O-Negative: Extinction (29 page)

“Sir permission to speak freely?”

“Yes yes of course.”

“From what I understood it seemed like it wasn’t just comms that had been lost.  There seemed to be reports of mass civilian casualties and destruction on a wide scale.  He kept saying something about Al Elyn Al Elyn ‘the evil eyed ones’ “. 

“Al Eyn? But this is a children’s fable, a story designed to quieten unruly children who won’t stay in their beds.  I will need to speak with the commander in Jordan.  Come please lets try to get hold of him”.

At this he left the comfort of his burner and moved rapidly towards the low building from which the Lieutenant had emerged a few minutes ago – the Lieutenant and Major Gadiz hurrying behind him.

After the Lieutenant had put in a call sign to the Saudi unit in Jordan this time on a secure line he waited for them to get hold of Colonel Faris who appeared to be the soldier in command of the Saudi forces there.  He knew Faris slightly, like him he was a dedicated soldier and one who had worked his way up the ranks as opposed to having his commission bought for him by his family.  Eventually Faris came on the line.

“General Aziz.  Praise be to Allah.  It is a relief to hear you have survived.”

This wasn’t the expected start to the conversation.  “Survived Colonel I should hope so I’ve undertaken the desert trek many times over the years – it would take more than that to lead to my demise.”

“General you haven’t heard then?”

“Heard what Colonel I’ve just had my Lieutenant report that there has been some sort of attack but the report seemed jumbled and somewhat non-factual in nature.  Can you enlighten me?”

There was a pause at the other end before the Colonel composed himself and then spoke more formally and precisely.  “General I’m afraid I have to report that Army Command, the majority of our forces and large numbers, possibly millions of Saudi civilians have been wiped out by an unknown event.  Every populated area within about 800 km of Riyadh appears to have been effected.  As I speak you are currently the most senior commander I’ve been able to raise at this time.  I believe you are now in command of our remaining forces.  My men and I await your orders Sir.”

The feeling of prescience suddenly left his body like a bullet from a gun.  His mind struggled to comprehend what he had just heard.  He turned to look at Gadiz and Lieutenant Karim who both looked shocked to the core, mirroring on their own faces what he felt on his own.

“Colonel are you sure of this? Have you contacted our allies to ascertain all this?  I don’t understand, what could have caused such an apocalyptic event is it an earthquake or some other natural disaster?”

“Sir the Jordanians and the Americans have sent several reconnaissance aircraft to investigate but none have been able to penetrate closer than about 800 kilometres.  Your division is probably closer than anyone else.  The evidence is not yet absolute but refugees who survived have started to filter out in small numbers – they speak of unimaginable horrors - of silvery creatures slaughtering their friends and families in front of them.  There are also reports of a huge black tower suddenly appearing on the Riyadh horizon prior to a wave of silvery creatures attacking.  Allah be merciful but it would appear millions of our Saudi Arabian brothers may have been killed.  Allah Allah uh Akbar “

At this the Colonel stopped.  He could not be sure but he believed the Colonel was silently weeping.  If the Colonel had indeed been reduced to tears this event was obviously much more serious than he had thought possible.  His own thoughts passed to his immediate family; his wife and two young daughters who were based in Riyadh.  As they came into his thoughts he knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were dead.  If would seem that Allah had heard his prayer and taken from him the things he loved the most in exchange perhaps for the holy Jihad he had long prayed for.  For it was clear to him now that he and his men had been passed over by the Almighty as the Jews once had in Ancient Egypt.  This salvation must be for a reason he justified; perhaps in order that he and his men might spearhead the response that must now follow.  If not to revenge the deaths of their own relatives then to fight for the glory of the Almighty to ensure their beloved country could once again rise from the devastation that appeared to have befallen it.

“Colonel.  If what you have told me is true we must regroup.  It is imperative that we minimise the damage to our country and prevent our enemies both known and unknown from taking advantage of this situation.  My men and I will join you in Jordan once I have made contact with the authorities there to obtain their permission to do so.  Please keep my team updated as further information becomes available – we have limited communication means at our disposal at the present time due to our isolated location”.

“I understand sir.  Allah be with you at this time.”

He motioned the Lieutenant to end the radio conversation and sat down on one of the small canvas chairs dotted around the office to silently grieve for his family and reflect on all that he had just learned. 

After several minutes of Alek scoffing and telling her she was a fool to believe anything she was being told he calmed down enough to think about what she’d told him a bit more dispassionately.

“Annie are you seriously telling me that some sort of Alien species from outer space has landed in Antarctica and the Middle East and that these landings are just the first of many?”  “Are you also suggesting that the American government wants you and I to supply them with as many young women as we can get our hands on to be put in a top secret military bunker to service a shit load of soldiers for free for who knows how long?”

“I am Alek.  I believe them.  Every fibre of my being tells me they are and that we, as in the human race, are in deep deep shit.  Unbelievably, but because of my previous connection with the President, you and I and most of the people we know, are being given a life line that we couldn’t possibly have hoped for otherwise.”

“You kept your relationship with the President quiet didn’t you” he said quietly.

“Of course.  It was a long time ago and bore no bearing on our business dealings together.  Now are you going to help or are you going to end up being ‘disappeared’?  I say that because I’m pretty sure these guys aren’t going to let you back out into a public arena with the knowledge you now possess.  You’re going to have to make a decision and pretty darn sharpish.”

He smiled slightly before the damage to his face made him wince in pain “Well when you put it like that Annie I don’t have much choice.  For the time being I guess I’m in – at least until this proves to be a massive pile of fucking God knows what.”

“Thank you Alek.  I don’t think you’ll regret it”

“We’ll see.  Anyway let’s get the soldier boys back in here and see what they want us to do before we leap into bed with them”.  With that she got up and went to fetch the Colonel and the Major.

When she came back with them Alek was standing over by the window.  “Doesn’t look like society is holding together that well at the moment Annie – people are looting the supermarket on Jackson Street”.  She joined him at the window and saw people running from the supermarket located on the intersection between Jackson and Acadia Avenue where her apartment building was.  “Mmmmhh things aren’t looking good”.

The Colonel indicated they should sit back down.  “Alek Annette tells me that you’ve agreed to assist us for the time being.  I can assure you that this is probably the most sensible decision you’ve made today”.

Alek looked at the Colonel somewhat sullenly and said ‘”We’ll see.”

The Colonel ignored the supressed hostility “Ok listen the clock is ticking and we need to come up with a plan as to how we get your ‘employees’ to our base in Colorado as soon as possible.  Any suggestions you might have in this regard will be gratefully received – as you might have guessed this is way outside our normal operational parameters.”

She thought for a moment or two before replying.  “Colonel I think I might have an idea on that.  Do you have access to any buses or anything?”

“If we don’t we can get them.  We basically have free rein to do what we see fit under the ‘survival protocol’ executive order.  I note that as well as this side of the operation we’re also rounding up a load of other notables – academics, scientists, computer programmers etc. anyone it might be useful to have on hand should we be lucky enough to survive the shit storm that’s coming down.”

“Well if you do have access to transport then my suggestion would be that I tell my employees that because of the troubles I’m offering to send them out of town for a few days to let things calm down a bit.  It’s thin I admit but the working girls trust me and the Au Pairs will probably be scared if the incident at the supermarket is being replicated elsewhere -  most are from rural backgrounds and inner city riots aren’t something they’ll be used to.  The Au Pairs will probably be glad to get out of town for a few days and once they’re on the bus the job’s done I guess.  We simply tell them the truth when we get to your fabulous bunker / cum Holiday Park.”

Alek piped up.  “God Annie thin it’s almost transparent, they’re all going to have questions and I’m not sure you’re going to be able to explain why there are military guys milling around all over the place.  I’d suggest you let me supply the drivers and the accompanying ‘security’ – I’ve got a big slice of the municipal waste business and so can get HGV drivers to drive the buses if these guys can get hold of them.  My girls will go where I tell them and if they see familiar faces they’ll be less likely to ask questions.  Nevertheless we should probably keep them separate from your people.  I’ll tell them we’ve got a big corporate entertainment gig out of town and that should be enough to get them on the buses.”

“I’m assuming you’d be ok with my men getting a ticket to survival central as well Colonel?”.

“Not really Alek and on another day I’d have told you to shove it but a few more miscreants isn’t going to make much of a difference so yes you can bring your people out with you if that’s what it takes to get your women into the bunker.  You can bring 20 guys with you not including the drivers.”

“30 or no deal”.

“20 and if any of them cause any trouble now or in the future I’ll put them out of the airlock myself are we in agreement?”.

Alek didn’t look happy but he nodded.  “Fine.  Fuck me this is fucking crazy.  When the fuck did an Eastern European gangster become a fucking hero of the free world!”.

Two days later she was standing by the Walmart parking lot next to 10 empty coaches manned by Alek’s municipality employees.  She was smoking a cigarette even though she hadn’t smoked for several years.  The chances of dying from cancer were beginning to look remoter and remoter at this time.  The riots in the city had calmed somewhat after the streets had been saturated with police and the lack of anything more untoward happening.  Though the Middle East problem was still the main news story and prices for foodstuffs had increased pretty much everything was still functioning.  It was beginning to be assumed by the wider populace that whatever had happened in the Middle East wasn’t going to impact upon them too directly other than at the forecourts.  Gas prices had doubled, which wasn’t a surprise given that access to Middle East oil had been cut off, but the recent investments in gas fracking meant that from an energy perspective the country was looking much better than it would have done 10 years or so ago.

She’d been working closely with Major Faulkes on the logistics of their operation and he was standing next to her, this time out of uniform.  He too was smoking having bummed a cigarette from her.  They’d agreed any sign of military uniforms was going to lead to more questions than they wanted to answer at this time and she was now calling him by his first name Sebastian.  Sebastian had informed her in that rather brusque way that he had that the survival protocol currently being implemented by him and the Colonel was one of several.  There were other bases doing similar things elsewhere in the country.  But when she’d asked him how many he’d replied ‘not enough’.  She hadn’t pushed any further, as to be honest she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.  The press were now suggesting that up to 30 million people had been affected by the disaster in the Middle East – though those survivors making their way out of the affected areas numbered in the thousands this seemed paltry when figures of 30 million were being bandied around.  There was no doubt that this was the biggest disaster to hit the earth since the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid.  She started sweating again at the thought that this was just the beginning.  Hundreds of millions were going to be affected by this – maybe billions – it just didn’t bear thinking about.  She pulled heavily again on her cigarette while tapping her leg nervously up and down.  “Annette try to look calm.  These women are going to take their lead from you.  You have to give them the impression that this is just a short term measure.”

“Ok ok I’m trying.  It’s just hard not to think about what might happen in a few days time.  I still have relatives and friends I care about living all over the states.”

“We all do Annette.  It’s probably best not to think about them too much – and hey there is still a possibility that this is all just an over the top response”.  Unfortunately he didn’t sound very convincing when he said this.

At the allotted time her girls started turning up, the Au Pairs seemed to be treating it as a sort of group outing and were only too happy to be herded on to the buses after stowing their bags in the luggage compartments.  Despite her telling them to bring only enough clothes for a couple of days some of them seemed to have packed for longer but she didn’t say anything – however much they’d packed it wasn’t going to be enough for where they were going.  Gods she hoped the Colonel had thought about clothing and the like for several hundred women.

The ‘working girls’ who were based in the 10 houses she controlled were more suspicious and wanted to know exactly how long they were going to be out of the city.  Several pointing out that there was good money to be made in a time of crisis.  Having said this there weren’t as many no shows as she thought.  These women were street smart and even if they didn’t know exactly what was going on their instincts were telling them something wasn’t quite right and that maybe getting out of town for a few days was a good idea.  Erika her right hand woman turned up shortly before they were due to leave dragging another 4 or 5 women with her who’d been more reluctant to leave.  Apparently she’d told them that if they didn’t accompany her they’d be left to fend for themselves on the streets when Annette returned to town.  The thought of ending up as lowly ‘street walkers’ seemed to be enough to get them along.  After a final period of organised chaos the women were eventually all on the coaches and she and the Major were the last ones up the steps of the bus they’d been assigned to.  At that the buses started moving out towards the highway.  Alek and his people were meeting at a sports complex a few blocks away and they probably wouldn’t see each other until they got to Colorado.

“Hey Annie you didn’t tell us we could bring our boyfriends?  I’d have brought two had I known”

This ribald comment was greeted by wolf whistles by the rest of the coach and the Major didn’t look too comfortable as he took his seat.

She smiled at this and answered “Well Tabitha if you’re especially good I might share him with you”

More cat calling and offers to get in on this deal followed and she sat down next to a chorus of anatomic impossible comments from the girls.  The Major was blushing furiously and said in a low voice “Well Annette I don’t think we’ll have too many complaints from this lot about what they’re going to be asked to do.  Not so sure about those Au Pairs though – most of them looked like they’d just stepped off the farm”.  She kept her voice low “You’re not wrong there Sebastian and we’ll have to play this by ear I’m just hoping they’ll appreciate missing out on the expected decimation of the human race and at least hear me out when I tell them the bad news”.

As they pulled up on to the highway and started making their way towards the Texas New Mexico Border she realised that a number of yellow school buses had begun to join the convoy. All of which seemed to be filled with pre-teens both boys and girls.  “Sebastian do you know anything about these school buses?” He looked a bit uneasy.  “Next generation stuff Annette.  The Peterson Base has been chosen as a sort of crèche facility as well.” 

“Crèche? Jesus this is serious.  Do they know where they’re going?”

“No.  The Education Board via the President’s team arranged all this.  These kids all think they’ve won a competition – which in a way they have.”

“Their parents don’t know?”

“Nope.  And they weren’t selected accidently or by lottery either which is what they’ve been told”

“What do you mean? Please don’t tell me by intelligence or race or something?”

“Nope.  They’re all blood type O Rhesus Negative.”

“What! Why the hell have they been selected by blood type?”

“Please keep your voice down Annette.  They’re calling it the ‘survival gene’.  The Army Medical service has a unit out in Jordan who’ve been running tests on the survivors – i.e. those people who made it out of the area affected by the Middle East landing.  The only common denominator as far as they can tell is that they all had the same blood type.  Not much to go on as I say but enough that the President’s team instigated this last minute ‘collection’ plan.”  None of the other bases have done this – only ours.  The military psychologists have had an apoplexy but they’ve been over ruled.  For good or for bad we’re going to have a thousand under 16’s in the base with us all of whom have the same god damn blood type”.

“Jesus Christ Major this is Hitleresque in the extreme – never mind the fact that they are going to have serious emotion issues to deal with when they realise they’ve been removed from their families and might never see them again”.

After their second stop and six hours of travelling they stopped at a service area just outside of Amarillo Texas and some of the women on her bus began asking a few more questions.