Indestructible: V Plague Book 7 by Dirk Patton Read Free Book Online

Soon the infected
outnumbered the living and Joe and Robert barely escaped with their lives. 
They ran to the open plains, battling females that had tracked them until they
were almost out of ammo.  The day before I encountered Joe, Robert had been
killed by a female.  Joe had shot her with his last bullet, then buried his
friend.
    “Where are we going?  How far?”  I asked when Joe finally
finished his story.
    “It’s a little over a day’s run from here,” he answered.  “Canyon
country.  The Potawatomi tribe slaughtered hundreds of Osage women and children
hiding there in the 1800s.  There was a treaty in place and the American government
was supposed to provide protection.  They didn’t.”
    I didn’t feel like debating two hundred year old events with
him.  I had little doubt that the problems of any of the Indian tribes were at
the bottom of the priority list for the Army at the time.  Not that I wasn’t
sympathetic, but I had more pressing problems to worry about.  Besides, I was
feeling dizzy again and was having a hard time focusing on Joe’s running form.

9
     
    Colonel Crawford leaned back in the base commander’s office
chair and rubbed his eyes.  He was tired.  Bone weary tired.  But the ranks of
infected at Tinker Air Force Base’s perimeter fence were growing by the hour as
more and more of the civilian population succumbed to the infection, and he
didn’t have time to rest.  The high altitude EMP intended to disable the
satellite the Russians were using to control the herds had knocked out the
electrical grid on the base and he was now working in an office lit by the pale
green glow of several chemical sticks.
    While this was inconvenient for him, it was downright
dangerous for the Rangers, Marines and Airmen defending the fence.  They had no
light.  Few of their night vision goggles and scopes were still working as
they’d had most of them turned on when the pulse happened.  Any electronic
device that had been in operation at the time of the nuclear detonation had
been permanently destroyed.
    The only good news was that there had been very few vehicles
and aircraft in operation at the time, so they were still able to use trucks
and Humvees as well as put helicopters in the air to support the battle that
was raging.
    “They’re landing at Fort Hood, sir.”  Captain Blanchard said
from the shadows on the far side of the office where he had been softly
speaking on one of a handful of radios that had survived.
    “What does it look like down there?”  Crawford asked without
bothering to open his eyes.
    “All quiet at the moment.  Runways are clear and they’re not
seeing anything moving on post.  But there’s some bad news.”
    “Do tell, Captain.”  The Colonel said with a note of
sarcasm. 
    “They passed over a herd north of Dallas that they estimate
to be at least eight miles long and over two wide.  If they’re bunched up as
tightly as we’ve seen elsewhere, that’s estimated to be close to twenty-five
million infected.  Still headed straight for us.”  Blanchard said.
    Crawford opened his eyes and stared at him, rubbing his
temples in a vain attempt to ward off the headache that was threatening to
explode into a migraine.  He’d sent two squads of Marines and three C-130s to
Fort Hood in Texas to raid the armory.  They needed ammunition.  Desperately. 
Recon flights throughout the day after the EMP had found other herds still
bearing down on Oklahoma City, but none of them were as large as the one that
had just been reported.
    “What’s the word from the Navy?  Did the EMP do the job, or
not?”  Crawford asked.
    “They’re still trying to figure that out, sir.  We lost
everything that was over North America except for two NSA birds.  The Navy
never had access to them in the first place, and since the NSA doesn’t exist
anymore they’re having to try and hack their way in.”
    “If they can’t get in, how do they know