Screaming.
Even from two hundred yards away, he could hear it.
It was unmistakable. The sound was human!
“Don’t shoot! Please, don’t shoot!”
He never saw the dead person stand back up. There was nothing wrong with its head.
If he’d seen it, he’d never have walked toward them.
None of them would have.
But they did.
Lured by the bait. And led to the slaughter.
In a smoldering, bomb-cratered field in the middle of America’s heartland, the final battle had begun.
CHAPTER 81
The Navy commander came into her cabin, interrupting the call from the secretary of state. “Ma’am… it’s the Russian president. He wishes to speak with you immediately. Line one. Translators are on line and ready.”
She punched the button.
“Mr. President. This is Allison Perez.”
There was a delay as the translator spoke her words in Russian. The Russian leader didn’t let him finish.
“There will be no need for a translator. This is President Vladimirov. I will speak English.”
“Spasibo, sir. What can—”
“There is no time for pleasantries. I will be direct. We have been monitoring your communications. We know you attempted to destroy the bombers President Smith sent to drop nuclear bombs on three of your own cities — an attempt which sadly failed. Are you able to control the rest of your nuclear forces?”
They’re nervous. Just as she would be if Russia had nuked some of their own cities. She had to defuse this situation fast. “I am in control of our nuclear forces, Mr. President. Orders have been received — and acknowledged — by all senior commanders. The president cannot, nor will he be allowed to, issue any orders to our nuclear forces. There is no need for you or your country to—”
“I have raised our alert status, as I’m sure you know.”
“I am aware of it. I would have done the same. A reasonable precaution on your part, and I understand it.” There was something about his voice. She’d met the man on a number of occasions, talked to him at length. But now, he sounded different. “But, I must state in the strongest terms that—”
“You must also know that the world around our two countries is suddenly at war.”
“Yes… we know what’s happening.” It suddenly dawned on her. His voice — it sounded like Andrew’s voice had sounded!
“Your president is located in your underground command center outside of Louisville, Kentucky, yes?”
It didn’t surprise her that the Russians knew about the place. “Yes, that is correct.”
“And this command center is designed to withstand a nuclear exchange, yes?”
This isn’t going well. “It’s a hardened facility. Yes.”
“We have monitored communications originating from that bunker, Ms. Perez. Not all of your forces are obeying your orders.”
“That is incorrect, sir. The military forces of the United States will answer to me, and me alone, until we are able to rescue the president from—”
“Are you sure he wants to be rescued, Madame Vice President?”
“I don’t understand, Mr. President.”
“I have spoken to him. He told me he would raise your alert levels if Russia did not lower hers. He, Madame Vice President, believes he is in control of your nuclear forces. I ask you now, who am I to believe?”
“I will state again, Anatoly, the armed forces of the United States will answer to me. My orders, not Andrew Smith’s.” She paused as she heard a commotion in the background. Her Russian was rusty, but she’d heard enough to know it wasn’t good.
“Madame Vice President, if this is so, why have your forces just been ordered to assume DEFCON 1?”
Before she could utter a response, she was thrown from her chair, landing in a heap on the floor as the giant E-4 banked incredibly steeply, its engines screaming. A deafening explosion threw her against the opposite wall, and everything went black.
Around her, the E-4 began to disintegrate as she — and it — fell from the sky.
Two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets circled the flaming debris as it fell to the ground below.
“Unidentified aircraft destroyed. Returning to base…”
CHAPTER 82
Admiral Grierson walked from the command center to his office. He had some calls to make. To his wife. And his children. He’d encouraged his people to do the same.
He hoped he’d have enough time to talk to all of them.
In the command center, alarms were blaring.
Computerized voices were announcing event times, threat areas, decision times.
The large status boards were alive with color and motion as the data pumped into the center.
Data from satellites.
Data from radar installations.
Data showing that a massive Russian ballistic missile attack had been launched against the United States of America.
It had finally happened.
His wife answered the phone.
“Honey… it’s me,” he said.
CHAPTER 83
The quick-hardening foam had been developed as a nonlethal weapon for use in riot situations, a form of crowd control, but had quickly been adapted for other uses.
The Vanguard complex employed an enhanced form of the foam as a security measure — if a person was accidentally infected and tried to leave the facility, the foam could be sprayed from jets in the ceiling, completely encasing the person in a thick layer of the substance, instantly rendering them immobile. It was formulated to harden in a matter of seconds. As hard as concrete.
The foam in the Vanguard complex was not nonlethal. It was designed to seal a problem away from the outside world, be it a virus, a person, or in this case, a mutated creature.
General Rammes had pressed the emergency button at the last possible moment, trapping the creature in the clean room. Saving their lives.
They’d made it topside right before the last portal automatically slammed shut. The complex would remain in lockdown indefinitely, opened only after the computers determined there was no threat from what was trapped inside.
Garrett and Carolyn stood silently in the night air, taking deep breaths, just glad to be alive.
Carolyn looked up at the stars.
Oddly, there were quite a few falling stars this night.
The few quickly became hundreds.
As the sky to the east of them began to glow, flashing again and again and again with an unnatural brilliance, they knew.
Nothing would ever be the same again.
EPILOGUE
It had been twenty years since the war.
The northern hemisphere of the planet was a desolate, uninhabitable place. Where once-great cities had stood, nothing but twisted, radioactive debris remained. Once-fertile farmland was now a sandy, charred expanse, choked of all life for thousands of years to come.
All the great nations of the Prior Time had passed into history. To the south, however, other great cities were taking their place. In some cases, built by hand. Brick by brick by brick.
The survivors were constructing a new world.
And it looked nothing like it had before.
Peace had settled over the southern hemisphere. National boundaries, some that had lasted for centuries, faded away. Monetary concerns were no more. Starvation, poverty, disease — all had passed into the pages of the history books.
This was the New Time.