You and Me against the World: The Creepers Saga Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

that, it was just a matter of time.
    Four weeks’ time, to be exact.
     
    When in doubt, do something to make it worse
     
    The second round of cases appeared in early July. There was no question that these were Virus X. Still, the government and the CDC were cautiously optimistic when the initial patients either grew no worse or outright died without violent incident. That optimism did not extend so far as to avert discussions of a “contingency” plan. The plan included an outline of and preparation for “aggressive containment.”
    By the last week of July, all calls to the CDC that met Virus X criteria were routed to a special assignment desk of the NSA, code name SAD. The SAD agent noted the level of infection, added the location to the strike list, and put “boots on the ground” within the hour to monitor conditions. The SAD operative called in a Code X alert if the infected patient passed the virus to a second victim.
    In Fort Myers, the moment Dr. Benson passed out, a patient in the waiting area walked outside, removed a scrambled SAT phone, and texted “Fort Myers, Code X” to a programmed number. The operative, as instructed, went to his vehicle to leave the area. Upon entering his vehicle, a man in a power company uniform with a large puppy-dog smile approached the operative. That man, also an operative, shot the first in the head and then got in his own car and drove away.
    Containment procedures had begun.
    The aggressive containment procedure, or ACP, included surgical strikes in three stages. The first was a modified CBU-72 bomb dropped from an A6E Intruder. The gas bomb would carpet the strike point with fire, burning the building and any exiting occupants. The second strike consisted of the deployment of a Mark 84 that would replace the building with a fifty-foot-wide, forty-foot-deep crater. The third strike included additional CBU-72 bombings around the infected area. Loss of human life aside, the military was very excited to play with their modified weapons.
    On the day the infection decimated Fort Myers, there were twenty-three air strikes carried out across the country.
    Aggressive containment procedures failed.
     
    Have virus, will travel
     
    Three hours before Dr. Benson’s patient ripped out Antonio’s throat, four commercial airliners departed Fort Myers’ RSW International airport.
    On board Delta flight 1272 to Atlanta was Rich Demmins, an IRS agent returning home from vacation. The flu had ruined Rich’s vacation. He looked forward to his return home and to a visit to his own doctor. The one at the walk-in clinic in Fort Myers, in his opinion, had been as useless as the antibiotics that he had prescribed. Rich actually felt worse and wondered if he was having an allergic reaction to the Cipro. When he complained to the flight attendant about the cabin’s freezing temperature, she gave him an odd look and told him it was seventy-five degrees. She did give him, however, a second blanket.
    Rich passed out before takeoff. What awoke as the flight reached ten thousand feet was not Rich. The Rich thing tore open the throat of its first-class companion and then did the same to the flight attendant. Concerned passengers feared a terrorist attack and tried to subdue the maniac.
    A flight attendant in coach notified the pilot, who notified air traffic control. ATC instructed them to reroute to Orlando International Airport for an emergency landing. The pilot, unaware of his copilot’s affair with the first-class attendant, was shocked when his crew member broke protocol and opened the flight deck door. The Rich thing eviscerated the copilot and then the pilot. The 757 with its 192 passengers had just reached fifteen thousand feet when the plane began its uncontrolled descent.
    On the University of Central Florida campus, the Reflecting Pond shimmered in the late summer sun. Strictly off-limits to students, except during the annual “rush the pond” event at homecoming, the pond had enjoyed