The Plague Years (Book 1): Hell is Empty and All the Devils Are Here (16 page)

“Chad,” said Mary quietly. “Dave and Heather are over here with guns. We are hiding downstairs with all the shades drawn. What is going on?”

“I can’t talk too much now Sweetie,” said Chad. “I will be leaving for Fort Lewis in a little bit. Dave knows about someone who might want to get at me by hurting you. We talked about this remember? He will keep an eye on things and help you out. Could you put him on the phone?”

“Yeah, Chad,” said Dave.

“I am giving a threat briefing to the folks at the Fort Lewis/McChord joint base in an hour. I haven’t got a lot of time.”

“So what about Macklin?”

“He has been neutered, somewhat. I am still worried about him though. Don’t scare Mary too much but keep an eye on things. I have no clue how long this will take. Now can you give Mary back the phone? I can talk to her while I pack and smooth some things out.”

May 19
th
, Tuesday, 2:47 pm PDT.

The C-20 touched down smoothly and rolled out on the long runway that normally handled C-17’s. There was very little traffic on the field. Normally, with fifty odd C-17’s on base, there would be some traffic even if it was just some staff guy doing touch and go’s for qualification. As it was, there were some Army helicopters flying around the perimeter of the base but the flight line itself was all but deserted.

As the jet rolled to a stop, they were met by a Stryker APC. The pilot had briefed Chad and the others that as soon as the plane’s passenger door opened, they were to head down the gangway as quickly as possible and enter the Stryker. As they hustled down the gangway, they received a physical example of the reason for the precautions. There were two shots fired in their direction, one close enough to bounce off the armored hull of the Stryker.

A cheerful young Air Force captain in ABUs with a side arm helped them get seated as the Army vehicle crewman closed the rear ramp.

“I thought you were just being overly cautious with the Stryker,” said Chad. “What the heck is going on out there?”

“Hi, I am Captain Whipkey,” said the Air Force officer as the Stryker headed for the relative safety of the maze of roads next to the flight line. “Normally, I’m a co-pilot on a C-17 but we are grounded for all but critical missions. All of our remaining air ops have been taking sporadic rifle fire for about a week now, since we closed the base officially.”

“Why?” asked Dr. Riley. “Who is shooting at you and why don’t you do something about it?”

“Well, as to the who, about a week ago, just after he was briefed by you, General Buckley ordered up a humungous exercise. It included all the local Reserve and National Guard folks. At the end of it, they held a big party and invited all the families of the soldiers on base. When they were all in, he closed the base. There were a few folks left outside, on TDY, on leave, family members who were working, or excused duty but they came in over the next couple of days. Then, as you folks are aware, the infection rate ramped up in the big cities, Seattle and Tacoma among them. The infection rate in downtown Seattle is estimated at thirty percent.

“Some other folks, retirees, family members of deceased soldiers, and whatnot, thought they ought to be on base too. We took as many as we could. The barracks are full to bursting, a couple of the hangers have been turned into dormitories, and most of the folks inside the fence in family housing have friends and relatives staying with them. Three days ago, we closed the gates and barricaded them. Some folks didn’t like it so they started shooting at us, trying to disrupt operations.”

“This hasn’t been reported,” said Dr. Riley.

“It goes out on our daily reports to Washington but there seems to be more than a little chaos at higher,” said Captain Whipke with a shrug.

Ten minutes later, the Stryker pulled into a parking lot surrounded by 1930s brick office buildings.  Chad, Terry, and Dr. Riley were ushered inside and into the general’s briefing room. The general’s aid, whom they had met on the General Buckley’s previous flight to the Tri-Cities showed them their seats and network connections. As they were connecting their computers with maps and presentation aids to the network, a couple of generals and quite a few full colonels filed into the room. Chad also noted that there was a Marine Lt. Colonel and a Navy Commander in the group.

“I am sorry for rushing you out here,” said General Buckley looking more tired and worn than Chad remembered. “The truth is, we have not been getting reliable data from Washington and NORTHCOM. I want the unit commanders from all the major formations to have the best information we can get on this issue.

“We have been ordered to render aid to the civilian population, which we have been doing and will continue to do through our medical and security detachments outside the fence.  But the thing is, I need to protect my people.

“The fact that I have closed the base to all outsiders and non-essential traffic has alienated me with the local population. I have local politicians out there who are castigating me publicly and yet they have secretly demanded to be allowed on to the base to ‘assess the situation.’ The truth is, they think it’s safer inside the gate though I am not sure. We have our own people who are infected. It is already inside the wire. What I need from you is a real threat assessment about what we can expect. I want to know how long this will last, how much of the population will become involved, and what we can do to help or, in the worst case, survive if comes to that. We stockpiled as much as we could before this got out of hand but with the influx of people, I don’t know that we can feed them much beyond a couple of months even with some pretty draconian rationing that we have instituted. I have said enough. You have the floor.” 

“Well,” said Dr. Riley, “let me say that we are grateful for the support you have given us. But the bottom line is not much has changed from your initial briefing, save that we think that there is a new designer drug out there that has been used for a vector. It’s popular and seems to hold off for a week or more before it either makes you more susceptible or actually is the vector. We have been given access to a sample to examine but the results were preliminary at best. Dr. Strickland and Dr. Grieb will tell you what we have to this point but it isn’t a very bright outlook.” 

Dr. Riley nodded to Dr. Grieb.

“Our understanding of the disease has improved over the last week,” said Grieb. We have also experienced ‘interruptions’ in the flow of information between the various sites working on this issue. Here is what we know so far.

“The disease has an incubation of approximately three to seven days. Infection vectors are primarily fluid exchange as in HIV, but there are reports of contact related infections. It is theorized that most sufferers in the end stages of this disease are leaking fluids from various wounds and thus exposing uninfected people to those fluids.

“During this time it is undetectable but the patient is capable of passing the disease on. The next phase lasts as long as three weeks where the patient is active, with what has been described as a hysterical level of strength. They exhibit a reduced response to pain and wounds clot extremely fast, so much so that potentially life-threatening wound will not incapacitate them in the short term. Their mental processes are also affected. Paranoid delusions and schizophrenia are common interspersed with periods of lucidity. There seems to be little we can do for the sufferers, though some anti-virals have some promise. CDC in Atlanta thinks they have isolated the pathogen, but it’s either the biggest virus known to man or the smallest bacteria and it doesn’t attach at any of the normal molecular sites which is what gave us the run around. At the end of the three week period, sufferers become lethargic. Most stop eating and death follows within twelve hours. The effects look like starvation. To date there have been no remissions.”

“Colonel Hill here, I am commander of Madigan Army Medical Center,” said a tired looking woman wearing utilities. “That’s not quite true. We have a young man who was infected very early on and he has been improving for three days. We have reported this several times but no one seems interested.”

“I sure as heck am,” said a wide-eyed Grieb. “We haven’t heard word one on this. If he is lucid, I would like to meet with him.”

“Easily done,” said Colonel Hill.”

Dr. Grieb went on to describe several possible therapies with their pros and cons. All of them seemed palliative in nature and once the disease got a start, there didn’t seem to be much hope. As he wound down, Dr. Riley prompted him.

“You have been speculating something else about the genesis of this disease, haven’t you Terry,” said Dr. Riley.

“Yes I have, but honestly, it is circumstantial at best.”

“If you have an idea where this came from, spill it young man,” said Colonel Hill. “It’s a damned sight better than what we have to date.”

“Ok, I think this is not a freak disease mutation but rather, I think this is a weaponized microorganism. Chad can talk more about where it got started but I also think it wasn’t ready for prime time yet because to be really effective, it would have to be airborne. I think there was a lab accident and it got out into the rest of the world.”

“It seems effective enough,” said General Buckley. “Alright Captain Strickland, that was a hand off if ever I heard one. What have you got for us?”

“Yes sir,” said Chad as he got up. The use of his new rank was not lost on him. There appeared to be conflict over who controlled the experts on this disease and this was how Buckley was laying claim.

“I have prepared a number of map overlays to show how the disease spread. If you watch the animation on the screen, you can see that the disease appears to start northern California. Further research shows that it probably started somewhere in Amador county. This is a rural wine growing region. If I were going to hide a clandestine bacteriological warfare lab, this isn’t a bad place.”

“Why is that?” asked General Buckley.

“Well, it’s rural area and kind of sleepy so it doesn’t attract much national news attention. It’s close to some major airports for disease transfer and indeed that just how it got out to the world. It has more that forty wineries in the county so there are lots of comings and goings and lots of big trucks. It would be easy to hide the construction of this sort of lab in say an old winery. Heck, they may have kept the winery going as a cover. Add to that fact that the first wave of infected individuals, including our ‘patient zero,’ can all be traced to this area, either as migrant workers or wine enthusiasts and the case becomes stronger. Reports from the area are getting sparse though as the infection rate there is significantly higher so I doubt if we will ever really know.

“We also have some anecdotal evidence that this disease is either transferred by a new designer drug that has become available over the last month or the uses of said drug are significantly more vulnerable to infection.”

“All of this is very interesting, but I need to know how long this is going to last and how many people are going to get it,” said General Buckley. 

“I am pretty pessimistic sir,” said Chad. “In the data we have, there don’t seem to be any resistant populations. Yours is frankly the only remission we have seen. As you well know, we were tardy in invoking quarantine measure which seems to be a problem around the world on this.  Barring the discovery of a cure, the best we can hope for is that groups will isolate themselves, much as you have done on this base, and they will form the nucleus of whatever civilization will survive.”

“I can’t believe it has gotten that far,” said an army colonel named Willis incredulously. “Surely something can be done?” 

“Sir, I surely hope that other states have moved faster on quarantine than Washington has but I haven’t seen it. I hope that there are independent groups that have some supplies and a safe place to stay while this blows over. I hope that the rest of the military is as focused as you all appeared to be.

But the bottom line is between sixty and ninety percent of the population of the world will likely become infected and die. I am somewhat heartened to hear that you have a remission here, but this disease still appears to be over ninety nine percent fatal.  This will be one tough summer and at the end of it, my best estimate is that the population of America will not be over forty million. The population of the world will be less than three hundred million. If they don’t take care to protect what resources are available, half of those could die during the winter. I wish I had better news for you but that’s the way I read it.”

May 19
th
, Tuesday, 4:52 pm PDT.

The meeting had gone on for another hour after that trying as more of the details were exposed but in the end, General Buckley gave his staff a number of contingencies to prepare for and scheduled another staff meeting for the next morning. Colonel Antonopoulos caught up with Chad and offered to escort him and his party to the hospital where the young man who was apparently in remission was being held at.

The Madigan Army Hospital was a mad house. There were far more patients than it was designed to hold and most of them were suffering from various stages of the plague. The halls were patrolled by serious looking young men and women with M-4 carbines and full battle rattle.

“We have converted the gym into a clinic of sorts,” said Colonel Hill who had come along with them to the hospital. “We have three hundred and forty-seven people infected so far along with our normal number of broken bones from training accidents, service members and their wives having babies, and the like. Most had become infected prior to the lock down of the base, but we get one or two more every day from the teams that are out helping to control the area outside the wire to protect the citizens and our medical staff and like any military base, we have a few drug users. I suspect your designer drug has made an impact here as well.

“Those that are still lucid and under control go to the gym for quarantine for whatever help we can give them. We have even set up an area where families can visit, though there is no physical contact. It’s kind of like a visiting room in a prison which is not having a good effect of morale.”

“What is the population on the base right now?” asked Chad.

“Originally, we had about twenty thousand people on base, including both service members and dependents, with another eight thousand or so housed off base in apartments, private homes and such. They are all on base now along with a couple of thousand more dependents. When we opened the base up to the Guard, Reserves and retired folks, we had an influx of people which added another thirteen thousand or so folks to the list.

“Our best estimate is that there are now just over forty-four thousand people on the base of which a little less forty percent are under orders though that percentage is growing as we in-process reservists, retired, and National Guard personnel. The personnel office is trying to get a complete list but we have all been pretty busy. We plan to mobilize all the military and retired people who were able. As it is, we don’t have enough weapons for all of them or frankly a lot for many of them to do.

“We have two Stryker Brigades and the special ops folks but most of this base was geared for training with Reserves, National Guard, ROTC, Marine Armor training, the NCO Academy and such. We have a lot of staff types on base.”

“We have been very actively patrolling the perimeter,” said Colonel Antonopoulos. “That employs a lot of them. We are also doing a lot of pick and shovel work around the base to harden it if things get bad. We don’t expect to need it but it does keep them occupied.

“This thing is getting us coming and going though, because our flying schedule has been cut to the bare minimum. There is no training going on, only high priority missions. C-17s guzzle a lot of JP-4 and we aren’t getting anymore. Our tank farm is pretty close to full, but no more new fuel deliveries for the foreseeable future. So my maintenance troops are mainly sitting on their hands as are the flight crews. The only folks in the 446
th
Wing, which is our reserve component, to be very active is the 446th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. Everyone else is standing down and prepping for action as ground troops. It’s not going over too well.”

“So what about this remission case?” said Chad trying to change the subject.

“Not much to tell,” said Colonel Antonopoulos. “The young man is one of my crew chiefs, Senior Airman Reynolds, a good airman from all accounts. He went home on leave to Sacramento and started showing symptoms three days after he reported for duty. Thanks to the information you sent from your CDC doctor, we were prepared. When his roommate noted the symptoms, the word got to his first shirt. We had him out of the population very quickly. I owe you one for that.”

“I wish I could have done more,” said Chad morosely.

“But what about the remission?” said Dr. Grieb anxiously. “What happened? What treatments were used?”

“We weren’t doing anything outside of the protocols you suggested in your white paper,” said Colonel Hill. “He was very symptomatic for about seven days to include the violent delusions and such that Dr. Strickland described, but his appetite stayed strong. Some of his friends from his squadron were staying with him in relays making sure he had food and chatting with him during his lucid moments but that is all.

Two days ago, he stopped having schizophrenic incidents. Yesterday, he was lucid for the entire day, though he is still quite weak and has a lot of tissue damage. When I checked on him before the meeting he was cutting up with his friends and his appetite, while healthy had decreased to near normal. ”

“Here is his room,” said Colonel Hill. “We isolated him when we figured out he was going into remission.”

She unlocked and opened the door and knocked. There was no reply. She looked in and began to look alarmed.

“Lt. Nelson, is Airman Reynolds out of his room for treatment?” said Colonel Hill to the nurse on duty.

“No Ma’am,” said a young but obviously very tired nurse who began checking Reynolds file on the computer. “I checked his vitals not more than an hour ago and he seemed fine. No one has signed him out either.”

“Anybody see him go? Come on folks, this is a locked isolation ward,” said Colonel Hill with exasperation. “He didn’t have a key!”

The staff looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces and offered a chorus of “No Ma’am’s.”

“People just don’t vanish from my hospital!” said an agitated Colonel Hill loudly. “He is medically fragile and possibly still contagious. Find him!”

May 19
th
, Tuesday, 7:58 pm PDT.

Colonel Antonopoulos took Chad to dinner at the Officers’ Club along with Drs. Grieb and Jurgen. They dined on a hearty bean soup with a roll. There was no dessert.

“We are eating what the troops are eating,” said Colonel Antonopoulos by way of apology. “We get served on pretty china but the food is the same all over the base. Sorry it couldn’t be more.”

“We don’t want to take food from your troops Colonel,” said Dr. Jurgen. “Besides, my wife has been after me to lose some weight anyway.”

  “Since the contents of the bar are technically the property of the officer members of the O’Club, I would like to offer you a drink. We can do that much at least.”

“Thank you Colonel,” said Dr Jurgen, “but we have an early flight tomorrow. If we could impose on you for a ride to our quarters, wherever they are, I would like to shower and go to bed.”

“Me too,” said Dr. Grieb. “I have been running on nerves and coffee all day long.”

“Certainly,” said Colonel Antonopoulos as he pulled out his cell phone and entered a quick text message. “Captain Whipkey will meet you at the door.”

“Chad, I could offer you the hospitality of the Club, being as you are now a member who will be assessed dues at the end of the month,” said Colonel Antonopoulos.

“In that case, I could use a drink,” said Chad who caught the look in Colonel Antonopoulos eye.

After the civilian members of the team were sent off with Captain Whipkey, Chad, with a beer in hand, sat down with Colonel Antonopoulos at a side table far from the door.

“What makes me think this isn’t a social call,” said Chad after they had sat down.

“Oh, it’s social, mostly,” said Colonel Antonopoulos. “I do have a couple of agenda items to cover though. First and foremost is Special Agent Macklin.”

“Careful or I’ll puke up that wonderful dinner you served,” said Chad trying to lighten the mood.

“Not funny,” said Colonel Antonopoulos. “That guy has connections. He or his stooges have tried to get me to lock you up for all manner of mopery and dopery. They clearly want you out of the limelight and off the TV and especially off the internet. So stay on it. You are helping. The data sheet you passed around at your various appearances is showing up everywhere. People are taking it seriously.”

“Geez, that’s Terry’s work, not mine,” said Chad for what seemed like the millionth time.

“I know he did the heavy lifting, but you are the one that has the media listening,” said Colonel Antonopoulos. “It has got to be that you are smart because you sure don’t have the looks for it.”

Chad saw that he was smiling now but he still didn’t like taking credit for Terry’s work and the media attention was not making Mary happy. It was also apparently what is drawing Macklin to him.

“Here is the other item I have for you,” said Colonel Antonopoulos. “I would like to offer you and your family space here on post. We can protect you here. Your brand new rank will carry some weight with folks outside the military, especially if you are on post. Macklin will have to leave you alone.”

“Colonel Antonopoulos,” began Chad.

“Look, my first name is Andrianos,” said Colonel Antonopoulos. “My friends call me Andy.”

“That must have been a bitch growing up,” said Chad.

“You have no idea,” said Andy with a sad smile.

“Anyway, Andy, thank you for that and for the kind offer,” said Chad carefully, “but I am going to have to decline. Some friends and I are making plans and we have some supplies. I doubt your invitation could include all of them anyway.

“Secondly, you have seen my infection figures for the general population. With a thirty percent reported infection rate from downtown Seattle, I suspect that the shadow population, you know, the street kids, drug addicts and all, in the area is probably like sixty percent involved. When do you think civil services will break down?”

“I have seen projections of course,” said Andy. “But I have more faith in the teams we have out there. They see cops struggling with large groups of those infected in some neighborhoods. We have had to resort to some rather indiscriminate use of automatic weapons fire in a couple of cases. In some of the downtown neighborhoods, Strykers are the only thing that can go in.”

“It’s starting then,” said Chad. “I thought it would go a month or so before that happened. Look, soon, you are going to have to completely seal off this base. We tend to see doubling every seven days or so. In two or three weeks, it will be maybe sixty percent in the suburbs and pretty damned close to full penetration in the downtown areas. Maybe you should consider sending your family out with us. God knows how many more flights out there will be.”

“Don’t think that hasn’t crossed my mind,” said Andy. “But I have three thousand eight hundred and two Air Force men and women under my command. Most of them have some dependents on base. How would it look if I sent my dependents out, but because we couldn’t find a place for them, kept theirs on base?

“Besides, my wife is a driving force in the Officers’ Wives Club and they are handling all manner of counselling issues, aid to families, and support for dependents who have lost their service member. I need her here as much as I need my Chief Master Sergeant.”

While he said the last with a laugh, it was a weary one and it was clear that this was hard to watch his family stay in harm’s way.

“I am not supposed to discuss this,” continued Andy, “but you do have a need to know. We are already working on plans to close off the base. They get triggered when or if we get a directive from the President or we lose contact with National Command Authority. Our planning horizon is probably six or seven days out. But you are the ‘Dead Head’ right? What is your opinion? Do you think it will work?”

“Look, Andy,” said Chad, wishing that name would go away, “I don’t have your plans and even if I did, most of what I do is on a larger scale. I can only guess.”

“Guess then,” said Andy with a little desperation in his voice.

“Well you’ve got a hellaciously long perimeter to defend,” said Chad. “Even with all the new troops that have come in, I don’t think you can cover it all. Family housing is in serious jeopardy.”

“We know,” said Andy as he sketched a map of the base on a napkin. “We are no longer patrolling the training areas adjacent to base. It takes too much fuel. We know people are living there, some of them infected, but we won’t bother them if we can help it.

“We have retreated to the base proper. Right now, we can cover that from the air, with motorized patrols, and with passive sensors. But when the fuel starts to run out or we maybe lose off base power, it will be a lot harder. But the construction you see around base, the hardening we discussed earlier, shortens the interior perimeter by a third and puts every approach under visual observation, automatic weapons fire, and, as long as the ammunition lasts, artillery fire. It includes the McChord runway and the Gray Army Air Field, but cuts off family housing and a lot of redundant structures. Interstate 5 will be a bitch though as it provides hostiles cover all along one flank of the base and we really don’t have the explosives, manpower or equipment to push it back. Besides, it will also be needed for the recovery.