These Dead Lands: Immolation (23 page)

“We have a good deal of assets available. Aside from our normal base infrastructure and manning, we’ve absorbed several other units like your own, who’ve brought capabilities and manpower that we typically don’t have here at Indiantown Gap.” The colonel leaned back in his chair and made a quick scan around the table. “For instance, we’re now the proud owners of an RQ-7 Shadow Aerial Reconnaissance Platoon that was part of the Stryker Brigade out of Philadelphia. They and a few other survivors were able to make it here with their equipment before being completely overrun. We have more than the standard MTOE for a Shadow platoon though, as they were able to bring additional equipment and vehicles with them. Actually, we now have more platforms than qualified operators at the moment. We also have an engineer unit and heavy equipment support.”

“That’s good to know, sir.” Hastings gestured at Ballantine. “Sergeant Ballantine, I need you to sit down with someone from the S2 shop and from the Shadow platoon and start ISR mission planning. Relook at the NAIs and see if they meet my criteria. We need to get an ISR platform up as soon as possible and start identifying the bridges and other choke points along the major avenues of approach, as well as their current condition, in a three-hundred-sixty-degree radius from our position. I need you to mark any shipping or transportation companies in the surrounding area, specifically looking for shipping containers and CONEXes they might have on site and the equipment to lift and move them.” Hastings turned back to Victor. “We should get started on this stuff right away, sir.”

Victor nodded. “Agreed, Captain. I like your attitude.”

“Then I’ll get on that right now, sir,” Ballantine said, rising to his feet.

Hastings raised his hand. “Hold up for a second, Sergeant. I also need to get an idea on the disposition of the reekers. We need to know where they are amassing and where we can expect them to come from first.”

“Roger that, sir. I’ll be over in the S2 shop if you need me.” Ballantine hurried out of the room.

Hastings thought of another idea. “Colonel, I saw railroad tracks on our way down here. Are there any railheads or hump stations close to Indiantown Gap?”

Victor nodded. “Yes. There’s one up in Reading, north of here, and one down south in Rutherford. Both are in fairly populated areas, so they’ll be hard to get to given the current situation. Lots of potential for contact with reeker masses.”

“I understand that, sir, but I’d like to task the ISR platforms to check them out and do a recon of the hump yards in those areas.”

“Why?” Victor asked. “What do you have in mind, Hastings?”

“I’d like to secure an engine or two, if at all possible. Besides being a mode of transportation, I want to try to move as many shipping containers to Indiantown as possible.”

“You thinking we’ll need to use those to bug out?” asked the S3, a captain with the rather unfortunate surname of Gaylord.

“Not exactly,” Hastings said. “I think they’d be put to better use reinforcing the perimeter, specifically around the airfield. The chain-link fence off Fisher Avenue isn’t going to stop a swarm of reekers for more than a few minutes, and the airfield is a critical piece of terrain that we need to protect. We can have the engineers start putting up HESCO barriers around other critical infrastructure until we find some shipping containers or we run out of HESCOs, but I’d like to use as many containers we can find to build up the perimeter. We can also use them to block the main avenues of approach to channelize the reekers as much as possible. If we can do it in depth, extending out from Indiantown Gap and using choke points like the bridges that cross over the rivers to force the reekers into heavily forested areas, we might be able to slow them down and break them up gradually before they get here.”

“That’s going to be a hell of a lot of work,” Gaylord said.

“Hey, no one said the zombie apocalypse was going to be easy,” Hastings replied.

“A lot of what you’re looking for is available, Hastings,” Victor said. “We have a decent supply of shipping containers and CONEXes here on base, and there are also a couple of shipping and transportation companies right up Fisher Avenue and off of Route 72 that have shipping containers and semitrailers all the time. There’s even an industrial supply store just outside of the base gates that may be of use.”

“Wow, that’s fantastic, sir,” Hastings said. “Maybe we can detail the engineers to check it out and recover anything that might be useful.”

Victor nodded. “A lot of the troops here grew up around this area and know it quite well. You capture what you need on paper, Captain, and I’ll have my staff make sure you get the support you need.”

“Thank you, sir. One last thing, though, and this one may be a stretch. Do you happen to know if anyone on base knows how to drive a train engine?”

Victor chuckled. “Hastings, you’re in luck. It just so happens that Colonel Jarmusch has a brother who works on the rail line. I’ll have him link up with you, and the two of you can hammer out the details.”

The door to the room opened, and several people walked in. At the head of the progression was a tall, sandy-haired man with a long nose and a very prominent chin.

Victor shook his head. “Were your ears burning?” he asked the man.

The man grinned. “What, are you casting aspersions and spreading lies again?”

Victor motioned toward Hastings. “Colonel Jarmusch, this here is Captain Hastings, OIC of the group from New York that came in yesterday. Hastings, Colonel Jarmusch is the commander of the Fort Indiantown Gap National Guard base.”

Colonel Jarmusch extended his hand. “Good to meet you, Captain Hastings.”

Hastings got to his feet in a hurry. “Good to meet you too, sir. I, uh, I hear your brother knows a thing or two about trains.”

Jarmusch turned back to Victor, a quizzical expression on his face. “That’s an odd thing to have been talking about. Even for you, Dave.”

Victor leaned back in his chair again. “It’s not as odd as it sounds. Hastings has been making suggestions on what steps we need to take to improve our position and what assets need to be put in place. So far, there are a few things that need to be worked out, but what Hastings presented to me makes sense. And I think we can get them done in time.”

“Well, if Dave gives it a green light, go ahead and proceed, Captain Hastings. If you require anything, see my staff or Dave’s, and they’ll help you out. Fort Indiantown Gap might be out of the way, but we do have a good deal of resources at our disposal.”

“Yes, sir. Colonel Victor and I were discussing them earlier. He also said you have a brother that works on the rail line.”

“Yes, I do. My brother Steve lives over in Reading. Why do you ask?”

“Sir, I need to find someone who knows how to drive and operate a rail engine. I intend to secure one if possible and use the rail line to help facilitate our stand here.”

“I haven’t spoken to Steve much since this whole thing started, and he doesn’t know how to drive an engine, as far as I know. I don’t think my brother would be able to help. But I do have a few soldiers on my staff who worked the rail line in their civilian lives, and one of them is a conductor and can drive a train engine. I’ll send him over later, and you two can discuss your plan.”

“Thank you, sir. That would help out immensely with what I have in mind,” Hastings said. “Sir, if I may ask, what is the current status of the United States and the military, specifically the National Guard, in all of this?”

Colonel Jarmusch gave a slight smile. “Well, I hope you have a minute, because this is about as interesting as watching paint dry. Are you familiar with what is known as Defense Support of Civil Authorities?”

“Yes, sir. I recall studying about it, but in all honesty, it’s been a while, and I’m pretty sure this kind of an event wasn’t covered.”

“Well, when things first kicked off, it all went quicker than anyone could have anticipated. Typically, every state maintains an Emergency Operations Center that’s activated as needed to support local EOCs and provide multi-agency coordination. When local jurisdictions can’t contain an incident, the governor can declare a state of emergency and invoke the state’s emergency plan to augment individual and public resources as required. And that’s what happened here. The governor activated the National Guard to State Active Duty, and we assumed the civil law enforcement part as things continued to go south. Things progressed quicker than even we anticipated, and the governors from every state asked for federal assistance in the form of a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration. They also requested DoD support via the SecDef. The Title 10 and Title 32 issues got cloudy real quick as events started unfolding faster than phone calls could be made, and as you know, some people were no longer around to pick up the phone on the other end. The POTUS enacted a National Emergency Declaration under Articles II and IV of the Constitution since many members of Congress were already unaccounted for, and Congress could not convene. That’s when POTUS went on all broadcast media and issued an executive order directing the armed forces to enforce the law to protect federal facilities, property, and personnel. A joint task force was established, and I believe you and your men are all that remains of JTF New York. JTF Pennsylvania was doing okay for a while in the beginning but was eventually overrun. What remained of it fell back here to Indiantown Gap and regrouped.”

Hastings already knew a lot of what the colonel had told him. His unit at Fort Drum had been placed under the operational control of US Northern Command then moved to the tactical control of Joint Task Force New York. He’d been only peripherally aware of the movements taken by the National Guard, and Jarmusch was doing a good job of filling in the blanks. It was disheartening to hear that the Guard hadn’t fared well in Pennsylvania, but it also wasn’t a complete shock. In fact, he had been more surprised to find that Fort Indiantown Gap was still up and operational.

Jarmusch continued, “At any rate, things kept getting worse. Units tried to maintain cohesion, but they ended up falling back, farther and farther from the major population centers. Basically, everyone moved to the center of the state or, in this case, Indiantown Gap, at least, those that were able to make it here.

“Communication is almost nonexistent with federal and other state entities; we don’t know the status of Governor O’Malley at this time. Last word we had from the POTUS and Governor O’Malley was that Dual Status Command was authorized for all fifty states, which allows a designated National Guard or federal military officers to command military personnel serving in a SAD, Title 32, or a Title 10 status. When Colonel Victor showed up with what remained of his unit and men he’d picked up along the way, we reconsolidated the force. Dave and I have dates of rank close enough that either one of us could have assumed command of the force here, but we realized that I, being the Indiantown Gap commander, already had a handle on how to run the base, so Colonel Victor, being Infantry Branch, assumed the position as the ground force commander of all the troops and units that made it back here and were still able to fight.”

“Colonel Victor, you mentioned that there’s been no contact with POTUS or any other senior government officials. I have to ask, sir, are you
sure
there’s no one out there?”

Colonel Victor’s expression turned grim. “We’re not a hundred percent sure, of course. But if they’re still alive, they simply are not answering the phone. However, we know there is a Continuity of Government plan that’s supposed to be enacted in situations like this. We simply don’t know if members of the government made it to their designated locations underground in time or not.” He studied Hastings for a moment then sighed. “Captain, what I am about to tell you does not go farther than this room. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir, I understand you.”

“As far as we know, the only surviving member of the US government that has been accounted for is here at Fort Indiantown Gap. Senator Henry Cornell, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee and president
pro tempore
of the Senate. He was on his way to Washington, DC, when all of this was happening, but he got caught in Philadelphia when it was overrun and was evacuated to our location. We believe him to be the acting president of the United States at this time and, per his guidance, intend to proceed with the COG plan we discussed earlier. So you see, we have every intention of making sure Fort Indiantown Gap can stand up to what’s coming so the senator can proceed with reestablishing our government.”

Hastings felt the blood drain from his face.
Great. As if taking care of my people wasn’t enough stress, now I have to defend the potential new president of the United States of America against the reekers. No pressure or anything.
“Senator Cornell, you say, sir? I know of him—he’s a Lightfighter Alumni. He spoke at a change-of-command ceremony when I was a first lieutenant back at Drum. He has a reputation as being one of the unit’s hard chargers from back in the day.”

“Well then,” Victor said, “I’ll make sure you get to meet him. But right now, I want you to focus on putting the plan you briefed us on into place. You’re clear to proceed on that as soon as possible.”

“Sir, when we arrived, all our equipment and weapons were confiscated. My men and Sergeant Ballantine’s family and the woman and child with me are all being held in a barracks separate from everyone else on base. I’d like to ask that the civilians we brought in be allowed to stay with my unit. And if the men can get their weapons and gear back, we can begin working on what we spoke about.”

Victor looked to Jarmusch.

The taller man gave a small shrug. “None of that’s a problem with me, so long as tending to your dependants doesn’t get in the way of the mission. I’ll see to it that your gear is returned. All ten classes of supply on post are available to you to carry out this plan. I’ll make sure my staff passes this word down so you don’t run into any issues around the base. If you do, let me know directly, Captain. My door is always open.”

“As is mine,” Victor added. “Though Jarmusch is squatting on better furniture.”