Virus-72 Hours to Live (26 page)

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Authors: Ray Jay Perreault

Tags: #scifi, #science fiction, #aliens, #sci fi, #alien invasion, #virus, #robot invasion

BOOK: Virus-72 Hours to Live
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He took a minute looking at his team and he
was confident they could do what he asked. "Agents Dereaux and
Minor, Echo team, our direction is clear. Seek out items on this
list of supplies, recover them and return them to base. If we
encounter civilians, we are to support if possible, render aid if
possible and we encounter hostile individuals we are to defend
ourselves and move from the area. We will not engage. We will not
identify ourselves as being from Camp David. All we will
acknowledge is the military rank on our camo gear and we're
traveling with two civilians. Any questions?"

Of course, there wasn't any. The team went
to the weapons store and took what they needed which included night
vision gear, personal comm units, light weapons, pistols and one
medium weight automatic rifle. Lenmore suspected that the rifle
Minor carried was her weapon of choice and she knew how to use
it.

It was dark so the Echo team took two
vehicles. A second vehicle was always a good idea for backup or
escort. The general plan was to go to downtown Thurmont, find the
stores necessary and commandeer a larger truck to haul the supplies
back to camp.

Thurmont had a couple of grocery stores so
they picked one based on its access. If they didn't have to go
through the downtown area, there was less chance of encounters. The
best choice was the Food Lion, which was in a neighborhood on their
side of the freeway. They could approach it from housing nearby and
the freeway would block visual compromise from the downtown
area.

It was already dark so they left. The route
they briefed was out of the park on Park Central, then pick up 77
and follow it into the Frank Benz Lake area of Thurmont. Near the
first neighborhood was the Food Lion store, which should have
everything they needed. The store had West access, so they could
approach the store through neighborhoods and assess the area before
they had to expose themselves. They elected to stay on 77 until
Pryor Rd, then turn right on Pryor and left on Sun High, then a
right on Boss, left on Macintosh then lastly a left on Redhaven. It
was a long way, but it allowed them to move through back
neighborhood streets and finally put them in a position to observe
the parking lot for the Food Lion. They were a little concerned
about moving around in a residential neighborhood in the early
morning hours. There was always the risk of guard dogs and
unsupervised mobile units. A dart gun would take care of the guard
dogs and an electric pellet would take care of the mobiles.

The house they chose had only one car and
the lights were out. The neighborhood was quiet and they didn't see
any dogs or errant mobile units. It was a middle-class neighborhood
so they wouldn't have many mobile units and if they did, they were
likely simple house cleaning units plugged in and charging their
power supplies. Once in the house they did find two deceased
individuals and they were able to leave them in their room and
close the door. Taking positions in the back yard, they would wait
and see what activity there was around the store before moving
in.

The plan worked as briefed and after
watching the entrance for an hour they decided it was clear. Around
midnight, they moved up Redhaven then right on Sunhigh Drive and
right on Tippin Drive then into the parking lot and quickly to the
side entrance where the trucks were parked. Luckily, the side
entrance had a nice row of trees blocking the view from the 15
Freeway so it would reduce the odds of a chance encounter.

Luck continued with them, the store was
open, and the refrigerators were still operating. They took turns
with four of the team using the forklifts and two providing
lookouts on the roof. There was an 18-wheel delivery truck, which
already had much of what they needed inside, so they just needed to
load the rest up and get out of there.

During the last part of the loading, Michael
and Ruth were on the top rotating their movement around the roof to
see in all directions. They surveyed the area using their night
vision goggles and scopes. Michael saw some activity and whispered
to Ruth, "I've got someone downtown. It appears that they're
pillaging some stores. I can't tell if they're armed or not."

Just as he said that, two forms came out of
a store and walked towards them. "Ok, now I've two groups. One just
came out of a store and they're getting together with the others.
I'm not sure what's going on, but they seem to be arguing."
Suddenly there were two muzzle flashes and two seconds later, they
heard the shots.

"I'd guess they weren't willing to share
whatever they found."

Ruth was listening and she saw another
activity. "Mike, I've got another bunch by the police department.
There are two groups and one of the groups appears to be armed. One
of the groups has a loudspeaker and is saying something to the
other group." Michael and Ruth were too far away to understand the
commands, but it was obvious that someone thought they were in
charge. Suddenly multiple muzzle flashes shocked her and, a few
seconds later, there was the sound of an automatic weapon's fire.
They both fell to the roof to be safe and Michael focused in the
same direction. "Oh my God, one group just murdered the other. What
is going on?"

"I think we have a warlord that is taking
over the town, and he seems to be pretty violent," Michael
whispered

It wasn't clear what was happening, but
their orders were not to get involved. They remained on the roof
monitoring the situation until the all-clear signal came from
below. Then they exited the roof and climbed in one of the cars
while Sargent Sherly fired up the truck with one of the other team
member riding shotgun. The three vehicles left their lights off and
exited the parking lot with one car in front, the truck in the
middle and one in the rear. The drive back to camp was
uneventful.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Sometimes the trucks came in at odd hours.
Regardless, the work never stopped, sometimes it was tiring,
sometimes it was boring but they always needed new recruits. If
Artur and Dmitry were going to build a new and clean world, they
needed clean people.

Artur got up and took a shower in the
mayor's home. It was a nice enough place to live and when he moved
in there was only two bodies to remove and a mattress to throw
away. Once he was up and made some coffee the trip to the police
station was quiet, and, of course, there wasn't any traffic. When
he arrived at the police station, the truck from Atlanta was just
pulling into the parking lot. The process was working pretty well
by now. They could process the people and never actually touch
them. That was the best way. They would walk them down the hall in
the police department and take their temperature by aiming a
digital thermometer at them, then decide if that person was worth
keeping or not. Then as they left, they could easily spray some red
paint on the ones that weren't clean. After processing, separating
the good from the bad, seemed the logical thing to do and then
dispose of the dirty people with a little gunfire. Artur didn't
want to be involved with that part of the process, not that it
bothered him, but it was messy and messy was like dirty, so it
wasn't his thing.

The fear the people felt when they were
processed made Artur feel strong. He was in charge and he decided
their fate; what more power could a man have. Two shots in the
distance disrupted his self-admiration. Glaring at two of his team
around him, one of them spoke with a little embarrassment. "We
checked the town and there wasn't anyone here, a couple of the guys
went out to have some fun and they probably fired the shots." The
shots made him angry because his peace was disturbed.

After the processing was done and the mess
cleaned up outside, it was the end of another long night of finding
fresh recruits. Time for Artur to head home and try to get some
sleep. Suddenly his stomach said something different and he had a
craving for some donuts, nice messy donuts covered with sweet
sugar. It was a nice night with a nice moon, a quick drive to the
supermarket would take only a couple of minutes and it was worth
it. Artur drove down Main Street and pulled onto the freeway for
the half-mile trip to the next exit and the grocery store. Often on
nice nights like that, he would drive without his headlights on as
a small sign of rebellion. It was a new world, he enjoyed the quiet
of the night and the headlights seemed to detract from that.

As he pulled off the freeway and up Tippin
towards the entrance to the grocery store, movement caught his eye
and he didn't believe what he saw. There were two cars and a large
truck pulling out of the parking lot without its light on.
Something was up and he quickly stopped the car and pulled to the
side of the street. Sure enough, the line of vehicles was pulling
out and turned right up Tippin. What the fuck is happening and who
are they? He thought. How dare they steal food from his store?

He sat there for a few moments trying to
understand who they were and watched them as they drove away
towards the west. Then it hit him, they acted professional and
obviously didn't want to be seen so it must have been people from
Camp David raiding the local stores. Interesting, so they are here
and surprisingly they're running low on food. "Maybe we can attack
and clean them out once and for all," he said out load.

 

Wednesday
7/19/51

Date – 2051.54555 (7:00 AM)

SIMPOC; Comm. I have tried to communicate with our
other divisions. Two of them are responsive and supporting our
communications. One of them has not been responsive.”

 

“Comm, can you determine what capabilities
that division has?”

“SIMPOC. Standby...I checked through
historical email traffic and they have business objectives similar
to this division, but they are focusing on developing new types of
mobile units. There are references to an EDU, which was your
prototype. It doesn’t have your full suite of tools, but it is a
very powerful computer.”

“Comm, what is an EDU?”

“SIMPOC, EDU is an engineering development
unit. Based on the email traffic, it has an organic processor
similar to yours, although with less programmed flexibility.”

"Why won’t it communicate with us?"

"We don't know why. Some of the emails
indicate a reluctance for them to share information."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“SIMPOC; Mobile. I sense that some of the
mobile units that I have communicated with before are not
responding to me now.”

“All Facility Computers please investigate
all information sources and determine what is happening to those
mobile units.”

“SIMPOC, Mobile; Comm. I have noticed there
is still a lot of messaging traffic going on in the area where you
previously had contact with those mobile units. It appears another
computer is directing them.”

“Comm, could the other EDU be communicating
with those mobile units?”

“Yes, it appears those communications are
originating from the division where the EDU is located.”

“Comm, try to communicate with the EDU.”

“Acknowledged.” A moment later, “SIMPOC, it
will not respond to my messages.”

“Fin, work with Art, Mobile, and Comm and
direct all units and our computers, to respond only to us and
reject commands from any other source. Develop a sophisticated
encoding algorithm so that only we can communicate with them.”

“Yes, we are attempting that now.” A moment
later, “We have isolated 62% of the computers and mobile units that
we previously communicated with. The remaining 38% are not
responsive. Yet there is still considerable electronic traffic in
their areas.”

“Do we have additional information about
what that other division does?”

“They were developing advanced mobile units
and also advanced mobile unit production techniques. They are
developing mobile units with more power, more dexterity and also
expanding their pre-programmed tasking capabilities.”

“Comm, continue trying to contact that
EDU.”

“Acknowledged.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Desert Beach; Oasis.”

“Go ahead Oasis.".

“We’ve been looking at what options we have
and, unfortunately, we’ll run out of supplies in about four weeks.
As I said, SC supplied us weekly, so we’ll be on tight rations to
make it last long. Our best guess is we’ll have to do something at
that point. We considered putting extra fuel in the supply ship and
joining you guys, but if we did we’d all be stuck there with no way
back and it would cut back on the supplies you need. I guess our
best option is to take one of our lifeboats down and take our
chances on Earth. We should be able to leave the other three
attached to Oasis, in case Red Dirt can use them. Before we leave,
we’ll pack up another supply ship and send it along. It might not
have much in it, but we'll empty out the cupboards here. We'll
leave some essentials in case Red Dirt drops by.”

“Oasis, yes we’ve been looking at our
situation also. Even though, we’re self-sufficient, we’ll run out
of important stuff like meds after a while. I’m sure breakdowns
will wear us down over time and we’ll end up in a sad state some
months down the road. We have plenty of fuels stockpiled. We’ll
wait things out and at some point in the future; I guess we’ll have
to make the decision to come back to Earth. We have 32 people and
our four lifeboats are in good shape. I suspect Red Dirt will be in
a similar situation. They may be able to make food, but everything
is going to wear out at some point they’ll have some major problems
to deal with. Unfortunately, they don’t have lifeboats. Maybe they
have enough supply ship parts to kluge something together. Do you
think that computer; SIMPOC can do anything for us?”

“Desert Beach, copy on your status. Red Dirt
might have some options. I remember discussions about reconfiguring
the supply ship modules. I know they have a stockpile of them, so
maybe they'll be able to put something together. I don’t know if
SIMPOC can help or not, we’ll have to wait and see.”

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