Dead Air (Book One of The Dead Series) (9 page)

It had been dead for three hours, and
while it had recently fed on its former girlfriend, it was hungry.

Having been in more than one fight in his life, Tim reacted instinctively by pulling his switchblade and pressing the
stud on its handle. Seven inches of carbon steel flicked out and glinted in the streetlight. He swung the knife in an arc,  gratified to see the blade sink to its hilt in the side of his attacker's neck. Black fluid oozed from the wound and a rotten smell filled the air as the dead man swung sideways, pulling the handle from Tim's grasp and leaving the knife stuck where it had been thrust. Stepping backward, Tim expected to see boxer shorts drop to the ground, telling himself that no one lived through a wound like that.

Seeing
that the stab wound had little effect on boxer shorts, Tim shouted out, "I cut you long, hard and deep, motherfucker," then turned to run. It suddenly dawned on him what the drivers had been fleeing. Time to haul ass, his mind screamed.

In his hurry to get away, Tim's upper body moved before his legs did and his feet tangled, dumping him face first onto the ground. Recovering quickly, he pushed up onto his hands and knees as he tried to scramble away
, but the delay caused by the fall proved fatal. He screamed when he felt himself pulled upright by the hood of his jacket. He twisted his body to try and get away but the grip holding him was like steel. Turning enough to confront his attacker, his shocked mind registered that his knife was still sticking out of boxer shorts’ neck.

Not having any other weapon nearby, he reached for the handle.

His hand fell on the hilt just as boxer shorts leaned forward and bit down on Tim's nose, ripping it off in a shower of blood and mucus. Tim howled in agony as he pulled his knife free and then plunged it over and over into the thing’s back as he blew blood and snot out of the hole in his face. Boxer shorts ignored the knife thrusts and swallowed the cartilage and flesh in its mouth, then clamped down on Tim's neck and ripped out a chunk of his flesh.

The rest of the undead by-passed the one bent over its meal on the sidewalk. If food was scarce they would fight over it
, but tonight that wouldn't be a problem. Ahead of them was an intersection filled with meat, and beyond that, looking like a giant serving bowl, was the stadium from which a roaring sound now came.

It was kickoff time.

***

Des Moines, Iowa:

Jackie Dupree received orders to report immediately for extended duty with her National Guard unit at five in the afternoon. She arrived at the Armory just before six-thirty, and by seven o'clock found herself behind the wheel of a Humvee carrying her commanding officer south on Interstate 35.

Jackie was surprised, and frightened, by how fast her unit deployed and the manner in which they deployed.

When she reported in earlier that evening she had been met by a blank faced, regular army Sergeant who checked his clipboard and then pointed to the vehicle she now drove. He explained that she had fifteen minutes to stow her gear and use the facilities. He further specified that this was an order, not a request, and then explained the legal consequences of missing a troop movement.

That was the surprising part. Jackie had served with the Iowa Guard for six years and found it usually took two hours or more just to decide who would drive
what. Although they were one of the most efficient Guard units in the area, they weren't so efficient that they were ready to roll in fifteen minutes. Something strange was definitely going on.

The frightening part was when Jackie noticed the loaded .50 caliber heavy machine gun mounted on the roof of the
Humvee she was to drive. The situation became more eerie as she watched the rest of her unit, all armed and carrying live ammunition, load up into three transport trucks. Jackie's commanding officer, Captain Kramer, approached as she stood uneasily next to her vehicle. He handed her a web belt with a holstered 9mm Berretta attached to it, along with two magazine pouches. He gave her a smile and said, "It’s loaded so be careful, Jackie."

"Why do
we have live ammunition, sir?" She suddenly blurted out.

Kramer's smile faded and in a stern voice
, he replied, "I'll brief everyone when we get to our destination. Don't ask any more questions about this deployment between now and then because I'm not at liberty to discuss our orders at this time." Bowing slightly, he made a motion toward the Humvee and said, "Shall we go?"

Instantly remembering who and what she was, Jackie snapped to attention, rapped out a, "Yes, sir. Right away, sir," and hurried over to open the rear door of the command vehicle for her C.O. Before climbing in, Captain Kramer said in a kinder voice, "Don't worry
, it'll be all right."

But
she couldn't tell if he was saying it to reassure himself or her.

Ahead of her now
, she could see a glow in the night sky caused by lights reflecting off the low hanging clouds, which had threatened rain since they left Des Moines. They had already passed through the city of Leon and she knew there shouldn't be anything else between there and the Missouri border. Curious that the lights seemed to come from the middle of the Interstate just over the next rise, she withheld any questions directed to Captain Kramer since she’d already been reprimanded once.

A moment later, Kramer spoke up for the first time since passing through Leon to say, "Slow down
, the turn off is coming up on the left."

Jackie flipped on her high beams to help search for a road or exit ramp
, but the only thing visible was a dirt track that the State Troopers used to cut across from the southbound to the northbound lanes of the divided Interstate. Turning in her seat, she gave Kramer a questioning look.

"
That’s it," Kramer pointed to the access road. "Turn there. Pull up to the other side and stop."

Once the column was halted, the Captain got out of the
Humvee and ordered Jackie to follow him. He had the rest of the unit dismount and fall in around the front of the lead truck. When they were all gathered, he climbed up onto the hood of the vehicle and spoke.

"Due to the outbreak of a highly infectious disease in the central United States, the Governor of Iowa has ordered that the State be closed off to all incoming traffic. Our orders are to shut down Interstate 35 in the northbound direction and to make sure that no one uses the southbound lanes to try and sneak around us."

A murmur of disbelief went through the crowd of soldiers, so Captain Kramer held up his hand for silence. "We are authorized to use lethal force to insure that these orders are carried out. We are putting this quarantine into effect to protect the citizens of the State of Iowa from what has become a fast spreading epidemic. You are here to keep Iowa safe for your loved ones, friends, and neighbors.  You are the only thing that stands between them and possible infection carried up from the states to the south of us. I expect every man and woman here to do his or her duty. We will split up into two groups. The larger contingent will be with me on the northbound lanes, while the smaller unit will patrol the southbound lanes. Anyone wishing to leave via the southbound lanes is free to do so. But once out, they cannot come back in."

Pointing to the glow that could be seen through the trees, Captain Kramer said, "Those are portable lights that are already in place. That's a checkpoint set up by the State Patrol. Right now
, they're screening travelers who are heading north. When we join them, we'll use two of our trucks and their squad cars to block off the road. The third truck will be placed in a position on this access road to monitor the southbound lanes. No one, and I repeat, no one is to pass once the blockade is in place. The people of the great State of Iowa are counting on us to keep them safe."

He paused for a moment as his eyes scanned the soldiers assembled in front of him before continuing
, "Sergeants, form on me for your individual orders. The rest of you need to be ready to go in fifteen minutes. Dismissed."

Jackie's unit blocked off the interstate a few hundred feet north of the access road so it could be used to send the stopped vehicles over to the southbound lanes and back the way they had come. But even with this foresight, traffic was soon backed up for miles. Impatient with the delay, and curious as to its cause, many drivers exited their cars and approached the road block
on foot. In no time, a group of angry travelers had assembled behind a line of sawhorses set up thirty feet from the National Guard trucks blocking the road.

American citizens are not used to being told they can't go where they want
to, when they want to, and tempers flared. A few fistfights broke out in the crowd and three middle-aged men on their way to Minneapolis for a convention assaulted a National Guard soldier. Tensions continued to build, and it was only two hours before the first shots were fired.

Jackie was sitting in the passenger seat of the
Humvee sipping coffee when two hunting rifles opened up on the roadblock from the darkened field off to her right. Her hand scrabbled for her pistol as she rolled out the open door onto the gravel shoulder.

Tentatively, she stuck her head up over
the hood to look for where the shots had come from. A bullet ricocheted off the road and thudded into the passenger side door, causing her to duck down quickly.

Someone yelled at her to lay down covering fire with the .50 caliber
, but to Jackie that was out of the question. There was no way she was going to make a target of herself by standing in the open hatch at the top of the Humvee. Instead, she held her pistol up over the hood and pointed it in the general area the shots were coming from before emptying the clip in that direction. More incoming fire struck the far side of the Humvee, causing her to crouch down with her back against the tire.

When the first shots rang out, most of the
Guard troops opened up randomly with their M-16's into the fields and woods on both sides of the road, causing Captain Kramer to run around screaming at them to cease fire until they had a positive target. Frustrated when he saw that no one seemed to be obeying his order, he exposed himself by climbing up on top of the Humvee and standing in the gunner’s hatch. Pulling back the charging handle of the heavy machine gun, he pointed the barrel into the sky and fired off a long burst.

The shattering noise of the .50 got everyone's attention
and the incoming and outgoing gunfire stopped abruptly. The crowd of civilians clustered around the sawhorses looked on with fear from where they lay flat on the ground or crouched down for cover.

"We are here to uphold a lawful order from the Governor
," Captain Kramer yelled at the top of his voice, as people on both sides of the barricade picked themselves up off the ground and looked fearfully in his direction.

Kramer continued in a voice tinged with anger, "You are Americans
, and you're acting like a bunch of Iraqi refugees. I'm telling you now, this Interstate is closed! No one is to go past, and if anyone tries, they will be met with lethal force."

Confident that he had regained control of the situation, Captain Kramer stood up straighter in the gunner
’s hatch and half turned to begin giving orders to his men. The high-powered rifle bullet that hit him in the side of the chest cut cleanly through his Kevlar body armor and still had enough force to push his body backward out of the Humvee’s hatch. His foot caught in one of the door flaps, arresting his fall and leaving him dangling upside down, his sightless eyes looking into Jackie's as she crouched just a foot away.

Seeing their commanding officer shot down by a sniper enraged the National Guard troops.
Fear, anger and frustration at the situation they found themselves in caused them to find something to vent on. They opened up indiscriminately at the only target in view that they could see. The civilians clustered around the roadblock.

The battle was short and one sided. The mostly unarmed people
in the crowd were slaughtered by the overwhelming firepower brought to bear on them. The shooting died down and finally stopped when the Guard troops ran out of live targets to shoot at.

Summoning the courage to stand, Jackie surveyed the carnage in front of her. In shock at all the dead and wounded lying only yards away from her, her mind didn't even register when one of her fellow troopers ran by and yelled, "C'mon Jackie, were getting the hell out of here. This shit is crazy."

In a daze, she could only stare, her mind not comprehending that this could be happening in the United States. Her shock was broken by the regular army Sergeant who had assigned her to drive the Humvee. As he approached, he said to her in a loud commanding voice, "Stay at your post soldier. Do not abandon your post." The Sergeant then turned to argue with a group of five troopers who, horrified by what they had just done only wanted to abandon the killing field. The exchange between them quickly grew heated and the Sergeant reached for his sidearm to ensure that his order to hold in place was obeyed.

Seeing the Sergeant's movement, one of the Guardsmen raised his automatic rifle and yelled out, "Don't do it." The Sergeant ignored this and continued to try to un-holster his pistol. The trooper opened fire with a short burst, hitting the NCO twice in the neck. Jackie, who was standing behind him, caught a stray bullet in the side of the head, killing her instantly.