Days Of Perdition: Voodoo Plague Book 6 (26 page)

After finishing with Roach I had turned to see Zemeck and Rachel
standing on the roof watching me.  Matt was still cradling Katie in his arms
and I was glad to see she was awake.  Rushing to them I was about to stop next
to her when Rachel reminded me that Martinez was still in the lounge.  Changing
direction, I ran through the door and pounded down the steps.

Martinez was still lying where I’d last seen her, but she
was awake.  She didn’t look good, but then I’ve never seen anyone that had been
shot that did look good.  I took a second to pull my vest on and sling my rifle
as I bent over her.

“You forgot to duck,” I said.  She smiled a weak smile and
told me to kiss her ass in Spanish.   

“You just hang in there and make it through this and I’ll
kiss your ass at noon in front of the flag pole.”  I said as I slipped my arms
under her body.

She groaned in pain as I lifted her off the floor.  I
couldn’t tell where she’d been shot, but there was a lot of blood that began
soaking into my clothing as soon as I pulled her to me.  Carrying her up the
stairs I rushed over to the Pave Hawk where Rachel was working on Katie. 
Zemeck had laid her inside the back of the aircraft and I placed Martinez down
next to her.

“You’ve got some explaining to do, buddy.”  Katie said,
grimacing as Rachel probed the wound in her chest.  “Running around with two
women that look like these two.”

“Thought I’d start a harem.”  I said, holding her hand. 
“Got an opening if you’re interested.”

“I’ll give it some thought and get back to you,” she started
to smile then caught her breath and closed her eyes when Rachel pressed an
instrument deeper into the bullet hole.

While Rachel worked on first Katie then Martinez, the Osprey
came into view.  Zemeck was in radio contact with them and before they picked
us up he directed them to where we’d left Stephanie and the kids.  Once they
were safely on board the Osprey swooped down over the roof for us.

The helipad was occupied with the disabled Pave Hawk and the
Marine pilot didn’t want to trust the casino roof with the weight of his
aircraft so he did an extremely admirable job of holding the Osprey in a stable
hover less than a foot above the roof.  He held it there long enough for us all
to get loaded, raising the rear ramp and gaining altitude as soon as Dog,
bringing up the rear, leapt aboard.

The two Marines Zemeck had originally brought with him, as
well as the five soldiers they had gone to pick up, made room for us.  They
pulled seats loose and created plenty of floor space for Katie and Martinez to
lie flat, then squeezed against the walls with the captive women we’d brought
out of the casino.  I settled down between the two women, holding each of their
hands as Rachel worked. 

Katie was stable for the moment, but Martinez was in worse
shape.  She’d taken two rounds, one in the leg and one in the abdomen.  Rachel
still wasn’t sure how bad she was, but assured me that if Martinez had lasted
this long the odds were good that we’d get her to the hospital at Tinker in
time.

The Trident missile flew perfectly, following its
preprogrammed trajectory, which was intended to place it 50 miles directly
above the Kansas/Oklahoma border when the timer program added to the nuclear
trigger reached zero.  Everything worked as intended, the warhead firing when
the computer code sent the command.

Without the Earth’s atmosphere a nuclear blast expands
dramatically faster and farther.  The fireball grew to immense size, clearly
visible from everywhere in North America.  Massive amounts of gamma rays shot
out in all directions.  Dozens of orbiting satellites were destroyed in that
initial EMP or Electromagnetic Pulse by the rays that headed away from the
Earth.

The gamma rays that didn’t shoot into space came in contact
with the atmosphere and collided with air molecules, depositing their energy in
the form of huge quantities of ions and recoil electrons which were then aligned
and accelerated by the Earth’s magnetic field.  As they traveled along the
invisible magnetic highways they began to lose energy, but any electronic
device within a 1,500 mile radius of the initial pulse was susceptible to
damage.  The closer to the source, the stronger the energy and the greater the
damage.

There isn’t much on a modern aircraft that isn’t controlled
by electronics.  The military requires that all of its equipment is “hardened”
against an EMP, but the feasibility of protecting every sensitive electronic
circuit on an Osprey against a High Altitude EMP is poor.  Even more so when
the EMP source is massive and less than 200 miles away.

We were flying south and didn’t see the fireball directly,
but the dark landscape beneath us lit up at the same time the aircraft’s
engines shut down.  There were panicked looks all around and Katie squeezed my
hand, pulling me down to wrap her in my arms.

“We’re going down!”  The pilot shouted.  “Brace for crash!”

Voodoo Plague: Book
One

Crucifixion: Voodoo
Plague Book Two

Rolling Thunder: Voodoo
Plague Book Three

Red Hammer: Voodoo
Plague Book Four

Transmission: Voodoo
Plague Book Five

Rules Of Engagement:
A John Chase Short Story

Wow, Book 6 already.  Seems like just yesterday that I was
working on the first Voodoo Plague, which by the way was mostly written in
hotels and airport waiting areas.  It’s been an incredible year, and I’m
looking forward to seeing what the future holds for my little band of survivors.

As always, a sincere thank you to everyone who has taken the
time to email me or leave a post or message on Facebook.  I love hearing from
you, and appreciate the wonderful comments as well as the constructive
criticism.  I really do take it all in and it has affected both the story line
and my writing style. 

To Katie, thank you for your unwavering faith and support,
as well as your input.  For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you know
where the idea for the casino came from.  For those who don’t… 

A few months ago I was up early and sitting on the patio
with Dog, enjoying my first coffee of the day.  Katie walked outside and
immediately called me an asshole. 

“What?”  I asked, putting on my best innocent look. 

“I had a nightmare that I was trapped in a casino, being
attacked by survivors and infected, and it’s all your fault.”  She answered,
and that’s when I knew there was an abandoned casino scene coming.

So… Roach is gone.  Finally.  It was time, and oh so
satisfying to write his demise.  Yes, I couldn’t resist a little poetic justice
for the asshole, but in a strange way I’ll miss him.  I had thought about maybe
doing something with him where he has a change of heart and saves the day. 
Kind of like the Grinch or Gollum, but in the end decided it was more fun to
send him out with his ass in a sling (yes – pun intended).

Finally, to answer the most commonly asked question when I
release a new book, yes there will be another book in the series.  No, I don’t
know yet if it will be the final one or not.  I’ve always said I’ll end the
series when the story ends, not stretch it out just to keep publishing books. 
I probably won’t know until I start work on Book 7.

Also, you can always correspond with me via email at
[email protected]
and if you’re
on Facebook, please like my page at
www.facebook.com/FearThePlague
 

I enjoy interacting with my fans on Facebook and I answer
all of my email… eventually.

Thanks again for reading!

Dirk Patton

January 2015