Chapter Fourteen

“Seal all Parish lines with fire,” General Bornemann ordered. “Work from the outside into the center. Cover every inch with napalm, then do it again, then again. Burn it to ash. I don’t want a living thing in there when you’re through.”

The Air Force and Navy bombers, standing by at England and Barksdale and Keesler AF bases, screamed in, dumping their loads, then headed back to their bases for more.

Colonel Randy Matthews’s tanks took up the slack, dropping round after round of white phosphorus in the two-Parish area.

Careful eyes watched the area around the Parishes, but no mutants were found. And that puzzled the scientists. And worried them.

The Navy dumped thousands of gallons of high octane fuel into the Velour and the Mississippi rivers, and the Lost Swamp. Then they cleared out, watching from a safe distance as the planes ignited the fuel. The thudding swoosh was heard for miles as flames shot up hundreds of feet into the air, killing everything that lived on and around the waters.

To be safe, the Parishes around Baronne and Lapeer lost some valuable timber and farmland as General Bornemann ordered a two-mile area cleared and evacuated. Then he burned it to the bare, smoking earth and ordered it kept burning for days. President Hospon told the residents, personally, on a visit to the devastated area, they would be compensated, fully, for their losses, and relocated at government expense.

One disgruntled resident in the audience gave the President the raspberry. Loud and juicy.

 

 

Bob, Tanya, and Sarah moved to north Louisiana. They plan on farming.

Brett Travers and Kiri got married, honeymooned in Colorado, and plan to work there.

Slick Riggs went to work for another Parish Sheriff’s Department after punching his first cousin on the nose.

Dr. Billings was fired from government service.

All the survivors tried to forget the nightmare. But some could not and were committed to mental institutions. Others killed themselves. All had been touched in an unforgettable manner.