AB (The Blake Reynolds Chronicles Book 1) (5 page)

Blake lay in
his bed. His dreams were peaceful for a change and didn’t involve any fighting
in the battles of his past tours. The phone on the nightstand next to his bed began
to ring, softly at first and then much louder. It took a couple minutes for him
to notice the noise. He rolled over and squinted through blurry eyes at the
clock. It was only four A.M.

“What the hell,”
he thought.

He reached for his
phone while Tara rolled onto her side and pulled a pillow over her head.

“Hello,” Blake
said groggily.

On the other
end was an automated message from his base commander. “We have an Alpha-level
event. You are ordered to report to the base for a special briefing in the base’s
common area at 06:00.” The call ended abruptly.

Blake’s senses were
immediately at attention. His heart started to pound so hard he thought Tara
could hear it even in her groggy state. He knew that this call only went out in
cases of severe emergencies or war.

Tara sat up and
in a weary voice asked, “What was that?”

Blake replayed
the message in his mind a few more times before replying.

“I don’t know,
but something bad has happened.”

Blake shot out
of bed and ran to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth in the shower, not wanting
to waste any time. As he stepped out of the shower, he hardly dried himself off
before throwing on his uniform. He knew there was no time for food or coffee
this morning. He kissed Tara and raced out the door to his car.

As Blake drove
to his base, well above the speed limit, his mind raced about what the
emergency could be. He scanned all of his usual radio stations, but there
wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, other than reports of the meteor and that
some people in Australia and southern Asia had come down with a new strain of
flu.

He turned off
the radio and started to think about his family as an uneasy feeling started to
fill his stomach.

As he pulled
into the parking lot he had to park in the back, as the lot was almost
completely full. Blake had to think to himself, “This must be really bad.”

Blake quickly ran
into the large room filled with thousands of other soldiers. He assumed that these
were all the soldiers assigned to the base. Towards the front, he could hear
someone shouting his name. He immediately saw Stetson. Quickly he made his way
forward and sat next to him.

Stetson put his
arm around Blake’s shoulder and said, “Hey, do you know what is going on?”
Blake looked at him and shrugged his shoulders.

The base
commander, General Starks, stepped in front of the podium’s microphone. Two men
in black suits and a woman in a white lab coat stood next to him, their
expressions difficult to read. The second General Starks cleared his throat,
the crowd fell silent.

 
General Starks’s lips were pursed, and his
eyes were sunken in. Whatever news he had, Blake knew it wasn’t good. “Many of
you have faced some difficult trials in your careers as soldiers. You have
executed you duties with honor and dignity. What we will be asking you to do in
the next twenty-four hours – and for that matter, days and weeks – is going to
take every bit of courage you have.”

Blake and
Stetson exchanged nervous looks with each other.

“A couple of
days ago, many of you saw the meteor streak across the sky. It exploded high in
the Earth’s atmosphere over the central Pacific. At first, we thought that the
planet had dodged a bullet when it appeared to cause no damage. But we have
since learned that something was inside the meteor and that the explosion
actually spread some kind of foreign spores or bacteria into the air. It has
started to change people and is driving them to a state of psychosis. They
appear to attack any non-infected person they come in contact with. Our
scientists have been tracking the infection as it spreads around the world.
They say that the spores should reach the United States in the next two hours.”
He paused for a moment so he could let his words have proper impact with the
soldiers. “I would like to introduce Dr. Lynn. She will be describing what will
be happening in the next hours and days.”

Dr. Lynn stepped
forward to the microphone and cleared her throat. “The infection first started
on the small island of Niue. We had a ship in the area that was sent to monitor
the effects of the meteor’s impact. As the General said, it exploded in the
atmosphere on the eastern coast of the island. Within an hour, the ship received
word that the small hospital on the island had been filled up with people
suffering from flu-like symptoms. A couple hours later, the infected patients
became psychotic and began attacking and killing any non-infected persons.” Dr.
Lynn scanned the room to see if she had everybody’s attention.

“It was soon
discovered that only people of non-O blood type became infected. Let me
reiterate: People of type A or B blood type will be infected. We have started
to call them ‘ABs’ for short.”

Blake could
hardly believe what he was hearing. He glanced around the room, seeing soldiers
that he knew and had fought with. From what this doctor was saying, half of
them would become infected. What did that mean for them? As he finished
scanning the room, his gaze came back to his friend Stetson. His face had
turned pale, and Blake could see Stetson’s pulse racing through the veins in
his neck.

Dr. Lynn
continued, “It was only a few hours later that the first reports of the
infection were reported in New Zealand and Australia. They had designed a plan,
like many other countries, to cope with such a pandemic event. But they weren’t
prepared to handle half the population becoming infected. One of the last
messages we received from them was only a few hours ago, but it might be what
saves this planet.

“They reported
what the symptoms were and what happens to the ABs hours after the initial
signs of infection appear. They show behavior that can only be described as an
insect-like colony. The ABs seem to be drawn towards each other. Somehow, they
can identify other ABs and not show any aggression toward each other. They seem
to fall into a caste system identified by the color of their eyes. The people
with black eyes become leaders, or like queen bees. They seem to retain all of
the cognitive abilities that they possessed before. The others tend to flock to
the leaders, and they swarm to a centralized location to form what we refer to
as a ‘nest.’

“Next, we have
what is now being identified as the hunters or soldiers. Their eyes turn red.
Once a nest has been formed, they are the ones that go out to hunt for fresh
meat and protect the nest. That means the uninfected or any other kind of
animal. It is not known if they eat anything else. Some seem to have incredible
strength and aggression. They don’t talk very often and seem to communicate
through broken native language, strange body gestures, and clicking sounds.

“Next, there
are the yellow-eyed drones. They haven’t been observed communicating very much,
if at all. They tend to wander around the nest area. We believe their main job
is to keep the area clean and gather supplies.

“All three castes
also use some kind of clicking noise and squeals to express their emotions and
thoughts.”

Blake started
thinking to himself that he had been through many tests in his career, but
nothing like this. How do you fight an enemy that is one of our own?

As he glanced
at the other soldiers, they seemed either unconvinced or terrified.

Dr. Lynn
stepped back and gestured for the general to take over. “I know this might
sound ludicrous or frightening, but I want to assure you that I have talked to
the secretary of defense directly. I can confirm that everything you have just
heard is true. The president and key members of Congress have been taken into
an undisclosed underground bunker. At this point, it is unclear if they will be
safe there. Now I know what we have said is not easy to hear or comprehend, but
what I am about to say is even worse.” The general turned and gave a signal to
the military police officers that were standing at the back door. A group of fifty
MPs suddenly entered the room. Each of them broke into smaller groups and
positioned themselves at each of the five doors.

“I said earlier
that the events we are about to go through would take an immense amount of courage
to get through. This is where that courage starts. The last thing I want to
discuss with you – and why the MPs are here – is that only people with type O
blood will be safe from the infection. That means the rest of you might or will
be infected. I want you to remain calm. Each of you will go to the back of the
room and form five lines. Once you get to the front of the line, you will
present your dog tag to the MP at the table. If you have type O blood, you will
return to your seat. If you are A or B blood type, you will be escorted by an
MP to a temporary holding area that we have set up. You will remain there until
further notice.”

Everyone
immediately looked at their dog tags. Most of the men had seen multiple tours
of duty in combat zones, but that couldn’t prepare them for this. Slowly, they
all walked to the back of the room. Blake and Stetson were two of the first soldiers
in line.

Blake let out a
long breath and tipped his head all the way back as he stepped in line. He knew
that he wouldn’t be infected. He also knew that his family wouldn’t be
infected.

But as Stetson
stepped forward, his shoulders curled forward, which caused his chest to cave
in. He had the blank stare of a dead man. Before Stetson reached the MP, he turned
to Blake with a face that had turned ashen white. “Blake, I want you to promise
me one thing: If I get sick and start to turn into one of those things, I want
you to take me out. Can you promise me that?”

Blake stared
back at his lifelong friend with a fake grin. “I’m sure that it won’t come to
that.”

Stetson grabbed
Blake’s shoulders tightly. “Promise me!”

Blake dropped
his sad eyes to the floor and muttered, “I promise.”

When they reached
the front of the line, Stetson’s tag was checked and then he was escorted out
of the room by two MPs. Just as he was about to walk out the door, he glanced
back one last time to look at Blake. It was the look of a man headed to the
gallows to be hanged. Blake knew that he would never be able to get that look
out of his head for the rest of his life.

As Blake
returned to his seat, his heart was heavy and survivor’s guilt started to set
in. He found himself wanting to be at Stetson’s side.

The separation took
about twenty minutes. The ones that remained in the commons area sat there,
mostly staring blankly at the floor taking shallow breaths.

Blake sat in
silence, staring at his dog tag. He was worried for his friend. His thoughts
then shifted to his wife and daughter. He knew that Tara was type O because she
had given him blood on the battlefield once when he had been wounded in
Afghanistan. He assumed that his daughter was type O as well, because both of
her parents were. But he wondered what would happen to them if people started
changing like the doctor had described. However, he was a soldier first and
couldn’t just leave the base to go save them. Blake clenched his fists angrily,
hating feeling so conflicted.

Tara clutched
the TV remote tightly. She had sent Kaya into her room to play with her toys.
The TV stations were reporting about the infection that was spreading around
the world. As she scanned the channels, she watched video footage of the
carnage that was taking place. The non-infected people were being hunted down,
killed, and slaughtered. The non-infected were trying to stay alive by banding
together with militia groups in neighborhoods. Some reports showed vigilantes
roaming the streets, killing anyone that might be non-O blood types.

One of the
experts gave his opinion about how this was the beginning of an alien invasion,
and a reporter said this was God’s punishment for the wicked ways of the world.
But the most common topic was that the non-O blood types were at risk.

The news also reported
what the different countries around the world were doing to prepare for the
infections before they ran out of time. Some nations were doing nothing, and
others ordered prayer and fasting. Some countries had even started executing
all potentially infected citizens, while others waited until the infection
started before executing and burning the bodies.

One advantage
that Tara had when she was in the military was that she was well informed about
what really was happening in world events. She hated this feeling of being out
of the loop.

It was late
morning before Tara couldn’t take it anymore.

She had to try
and get ahold of Blake. She grabbed the phone and dialed his number and got a
busy signal. She hit redial; this time she got the standard message from the
phone company saying that all lines where busy. She tried for another ten
minutes before she threw the phone on the couch and gave up. She sat in the rocking
chair, slowly rocking and watching Kaya play with her toys, all the while
clutching the phone till her knuckles turned white.

“He will call,
he will call,” she kept thinking to herself.

Tara kept
glancing at the clock. It was almost eleven. “Damn you, Blake. Why don’t you
call?”

When the phone
rang, it startled her so much that she dropped it. It only bounced one before
she grabbed it and pressed the answer button.

“Blake, I’m so glad to hear from you! Is what I am
seeing on the news true?”

Tara could hear
the pause in his voice. “I’m not sure what they are saying, but what I hear
here on the base is that it is really bad.”

Tara started to
breathe even heavier as Blake recited what he knew.

“Listen, this
is what I want you to do: First go and lock all the windows and doors. Close
all the blinds and turn off all the lights. Make it look like no one is in the
house. Next, fill up every container that you can find with water and fill the
tub with water. Then get your Smith and Wesson handgun out and keep it on you
at all times. Get both of my shotguns and put one by the front and one by the
back door,” recited Blake, almost out of breath.

Even though
Tara had been in the military and had been trained to handle this kind of
situation, the fear she felt for herself, Blake, and Kaya was almost more than
she could bear.

Blake continued
in a hushed, urgent tone, “I don’t know how much longer this line will stay
connected. I will come and get you when I can. Do you trust me?”

“Yes,” Tara
said in a soft but firm voice.

“I love you so
much! Give Kaya a hug for me and tell her that her daddy loves her. Don’t let anyone
through the door until you hear my voice, OK?” The line suddenly dropped, and Tara
wondered if she and Kaya would ever see Blake again.

After she got
off the phone with Blake she was glued to the TV. The president was going to
address the nation. Tara’s eyes were wide open as he stepped up to the podium.

“My fellow
Americans, for the last several hours you have been hearing many reports on the
radio and television about the infections that are spreading around the world.
Some of them are true, and some are not. I want you to know that from the
reports we are receiving in Washington, most of what you have heard is true.”

He paused for a
moment, looking down at the podium. A trickle of sweat made its way down the
side of his face. “From this moment on, I will be imposing martial law on the
country. All citizens are ordered to stay in their homes and remain there until
given further instructions. The military will be left in charge of all civic
and law enforcement duties until further notice. They will also be manning all
critical necessities like utilities and hospitals. I know that this will be
hard, but if we stay calm and pull together, our country will survive this.
Expect another report later today with further instructions. Remain calm, and
we will get through this.”

Shortly after
noon Tara scanned the channels to get the most current information. The first
reports from central Mexico started to come in. People were showing the usual
signs of the infection: fever, unconsciousness, and changing eye colors. The
country was in panic, and there were reports of entire towns committing mass
suicide. Men killing their wives and children, and neighbors killing neighbors,
infected or not. Everyone was panicking in the chaos.

Tara continued
to watch the news reporting that the infection was slowly moving north to the United
States border. The panic started to spread. The news showed store shelves being
cleaned out in a matter of hours, traffic at a complete standstill in large cities
as people tried to flee to the countryside, and the phone system almost collapsing
as people tried to contact loved ones. Gun stores sold out of guns and
ammunition just as fast as the grocery stores, and people were preparing for a
war against an unknown enemy.

Cable news
started to report that the president was considering the unthinkable and would
be making an announcement in moments. As Tara scanned the channels she noticed
all the networks were now broadcasting from the White House.

The President
stepped to the podium, his wife and daughter close behind. “My fellow Americans
and citizens of the world, I have the grim duty to inform every person on the
planet that this infection is covering our globe. People everywhere are dying.
I am ordering our military and civil law enforcement to terminate any infected
people they come into contact with.” His voice was strained with emotion as he
glanced at his family again. “Since our military and police can’t be everywhere
at once, I am recommending that every citizen take on the responsibly to
terminate any person they identify with the infection. For some of you, this
message might be too late, as the infection has already crossed our borders.
With God's grace, we will be able to survive this plague and rebuild our
country. God bless, and I pray for us all.”

As Tara sat in her
living room watching the TV, she could not believe what she had just heard from
the president. She had done everything Blake told her, but now she didn’t think
she could take the waiting any longer. She felt like she was waiting for death.
Down the street she heard two gunshots. The reality of death started to set in.
She turned off the TV and sat in the rocking chair cradling Kaya in one arm and
holding her .45 in the other. She rocked back and forth, trying to soothe Kaya
and imagine what would come.