer. “He still turned into one of them.”
“Right,” said Nia, nodding. “Not everyone responds the same way to the virus. Some people don’t show many symptoms until the very end, but if he turned he’d been exposed. If you die after contracting the pathogen, whether from the disease or anything else, you still come back. Then there’s the bite. If one of the dead bites you, you can contract the disease even if you’re otherwise immune.”
“So… so there’s a good chance that all of us are immune then?” Jack asked, indicating their group.
“Probably, yeah,” said Nia. “If the outbreak reached the mountain last night, then you’d almost certainly be showing some signs of infection.”
“Lovely,” said Frank. “So, what are we supposed to do? The whole world’s gone to shit and we’re just supposed to… what? Start over?”
“No,” said Nia, her voice suddenly tight. “You’re just supposed to survive. That’s what we’re trying to do here. This old church has been abandoned for years, but it has strong walls. They’ll keep the dead out… and give us a fighting chance against anything else.”
“Anything else?” Brandon asked nervously.
“Like your friend there said, the world’s gone to shit,” Nia responded. “Not everyone responds the same way. Some people decide that this, this chaos, this is where they thrive. Bandits, raiders, pirates, people that just like killing… When it first happened, the people that survived from the town over there all met up here. There were fifty at first. A week ago we agreed to help a passing group by letting them stay inside for the night. By the next morning, more than half of us were dead.”
“They attacked you?” Jack asked.
“They did,” Nia confirmed. “They wanted to take this place from us. We fought them off, but we lost a lot of good people. My mother was one of them. You won’t find a lot of love for outsiders here. I don’t know what your plans are, but you can stay here until you decide. We have plenty of room for your group.”
Nia led the last fifteen survivors from the Dharma Lodge through the gates of the church. Alex paused, glancing back to watch as two armed men closed the gates behind them. Despite the mostly friendly welcome, Alex found she had never felt more trapped. They were putting their lives into the hands of complete strangers. The dead terrified her, sure, but if what Nia had told them was true then perhaps it was the living that were more dangerous than the dead. She shivered involuntarily as the wrought iron gates slammed closed.
~~~~~~
The Chinook helicopter shook as it dropped low out of the clouds to drift along the Hudson River. Another half dozen helicopters flew alongside it, their doors sliding open as soldiers swung machine guns into position. Combat Engineer Chandler Wyatt paid little attention to all the motion. His emerald eyes were drawn down to the ground below where he knew they would soon be landing and to the mission he and his team had to complete. He was so focused he barely noticed Colonel Malcolm Baird, a tall and imposing man with close cropped graying hair, stepped into the passenger compartment filled with soldiers.
"Alright, people," he called loudly over the steady roar of the helicopter's rotors. "You all know our mission. We are here to secure Manhattan by any means necessary. The US military has orders to nuke the city if we cannot maintain order. The dead will no doubt already be swarming throughout the city. We're going to take it back block by block. We'll be setting down in Battery Park at the far southern end of the island. Our first priority is to secure the park perimeter and set up a base of operations. After that, our job is to start moving inland; going building by building and clearing them of the dead. I want to have walls up along Liberty Street by the end of the week. That'll secure us a good portion of Lower Manhattan to build from.
"During this op, our combat engineers will be working on cementing manhole covers, sewer outlets, subway station entrances, basement access... anything and everything that leads to New York's underground. I don't want to have to deal with corpses popping up beneath our feet. They'll also be dealing with the bridges and tunnels. The first priority is the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. It's right on our front porch and I'd like it sealed immediately. After that, we'll be taking down the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges. Once those have been imploded into the river, we'll be sealing the Holland Tunnel. I'm going to be keeping the Brooklyn Bridge intact as I want access to the mainland, so we'll have to keep a twenty-four hour security checkpoint there to keep the city secure. After that, we'll keep moving inland until we secure the entire island. I know it’s a big ask, but that's why the Special Catastrophe Assistance Response Division was created. We exist because no one else can do what we're going to do. We're going to take back Manhattan from the dead. We're two minutes from touchdown. Get tactical. We're going in."
Chandler knew that was traditional Colonel Baird. He was absolutely no nonsense. He laid out his plans concisely and that was that. He didn't do rousing speeches; he just told it like it was. Retaking Manhattan was a big ask, there was no doubt about it. They would have to secure twenty-three square miles of landmass that held a population of over a one point six million people... potentially one point six million walking corpses. The number didn't include tourists or those that commuted into the city for work or school. The actual number of people on the island below them could be much higher. There were thousands of buildings and countless places where the dead could lurk. It wasn't a big ask. It was impossible. The city was gone and there would be no saving it, and yet still they would try. It's what they had trained for.
On the opposite side of the helicopter, Sergeant Marcus Walker cleared his throat and gestured to Colonel Baird. Sergeant Walker was the commander of SCAR Division's lead recon team and would be on the front lines of all operations from the moment they touched down. Just looking at him, there was nothing particularly outstanding about his appearance. Walker was an African American man in his early thirties who stood at an average height with an athletic build. Much like Chandler, he was a pretty average guy. But Walker was a natural born leader. He could inspire people, make them want to fight. They would need people like him if they were ever going to retake the city.
"Colonel," Walker called out as Baird stepped closer. "Sir, what kind of support can we expect from local law enforcement?"
"The city went dark two days ago," said Baird. "We haven't heard a peep since then so we have no idea if there's even anyone left alive down there. As such, we're going in under the assumption that the island is dead. If we encounter survivors, we'll reevaluate our position. Otherwise, we operate as if the entire city is hostile."
"Understood," Walker replied. He leaned to his left to speak with Lucy Peña, a young and rather short Hispanic woman with delicate features. She served as Walker's command and control contact while the team was in the field, guiding and directing the team. She had a soft, sweet, melodic voice that Chandler found quite calming when she spoke over the radio. He liked Lucy very much. She was much too sweet to be in a place like this, but then Chandler supposed that the whole world was all the same so where was she to go?
Chandler watched Lucy tapping on a tablet, gesturing animatedly to Walker. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he imagined she was briefing him on his team's first objective once they landed. He imagined he knew what she was saying as well. It was likely the same things she had told him the previous day. Lucy had all but planned the entire operation to retake Manhattan; Operation: Saving Grace she had called it. She had said that despite her best planning, so many things could go wrong. They had no idea what they were dropping into.
He didn't have much longer to wonder as moments later the helicopter dropped in low over the river and touched down in Battery Park. The ramps lowered from the back of the helicopters and the first wave of troops rushed outside, weapons raised and ready. Chandler charged out after them, silently praying to any god that would listen to protect them. He wasn’t religious, but in his opinion it didn’t hurt to stack the deck.