RESURGENCE

CHAPTER 28

7 A.M.

June 16, 2034

The American flag fluttered atop of Ellington Community College as the first rays of sun hit the deserted town. Within the space of twelve hours, the military had evacuated and converted Ellington into an army camp. The general and the doctor watched as eight soldiers wearing white space suits climbed into a M2025 Humvee and drove north.

Sergeant Jake McArthur was leading the party of eight into the unresponsive area. Yesterday, he was spending a well-deserved, two-week vacation with his wife and daughter in Los Angeles. Today, he was back to serving his country. The general’s briefing had been crisp and the instructions were: Drive to Hamilton, turn around, and come back. 

It’s a simple mission, he thought. In and out. Easy as cake.

“Base to Jake, over,” 

“This is Jake, over,”

“Good morning Sergeant, Maggie Kelly here, over.”

“Good morning, I can hear you loud and clear, over.”

“I’ll be talking to you throughout the mission. It’s very important that you share with me everything you see or feel, over.”

“I will. We are going to enter the zone in about a couple of minutes. I can see the check-post coming up. I just thought of it, what if someone needs to be rescued from inside the zone. Do we have authorization to rescue people? Over.”

“No, you do not. We don’t know the exact cause behind what’s happening inside the zone. You are ordered to treat it as a contaminated zone. Nothing except you and your crew comes out of there, over.”

“Okay. We’re crossing the check post now and driving into the zone, over.”

Sergeant Jake sat in the passenger seat in the front of the Humvee, while Private Mitt drove. Private Jose and Private Tony sat in the back and four other privates were in the second Humvee following them.    

Back in Ellington, the general and the doctor sat with Maggie Kelly in the control room, and saw the live feed from different cameras installed on the Humvee's and the soldier’s helmets. 

“It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day, and I don’t have anything else to say except that we’re driving down this long straight road. It would be cool if at the end of the road was a staircase. A long windy staircase going up into the clouds. I don’t know. I don’t know why I said that. That’s the beginning of my daughter’s bedtime story book, I guess.”

“Base to Jake, you’re five miles into the zone. Is everything alright? Your pulse has dropped to thirty per minute. How do you feel?”

“I feel drunk. It’s funny. I feel that I’m very drunk.”

“Take a few deep breaths and keep your focus, over.”

“Okay,” said Sergeant Jake as he let out a sigh. 

 The doctor shook his head in disappointment and whispered to the general, “The suits are no good.”

“Base to Jake, do you feel better? Over.”

“I don’t, but are you seeing this?” asked the Sergeant.

To the side of the road was a fire engine parked at an angle such that its rear end was sticking out on the highway. Further down the road, he could see numerous haphazardly parked cars. 

“Base to Jake, do you see any survivors? Over,” asked Maggie.

“I don’t.”

“Base to Mitt, Slow down the speed to five miles an hour, over,” said Maggie.