Surviving the Apocalypse

Outbreak

Hanna made sure on the final night, that she and Crystal went back to that same spot on top of the mine, hiking the entire way up the backside despite it being a 5 mile stretch. The government had even given her the deed to the sections of the grassland where she was occupying, the beef and sheep able to graze on it thanks to their ability to secure the fencing 3 weeks before the Outbreak. They looked over the Camp, the tents and buildings enough to house 12,000 people without anyone stepping into the bunker. Crystal had selected a room right next to Hanna’s inside the bunker, as she personally liked the holographic wall that they installed in it for those who chose to reside inside. Few of them did, the main Camp where everyone resided and worked was 500 acres surrounded by a fence that was 40 feet tall, 10 feet thick and had weapon mounts placed in strategic places that would very shortly house Gatling guns with integrally suppressed chambers to reduce the noise they produced. They wouldn’t be shown until the outbreak was confirmed and the state of emergency declared with their location on the local evacuation sites.

“It won’t be the same next week, will it?” Crystal asked as Hanna poured the wine they found they both liked. They had ordered 30 cases of it, reserved for their date nights.

“No, next week most of the city will be dark, and the only noises will be the guns going off and the zombies screaming.” Hanna said as Crystal nodded.

“I saw what you meant when you said you would know who was going to change before they did. They already look like the walking dead, just not attacking anyone yet.” Crystal said remembering the looks on the faces of those clearly sick.

“It will start slowly in the morning as the city comes to life. At first it will be just a few incidents, people going to work and turning, killing their coworkers or getting blasted after attacking one or two. The three people who got sick here and are in medical, they are being given the only hope we have at a treatment, hoping beyond hope we will learn something from what happens to them. By tomorrow afternoon, the Governor and President will declare states of emergency within minutes of each other. The police will call in the national guard and army, trying and failing to contain the outbreak. Just as the sun sets tomorrow, the piles in the morgue and crematoriums will come back to life, and the apocalypse will begin.” Hanna said as she remembered it from every timeline she had already been a part of. Despite the last two being secure in the Camp, she knew what was happening out there from her own experience and from the news feeds.

“Is there anything we can do?” Crystal asked her.

“We are going to done everything we can. Anyone who comes here will be screened and let in. We will be telling them the facts from the start, that this will not end quickly. But we also won’t tolerate free loaders that expect to survive on the sympathy of others. We will throw out anyone who refuses to contribute to the Camp.” Hanna told her bluntly to which Crystal agreed.

“It might be cruel, but we will only have to do it a few times.” Crystal said as Hanna laughed.

“I don’t expect more than they are capable of doing. If they can only work a few hours a day, they are doing something to help us help them. If they won’t help us, we can’t help them.”

“We have a good idea of what assignments will be needed tomorrow. Do we want to just assign people to them, or should we give them a choice?” Crystal asked.

“They will always have a choice, so if they want to do a specific task, let them. It is easier than fighting them to do something else, and they generally enjoy what they do more. But I have a few positions of my own to add, especially once everything else happens as well.” Hanna said as she noticed the full wine glass in her hand disappear.

Crystal went to take a drink and couldn’t find it anywhere. “What did you do with it?” she asked looking at Hanna.

“Not me, you. I forgot to mention you have a storage space ability just like mine. Close your eyes, concentrate on the wine glass, can you see it?” Hanna asked her.

“Yes, it’s in what looks like a large box. Probably 6 cubic yards total.” Crystal said.

“Excellent, in your mind take the wine glass with your hand, and open your eyes.”

When Crystal opened her eyes she saw the wine glass sitting there, and could now sense the space was there. She took the picnic basket, surprised that as soon as she thought it, it disappeared from the blanket and appeared in her space. “Holy s**t!” she exclaimed with a smile as she brought it back out exactly where it had been. “Oh I am going to be able to prank so many people.” She exclaimed making Hanna laugh.

“Careful, a lot of people here are going to have powers, some of them with infinitely better pranking ability than our storage space.” Hanna warned her.

“What kind of abilities?” Crystal asked looking at the Camp spread out below them.

“Speed, strength, the elementals are always cool. Wind is fun to mess with people. Magnetism, and even rarer ones. I haven’t seen them all, but I promise that we will be the most advanced ability users in the world.” Hanna said with a smile as she had a serious plan this time.

The next morning the news began exactly as she had predicted it would as more people arrived to offices. Unsuspecting executives walked into offices filled with the zombies who had arrived earlier that morning. Police wasting bullets shooting them in the chest, the zombies screaming incoherent. As it began, her phone rang and she looked at it.

“Storm.” She said answering.

“What do we do?” the voice on the other end asked.

“Pray sir.” Hanna answered knowing he was across the nation and wouldn’t make it to his plan.

“Very well General Storm, I am activating firestorm. May God bless you.” The President said hanging up as the emergency alert from the governor went out.

‘State of emergency is being declared for the entire state. All evacuation centers are being activated as we speak. If you cannot safely make it to a local evacuation center, please remain in your homes.’ The message repeated several times before the Presidential one overrode it.

“My fellow Americans, a National State of Emergency is being declared. All military units are being called upon to initiate emergency procedures in accordance with local governments and agencies. Any member that receives orders is expected to follow them to the letter. This is a dark day in human history, but we will prevail as we always have. Pay for us my fellow Americans, we are going to need it.” He said as the news slowly spread that the only way to drop the crazed ones as they were being called right now was to shoot them in the head.

Hanna’s phone buzzed with an email.

Project Firestorm activated. You are hereby ordered to survive this emergency at any cost. You are her y ordered to restore Command to the American Army and ensure human civilization survives. Good luck and may God have mercy on our souls.

Hanna snorted as the first of the people found that her mine was the nearest evacuation center to them. The first arrivals were fortunate, as the lines were short. She deployed their guard teams, all of them armed with guns and patrolling the walls. Their orders were clear, anyone apparently sick was to be eliminated with extreme prejudice. They were to ensure that they were aiming for the head, to ensure that the targets were neutralized. The entire Camp came to life when she informed them it had begun, all of them seeing the broadcasts that this wasn’t a dream.

“Are you going to be called up?” Crystal asked as she stood next to Hanna.

“What makes you think I haven’t been?” Hanna asked looking at her.

“How long until you report?” she asked fearful of what was going to happen to Hanna.

“About 20 minutes ago. My duty assignment is right here, so let’s make sure we don’t let any infected get through our walls.” Hanna said making her eyes go wide.

Over the course of the first day they quarantined 25 people while letting over 200 in, 10 of them being shot as soon as they entered range of the guards standing on the walls. Hanna was commanding the guards up here when she saw a dozen troop transports pull up in front of her walls.

“Is this the Hope Mine?” one of the asked bluntly over a loud speaker.

Hanna grabbed one back. “Affirmative soldier, what are your orders?” she asked using a bullhorn of her own.

“Report to General Hanna Storm of Hope Mine.”

“We will have to open the gates, 3 of you will be able to enter at a time. All personnel are required to undergo medical screening before entering the Mine proper. Security precautions considering the current environment.” Hanna informed him noticing there was 9 trucks worth of personnel waiting to enter.

An hour later General Hellen Montgomery entered her command bunker, saluting with a grin on her face. “I must say, my brother sure did come through in a pinch. You are far more prepared for this than I ever imagined.” She said as Hanna returned the salute.

“What the hell is happening General? I wasn’t aware on anyone being assigned to me, especially not 300 personnel.” Hanna asked her former teacher.

“My orders as issued by President Kyle Montgomery.” Hellen said handing her the orders placing her and the Company accompanying her under the command of the General of the Army, Hanna Storm.

“Your brother is the President? Isn’t that freaking nice.” Hanna said shaking her head.

“Well, if your warning meant anything near what I think it did, he won’t be President much longer. In fact, anything that survives is going to be fragmented and difficult to control. He did say you would know what to do with this.” Hellen said placing the briefcase on the table before she pulled out a handcuff key and removed it from her wrist.

“Yes I do, for now we are going to lock down the entire arsenal. No use whatsoever.” Hanna said.

“Yes ma’am, but you have to unlock it first. Firestorm protocol means you are in command of whatever survives once they activate emergency communication protocols.” Hellen said showing her the massive biometric scanner that would read her palm and her retina as well as make her input an 8 digit pin she had on her personnel card already. He hated this was necessary, but she knew the other option was to leave people like Paxton in regional control with who knows what kind of motives.

As soon as it verified her, she added Montgomery to it as her executive officer, the alert going out that Firestorm had been activated and implemented should contact with Command be severed at any time. Martial law was declared that night, the reports coming in officially this time as Hanna truly understood the pressure they had been under when darkness fell. Once the thousands of corpses in the refers started escaping, there were so many that they couldn’t overpower them with traditional tactics.

“What are we going to do?” Montgomery asked Hanna.

“For now Command is still operational, our orders are to survive. We allow the non infected in, and hold the line for what happens next.” She said as the General saw line after line falling. It didn’t take long for her to realize what would happen, as even though Command had fallen silent an hour earlier, none of the local Commanders were activating the protocol yet.

“There isn’t anything we really can do, is there?” Hellen asked as they watched everything go from bad to worse in the course of a single night.

“Where the military is concerned, no. Not until they actually activate Wildfire locally. Even if we took command, we can’t house them all here as much as I would like to. What do we tell them other than good luck?” Hanna asked her.

“The closer they are the better off they would…” she trailed off as Hanna shook her head.

“That many people would attract the horde, and than we have that many more zombies against our walls. We never meant to take in evacuees this early, so we are nearing capacity until things stabilize and we can safely begin securing land against the zombies. But that is going to take at least 2 weeks where they would be on our door with no real protection to speak of. Better to let their command deal with them, if they survive, great. If not, there isn’t anything more we can do than what we are.”

Hellen Montgomery stood there on the walls watching with her, every time one of the zombies came close it was shot in the head. When there were few people arriving for shelter, they went out and collected the corpses with trucks while the engineering team installed the Gatling guns that were connected to the automated system controlled by her AI system. “Here I thought you needed the lesson in sacrifice and grief, yet here you are giving me the harsh lessons of sacrifice in numbers I can’t imagine.”

Hanna looked at her. “In this valley there were 24 million people at the beginning of the outbreak. Within 72 hours, 92 percent of them will be dead or zombies. That leaves a little less than 2 million survivors within 3 days of this morning in this valley. Only 5 percent will end up within a Camp which leaves 100,000 that have a hope of surviving a full year. Most of them won’t, as only 1 in 3 Camps will survive that full year. So if you want to imagine it, 99 percent of the global population will be dead or zombies within a year of today. Most Commands will fall without ever activating Wildfire.”

The two women watched as another swarm of people arrived for processing, 5 of them turning before they could even be quarantined, the resulting kills so public the people were scared as they stood there.

“Everyone, relax. The guards here will not indiscriminately eliminate anyone because they feel they can. This virus will be transmitted by even a single scratch from the infected that show clear signs before they turn on others. If you have been scratched or bitten, please report to the quarantine line. We do have treatments we are attempting, however this outbreak has never been encountered before. Remain calm and we will rescue every person we can.” Hanna said through the bullhorn as the people separate themselves if they had been scratched or bitten , even if it was by normal occurrences.

When darkness fell that night and dinner was being served, Crystal informed Hanna initial intake so far was just over 9,200 people. She was shocked as they never had that many people in Camp, but 327 of them had refused to volunteer for an assignment or take one before they were forced out of the processing area with a warning. Hanna nodded as she had heard limited whispers of people waiting for it to calm down before they left. Hanna went to the front where they had a small podium set up, and turned the system on to get there attention.

“Welcome everyone to Camp Hope. I am the Commanding Officer of this Camp, Brigadier General Hanna Storm. Before I begin the report of the current status, I believe it is my responsibility to quash some dangerous rumors that are spreading. This outbreak has been confirmed in nearly every major city on the planet as of an hour ago. There is literally no where that is safe or unaffected by this virus that is turning our people into zombies. 10 minutes ago reports of previously deceased corpses in the morgues and awaiting processing at the crematorium have also risen and began attacking the living. Three hours ago, contact with the military command and control was lost. What is happening here, is not going to settle down. Those of you who leave, will perish when these zombies find and attack you. All across the city as we speak, military units are being pushed back as they try and give evacuation centers like the 4 that have already been overrun, time to save as many people as is possible.” Hanna said as the shocked silence spread across the dining hall. The images being displayed on the projector showing them what was happening out in the world as they were there in relative safety.

“It has been brought to my attention that some are refusing work assignments, believing we must allow you entry as we are a certified emergency evacuation point. You are correct, we are required to accept everyone in an emergency for 72 hours. Once that time is up, if you refuse to follow the rules of the Camp, you can and will be removed. One of those rules, is we help those who help us help them. In practice, we expect every person to contribute in some way to the welfare and safety of this Camp. That is why many of you volunteered for specific duties, or were given tasks based on your skills and abilities. Your contribution will help us as a Camp, help others. I for one, cannot grow plants to save my life. Nor do I know how to construct buildings or raise cattle. Others here do know those things, so I will use my expertise in Strategy and Tactics as well as my Command experience to provide security for everyone here and safely scavenge what we need from beyond our walls when the time comes. So, for those without a job, keep that fact in mind. If you have not accepted an assignment within those 72 hours, you will be removed.

“You might as well consider this Camp home for the foreseeable future. This will not end quickly, nor will the military be coming to rescue us. Who survives and how we do it will be entirely upon us, and those locally who manage to survive in other Camps like this. You will not be returning to your homes with any sort of safety any time soon.” Hanna said to them before the murmurs started as the different screens began showing different news feeds from across the city and the globe. The impact on the people far greater than expected as they realized she had just given them a large dose of reality.