Day by Day Armageddon: Shattered Hourglass Read Free Page A

continental United States. We had maybe three hundred twenty million people a year ago. Kinetic operations up to this point have attrited some creatures, but the nukes didn’t exactly help the cause.”
    Listening to Joe’s commentary, Admiral Goettleman went back in time for a moment, to the decision to nuke the population centers. At the time, even he had agreed with that decision. From the bridge of his ship, he had heard the cheers from the crew as the nighttime fireballs lit the sky and rocked the targeted coastal cities. Hell, he’d clapped and yelled, too. The great mushroom plumes differed vastly from old nuclear-testing stock footage. All colors of the rainbow coursed through the pillar below the massive mushroom cap. Great blue lightning beamed and zapped throughout the thrown vertical wall of city debris, dust, and human remains.
    “How’s our research into the New Orleans specimens progressing?” asked Goettleman.
    “Well, sir, you read what happened on the Cutter Reliance . We have SIGINT cuts from overhead with good geolocs of hundreds of radio transmissions out of New Orleans and other nuked cities I can brief you on. The transmissions originated after the detonations occurred. All intelligence indicates that those bastards are just about unstoppable in moderate numbers. Higher cognitive function, agility, speed. It’s not only their bite or scratch that can kill you—it’s the radiation from those high-yield nukes shooting from their corpses. The Causeway and Downtown specimens are no different.”
    “I was hoping for a little good news, you know,” Goettleman said, almost sadly.
    “We still have propulsion, fresh water, and some food, sir.”
    The admiral forced a smile. “I guess that’s something.”
    Joe took a drink and coughed, saying, “The men on that chopper getting ready to bungee into the drink don’t even know what they’re going after.”
    “They soon will. The intelligence officer on Virginia will see to that.”
    “Sir, I know we’ve discussed this but my stance has not changed. Telling them everything could complicate things on some level. Patient Zero, if they can even locate it, may not be worth retrieving to them. They may perceive it as a waste of time and resources.”
    “Joe, Patient Zero may be the only key to unraveling this mess. I’m willing to sacrifice a multi-billion-dollar sub and every man on it for a chance at that . . . and then there’s the tech.”
    Joe walked over to the bar and poured himself another finger. “We’ve had tech for seventy years with no vast leaps forward except maybe solid state, some low observability, primitive maglev, and lasers. It took decades to reverse engineer our laughable and oversized jury-rigged versions. Besides, what good is the tech against seven billion walking predators?”
    “Those are compelling points, but what else is there?”
    “Admiral, we could gather survivors and head for an island. Secure it and live out our days at least a little safer than we are here.”
    “Abandon the U.S.? Leave it for those creatures?”
    “Sir, with all due respect, there is nothing left on the mainland but millions of those things. Many are radiated to the point of a zero decomposition rate. Even if none of them were exposed to the radiation, the analysts predict they’d still walk around for another ten years or more and be a threat for even longer than that. There is truly no guess on how long they might last. Some are saying thirty years or more.”
    The admiral looked through Joe to the wall behind him. He appeared to be in a trance repeating to himself . . .
    “Thirty years. Thirty years, my God.”
    Joe continued: “Unless we launch a coordinated pincer assault on both coasts and give ’em what for with every man, woman, and able child, we will not take back the continental United States anytime soon, if ever. So that’s it. We are dealing with something that not only infects the dead, but the living as well.