Project Zulu (12 page)

Azaka feels foolish. He should not have allowed the human to
outsmart him. That helicopter was his ride out of here. He knows full well,
from probing the pilot’s mind, the President intends to drop a nuclear bomb
right where he is standing. Most of his undead army will perish in the blast,
those that do not will be easily eradicated by the soldiers that sweep through
the area afterward. He looks toward the building, which he was held captive in
for so many years, and starts toward it.

He knows that there is a bomb shelter in the lower bowels of
the building. Thanks to the information he pulled from Hanuno’s mind, he knows
that he has to get to that bomb shelter. Two Air Force bombers are already
making their final approach to drop a medium range nuclear bomb right on the
Syscorp complex.

Brice takes the lead; Mike is next, with the small group of
soldiers following in standard cover formation. The explosion in the armory has
set off the sprinkler system. The steady flashing lights of the silent strobe
alarm, and fine mist of water makes the hallway resemble a tropical rainforest
during a lightning storm. The strobing lights are causing the men’s eyes to
constantly contract and dilate. To say it is difficult to see is an
understatement. The men stay close to the walls, moving as quietly as possible.

Brice stops at the end of the hallway, and signals for the
group to stop as well. Mike approaches him.

“General, we are going to have to pass the berthing quarters,
to reach the elevator. I am not sure what to expect. We both know how many men
were assigned here; we have to assume the worst…”

“Captain, I don’t want to assume anything, I just want to
get to that elevator, and then get into the shelter before the bomb hits.” Mike
waves his hand, motioning for everyone to bunch in around him. “Alright men,
this may get very ugly, the berthing unit is between us and the elevators. I
want everyone locked, loaded and ready. Remember, single headshots only, and
make them count. Captain, take us to the elevator.”

It only takes a few minutes to disable the moving sidewalk,
and then Azaka is sprinting toward the building. He tried to project his mind
into the human that he had been trapped inside for all those years, but was
unable to locate its mind.

He reaches the lobby doors and has no problem entering,
since the fire alarm has triggered the automatic lock override of all doors.

He burst through the lobby, into the main corridor, and runs
right toward the elevator. He knows that he will need a security pass and code
to get to the bomb shelter. His plan is to get inside the elevator, and
hopefully catch a human heading toward the shelter. He finds the elevator,
open, almost inviting him inside. The interior of the elevator is covered in
blood, puddles on the floor, and sprays on the walls and ceiling. He smiles,
knowing that the blood on the walls and ceiling came from a human; blood does
not pump through the body of the undead. No sooner does he step in, the
elevator doors close and the car begins to descend.

The group of soldiers continues, into the main hallway, and
find themselves engulfed in a haze resulting from the water vapors mixing with
the smoke of the explosion. The strobing light make shadows dance against the
walls, which only intensifies the difficulty the men are having seeing. Mike
motions for everyone to get down into a prone position, and crawl down the
hallway.

The hundred foot hallway seems to have quadrupled in size. The
doors to the berthing area are closed, but the sounds of shuffling feet, and
bumped furniture spills out into the hallway. Each of the soldiers hold their
breath as they inch past the doors. Once they have all passed, the last soldier
rigs a trip wire across the hallway.

When everyone is accounted for, Mike reaches up and pushes
the elevator button. “Everybody stay down, and to the sides, we want to make
sure the car is empty before we go barging in.”

The elevator glides to a stop with a single ‘ding’ preceding
the opening of the doors. The haze and smoke swirls into the elevator car as
soon as the doors open, making it impossible to see the inside of the car.
Brice rolls away from the wall, past the opening, looking in as he rolls past,
and ends up next to Mike on the opposite side of the opening.

“Captain, do you call that staying down and to the sides?”
Whispers Mike.

Before Brice can respond, a shuffling noise escapes from inside
the elevator, and then a pair of boots becomes visible.

It looks like a typical hospital room. Shiny linoleum
floors, bright white walls and ceiling, with flooding florescent lighting
bathing the room The large bed sits situated in the middle of the room, with
its’ chrome rails and pneumatic pistons for perfect body adjustment. The small
body in the bed makes it look all that much larger. A wheeled shelf is positioned
over the bed and on the shelf is a tray with an untouched turkey sandwich, side
of macaroni salad and unopened carton of chocolate milk.

There is a knock at the door, and then an elderly black
woman dressed in white scrubs enters the room. She looks at the uneaten lunch
and shakes her head.

“Julie Gaston, if you don’t start eating your meals you are
never gonna get outta here.” She says with a smile on her face as she collects
up the tray. “You want me to see if I can rassle you up something else, maybe
some PB and J with a cup of chicken soup?”

Julie smiles, she likes the funny way Ms. B. says some
words. “I am just not hungry Ms. Baker. I just wish my Dad would call.”

“I wish he would too; then I can tell him that you won’t
eat.” Ms. Baker replies with another smile. “Honey, you know what the news
said; some sort of interference in the sky is making it difficult for any type
of phone calls to be made. I haven’t talked to my son since yesday morning. I
will be back in fifteen minutes with your PB and J.” She smiled and walked out
the door.

Julie leans to her right, and reaches for the phone on the
nightstand. She puts the receiver to her ear, hoping to hear dial tone, but
instead hears the same thing as the last twenty times she has checked.
“All
circuits are busy; please try your call again latter.”

Disgusted, she hangs up the phone, and clicks on the
television.

The men in the hallway prepare for the worst. Suddenly a
voice from inside the elevator breaks the silence.

“Don’t be foolish. Just stay in the elevator and press the
‘door close’ button.”

Mike recognizes the voice immediately. “OhAy, is that you?”

“General, is that you out there?”

Jimmy joins the conversation. “Mike, oh man am I ever glad
to hear your voice. Hurry up, get in…”

A thundering explosion interrupts him in mid-sentence. One
of the soldiers inside the elevator instinctively fires a burst of bullets into
the hallway; the soldiers in the hallway react to that firing and begin to fire
their weapons down the hall as well. Every soldier with a weapon empties their
clips before Mike can get anybody’s attention.

“Damn it, cease fire, hold your fire. Captain, get these men
under control.” The gunfire has only added to the smoke and haze, turning it
into more of a smog, making it virtually impossible to see anything.

Brice raises his voice to try and get the soldiers
attention. “Listen up, stop firing your weapons, you are just wasting
ammunition. We have got to get into the elevator, and get the hell out of here.
That explosion was our trip wire, something set it off. On the double now, into
the elevator, hurry up; no stragglers.”

“Mike, are you in here?” Asked Jimmy.

“I am, and I can’t see jack shit. Alright, listen up. If you
can hear my voice, and you are not inside the elevator, you better move your ass;
we are closing the doors now.” Mike bellowed.

The soldier standing at the front of the car feels one more
man squeeze in as he is pushing the button. “You just made it buddy.”

As the doors close, the soldier screams out in pain as he
feels teeth rip into the flesh of his face.

Everyone has left the office, except the President, his
chief of staff and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The Chairman clears his
throat and stands up.

“Mr. President, if I may speak frankly Sir, you have to
reconsider this order. Do you want to go down in the history books as the first
sitting American President, hell the only World leader since Truman to use an
atomic weapon? On your own people, red-blooded American citizens; hell Mike
Balchor is inside the zone Sir, are you prepared to throw him away?” He looks
to the chief of staff. “Sid, you gotta talk some sense into him, this is
ludicrous.”

The chief of staff stands up. “Listen Stan, we have been
over every possible scenario, and bottom line is that it is his decision, and I
stand behind him right or wrong.”

The President waves his hands, dismissing his longtime
friend and chief of staff, and turns to face the Navy Admiral.

“Awe for Christ sake Stan, don’t lecture me about the use of
force. What am I supposed to do, let this outbreak spread? We thought Ebola and
SARs was bad, at least those only killed people; not turn them into flesh
eating, invincible zombies. General Balchor knew what he was getting himself
into, he understood the possible consequences. Unless you have a better plan,
and I mean right this minute, you can jump on the bandwagon and play ball, or
leave your resignation on my desk, the decision is up to you, either way
doesn’t matter to me. Now get the hell out of here, I have a Nation to address.

The screams quickly become gurgled, as the gnashing mouth
finds its way down to the neck of the soldier, and both bodies fall to the
floor. The arterial spray from the punctured jugular paints the walls, ceiling
and bodies of everyone in the elevator. Amy lets out a piercing scream and
drops to her knees, this is too much like the carnage in the bar, and she can’t
take it. Unfortunately her screams draw the attention of the creature, and her
fall places her on the same level. She does not even try to fight off the teeth
as they rip into her.  Mike draws his knife from its sheaf and drives the eight
inch blade into the ear of the zombie. Two soldiers follow his lead, and do the
same for their comrade and Amy.

The elevator dings, and the doors open onto a large lobby
with a steel door on the opposite wall. Mike wipes his knife blade on his
pants. “Let’s just get inside the shelter, without anyone else dying. Jimmy,
can you open the door please?”

Mike squats down in the lobby, cradling his head in his
hands, as Jimmy uses his security card and access code to disengage the lock on
the doors. Everyone files out of the hallway, into the shelter. Jimmy is about
to lock the door, then stops when he notices the elevator doors have closed,
after the soldiers have dragged out the three bodies.

“Mike, do you think we should call the elevator back down,
and lock it on this floor, you know, just to be safe?”

Mike nods his head in agreement. “Give the pass and code to
Captain Hellatoni. Captain, pick two men and stay here until the elevator comes
back down. Use the pass and code to lock it in place, and then hustle back
inside the shelter.”

“Yes Sir, General.”

“Mike, can I talk to you a minute?” Jimmy motions for Mike
to step in closer. “Mike, no offense, but there is a reason the Captain doesn’t
already have the code, he isn’t cleared. I will give him the pass to lock down
the elevator, but not the code. We can watch on the close circuit TV, and let
him in once the elevator is secure.” Jimmy says pointing to the cameras in the
corners of the lobby.

“You are probably right.” Mike agrees. “Captain, we are
going to follow protocol on this one. Once you secure the elevator, we will
open the doors from inside. You have nothing to worry about, the entire lower
level is a fall-out shelter, and behind the doors is just a secure bunker with
a command center and living quarters.”

Jimmy locks the door as Brice pushes the elevator call
button. The three men anxiously await the return of the elevator. They watch as
the lights above the door illuminate in reverse order, indicating the decent of
the car.

The radio in the cockpit of the LRS-B2 crackles to life,
breaking the silence. “Condor this is SAC, we have green light confirmation
from POTUS. Prepare to follow AFI-91-104 authentication for launch. Alpha,
Foxtrot, Zero, Niner, One, Two, code-word purple.”

“SAC, this is Condor, roger that, Alpha, Foxtrot, Zero,
Niner, One, Two, code-word purple. We have authentication, pilot and navigator
key fobs have been inserted, launch on your mark.”

“Condor this is SAC, launch in three, two, one, mark.”

“SAC this is Condor, package is away, impact in T-minus
three minutes. We are over and out.”

The aircraft begins a rapid accent banking to the right, and
will be at the
Kármán line in less than sixty seconds, in theory
out of harm’s way from the aftershock of a nuclear explosion. The expectation
being that the boundary of the thermosphere will buffer the shock wave and
rebound it back toward earth.

The audible ding sounds just as the doors begin to open.
Suddenly, the entire room starts to move; the shockwave from the explosion
travels down the elevator shaft and all of the men are knocked off of their
feet by the invisible column of force that escapes from the open doors of the
elevator. The sound of the explosion resonates throughout the lobby; the steel
door to the bunker vibrates in the doorframe.

Brice Hellatoni and the three soldiers are thrown against
the wall with such force that every bone in their arms, legs and torso is
shattered. Brice is the only one still alive, but probably not for long. His
lungs have been punctured by his ribs and his spine has lacerated his heart. All
of the smoke and smog from the other levels of the building has been dragged
down by the shockwave and now fills the lobby from the floor to the ceiling.
The only body moving is the one that was propelled out of the elevator, as the
doors opened, and collided with Brice.

In theory, a fallout bomb shelter will provide ample
protection from a nuclear ground burst impact. In simulated tests, two foot
reinforced concrete walls will provide ample barrier against a nuclear blast
after shock. In reality, a modern nuclear weapon has never been detonated.

Inside the fallout bunker, theories are out the window.
Everyone has been knocked off of their feet. Those closest to the walls now
have perforated eardrums from the sound waves. The three soldiers that were
leaning against the wall were launched across the room, each suffering numerous
fractures.

Jimmy picks himself up off the floor. “What the hell? I
thought this was supposed to be a bomb shelter? I feel like I just got blown
up.”

Mike is a bit slower getting off the floor, a trickle of
blood is running down his face from his ear. “Jimmy, we gotta check on Captain
Hellatoni and the men out in the lobby.”

“Cameras are out. We are going to have to open the door.”
Jimmy responds. “OhAy are you alright?” Jimmy says as he approaches and helps
her to her feet.

“Something tells me we are going to be down here a lot
longer than we planned.” She says as she stands up.

Mike makes a quick assessment of the room. All but three
soldiers are injured. The shelving units that were mounted against the walls
are now twisted and broken and the contents are scattered all around the room.
While taking in all the damage and carnage inside the room, a thought creeps
into his mind and his face goes pale. He quickly approaches Jimmy and OhAy.

“Judging by the looks of this place, I doubt anyone outside
these walls survived that blast. I am not so sure opening the door is going to
do anything but expose us to any radiation that has found its way into the
building.”

OhAy nods her head in agreement with Mike. “The General is
right, those men out there could not have survived, even if they did, we cannot
risk opening the door.”

Jimmy is flabbergasted. “Those men are out there because of
me, it was my idea to bring the elevator back, and it was my idea to seal the
door. We have to check and see if they are alright. I am sure that there are
some radiation suits in here somewhere, this is a fallout shelter.”

Just then, a voice booms out over the speakers of the room.
“This is Commander Comar, from Offutt Air Command. We have direct monitoring
capabilities for all level five and above bomb bunkers in the United States.
Once you engaged the airlock of the door, and a certified ground burst nuclear
event occurred, our monitoring channel became active and override protocol was
initiated.”

“Commander, this is General Michael Balchor. I am here with
Dr. Okayo Alphonsine Solaine, Mr. James Gaston and a small group of men. I need
to speak with the President.”

Jimmy interrupts. “We need to open this door; there are
three men outside in the elevator lobby…”

Commander Comar’s voice booms over the speakers again. “We
have been monitoring the entire lower level with infrared detectors. There is
nobody alive anywhere in the building, except inside the shelter. General, Sir,
I am sorry, but the President is preoccupied addressing the nation right now.
We are also taking remote control of the bunker, in the interest of keeping you
safe.” What the Commander didn’t share with Mike is that even though the
infrared isn’t picking anything up, the motion sensors are. Something is moving
outside the bunker.