Part Six

The president walked into the briefing room, where a group of advisors and generals all watched the TV. The screen was filled with a set of swirling prismatic graphics which appeared to flow outward from a white dot in the center. General Louis frowned as he noticed the president and stepped away from the TV. “Sir, we’ve been getting reports that most of the broadcast satellites went offline approximately ten minutes ago.”

“He’s taken down the cellular networks, hasn’t he?”

“No sir. He either hasn’t attempted to take control of them yet, or they don’t factor into his plans.”

“What about our spy satellites?”

“They’re still under our control as are the weather satellites.”

The president nodded and sat down. “The leader wouldn’t want to shut those down. He would want to see what we’re looking at.”

“Yes sir, that is a possible reason.” His security advisor gestured at the screen. “We were trying to find out if any of the national feeds were still available, but almost every channel is the same. We only have local broadcasts, and every other channel looks like this.”

“What’s the situation in Texas?”

“Based on the scarce reports we’ve had, the zombies rolled over Lackland easily. They made a mass conversion and moved to take Sam Houston next. With the bulk of their forces deployed in San Antonio, the base was an easy target. We lost contact shortly after the assault began.

“We’ve also had a chance to debrief captain Murphy about what happened to his team, and the leader he dealt with was themselves one of the undead. Captain Murphy’s entire team was slaughtered in front of him, and he was given a message to be delivered to you. There will be no mercy from the zombies.”

President Crane closed his eyes, giving a faint shake of his head. “No, I wouldn’t expect there to be.”

“Captain Patterson’s team also had bad news to report. When they left to pick up Captain Murphy, Robin Thomas, the girl who Frank was watching over, used mace on the only remaining guard. She helped Frank escape, and the team hasn’t been able to pick their trail back up yet.”

The president waited and then looked around. “Anything else? Does anybody have anymore bad news to deliver?”

The TV screen shifted to white first before the scarred, dark face of the leader filled the screen. His lips split in a wide grin as the camera zoomed out to show the interior of a lavishly furnished office. “Hello, America. My name is Jamal Barnett, and I’m afraid I have some really bad news for all of you. You may have noticed your national news networks have all gone off line. I chose to take them down, but I don’t want you flying completely blind into this brave new future. To help you understand what’s coming,  I’ve prepared a little video montage.”

The scene dissolved to a soldier being torn apart and consumed. The camera zoomed in on his face being ripped off before the screen dissolved next to show a wood chipper as a boy was dragged kicking and screaming to be thrown in feet first. The camera zoomed into the hopper to show the boy being killed, and by then, sickened moans were beginning to fill the room.

Yet the atrocities continued. A young teen was peeled out of her skin alive. A puppy was crushed between the bare hands of a zombie before it started to lick its fingers clean. An old man’s body was picked clean by zombies while his head was left untouched, preserving his agonized expression throughout the entire ordeal.

Every scene was slow and brutally pervasive, and the when the barrage concluded with Jamal’s scarred face, his smile seemed impossibly wide. “I’ve no need to hide from you, so allow me to show you the whole truth.” He started to peel scars away from his face, and the skin underneath was flawless and bleached white. He moved his hand under the desk to his lap and pulled up a cloth to wipe his face, neck, and hands. “Look long and hard, America, because this is going to become the new face of the nation.” He made a strange chuckle which sounded horribly fake. “I’m sure the KKK will be thrilled.

“Over the next few days, your leaders will urge you not to panic, but they themselves are panicking right now. They are asking themselves if they should try another nuclear attack to take me out, but they have to ask themselves if I am in Houston or in San Antonio. I’ll let you all in on a little secret. I’m not in either city. Instead, a specially delegated leader is watching over each city’s population. Should you get lucky enough to kill a leader, well that would be very bad. The death or injury of a leader would cause their hive to become enraged. Then everyone in the city who is still alive will be torn limb from limb.

“I have created three leaders, and tonight a fourth city in Texas will begin to notice a spike in the number of people who are missing. Tomorrow night, another city will also be attacked. I will be in one of those cities, but killing me won’t stop the other leaders. So your president will have to choose whether it is worth the risk to level the entire state using nuclear fire, or if he will accept our declaration of war and send in the military. We will be ready for either possibility.

“So to you, America, I send this message. It is time to panic and run for your lives. Flee wherever you wish. Forget all those silly concepts about laws and morality, and live like the animals you truly are. Live each of your final days to the fullest, because your days are numbered.”

The screen abruptly filled with snow and the speakers hissed with static. The room was otherwise silent as all eyes moved to the president. He bowed his head, feeling the strain of fatigue even more strongly. “General Louis,” he said quietly.

“Yes sir?”

“Get back to the Pentagon and start drawing up battle plans. Somebody get the senate and congressional leaders together to let them know that we’re officially in a state of war.”

***

Mary kicked feebly at the zombie that gripped her calve to pull her out from under the desk. It squeezed its fingers down tighter, burying them into her flesh. She screamed  shrilly as she was dragged on her stomach away from the desk, and another zombie clamped its hand over her arms. It began to pull them back as though it meant to rip them from her sockets before it suddenly went limp, falling over her.

Scott kicked the other zombie in the side of its head and dropped to his knees as he swung a machete down on the zombie’s neck. He spun and landed a kick in the side of another zombie that was trying to reach for Mary.

It reeled and leapt at him instead. Scott fell back and crossed his arms. Planting his feet in the stomach of the zombie, he lashed both machetes to cross around its neck. He rolled left to both throw the body and avoid having the zombie’s forehead connect with his. Instead it thumped on the back of his head, and he got to his feet quickly. Someone bumped his shoulder and he spun, freezing when he found Frank. Frank was also unmoving, his sword drawn back for an attack. Both men nodded and turned to find new opponents.

Gunfire erupted in the hallway. The short staccato bursts were all too familiar, giving Frank a number of mixed feelings. The sounds of the gunfight moved to the doorway, and he looked up, recognizing all of the men who were stepping into the room. While three soldiers used suppressing fire to push the zombies back, six men armed with knives moved quickly to cut down the zombies who were still trying to recover from being shot.

Frank dropped to the floor and belly crawled to where Robin laid. She was pale white, and the color of her irises had almost completely washed out, leaving only a faint green outer band which was still fading slowly. She had not moved since she stopped breathing, though her wound had closed over sometime during the fight. Frank wasn’t sure how long the process would need to be complete, but he knew they no longer had the time to wait.

The room grew silent, and Frank stood up, turning to see all three soldiers with rifles were aiming at him. He dropped his sword and raised his hands before he saw Janice and Gordon both moving to stand in front of him.

“Step away from the zombie,” their captain ordered.

Gordon and Janice stood firm, and Scott walked quickly in front of them. “Hey guys, if you’re supposed to be the heroes, why are you pointing guns at us? Frank is on our side, so if he’s not on your side as well, you’re going to have to start shooting now.”

“Make a decision, please,” Janice said calmly.

The soldiers looked over at Mary, who used a desk to get up onto her uninjured leg. She steadied herself and reached into her purse to pull out a revolver, and she flicked off the safety before she cocked back the hammer and aimed at one of the soldiers.

“None of you will be harmed if you come with us,” the captain said, though he didn’t lower his rifle.

“You’ll hurt him. He’s told us how your people have been shooting him every few minutes. He’s a friend of ours, and we tend to take offense at things like that.” Gordon shook his head. “We won’t come with you, but if you want, you can come with us. We’re going to San Antonio if we live through the next few minutes. The real invasion is there, and we need to move quickly if we have any hope of finding the real leader. All we did here was kill one of his minions.”

The soldier lowered his rifle and looked around. “You’re sure it was their leader?”

“Yes, very sure,” Frank said. “The rest of the zombies went nuts right after I killed it, and that was about the same reaction I got when I shot the leader in Dallas.”

The soldier looked at him with an uneasy expression. “If you haven’t become a zombie, what would you call yourself? Are you something unique?”

Frank shook his head. “Not anymore.”

***

“Then you just put a full tank in like this, screw on the hose fitting, and tighten the o rings back down,” Gordon said.

“That’s really a handy little kit.” Captain Shawn Patterson gestured at his men. “We’ll have to go shopping to make a set for ourselves. Do you want to meet somewhere in town, or near the outskirts before we drive to San Antonio?”

“We’ll meet you on highway ten at the first rest stop.” Gordon closed the rear doors of the van and slung a shotgun over his shoulder. He walked around the side of the van to watch Frank carry Robin and place her in one of the seats. “Is she all right?”

“No Flash, she’s dead. I don’t know exactly how long it take before she’ll be able to move or talk again. I might have been able to keep better track of the changes in myself, but I had several bullets in mind for the better part of a few hours.”

Shawn grimaced. “I am sorry about that. We needed to study your regenerative capabilities, but you don’t seem to heal as quickly as the zombies do.”

“Yes, I figured that out after the first hour.” Frank glared at Shawn. “So what took you so long to figure it out?”

Gordon stepped over to Frank and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Cool it, okay? We’ll need them, and so long as they agree not to dissect you or Robin, they can give us a link back to the government.”

“Uh, about that,”  Shawn shook his head. “We’re being jammed on our radios, and none of the local phone lines are working.”

“The internet in the station seems to still be available on a dedicated line, so maybe you can email a report,” Frank said.

Shawn frowned. “It’s not really a secure connection.”

“True, but this is why you guys invented the network in the first place with Arpanet, isn’t it?” Frank asked. “In the event of a war within our own borders, you still have a dedicated communications system to send and receive orders. In this case, you need to write and ask for reinforcements, and you need to start carrying incendiary rounds as stock ammunition for every fight.”

“We had them, but we’ve used up most of our supplies.”

“When? You didn’t use any incendiary rounds in there.”

“No. You may not know this, but my team was following you when you and miss Thomas found the … food processing facilities. We  used most of our ammunition in the fight to subdue the zombies in the barn. We were able to get the drop on the horde in the house though.”

Frank nodded, feeling relieved to know the zombies in the barn had been destroyed. “What are you carrying now?”

“The last of our standard ammo, but there are still plenty of ways to gear up here in the city.” Shawn gestured back at the building. “There’s a whole stockpile of weapons in there.”

“I don’t know. You’d be better off setting yourself up with some flamethrowers for now.”

Captain Patterson nodded. “Well how about this? After I email a report, my men and I wall go looking for the propane, kerosene and hiking frames. Your team can travel to the hardware stores to help get us set up before we move to San Antonio. Does that sound like a plan?”

“Yeah, that works for me.”

“If things get hairy, or you show up and we aren’t here, you should assume that we were forced to move on to the rendezvous point.” Shawn stepped forward to offer his hand to Frank. “I wish you the best of luck on your mission.”

***

“Hey can we stop for painkillers somewhere, please?” Mary asked quietly.

“Sure. There’s a grocery store near the hardware store we were headed for,” Gordon said.

“Good. I know I only have a hole in my leg, but I feel like I’m dying.”

“Could be worse,” Robin said, causing everyone to turn and look at her. “I feel like I’ve died.”

Frank got out of the passenger seat and stepped slowly back to lean over her. “You aren’t regretting the choice already, are you?”

“I am, but only because my stomach is empty, and I’m starting to think about food a lot.” She glanced up at Frank’s grin and tried to sigh. She got a half breath in, but she couldn’t figure out how to exhale. “Oh, now that’s interesting.”

“What is?” Scott asked.

“I can’t sigh.”

Frank nodded, his smile faltering as he sat down on the floor of the van. “You can’t laugh either. I can’t smoke a cigarette, or rather, I can, but it takes too much effort to try.”

“So what are the upsides?” Robin asked.

“I can’t be winded or fatigued, and I can heal from most every wound. Also, I don’t feel hungry, so I’d say our meals last a really long time.”

Robin rolled her eyes, though it was somewhat difficult for anyone to see. “Oh sure, like that makes me feel better. I only have to drink barf once a day.”

“Do what?” Scott asked and groaned. “Oh jeez, you have to munch puke?”

Frank dropped his head. “Yeah, that was the one detail I kind of left out earlier. Neither Robin nor I can produce stomach acid. The zombies need to have a special liquid poured into their bottled meals, or they can’t digest it. Robin felt it was some kind of synthetic form of stomach acid. So… so she staged an impromptu experiment.”

Gordon laughed loudly. “Oh, lord, that’s… well it’s just awful.”

“Yes, laugh it up Flash, but you will have to volunteer to be our stomach for us.”

Gordon’s smile quickly vanished and he coughed. “Well, not to sound sexist or anything, but isn’t-”

“If you’re going for a bulimia joke, please don’t,” Mary said before she looked at Frank and nodded. “I’ll volunteer, but somebody else had better be willing to help.”

Scott started laughing suddenly. “Sure, I’ll chuck in on a few meals myself. What are friends for, after all?”

Frank smiled at Robin, who was still trying in vain to look disgusted. “Your first meal is still going to be frozen pizza. You know that, don’t you?”

Robins lips twisted in a smirk as she crossed her arms. “You people are having way too much fun at my funeral.”

***

Gordon kicked open the pharmacy door, glancing back over his shoulder as Scott, Frank, and Mary all began chanting “Chug, chug, chug, chug!”

Janice laughed quietly and turned on her flashlight. “Do they care that they’re probably calling down a horde on us? No.”

“Ah, let them joke. It’s made Mary forget about her leg for a little while, so it can’t be all bad, right?”

Janice leaned over a counter. “Here we go. A nice big bottle of codeine.”

Gordon turned at a soft tapping sound. “Hey did you hear that?”

Leaning around Janice, he grabbed the bottle and walked to the door, glancing around the front at the checkout counters. He drew his gun and walked across the front of the store to the delicatessen where everyone else was sitting.

Frank noticed his anxious expression and stood up first. “What’s wrong?

“We’re not alone.” Gordon went to offer Frank a flashlight, then noticed that he was being stared at blankly. “You don’t need it?”

“Nope,” Frank said and turned to point toward the produce section at the far east end on the store. “Scott will need to stay with Mary, so-”

“No, I’ll be okay.” Mary waved Scott away. “Go on.”

Frank shrugged, drawing his sword before he walked toward the produce section. He found nothing and move back toward the rear of the store. A glass display case was filled with fresh seafood, and in the dark corner beside an ice machine, he saw a little girl huddled in the shadows. “Hey guys, I-”

The knife point slipped through the back of his neck and his body went limp.

***

“Frank?” Gordon stopped and listened. He looked across the store and saw two people run from a from the seafood display case into an aisle. Taking off at a full run, he skidded to a stop and frowned at the empty aisle. Turning on his flashlight, he swept the beam around the shelves and still found nothing. Looking to his left, he saw Frank laying on the floor. He glanced back toward the front of the store and saw Robin pass through the center aisle. He went after her first, deciding that she was probably in more danger than she realized. “Robin, I saw-”

She held up her hand for him to be quiet and crept around an end display into the soda aisle. Leaning over, she peered behind the cans at the little girl who huddled against the back of the shelf. “Hey there. Why do you look so scared? We aren’t going to hurt you.”

“Robin, you might not be the best person to greet people,” Gordon suggested.

Her mouth fell open as her eyes widened. “Oh, right. I forgot.” Standing up, she turned and leapt at Gordon. He yelped and fell back to avoid her hand coming for his throat. But instead, she thrust her arm behind him to grab the wrist of a boy, stopping him from planting a large kitchen knife in Gordon’s back. “Whoa back, trigger.” She squeezed his wrist to make him drop the knife and kicked it away. Stepping back from Gordon, she loosened her grasp but still kept hold of the boy’s wrist. “Hey, I know I look-” Robin raised her hand to grab the boy’s other wrist when he tried to throw a punch. He went to kick and she blocked him with her shin.

Gordon finally stepped in to take hold of the boy’s shoulders. “Hey, look at me, okay? I know what she looks like, but she isn’t going to hurt you or your sister.”

The boy shook his head. “She isn’t my sister. She won’t talk to me, so I don’t know who she is.”

Gordon nodded. “My name is Gordon, and this is Robin.”

“I’m Fred.” He frowned and looked at Robin. “I think I killed your friend.”

“What?” Robin turned and almost ran into Frank.

“No, and that really didn’t hurt as bad as I would have thought. Once you severed my nervous system, the rest of my body went numb.” Frank glanced over his shoulder as Scott walked up. “Look, we found rug rats.”

Gordon sighed. “Frank, please.” He let go of Fred’s shoulders and stood up. Moving back around into the soda aisle, he took a knee and smiled at the girl. “Can you talk?” The girl nodded, staring at him with wide eyes. Gordon reached into his back pocket to pull out his badge wallet. He flipped it open and slid it over the top of the boxes of sodas. “I’m with the police, and while my friends might look a lot like the zombies you’ve seen, they aren’t the same. Will you come out here now?” She shook her head.

Robin knelt down and looked at Gordon. “Here, let me try.” She crawled back around the soda boxes and sat down. “Were you here when the people like me came in?” The girl nodded her head. “They took your mom, didn’t they?” Again she nodded. “So where did you hide to get away?”

The girl stared at her, chewing her lips for a few seconds before she spoke. “In the freezer.”

 “And when did Fred find you?”

“Last night.” The girl scooted closer to Robin. “I’m Claire.”

“Claire, would you like to come with us, or stay here with Fred?” Robin asked. She waited for a few seconds and tried again. “We will have to leave soon. We’re meeting with men from the army, and so we can’t wait here for you to decide.” She held out her hand. “Come on, you don’t really want to be here all alone, do you?”

Claire shook her head and took Robin’s hand. She was starting to crawl in Robin’s lap when the front of the store exploded.