Invasion USA 3 - The Battle for Survival (2 page)

“We might never know our civilian casualties, but we do know that millions of men, women, and children have died since midnight on January 1st, and many more are going to perish before stability is restored here and around the world. For every person who has died in the largest and most horrible atrocity the world has ever seen, I would like all of you to stand and pray for a minute, remembering the many who have fallen so others may live.”

For a long minute, all heads were lowered and thanks given to God and for the people who had died around the world. Then the President got up to speak, everybody sat down, and Colonel Patterson returned to his seat.

“There are many people to thank, but I believe that now is not the time. The real time to thank all the special people will be in spring, when new crops are growing, our dead are buried, and we will have started to rebuild the United States. We have no government, nor do we need one for the moment. Everybody here today is the new government of the United States, and until my term ends, whenever that comes about, all my efforts and the efforts of my family will be directed toward saving as many people as we can and bringing law and order back into the United States of America.

“There are people out there, American people as malevolent as the people we have just defeated. Evil has not been completely abolished. Until our military establishes law and order in this country, we cannot go forward. In my power as President of the United States, I give the direct order that martial law will be put in place across the country. Our returning military personnel will be placed throughout the country to stop any people killing men, women, and children until our nation’s police force is once again in control. Within two months, every single soldier will be here on home soil, and America will rebuild for as long as it takes until we have a new and vibrant country. I believe the old ways are dead. Our old-fashioned style of operating is dead. We have to build from the ground up and this time we might as well do it properly—to look after our people, all the people of the world, and look after this fragile planet we call home. I believe we are entering a new period in history and, while I’m President of the United States of America, we will continue to build toward a new peaceful era for the American people, for all the people of the world, and for our planet called Earth. Thank you.”

***

The immediate problems facing the American troops, now growing by 15,000 per day, were threefold:

a. Restore law and order,

b. Feed the starving masses heading south, and

c. Determine how to respectfully deal with the millions of bodies already frozen or decomposing in every area around the United States.

The farm in Apex, North Carolina was quiet only for a day, with a dozen guards making sure that the growing number of people around its fenced perimeter didn’t get inside. Word was spreading that this little farm in the middle of nowhere was a food sanctuary and the area around the southern portion of the farm and along the roads was filling up with hungry people. Tents had been erected, and soldiers had trucked out several porta-potties and given out any Air Force supplies they had in the hangar.

As the aircraft returned and came in to land each person was shocked to see the masses of people outside the front gate. Preston immediately got one of the C-130s into Seymour Johnson, as well as diverting
Lady Dandy
and the Cargomaster. Three hours later the rest of the aircraft were refueled and readied to continue the food drive. Baby Huey came in, her responsibility as Air Force One, now transferred to another military helicopter out of Andrews Air Force Base.

The group of pilots drove to the gate where most of the Air Force soldiers had been guarding the air field. Preston got onto the roof of the truck and shouted to all who could hear him that there would be daily drops of food by helicopter into the cities and towns around the area and listed several town centers where supplies would be handed out. He explained to the anxious crowd that one person—child or adult—would receive four cases of food to last two months, until spring arrived.

He asked for people’s commitment that each case had to last an adult for two weeks and a child for three. A computerized list of people receiving food would be compiled at each distribution point and a valid ID would be necessary to get their four cases. Nobody on the list would receive any more food.

Soldiers would be deployed in the next few weeks to re-establish law and order, and any persons accused of theft or murder would face courts of their peers in their towns. A guilty verdict would result in expulsion from that town with a purple tattoo on their forehead to warn other communities about the person.

“There is no more food here at this Air Force base,” Preston stated. “The food is airlifted into here in bulk, split up, and then airlifted out again. We will have two helicopters later today that can make ten drops of one ton of food per drop per day. We will not give you food anywhere except in your city or town where we designate a drop zone; drop zones will be assigned within the next 24 hours. Go back to your towns and as soon as we get food and troops to guard it and distribute it, under computer supervision, we will be there. Thank you. Now please go back to your towns.”

The next day, Oliver was on his usual trail around the airport, the nearly fully- grown puppy a few yards behind him. The soldiers were mostly gone, apart from three who were still assigned to the airport. This time, Preston and Martie had risen early and accompanied the dogs on their sniff and search, and Little Beth was still fast asleep. They had both lost weight. Carlos and Sally—Sally now on leave from the Air Force until needed again—were still asleep in the hangar, as were Buck and Barbara. David and Jennifer, also on leave, had moved in with Joe and the boys. Pam Wallace had taken a fancy to Joe and had also moved across to the neighboring farm. Mike Mallory was leaving in a few days to return home and so was John. They had both found their families and were heading home to get their neighborhoods up and running.

The Smarts had returned to their house, which was still untouched just outside Lancaster and Will was now the new police chief for the city. Maggie was going to work in Silicon Valley, where Lee Wang and his family had relocated with Grand Papa Roebels and Martie’s father, Michael. They were starting a new electronics company and getting tooled up to mass-produce whatever they could.

Martie put her arm through Preston’s and smiled at him. “Since this is our first real day off, and since we are not really part of the food process anymore, would you like to have a Yuengling with me for breakfast? We still have over 1,000 bottles of beer and for once this year I would like to act naughty and do something stupid, like have a beer for breakfast.” He smiled at her and allowed her to lead him away.

***

Over the next several hours, the numbers of people searching for food grew fewer. A second Huey arrived from Andrews and everybody got involved with food distribution.

For the rest of January, everybody worked long days, and as the troops came into the area from the northern bases, permanent food stores became the town centers. There were hundreds of fights. Soldiers were told that if fired upon, they had the right to shoot to kill, so the safe areas were growing slowly. As the troops increased in numbers, the violence also slowly decreased; hundreds of people already known for committing murder were tried by courts, which were composed of as many people as deemed necessary to make them fair and just. In addition, thanks to so few vehicles, there were ample fuel stocks to supply the vehicles that needed it.

Further north, collection sites were assigned for unclaimed bodies or those not buried by loved ones and, under a decree sent out by the President, all bodies had to be cremated if brought in to the collection sites. This system was slowly being implemented around the country, and every crematorium worked 24/7 to burn the unclaimed bodies to prevent disease once the weather warmed up.

The President traveled around the world towards the end of January. The four remaining Airbuses were to be given to Britain, France, Germany, and Russia as gifts of friendship and communication. The United States would keep the 26 Boeings until their troops were home, and then six of them would be given to other countries in need, like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Korea, Japan, and maybe what was left of China. Over 200 satellite phones were distributed to other countries and a simple form of international communications was implemented. A new government—a democratic one—had been formed in Shanghai, the capital of the new China, and the satellite phones would allow them to communicate with the rest of the surviving world.

All the other countries had losses similar to the United States, and the world total of deaths exceeded two billion by the end of January alone.

Nobody could tell if radiation from the three nuclear explosions that killed over 50 million Chinese in four of its major cities was moving around the world. It would definitely affect closer countries like Korea and Japan, and the entire fleet of large aircraft spent three days bringing every American out of those areas. However, the radiation problems were far from most American minds as they worked hard to feed as many people as necessary.

By the middle of February, the returning soldiers amounted to 500,000 and they were now not only happy to be home, but were willing to return to their homes and become the area police in the places where they had grown up. Still, the remaining 26 aircraft were flying troops home to the tune of 15,000 soldiers per day. The C-130s transferred the incoming troops out to new areas several times a day with supplies, and normally groups of three to five soldiers who lived in the same area were put under the management of a central location where an old Hughes satellite dish was the only form of communication with the rest of the country.

The national communications grid was simple and slow, but messages about food, crime, living conditions and other needs could be transmitted through the Hughes Net satellite dishes once every 48 hours. At headquarters at McGuire Air Force Base, three dozen Commodore computers recorded incoming messages much like emails, and there was always an aircraft or C-130 ready if the emergency code was sent demanding backup for gang warfare or if the troops were in danger.

Towards the end of February, over 1,790,000 bodies had been cremated in Manhattan alone, and the numbers recorded put total cremations in the United States by March 1st to 53,988,000 cremations in 3,900 crematoriums across the country. Any ID on a body was recorded for future reference. Many cities were still littered with bodies, especially in the north where snowdrifts up to 70 feet high still had millions of bodies buried beneath them. Many northern areas were still snowed-in ghost towns and had not yet been visited.

Very few soldiers had made it into the northern U.S. regions south of the Canadian border, and slowly thousands of soldiers and civilians were working their way northwards. Possible statistics given to the President was that maybe a quarter to a third of the bodies had been found so far.

Also, gangs in the southern areas were beginning to kill more and more soldiers guarding outposts and some gangs were reported to be in the thousands, and still growing.

North Carolina – Two weeks later – February

Oliver and the fully grown puppy, now just called “Puppy,” were busy on their usual farm and runway inspection, lifting their legs and covering any foreign smells of wildlife, which had visited Preston’s farm during the cold winter-night hours.

As usual there were the fresh smells of deer, a possum must have decided it was important to inspect the southern area of the runway, and a fox had marked its new territory in one of the still existing trenches built by the Air Force several weeks earlier.

The farm was nearly deserted, except for Preston, Martie, Little Beth, the two dogs and Smokey, Buck McKinnon’s cat, who was still asleep in the house lounge. A guard of Air Force soldiers still using the warm facilities of Preston’s hangar had decided that nightly patrols were no longer necessary. The force of six men had patrolled the area every hour since the end of the war four weeks earlier, mostly keeping hungry locals from trying to get in and helping themselves to the food stocks.

Now the large, open and still moonlit area surrounding the airfield was deserted, apart from the two dogs doing guard duty. At 6:59 am on February 28, 2013 all the humans were still asleep in the main house and in the hangar.

With the complete area checked and re-scented with steaming dog pee, the two animals shook themselves, as if to get the cold air out of their fur and headed for the door to the house kitchen. Maybe somebody was up and there was a freshly cooked breakfast to be begged for.

Preston and Martie were still asleep when the doggy door to the kitchen made its usual groan as the two dogs came in. So was Little Beth who had taken over the only guest room as her own. Martie had transformed the once stately room into a pretty little girl’s room, filled with pinks, yellows, blues and greens. The temperature outside was five below freezing and the three human occupants of the house snuggled in their covers to keep warm and cozy.

The hangar was also peaceful; the Air Force personnel were working on getting out of bed as alarms set for seven began their wake-up sounds. The rooms above the lounge were warm and quiet and each one had a waking body about to get out of bed.

Life here on the farm for the six men was bliss; it was as good as living at home and there was more food in the hangar below them than anywhere else in the whole of North Carolina.

With the defeat of the invading forces in New York four weeks earlier, life had changed drastically and a daily routine was being reestablished at Preston’s farm.

Daily aircraft flights were heard overhead as they departed from the different military bases around the area to supply food to the surrounding population. The only flights in and out of Strong Field were Martie and Preston taking off in their Mustangs to check out the fully repaired and serviced aircraft. The Mustangs had been flown in a week earlier by Air Force pilots from Andrews Air Force Base. There hadn’t been another aircraft in since the fuel tanks had been refueled by a lone C-130 tanker coming in from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.