The Glooming (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 1) (27 page)

“Everybody here?” the president said after glancing in Paul’s direction. “Let’s get this thing underway.”

“Very well, Mr. President,” Admiral Charles Zimmerman, the commanding officer of NORTHCOM said. “We’ll start with Major Cochran from INSCOM. He will update us on the current sitrep.”

An Army officer who had been sitting beside Paul instantly stood up and walked to the front of the video monitor, as he too carried a stack of reports.

Paul whispered into Captain Niven’s ear. “What’s INSCOM mean?”

“US Army Intelligence and Security Command,” she said to him in a very low voice.

Major Cochran cleared his throat as he stood in front of them. “Mr. President, our situation is currently precarious. I’ll start with our borders: Canada is essentially snowed under by the strange weather phenomena that has engulfed Northern Europe. It’s like an ice age up in the north just a few hundred miles away from us.”

The president lightly tapped the table and turned to his left. “John, how are we with accommodating the Canadian government?”

John Smalley, the president’s Chief of Staff, coughed before answering. “At present, Prime Minister Archer, his family and his staff, are currently staying at the Greenbrier. We are in the process of renovating it since it was turned into a museum. That was after we abandoned it when the press found out that it had a government bunker back in the Sixties, but it will take months for obvious reasons. They aren’t complaining at this point.”

“Just as well,” the president said. “Most of his country is in a snowstorm and the ones who could get down here know it isn’t any better. What about the rest of Congress?”

“Most of Congress, their families, and staff are at the underground bunker in Raven Rock Mountain Complex,” the Speaker of the House said. “There’s a few senators and congressmen who don’t want to leave Washington DC, so to hell with ‘em. I’ll be heading over to Mount Weather as soon as we’ve finished here and coordinate with you once you get to NORAD. With three separate locations, continuity of government will be maintained.”

“We’re not even sure if we can maintain landline communications that far away,” John Smalley said before turning to look at Major Cochran. “What is the sitrep in regards to our communications?”

“I’m afraid it’s not good, sir,” Major Cochran said. “We have no contact with our orbital satellites, and the floods and adverse weather have severely damaged our telecommunications infrastructure. Even our FM radios aren’t reliable due to unknown interference. The only way we can get communications through some of our agencies and bases is through direct courier.”

The president shook his head in frustration. “Goddamn it, what is the situation with our nuclear silos?”

“We only have a few hundred nuclear warheads in fixed silos when this whole war began, sir,” Major Cochran said. “With the exception of the base in Kings Bay, Georgia, we are still in contact with the others, sir. The silos in Bangor, Malmstrom, and Minot are inoperable due to the snowstorm, sir.”

“What’s the situation in Georgia?” the president said.

“Mostly it’s the weather, sir,” Major Cochran said. “We can’t get any constant lines of communication so we sent some military units down there. We’re still waiting for updates. NORTHCOM has given orders to evacuate most of the military bases in the affected areas of the South, but the going is slow.”

“Goddamn it,” the president said as he turned to look at Admiral Zimmerman. “Make that your first priority. We’ve got to make sure all our nukes are under control.”

“I’ve already given out the orders to maintain communications with all SAC bases at all cost, Mr. President,” Admiral Zimmerman said. “Just give me a few days.”

The president just nodded. There wasn’t much point in getting angry since he knew that everybody was trying their best. “What about Mexico and our southern border with them?”

“General Montelo was sent in with US Army South to establish a buffer zone in northern Mexico. We lost contact with them two days ago and the massive rainstorms in that area now seem to be right up near our borders as of today,” Admiral Zimmerman said.

“Jesus Christ,” the Secretary of Defense said. “So we’ve lost an entire army corps now?”

“What are the estimated casualties for our entire military so far?” the president said.

Major Cochran took a quick look at his notes before answering. “We can’t get a definitive number at this point, sir. But if we are to assume that our overseas forces that have been cut off as ineffective or labeled as MIA, then I would say about close to around five hundred thousand total, and that includes casualties within the continental United States, sir.”

Admiral Zimmerman looked away. The other generals and admirals of the Joint Chiefs began to murmur. The losses to the US military was catastrophic and a historic first.

The president raised his hand and signaled everyone to quiet down. “Okay, we can talk about this among ourselves later. Anything else we have on the border, Major?”

Major Cochran bit his lip before responding. “Governor Bishop of Texas is at the border and he’s personally commanding our units down there, in direct contravention of our Federal chain of command. He has also managed to convince the governors of New Mexico, Arizona and California to start marshalling their own National Guard units and commit them to their own respective southern borders with Mexico. There’s been talk of those states openly seceding from the union.”

The murmurings among the senior officers began again while the president just shook his head in total disbelief.

“Who’s in command of the Texas National Guard down there?” the Defense Secretary said.

“Major General Len Williams,” Admiral Zimmerman said. “He’s been telling his men not to obey the governor’s orders until he gets approval from NORTHCOM and the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. His men have low morale and there’s plenty of confused messages coming in from both sides.”

“Tell him to take orders only from us and to disregard any directives from the governor, is that clear?” the president said. “Same goes for all Guard units and reserve forces we have in those states. Under no circumstances are any of the commanders of those units to obey orders from any of the governors until NORTHCOM’s say so. I want to place all military units in the country under federal service as of now.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” Admiral Zimmerman said tersely.

“What about the coastline?” the Secretary of Defense said.

“Most of our naval assets in the continental United States are in their respective ports, with the exception of the Theodore Roosevelt carrier group that’s in the southern edge of the Celtic Sea. They are overseeing the evacuation of our forces from Europe, but they will withdraw tomorrow due to sightings of ghost ships that have been approaching them. The Nimitz battlegroup is withdrawing from the Sea of Japan because of sightings of sea creatures in the area and is heading back to the Pacific coast. Most of our submarines have returned to base, but we have lost contact with about eleven of them while they were at sea, nine attack subs and two Ohio-class ballistic missile boats. As you well know, we have not deployed any new naval task forces due to the fact that we lost two aircraft carriers for as of yet unexplained reasons,” Major Cochran said.

“What are the rumors about what happened to the Reagan and Bush carrier groups?” the president said.

“It’s all unconfirmed, but a mile-high tidal wave formed in the mid-Atlantic right where the George HW Bush task force was and pretty much capsized most of the ships in that fleet,” Admiral Zimmerman said. “We still don’t know what happened to the USS Ronald Reagan though some of the survivors of that carrier group are claiming they were attacked by a gigantic sea serpent in the Pacific near the Korean coast. I just can’t believe those reports.”

The Secretary of Defense pounded his fist on the table. “Those were our two newest carriers too!”

“There have been numerous unconfirmed sightings of gigantic sea creatures and other strange phenomena on all major oceans,” Major Cochran said. “Not to mention sightings of antique ships manned by creatures that the British encountered in London just before all communications with them was lost. The UK government in exile is currently at their embassy in Washington DC, though they are only a skeleton crew since their prime minister and most of his cabinet ware holed up somewhere in Falsane. That was when we last heard from them two days ago.”

“What’s the status of the evacuation of all US forces overseas?” the president said. It was a recognized fact now that the whole world knew that the United States was withdrawing all of its military forces back to North America.

“Very slow,” Admiral Zimmerman said. “We’ve been concentrating on getting the troops back first and the heavy equipment in later. We can’t airlift them out in large numbers due to the fact that we keep losing a huge amount of aircraft every single day. Those monster birds that brought down Air Force One have extended their range out to the coasts, and every single military aircraft now has orders to avoid and evade those things at all cost. Our air transports are vulnerable as hell. All we can do is get our troops on ships, but like the previous report said, our boats are getting sunk as well, so we’re withdrawing them too. If you want to commit more carrier groups out to sea, I would advise against it at this time until we know what exactly it is that we’re dealing with.”

“So you’re saying our troops overseas are trapped until further notice?” the president said.

“I’m afraid so, Mr. President,” Admiral Zimmerman said.

“Goddammit,” the president said. “What’s the situation in the Middle East?”

“No change, sir,” Major Cochran said. “Most of Iraq is pretty much lost. The Saudis are begging for aid. We have reports that the Iranian government is facing both an internal revolt from its own people as well as the unknown, external threat coming from Iraq. Turkey has lost most of its southern border. They are urgently requesting assistance from all NATO members but it looks like we will lose them too. Israel has approached us about the possibility to help evacuate their citizens, but we do not have any available assets to even consider that. Our troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been cut off, and we have not heard from our commanders there in days. Something is happening in Egypt as well that may be similar to the situation in Iraq, but since worldwide communications are down, we are only getting in second-hand information, most of it unconfirmed rumors. Needless to say, we’ve lost contact with most of our embassies overseas. The ones that we are in contact with have been ordered to evacuate immediately.”

A four-star Marine general of the Joint Chiefs raised his hand. “Going back to NORTHCOM for a minute here, are there situations in any of the other states that require urgent attention?”

“New York City is becoming an acute problem, sir,” Major Cochran said. “The mayor and the governor have begun the evacuation of Manhattan Island. They’re saying that some sort of killer cult has taken over that part of the city, but so far it’s unconfirmed. Most of our northern states bordering Canada have been hit by massive snowstorms and blizzards, cutting off most the people and our bases there. The Canadian refugees trying to head south have compounded the problem. The other states in the Midwest are in some form of anarchy as quite a lot of people are demanding food and water supplies. Most of the country’s electrical grid has been destroyed, and a number of anti-government militia groups have sprung up all over the place. With Hoover Dam gone, there was a chain reaction and almost every town that was along the Colorado River has been flooded over. California and the West Coast are largely cut off west of the Rocky Mountains. Provo River has also been flooded due to massive rainstorms sweeping that part of Utah. Las Vegas has no power or water and we are getting reports of large scale rioting and starvation over there. Also, we are receiving reports of large scale desertion from police and emergency services from all states. Military desertions are at an all-time high as well. The calling up of all military reserves has been met by numerous delays because of this as well as the near complete destruction of our national transportation and telecommunications infrastructure.”

A number of sighs and groans emanated from the people sitting by the table. Everyone realized it, but nobody wanted to admit it. The United States was slowly being torn apart.

Major Cochran continued. “Due to communications being down, and the withdrawal of our naval assets, EUCOM and AFRICOM have been cut off from our chain of command because they are based in Germany. Most of our troops over there have not reported in. The few survivors that we evacuated and debriefed have told us of some sort of ghosts and monsters running rampant in the major cities as well as heavy fog that is obscuring long range visibility. We are trying to consolidate the remaining Combatant Commands into NORTHCOM here in Virginia, but it will take time.”

“How secure are we here in Virginia right now?” the president said as everyone quieted down again.

“US Army North is still in the process of reorganizing and reforming. It will take another few weeks, Mr. President,” Major Cochran said. “There are numerous problems of getting the National Guard and Army Reserve units to full strength. Also, we have had numerous reports of supposed ghosts and demons in the Virginia area as well as in other parts of the continental United States. We’ve lost contact with a number of military bases and units stationed in just about every state. Unit commanders reported encountering some sort of devil, or giant, or spirit and then we never hear from them or their unit again. We’ve had similar reports from state police departments saying the exact same thing. We’ve obtained video and sound footage from a number of these encounters and we are still evaluating as to whether the evidence we have is real or not.”

“Good lord,” a four-star US Army general said. “Where the hell are our front lines?”

“At this stage, sir, we have no idea if there are any safe areas within the country, or for the rest of the world. We are still assessing the situation,” Major Cochran said. “It is best to assume that we are vulnerable from all sides and we recommend setting up a three hundred sixty-degree defensive perimeter for every installation and location that we still have under our control.”