The Beginning of the End (Book 2): Toward the Brink II Read Online Free PDF

of the CDC was well aware of the situation and was complicit in the removal and subsequent isolation of the children. Should knowledge of these children become public, it could well have jeopardized the whole scheme.
    The Chamber had invested a lot of time and money into this operation to ensure its success. Rumors suggested the plan went back to the early part of the twentieth century, when European royalty and powerful bankers, along with their American counterparts, plotted the downfall of the human race in Vienna in 1928. The event was the first meeting of this international cabal of the wealthy. The finest food and wine were on offer as chamber music played throughout—hence the unofficial name of the group. Not all of humanity had been selected for decimation, however, just those who were no longer of any use to the elite—about ninety-nine percent of the population. It had taken many years for the Chamber to establish itself. It had infiltrated every corner of society—politics, the military, arts and entertainment (including the wonderful invention for mind control: the television), and, of course finance. Especially finance. It was far easier to win over someone with fine words and a bag of money than with fine words alone.
    It was the Chamber that had come to Baer Industries’ rescue, via their surreptitiously planted agents within the Centers for Disease Control, and hid the mutant children from view. All records were destroyed, and the mothers, the ones who lived, were paid off and relocated as if it had never happened.
    But it did.
    * * *
    “Sir, we’ve got movement in the field ahead,” the lead Humvee reported over the radio.
    “Movement where?” Captain MacGill said into his helmet mouthpiece.
    “On our left, nine o’clock, sir. Look!”
    MacGill climbed up to the turret of his command vehicle, rested one hand on the M2 Browning, and looked toward the lead vehicle. The soldier up front pointed to the left side of the highway.
    The 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team of the Idaho Army National Guard, or what remained of them, had been sent from their base at Gowen Field, Boise, to back up other units in the Twin Falls area but had received orders over secure military comms to pull out and head toward Salt Lake City and take up defensive positions around Ogden, Utah. They were approaching the Utah border on the 81 when a strange movement among the sparse growth at the side of the road alerted them. The sun had risen hours ago, so this left foamers out of the question. With half the company lost to the undead bastards, they were on constant alert for another attack. The captain didn’t see the need to call a stand to, as foamers only came out at night. The question remained, then, who the hell would be all the way out here, and on foot?
    “Hold up,” MacGill called over the radio. The convoy of six Humvees, one LAV-C2, two M35 cargo trucks, and just under sixty men in total—all that remained of the once full-sized company—came to a stop in the middle of the road. There was no traffic to be concerned about anymore. The corporal in the forward Humvee stood on top of his vehicle and raised 10x30 Steiner binoculars to his eyes.
    “Sir, they look like children,” the corporal said over the radio.
    “Whataya mean, children? I can tell from here they’re too tall for children!”
    The captain lifted his own set of binoculars to his eyes to double-check. It wasn’t that he doubted the corporal—he was one of the best soldiers left under the captain’s command. But the “green meanie” disease had spread like an uncontrolled grass fire and had infected many in the company. He needed to be on guard for the slightest sign that another of his soldiers might be infected. He would have to make a quick decision if it became necessary. Better to put a bullet in the head of a single man before he turned into one of those creatures than to have to fight off five or six of them.
    “Well, I’ll be … They