Degeneration (8 page)

Lt. Gen. Yates smirked.

Gen.
Falton frowned
as he looked over at Lt. Gen. Yates
. There was something in the man’s eyes that he
mis
trust
ed
.

“We mustn’t lose control of this situation,”
Gen.
Falton said.

“Sir, what about the social media networks and cell
phones? It could be a problem, if any footage
does somehow leak out,” Col.
Mathis
interrupted
, frowning.

“Iron Shield
protocol
will handle that, Colonel,”
Gen.
Falton simply sa
id. “I want you on the ground managing the downtown operations, Colonel.
You’re to leave
for Raleigh
immediately. You’re dismissed.”

Col.
Mathis snapped a quick salute, turned, and left the office without another word.
Guilt ate at the pit of his stomach.

Aft
er a moment, Lt. Gen. Yates
spoke up.

“So you’re activating Iron Shield?”

Gen.
Falton nodded.

“I really don’t
see any other option in this day and age,” Gen. Falton said. “I trust you to handle
containment measures
if things go south
.
The Joint Chiefs have already mentioned using thermobarics as a failsafe. I’m putting a lot of trust in you to handle this.
”

“It’s a solid decision, sir,
and I won’t let you down,
”
Lt. Gen. Yates
said in his gruff voice, smiling.
As if you had any other choice. Who else would be abl
e to make the tough decisions?

“Another thing,” Gen.
Falton
added
, folding his hands over his belly.
“Make sure that the skyscrapers they choose have hurricane-rated impact resistant glass on all floors.”

“Is there a specific reason, sir?” Lt. Gen. Yates asked.

“The reason will make itself apparent once people start to panic inside the sealed buildings. You’re dismissed.”

Lt. Gen. Yates
saluted and left the office
in a hurry.

Gen.
Falton was left alone with his thought
s.

Gen. Falton stared
vacantly at the medals and pictures that c
overed his office wall
. He stared at one picture in particular, a picture of a y
ounger him standing next to
President
Regan.

“Yes, it’s a com
mand decision, a solid, justified response,
”
Gen. Falton said to himself.

He nodded
, confident in his decision, and picked up the red phone on his desk
to call the president, who was eagerly waiting.

6

A
s the wayward black helicopter neared downtown Raleigh, the war machine sprung to life and alphabet ag
encies descended upon the city. A
coordinated attack
on Raleigh’s infrastructure had
begun.

At 4:31 A.M., forces at Camp Mackall, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, and Camp Lejeune began emergency mobilization.

At 5:21 A.M., the first
frantic
call came through
the dispatch center
:

OPERATOR:
“911, what is your emergency?”

CALLER:
“Yeah hi, I'm
driving down I-85 North, uh, about five miles out
of
Butner. And there are some tanks, I think. Yeah, tanks, they uh drove across the freeway and blocked it off.”

OPERATOR:
“You said
there are some
tanks
driving on the freeway?”

CALLER:
“No, No, No. Not driving
on it. The tanks are parked on
it and are blocking the freeway down both directions
. And ther
e are some soldiers. They look like our guys but I don't–
I j
ust made it through before they–
I don't know,
I heard lots of crashes. People–
people probably going too fast to stop in ti
me when the tanks
blocked the freeway. A few of us just
made it past before it
was completely blocked
off
.”

             
A few cubes down away from the first operator, another call hit the call center:

OPERATOR:
“911, nature of your emergency?”

C
ALLER:
“I just had an acci
dent! I need–I–I–Oh God, I–just–
”

OPERATOR:
“Miss, please calm down and–
”

CALLER:
“I had an accident! I c
rashed into the back of him and–
Oh God! He's hurt. He's hurt! He’s not moving and there’s lots of blood! I'm on I-40
East headed out of Raleigh when–
My God, they came out
nowhere
–
They drove right in front of traffic and blocked the w
hole interstate! I couldn't sto–op–Icouldnot– Oh my God! They have–
have guns!”

OPERATOR:
“Miss, Miss, please slow down. Who has a gun? The other driver?”

CALLER:
“
NO!
The soldiers
! There are tank
s and trucks–
Oh God! What's going o
n? Is there an attack? He looks–
[Explosion][Metal Crunching]”

At the cube adjacent to her, another call came at the same time hers did:

OPERATOR:
“911, what
is–
”

CALLER:
“
I am on the phone with the POLICE, right NOW!
[Yelling in background]”

OPERATOR:
“Sir, excuse me?”

CALLER:
“Yes, Miss? I am here with
somebody
who
claims
t
o be from the US Army and he is–
[Yelling]
Don't you touch me!
[Yelling] And! He is illegally blocking a
public
road and threatening–
[Gunshots][Screaming][More Gunfire]”

[LINE DISCONECT]

More calls flooded the Raleigh-Durham Emergency Call Cente
r, all describing similar horrors
; the lines quickly jammed. The stunned operators took off their headsets and stood
up from their consoles to peer
over the edge of their cubicles, looking
at each other, frightened.

The
atmosphere became deafening as
hundreds of console phones
rang at once, consistently. T
he operators couldn’t
even
hear each other’s frightened prattling.

Then, silence as
all of the phones stopped ringing at
the same time
.

“What in the hell is going on?” a man manning one of the cubes in the mi
ddle of the center asked aloud.

The
other
operators murmu
red amongst each other and checked
their console phones.

“I’m calling Marcel,” a woman announced as she sat back down at her console. She picked up the phone to call the shift superviso
r, Marcel, and then paused as soon as she put her headset on–

Her co
nsole phone had no dial tone
.

Her eyes drifted over to the error message displayed
i
n the corner of her
computer
screen:
‘
Cannot acquire network address
’

She quickly reached down into her purse that was
slung over
the side of her chair and pulled out her smartphone. Dism
ayed and frightened she read: ‘NO SERVICE’

At 5:28 A.M., the entire Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area simultaneously lost all cellular access, landline access, and internet access.

Meanwhile, at 5:32 A.M., the first military transport and
attack helicopters landed
at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, ignoring the frantic orders of air traffic control.

Inside, travelers watched in horror as the large flight board flipped to 'DELAYED' behind every in-bound and out-bound flight.

A
rmy personnel swarmed onto the tarmac, pushing back the frightened ground crew and RDU security.

By 5:56 A.M., the military
had
successfully blocked off all major highways leading in and out of the Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area and
quickly
establi
shed a no-fly zone over the entire metro area
.

With the larger
secondary quarantine surrounding
the city established, at 6:01 A.M., a convoy of National Guard
Humvees
, black SUVs, and Raleigh police cars sped along Glenwood
Avenue towards downtown
to establish the pr
imary quarantine
.

At the same time, in
other parts of the city,
soldiers and Federal Agents stormed the News14 studio, NBC 17, WTVD, and six other local television and radio stations
mid-broadcast. Non-essential personnel were forced out of the buildings while FEMA and FBI officials wearing respirators coerced the remaining producers and
anchormen
, dictating the c
over-stories they should report.

It was rather hard to argue or even raise
a dissenting voice while
soldiers stood in the corner of the
studio
toting assault rifles.

Meanwhile, the national news outlets were already spinning–

“Sorry to cut you off, Roland, but we just received breaking news out of Raleigh, North Carolina,” the troubled CNN anchorman said, interrupting a political pundit mid-rant. “The Department of Homeland Security has just confirmed that they have received creditable information about an imminent attack somewhere in the Raleigh metropolitan area. Secretary of Homeland Security William Rushmore is expected to give a live press conference within the next few–”

The image on the screen switched to that of an empty podium adorned with the Department of Homeland Security seal. Multiple microphones lined the top of the podium and a royal blue drape served as the backdrop.

Within a few seconds, the Secretary of Homeland Security walked up to the podium and cleared his throat.

             
“We have confirmed intelligence that a major terrorist attack is imminent in the vicinity of downtown Raleigh, North Carolina and we believe the attack to be biological in nature. This is not a test. This is not a drill. The nature of the toxin is unknown. All federal agencies have been mobilized and, rest assured, that we are doing everything in our power to keep the residents of Raleigh safe.”

             
He paused, cleared his throat, and brought out a sheet of paper from his suit jacket. Lowering his bifocals, he looked down and read.

             
“As such, FEMA has issued the following mandatory evacuation orders for the entire Raleigh metropolitan area…”

7

T
he
Amtrak train rattled on as it pushed
closer to Raleigh
.

Richard blankly stared
out the window, dozing in and out of sleep, shifting
in his seat
. The
whispers always seemed to subside
when exhaustion
got the better
of him. It was tragic that some of his sanest moments came when he couldn’t stay awake long enough to enjoy them.

The
rising sun threw hazy beams
o
f orange light
through the train windows,
awakening passengers and making them shuffle in their seats.

Both of Richard’s legs
stung
as they
both
fell
asleep. He groaned,
shifted
,
and accidentally knocked
into the man
sitting next to him with his knee.

The man sitting next to him jolted out of sleep and mumbled something under his breath.