Read ARES Virus: Arctic Storm Online
Authors: John O'Brien
ARES Virus: Arctic Storm (32 page)
Koenig loses track of the conversation, his mind lost in thoughts about his wife and what actions he should take.
“Colonel…Colonel,” an insistent voice draws him back to the present.
“Yes…yes, sir. Sorry,” Koenig says.
“I said that we’ll need you and whatever team and equipment that you feel is justified. We’ll need your expertise in order to fight this. Keep in mind that space is limited, so only bring whom and what you consider essential.”
“Sir, forgive me. I’m going to have to decline. You can punish me later should this blow over, but you can consider this my notification of early retirement. However, I won’t leave you without expertise. I’ll make sure that you have what you need wherever you decide to go. I just won’t be there. I had hoped for a few years of retirement with my wife, but it appears that’s not going to happen. So, I’ll take however many days or hours of it that I can get. Major Skier is with a team in Springfield. He will have the personnel and equipment you need,” Koenig says.
That stifles the many small conversations taking place. The fact that their leading biological warfare specialist is leaving—going AWOL—in the midst of the crisis is shocking. To those present who just viewed this as another crisis to be managed, this is a sign that perhaps it is much more than that. Others continue to see it as crisis management, and Koenig’s statement as a traitorous one. A few who understand the ramifications of what he’s saying come to the understanding that they aren’t in the middle of a crisis, but at the end of one. And the beginning of something completely different.
“Colonel. I understand,” General Hague says. “Godspeed to you and your wife.”
The conversation and hubbub begin anew. Plans are discussed and thrown out. New plans take their place, everyone having an opinion on how to manage it. To Koenig, their trying to manage the problem is wasting time when they should be heading to their shelters. He is struck that very few, if any, realize that millions, if not billions, of lives will be lost before this is over.
In the end, it didn’t matter what actions were taken by any nation or organization. It happened too quickly and was too widespread. The only survivors were in small towns and communities that no one had traveled into or through during the three week span, and which also managed to keep everyone out afterward. Several places survived by outright killing anyone presenting symptoms that remotely resembled an illness. Sneezes and coughs became a death sentence.
Hospitals were one of the first institutions to go dark. First responders and law enforcement vanished under the wave of reports. The CDC and WHO issued warnings and travel restrictions, Homeland Security and other agencies worldwide instituted martial law, but there were scant few remaining to hear the new directives by the time they were given.
Avian flu, terrorist attacks, God’s wrath…it didn’t matter the reason given or believed. Within forty-eight hours of the first wave of illnesses, the human population had dwindled by ninety-eight percent. Parts of Malaysia, New Guinea, Africa, and several small remote countries in the Alps, in locations seldom travelled, became the new population centers…and they didn’t even know it.
# # #
John O'Brien is a former Air Force fighter instructor pilot who transitioned to Special Operations for the latter part of his career gathering his campaign ribbon for Desert Storm. Immediately following his military service, John became a firefighter/EMT with a local department. Along with becoming a firefighter, he fell into the Information Technology industry in corporate management. Currently, John is writing full-time.
As a former marathon runner, John lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and can now be found kayaking out in the waters of Puget Sound, mountain biking in the Capital Forest, hiking in the Olympic Peninsula, or pedaling his road bike along the many scenic roads.