The Lost Gods (2 page)

“What can you tel
l us about the situation in Turkey?” Casey asked. She never did get around to buying that cute pink pistol that her fiancée suggested she purchase after that incident with the stalker fan.

“Turkey,” he started in a low monotone voice, “is what we call a full loss region. It has been completely overrun, but, and this is an important point, we have created a strong perimeter in Greece and Bulgaria, and we have the bulk of ou
r auxiliary forces ready for deployment in Germany. These things will not make it out of Turkey, and I assure you that NATO has the full support of most of the remaining UN member nations.”

“Mr. Secretary, we now have reports about these — enemy combatants storming in and overrunning towns, cities, and possibly entire countries, as we've seen in Turkey. What can yo
u tell us about the world situation?”

Talbot remained silent for a moment. He looked down at a beige dossier. He squinted his dark eyes, clenched his jaw again, drew in a breath and then he r
elaxed his jaw just enough to speak.

“I don't want to caus
e too much alarm, but the situation is not good. We need all the support we can get, and the president has issued austerity measures. We all need to use as little as possible, since the war effort needs food, metal, and all the fuel and resources we can get to combat this new enemy.”

A line of text came across the screen with the local addresses and website for donations.

“So, you are confirming that America is now in a new war?”

“Yes. This can be seen as an extension to the global war on terror.”

“So, these are enemies are to be considered as terrorists.”

“The distinction is unimportant. What is important is that citizens abide by these austerity measures that allow us to operate effectively.”

“Certainly, sir. We all understand the need for austerity in times of turmoil, but what specifically is happening in those regions.”

“Some information is classified, but I can tell you that the Middle East
, which we define as the Mesopotamian region, is the source of this new enemy.”

“Are you telling us that these enemies, as you are calling them, are Middle Eastern?”

“No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that the earliest reports of violence and this massive mob of violent hominids came from the area around Baghdad.”

“You used the term hominid. Are you implying that these are not humans?”

“There is no definitive evidence at this point as to who or what this enemy is, and evidence is especially difficult to come by due to the violent nature of this enemy. They respond to no known language, nor to any incentives. Only a few have been successfully captured, and they are — unique, to say the least. They exhibit no fear or fatigue. They can take heavy punishment and keep coming. Small arms fire is nearly useless on the larger groups. Explosives have little to no effect either. That means that they are extremely hard to combat in large numbers, and they appear to have an endless supply of fresh bodies to substitute for their fallen comrades. Not to mention this war is fought primarily in urban areas that were caught unprepared. Most of these governments did not have time to evacuate their people, so every building and every street might have civilians in them. Combating these things is difficult when there are no civilians around, but it is nearly impossible when hundreds and thousands of civilians are running for their lives. So far, the only advantage we have in this war is that these enemies have trouble negotiating difficult terrain and obstructions.”

“I understand,” said Casey. “How can that weakness be used to our advantage?”

Talbot's left eye twitched. He ground his teeth.

“Through the use of barricades and some of the a
lready-destroyed urban landscape,” he said, “we can prevent them using certain routes, at least for a time. Think of it as corralling the enemy.”

“I see,” said Casey. “Our correspondent Mehmet, in Istanbul, said that a countless number of these enemies had overrun the city. Do you have any satellite images that could give you a relative estimate as to how many of them there are?”

“Unfortunately, no. Our satellites are designed to give precision information on the positions of soldiers, vehicles, and stationary targets. There are so many of these combatants that we have no means with which to count them. If I had to guess, I would say in the hundreds of millions.”

“Since Turkey has fallen, and a perimeter doesn't seem like a permanent solution, if you'll pardon my cri
ticism, what other avenues is NATO taking to approach this menace?”

“I understand the concern; we are all concerned over the fate of billions of vulnerable people. This is truly a worldwide problem, even though there are no reports of this enemy in the western hemisphere, or in Australia, or South East Asia. We all have to work together and forget our past grievances. That being said, yes, there is concern over the perimeter, and we are launching daily bombing runs and drone strikes in cities and areas that have already experienced a 60% or greater loss of co
ntrol.”

Her eyebrows rose at his final sentence. She felt like David Frost when he trapped Nixon into admitting his transgressions. The feeling passed a second later when it dawned on her that she and all of her audience would be too dead to care about any awards she might get in the wake of such a telling interview.

“Am I to understand that NATO is conducting bombing raids on areas that may still have survivors?”

“It is an unpopular decision,” his tone remained pr
ofessional, but Talbot's eyes told a different tale, “but due to the gravity of this conflict it is a decision that has been made for the greater good. There will be collateral damage in these bombing runs, but the loss of life would be much higher in an area that falls to the enemy. The survival rate for an overrun region is close to zero, as far as we know.”

“So,” Casey said and she cocked her head to the right, “everyone that didn't get out of Turkey is dead or d
ying?”

“Presumed dead.”

“What other countries have been overrun?”

“The current reports have the following countries at an 80-100% loss: Turkey
, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan,” Talbot paused to cough, “Syria, Jordan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Saudi Arabia. The other Middle Eastern and North African countries are between 20-80% loss, and until we have some major success, they are predicted to fall into enemy control.”

“You're saying that the entire Middle East and all of North Africa is overrun? Or will be overrun?”

“Yes,” he exhaled slowly, looked up, and took in a deep, slow breath. Talbot removed his ear monitor and continued, “I'm not supposed to say anything more, but, frankly, we don't have the resources to fight this battle everywhere. It's a war with no clear fronts.”

He paused for another moment. Someone off camera said something to him.

“Don't you fucking tell me not to go off book,” said Talbot to the man off screen.

“Listen here, you jumped-up little worm, I was sen
ding cruise missiles up Saddam's ass when you were still sucking tits. You don't tell me what to do. These people have a right to know. Everyone is going to be in the shit soon enough, so get your line-toeing bullshit out of my fucking face.”

He tossed some papers at the man and remained standing. His hands were at his sides, curled into fists. Talbot stayed like that for a long while. Casey remained quiet and waited. Talbot sat down and put in his ear monitor.

“Listen, ma'am, these things are showing up everywhere. I'm tired of calling them the goddamn enemy, or hominids, or whatever. They are reanimated humans and we are having a hell of a time with them. It's not going our way. It's not like a standard enemy. We can't reason with them, and we can't outflank them or cut off their supply lines. We can't scare or intimidate them. North Africa and Western Asia are gone. The Russian government hasn't been helpful, so we've given up trying to prevent the dead from moving north through the Turkish mountains. We’ve been fighting backwards the whole time. As soon as we get to a new location, we are calling for a tactical retreat that same day. The amount of NATO support that we can use to fight in foreign lands is minimal. Some countries, in their infinite wisdom, are using this war as a chance to settle the score with their neighbors. There are Central African nations invading each other, Central Asia is a Mongolian clusterfuck, and there hasn't been a single report of a reanimate. We are limited in what we can do to help those nations. We can do a few bombing runs and some shock and awe, but these things don't respond to any of that. Their casualties have been minimal compared to their numbers. We will run out of bombs before they run out of bodies, unless we go nuclear, but once we open that door there's no closing it. Then we've got potential nuclear winter along with wholesale destruction and radiation poisoning. We also don't know how effective that kind of bomb would be against what is basically an animated corpse. They don't respond normally to our conventional bombs, so we are unsure if they'll respond to a nuclear one. And a nuke is not something you use unless it is going to fucking work. Ma'am, these things are resilient, and they have an endless supply of bodies to throw at our tired soldiers. If we're going to win, then we are going to win in Europe.”

Talbot exhaled a sigh of relief. His career was over, but he looked rejuvenated at the end of his rant.

“I don't really know how to respond to that. Are you telling me that the NATO strategy is to allow Asia and Africa to fall in hopes that they'll be able to make a stronger stand in Europe?”

“It's not so much a matter of allowing it to fall, as a matter of we couldn't save it even if we tried. This isn't some rebellion. This is t
otal war, and it's against a supernatural enemy. Worse yet, we are losing hopelessly. Our big chance in this theater is to hit them with all we've got in the Balkans and hold them off in Spain once they try to cross from Morocco.”

“What about Italy?”

“These things don't swim well. They sink right to the bottom once they walk into the water.”

“Mehmet, our correspondent in Turkey, said som
ething about Cyprus being attacked. How else could Cyprus be attacked unless these things could swim?”

“I have no reports of that. There's no threat to people on islands, unless someone decides to put a bunch of these things on a boat.”

“Sir, you’ve used the terms reanimate, corpse, and supernatural are we dealing with some kind of — well, I guess the word I’m looking for is zombie?”

“Ma’am, no one knows at this point. I’ve given you the confirmed facts, and the rest is just my take on what’s happening. Fr
om what I’ve seen, and the bulletins I’ve read, this whole catastrophe appears to be something out of a horror story. I’m at a loss for words.”

“One more question, sir.”

“Shoot.”

“This may be a stupid question, but I have to ask, does coming
into contact, or being bitten, by these things turn the victim into one of them?”

“No, not so far as we know.”

“Thank you for your time and your honesty, sir. Is there anything else you'd like to tell our audience?”

“Buy a gun and some canned food, and donate to the NATO War Fund. You can go to your local post office or VFW hall to contribute. If you’ve got the guts, find a r
ecruiter. Due to the severity of this problem we are reinstating the draft and we will also take any able-bodied person between the ages of eighteen and forty-five.”

Talbot stood up
. The feed switched from split screen back to a close-up on Casey. It was time for her final speech. She drew in a deep breath and set her hands, palms down, on the massive desk.

“The world is in peril, and humanity stands on the precipice. Will we fight together and defeat this new e
nemy, or will past grievances prevent nations from fighting a seemingly unstoppable menace? It seems that these are the walking dead, or reanimates as Secretary of Defense Talbot called them. Our fellow humans are fighting for their lives abroad, and they need our help. We must reduce, reuse, donate, and volunteer wherever and whenever we can. The free world has defeated great adversaries before, so don't lose hope. We will face this great enemy together. Here are list of places you can donate, and if you are ready, willing, and able, come see your local recruiter about how you can serve not just America, but the world. This is Casey Schneider, and you're watching
A World in Crisis
on CFC World News. Local news is next.”

The light on the camera dimme
d, and the crew descended into panic. They whipped out their phones out and called loved ones. SMS messages and calls flooded the phone networks in the minutes that followed the broadcast. Millions of tweets with the hashtags #weareallgoingtodie, #omfgwerescrewed shot through the Internet like Gatling-gun bursts. People uploaded reaction videos, podcasted, and blogged their opinions and predictions about the cause, solution, and potential outcome of the sudden and savage war. Conspiracy theorists flooded social media with unfounded claims about black flag operations and Zionist power grabs.

The president declared m
artial law two months after Casey’s final broadcast. Millions of reanimates emerged out of the sea onto East Coast beaches like a nightmare version of the invasion of Normandy. An ex-colleague of Casey’s sent her a text upon their arrival in Myrtle Beach. It read:
they’re here
. Casey dropped her phone on her kitchen floor. She opened her cupboard, grabbed a fifth of vodka, and headed for her bathroom. She picked up the small tan bottle of sleeping pills she kept next to her vanity and went into her backyard. With a stomach full of pills and high-end vodka, she floated in her pool until she passed out and drowned.