Trout stared at him. “Wait a goddamn minute … Wade Davis? Tetrodotoxin? Jesus Christ, Doc, you’re talking about fucking zombies. ”
A cold tear broke from the corner of Dr. Volker’s eye. “Yes,” he said in a hollow voice. “God help me, but yes … I am talking about zombies. ”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
STEBBINS COUNTY LINE
Lieutenant Colonel Macklin Dietrich turned to his aides. “Give me a minute. ”
The two junior officers saluted and stepped outside to stand in the rain. When the door was closed, Dietrich tapped his headset.
“I’m clear, sir,” he said.
Major General Simeon Zetter sounded tired. “I was just on the horn to the president, Mack. This is bad and they’re looking to us to keep it from turning into a complete clusterfuck. ”
“Seems to me this was a clusterfuck from the jump. ”
Zetter and Dietrich were old friends who had served together through three wars and had transferred from regular army to the Guard as career moves, taking the promotions and taking to heart their orders to bring the Pennsylvania Guard up to a level of combat readiness second to none. They’d done that, despite having equipment that was mostly post-Iraq hand-me-down crap. The whole line of two-and-a-half-ton troop trucks was ancient, and there was not one of their gunships that would pass a civilian flight safety inspection. The troops were top notch though, and they would need these men to be sharp as knives for what they were about to face. Not just physically tough but emotionally and psychologically tough.
“My teams are in position,” said Dietrich.
“You’re going to need to keep a tight hand on them, Mack. ”
Dietrich looked through the streaked windshield as sergeants handed white hazmat suits out of the back of a pair of trucks. Other NCOs walked among the soldiers, overseeing the process of transforming a thousand men in camouflaged BDUs into the cast of a big-budget science fiction movie. Hazmat suits looked scary enough at the best of times; but when the wearer is slinging an M16 and has fragmentation grenades jiggling on his belts, it became dangerously surreal.
“They’re professional soldiers,” said Dietrich, “they’ll do their part. ”
“Don’t bullshit a bullshitter. This isn’t their ‘part. ’ None of them signed on for something like this. ”
“Well, hell, Simeon … neither did we. ”
Zetter snorted. “And, you’ll love this … the governor wants our assurance that we can guarantee a secure perimeter around Stebbins County. ”
“With a thousand troops?” laughed Dietrich. “During a hurricane?”
“I told him that. He authorized me to pull as many men as I needed away from flood control. ”
Dietrich was silent for a moment. “That’ll mean married men, too. ”
“I know. ”
“The press is watching this storm, Simeon. They’ll want to know why. ”
“I told the governor that. His people are preparing a story and a statement. Viral outbreak of a type and source unknown. It’s a stalling tactic until they build a prettier pile of bullshit. ”
Dietrich grunted sourly.
Zetter said, “And, Mack … the governor’s going to pull the state police out and turn the county completely over to us. That order is being cut right now. ”
“We could use the extra boots on the ground—”
“Not for this,” said Zetter tiredly. “A lot of these troopers are local boys. They know the people here. ”
“Ah,” said Dietrich. He kept watching the process of transformation that was making spacemen of all of his troops. “So, how do they want us to play this? Containment is problematic under these circumstances and—”
“Mack,” said Zetter, and there was a note of deep sadness in his tone, “we’ve been authorized to go weapons hot. The Q-zone is a no-cross line. No exceptions. ”
Mack Dietrich closed his eyes. He knew that this had been a possibility, but it was still absurd on American soil. Obscene.