Zombiestan Read Free Page B

what was happening. They all began to move back to their seats as the Flight Attendant wondered what to do with the body. Suddenly one of the passengers exclaimed to the doctor.
     
    'Doctor, he's speaking.'
     
    'C'est impossible!'
     
    The doctor leaned over near Nadir and saw that indeed his lips were moving. There was still no pulse. He leaned closer to hear what he was saying. He jerked back when he heard one word.
     
    'Jihad.'
     
    Then Nadir's eyes snapped open.
     
    He sat up calmly, as if nothing had happened, looked around, and grabbed the black scarf from the Flight Attendant's neck. He then proceeded to calmly tie it around his head, as everyone around looked on, speechless.
     
    Then he leapt out to bite the screaming doctor's hand.
     
    On three other flights headed for New York, London and Washington, the men who had accompanied Nadir to the camp in Afghanistan similarly transformed as the Sun set.
     
    David Bremsak knew nothing of this, sleeping his first full night's sleep in close to a month. His bunk at Camp Delta just outside the town of Gardez was hardly luxurious, but it beat humping up and down the Shahikot Mountains wondering if he was in some Taliban sniper's sights. He was dreaming of Rose, her long, blond hair, her smell, her touch, when he was woken up. He looked up to see Dan, his M82 in hand.
     
    'Captain, sorry to wake you up.'
     
    David looked as if he was ready to murder Dan.
     
    'This better be good.'
     
    Dan reached over and handed over David's M4 and vest.
     
    'We're under attack.'
     
    That got David's attention, and he grabbed his gear and rushed out of his cabin. Mike had also just come out of his cabin next door, wearing a Kevlar vest over his t-shirt, carrying an M4 as well. The CIA officer shouted out at David as he saw him.
     
    'The Taliban must have gone nuts. Trying to attack us here is suicide!'
     
    There were soldiers milling around everywhere. The members of the small TF121 detachment were `guests' here, sharing the base with its usual occupants, an Army Ranger unit. Given the secretive nature of their HVT hunts, and the time they spent outside in the mountains, David and his men had never really got to know the Rangers too well. But now David saw their Commanding Officer, Major James Lafferty, roaring orders to his men.
     
    'You there, reinforce the western side! I want snipers covering every angle.'
     
    David jogged over to him. Compared to the lean, wiry SEAL, the Ranger Major looked like a giant pitbull.
     
    'What's up?'
     
    'Two of my boys are down. Some Taliban must have sneaked in and attacked our sentries.'
     
    David considered that for a minute. He had been fast asleep but there was no way he could have slept through gunfire. James must have read his mind.
     
    'They bit them. We never picked them up till they were too close.'
     
    David took in the bizarre details.
     
    'Did we get them?'
     
    James looked down straight at his eyes, and David thought that he saw fear in the giant man's eyes.
     
    'The boys pumped them full of bullets, but get this, the two of them fell down, then got back up and ran away.'
     
    'All clear!'
     
    The Ranger who had shouted sounded scared, and David could sense that as word of the raid got around, everyone was spooked. It was one thing to deal with an enemy who shot at you, and reassuringly stayed dead when you shot back. What did you do with enemies who bit you and then got back up when you shot them? He saw Mike a few feet away. The CIA officer had seen his share of crazy stuff, but this was something too weird even for him. The Rangers were now busy tending to the two wounded men, who were bleeding profusely from bites to their hands and necks.
     
    'Get them Medevaced now!'
     
    The next morning, they were airlifted to Kabul and then were on a flight to Ramstein airbase in Germany, when doctors at the base in Kabul said they just could not deal with the strange symptoms they were seeing. When the flights landed,