Page 6 of Alpha Infected
The camera changed and the male newscaster’s face filled the screen, while the on-the-ground footage continued to play in a small picture-in-picture square at the bottom of the TV.
“The Oklahoma public safety commissioner has issued the following instructions. Everyone is to immediately shelter in place. Barricade yourself wherever you are. Do not speak to strangers. Quarantine anyone who has been bitten or scratched. And call 918-555-4357 to report the infected.” The newscaster paused to shake his head. “This is scary, folks. Don’t take any chances.”
“It truly is, Felix,” his colleague said sadly. She gave the camera a tight-lipped smile. “Keep it locked here on Channel Five and we’ll be right back with more information.”
The broadcast cut to commercial just as the overhead lights began to flash on and off. A second later, the base-wide PA system started blaring an emergency siren.
As Hazard listened, the hackles on the back of his neck rose. That eerie siren was only used to warn of impending danger. His wolf stirred within him, alert and ready to shift if needed.
A sternly voiced announcement sounded over the siren.
This is a Code Z emergency. We are on lockdown. All personnel are to remain on base without exception. No visitors are allowed until further notice. Please report to your immediate commanding officer for further instructions.
Once the announcement finished it started over from the beginning, repeating in a constant cycle while the siren continued to blare. The lockdown order made sense. Their base in Broken Arrow was only a twenty-minute drive from Tulsa. They needed to make sure whatever was happening there didn’t spread through Fort Grove.
Ice stood. “We’d better get to Ortiz.”
Hazard and Jax rose too, and together they left their barracks and set off for HQ where their squad leader was in her office.
Outside, soldiers on foot rushed all around them, following the instruction to report to their COs. The three of them paused to let a vehicle filled with officers speed past before they continued on. When they reached HQ, they strode quickly through the busy halls until they reached Ortiz’s office.
Ice knocked once. At her call to enter, he opened the door for them to step inside. Ortiz sat behind her desk, the phone receiver pressed to her ear. They waited, tense and silent while she finished her conversation.
“Understood. Yes. We’ll be ready to move the second you say the word.”
“What’s going on?” Hazard asked as soon as the major ended the call.
“We don’t know much yet. Just that it’s a Code Z.”
“Fuck,” Hazard swore under his breath.
Code Z was the military term for zombies. They were rare. When they did happen, they mostly popped up in isolated areas and small towns. Each case was different. Sometimes the zombies were mostly dead with only the most basic brain stem function remaining. Others were fully alive but were taken over by an uncontrollable urge to maim and attack. Sometimes they could be cured and returned to their normal human state. Most often, they couldn’t.
But there was one thing each outbreak had in common. They devastated the population wherever they occurred. In some places, entire towns had been wiped out. Either at the hands of the zombies or by armed Legion intervention. All that remained in those cases were empty, sometimes bombed out ghost towns.
This was the first Code Z event in an area as big as Tulsa. In a city of that size, there were a lot more potential victims. It would be much tougher to control the outbreak. And it would be difficult to keep the fact that they existed a secret. As far as the general public was concerned, zombies were an urban myth.
“Let’s get out there and stop it,” Jax said.
“Negative.” Ortiz firmly shook her head. “We’ve been ordered to sit tight for now.”
That order didn’t make any sense to Hazard. “But there’s people out there being attacked left and right!”
“There are containment units mobilizing to take care of rescuing victims and containing the infected. Colonel Gibbs wants us to go after the source of the outbreak once the intelligence team tracks it down. That could be the only way we put a stop to this outbreak. And that’s more important than being on cleanup crew.”
“We may not ever find the source of this outbreak, Major,” Ice said quietly.
His mate was right. Legion forces didn’t always discover the origins of a Code Z.
Ortiz leaned back in her chair. “Have faith in intelligence. Wherever this shit storm originated from, they’ll find it.”
Chapter 3
Saturday, October 29th, 1983.
1720. Thirty hours after outbreak.
US Legion Base Fort Grove
