Day 2 - White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
The four Special Ops helicopters put down on the meticulously manicured lawn that separated the granite and marble architectural marvel from the thirty six-hole golf course. The Greenbrier in West Virginia was built in the fifties and was totally remodeled during Reagan’s years in office. Originally a country club, it was now the seat of power for the U.S. government. It held vast underground caverns and stored everything two hundred people would need to survive for three years. An aquifer ran under the property and the air inside was scrubbed and constantly replaced every twelve hours. Rumor had it that during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 President Kennedy took refuge here.
The Greenbrier was where de-facto President Valerie Clay now presided over the United States.
Captain Mike Desantos, flanked by the surviving members of his Delta Team, ducked his head and rapidly covered the distance from the Pave Hawk to the group awaiting them.
President Clay was flanked by her Secret Service Detail. It consisted of four fit looking men with SCAR machine guns at the ready, heads swiveling on the lookout for any threats. Each man had an earpiece and the obligatory dark sunglasses.
Valerie Clay was still getting used to being POTUS. She reached out her hand only to be greeted by textbook salutes from the operators.
Well, I am the Commander in Chief now. President Clay reciprocated to the best of her ability and then got down to business.
“Captain Desantos, you were tasked to retrieve the football because we have reason to believe the Chinese released the virus. Currently eight of our carrier groups are at sea. What is most distressing is that they are all being shadowed by the Chinese Navy’s new submarine fleet. They have near silent hunter killers and have already used them to sink one of our boomers. I and the remaining brass believe this may go nuclear. As much as it’s not the American way to strike first, it might be our only option.”
“I know it’s probably way above my pay grade, but how bad has China been affected by the virus or whatever it is?” Mike queried the new President.
“Just between you and I, we have lost all contact with our human intelligence on the ground. China has gone quiet as has most of the Asian continent. On the last nighttime pass our Keyhole satellite relayed imaging indicating massive power outages, even in Beijing. The last contact with our eyes on the ground was day one of the infection here stateside. He indicated the government had gone underground and most of the population was being confined to their homes. The most chilling intel he forwarded was that he had observed Chinese death squads shooting and bagging anyone in the streets.”
“First of all, with all due respect, Madam President, the death squads were culling the infected... right?”
“No, our man said that the majority of the people killed in the first wave were all healthy citizens. The government knew how virulent the bug was that got away from them. Knowing how ruthless the Chinese are, they were just being proactive. Hey, they’ve done it before… albeit on a much smaller scale.”
“Well then, why on earth would they want to attack us with their superbug, why not just use a nuke or an electromagnetic pulse?”
“As the saying goes soldier, misery loves company. The agent, we’ll call him Buddha, mentioned the city of Xinxiang as being the epicenter of their outbreak. Curiously enough that’s where a major bioweapons lab is located. His Intel also suggests that they sent sixteen credentialed Chinese national couriers with diplomatic pouches to multiple cities in the continental United States. Four of the couriers apparently arrived in DC just hours before the first confirmed cases of what the CDC in Atlanta has taken to calling the “Omega Virus.”
“What does the CDC have to say about this Omega Virus?”
President Clay put her hands over her face for a short while. When she brought them down and looked at Mike she was speechless for a moment. Tears welled in her eyes as she recounted the staggering numbers of dead and infected Americans.
“The Center for Disease Control estimates the CONUS will be depopulated by ninety-five percent…”
“Forgive me Ma’am. You said depopulated. Didn’t you mean repopulated… by the walking dead?”
“They assume that the risen will lose their ability to walk as they decompose and therefore after a few weeks they won’t be able to infect any more of the population,” the President said, staring off towards the 18th hole.
Mike noticed that she had developed the thousand yard stare a person acquires when they had seen too much in too short a time.
“You know that old saying, what is the definition of assume?”
The new President testily answered, “Assuming makes an ass out of you and me… what is your point, soldier?”
“Until I see one of those dirty walking corpses die from anything but a bullet to the brain, I will take nothing for granted.”
“I agree. For now your main objective is containment, followed by securing all of the information about Omega that we can,” President Clay said.
“What are my orders now?” Captain Desantos asked.
“I need you to take your team to the CDC in Atlanta and collect any living personnel, the research notes and any samples they have archived and then escort them to Schriever Air Force base. Use force if necessary. Capture, don’t kill.”
“Yes Madam President, anything else?”
“I have bad news. While you were in transit from the White House I was informed of Fort Bragg’s dire situation. The base is surrounded and under siege and waiting for a full airlift. Any personnel that get out before the undead overrun the base are going to rendezvous at Schriever AFB. The 50th space wing controls all the Department of Defense satellites from that location. We are going to reestablish the United States government and the CDC in Colorado Springs.”
Her last few words garbled together as Mike thought about his family and unborn son. Hopefully they all would be reunited soon. In a moment of clarity he also thought about Brook and Raven. They were like family to him. An icy fist hit him in the gut as he calculated the odds of all of them surviving.
President Clay gave one last salute to the men in front of her and then approached the operator that had retrieved the football hours earlier. She reached out and removed the Captain’s bars from Mike Desantos’ uniform, replacing them with the silver two star cluster of a Major General’s rank.
Mike remained stoic. He saluted the President, turned and reentered the waiting helo. Engines spooled up and the four birds leapt off of the beautiful country club-like grounds and accelerated to maximum speed, heading for another much needed aerial refueling before setting waypoints for Atlanta.