Chapter 37- Danger Close

Chapter 37

Danger Close

Satcom, Somewhere in Virginia

Captain Thomas turned quickly and reported.

“We got signs of infection in the valley now.  It looks like the operation to contain is folding,”

“You sure Captain?” asked General Petersen.

“I can’t get hold of Villa Cyranno.  There’s no reply from down there.  And units operating in the surrounding area are reporting contacts with the hostiles,”

“God damn it,” growled the General, slowly getting back to his feet.  “Lt Walker, I want you to raise Cyranno.  Find out if there is anyone left down there.  Captain Bowen, is there any aerial units we can get to do a quick flyby on the ground?”

“Yes sir, we’ve got Sabre Two in orbit.  That’s a squadron of F-22’s,”

“Raptors,” said the General with a vague smile.  The F-22 Raptor was a beautiful, if expensive, piece of technology and was state of the art battle-ware.

“Put me on with the leader,” ordered General Petersen.  As Captain Bowen got to work, General Petersen leaned over to Captain Thomas.  “What are you still doing here?  We need a team to head to Cavill, STAT,”

“Sir I thought that…” began the Captain.

“Belay that thinking.  Just get a unit armed up with flame-throwers and get out there.  If necessary we’ll bomb the village off the map,”

“Sir, that’s American soil,” replied the Captain.

“You were given an order Captain,” said the General tersely.

“General, Sabre-Two is on the line,” reported Captain Bowen.

Captain Thomas stood up, straightened his uniform and then walked out of the room. General Petersen watched him walk away, hoping that the young man was up to the job.

“This is Sabre leader here,” came a voice over the radio.

“This is Sat-Com here.  I’m broadcasting over an open channel,”

“Yes sir,” replied Sabre Leader.

“Good man.  Now I need you to get eyes on Villa Cyranno,” asked the General.

“I can do that sir.  There was an explosion a little while ago and then there hasn’t been much observable action down there,” reported Sabre Leader.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” replied General Petersen.  “Okay, give me eyes on the site.  And if we don’t get some kind of report back in the next ten minutes, I want you to knock that site off the fucking map,”

“Roger that,” came the reply.

General Petersen walked around the main desk and noticed a small metal pin lying on one of the desks.  He picked it up and examined it.  It was a Distiguished Service Cross Bar, about the size of a pair of cuff links.  Someone had taken it off their uniform.

Villa Cyranno, Venezuela

Once you join the military, you have to set a certain amount of common sense aside.  The air force has a lot more deep thinking than the other branches of service but on the whole it is still composed of alpha males who want to exert their dominance over whatever it is you are doing.

Being an intellectual person in that world is sure to be quite frustrating and at times, nearly unbearable.  Lt McPherson had learned to live with it in her time in the Air Force.  The occasional flare up of macho posturing was inevitable, they played an adrenaline sport and it was good that the men were confident, even if it did get quite tiring.

Hannah was willing to put her common sense to one side to be a valid and accepted part of that culture.  But right now she felt her frustration reach a boiling point.  There were only four of them still alive in the village, no telling where or who the infiltrators were and above them was a gung ho air force ready to carpet bomb them into the stone age.

And the survivors of her team were all pointing guns at each other.

“This is your last damned warning.  Put the weapon on safe and place it on the ground,” repeated Wooderson, aiming his pistol at Specialist Storm.  Storm aimed his P-90 submachine gun back at them.

“No way Sarge.  How do I know you are human anymore?” asked Storm.

“Specialist, we’ve got to signal in or the air support will bomb us,” said McPherson as calmly as she could manage.

“Yeah, well maybe that would be for the best,” replied Storm.

“What are you talking about?” asked Oscar, looking frantic.

“We don’t know who’s human anymore and the other things will have escaped away from here.  We’ve lost control.  This whole area needs to be quarterised, cleansed,”

Hannah saw a certain, nihilistic logic to it but she felt herself rebel against what he was saying.

“Storm, we need to do our job.  No one outside of the infected zone knows exactly what we’re dealing with.  If they’ve gotten out of here then we have the information that they will need to stop this thing,” reasoned McPherson.

“I’m not sure it can be stopped anymore,” muttered Storm.

“Last warning Storm,” snapped Wooderson.

“Aw just shoot me already,” replied Storm.

There was a blaze of light and a hail of gunfire.  Hannah was pushed back by Wooderson as he was thrown backwards.  She rolled to her knees and drew her pistol to aim but Storm was no longer on his feet either.  Oscar was the last man standing.

“Don’t move,” she yelled.  She moved over quickly to find Storm.  He was on his back now, two bullet holes in his chest.  She paused near him to make sure that he was human.  She then ran back to Wooderson.  A dozen rounds had chewed through his chest and waist, he had died not long after he had hit the floor.

Hannah squeezed her eyes closed for a moment, feeling the sting of tears.  She shook her head.

“Madness, pure bloody madness,” she whispered to no one in particular.