Whodunnit ... "Survivors of the Apocalypse, Vol. 3
The title says it all ......
Moscow, the Executive Security Bunker
President Putin paced the corridors of the bunker impatiently, the whole world was slowly being dragged into the insanity of a very badly written ‘B’ movie and there was little or nothing that could be done. So far, it seemed that most of the flights which carried the contagion sweeping the planet were originating in Africa. In particular it seemed that they were coming from the country of Ethiopia.
Presumed origin of the human race
That, however, didn’t even slow down the NATO bombers from systematically fire bombing the city of Addis Ababa to ash. He smiled grimly, they’d hoped that the heat generated by the use of Napalm-C would be sufficient to kill whatever it was that had precipitated the current medical crisis. Jellied gasoline and white phosphorus with thermite for a kicker … who’d have thought those human rights whiners in the United States could be such amoral bastards?
Smiling grimly he had to admit that when it came to ingenious weapons the US led the pack, despite all those ivory tower thinkers.
The ChiComms though, were a cold, calculating bunch of bastards.
Without even breaking a sweat General Secretary Xi Jinping, on finding that his conventional troops weren’t able to contain the outbreak, took the only action he could.
He nuked the infected cities into sterilization
So far, it seemed to have worked
You had to admire that sort of resolve, but he was still a cold blooded bastard.
His own actions had been more conservative. The outbreaks hadn’t been so widespread or severe yet that it wasn’t able to be handled by conventional means. The Spetznatz had been divided into hunter teams with some leavening provided by snipers from the regular Army. Their mission was to move from town to town in circular search patterns; eliminating all infected persons and any who would protect them.
This was not a time to be weak
Not if you would save your country and its people
To be sure, there were a few of the infected, in various stages, who’d been saved and moved to the Ministry of Public Health for a series of tests and attempts at neutralizing the infectant. But they didn’t seem to be having any sort of results, positive results, anyway.
All they’d managed so far was the death of a number of their staff
Something they could ill afford at this point
Stopping at the Communications room he poked his head into the door, “Has there been any luck in reaching the White house yet?” Leaning back in his chair for a better look at his Lieutenant Colonel the middle aged man replied, “No colonel, no luck in reaching the staff or your great grand-children …” the man grinned suddenly, “… so how do you feel being a great grandfather sir?” Putin grinned, “I will tell you just as soon as you get them on the line for me, any of them … I must know how they are …” Going back into the hall to pace anew he wonders what exactly Josef’s rank is; as he picks up the pace he thinks about how far he could promote him without being obvious about it.
Loyalty, deserves reward
With that in mind, he went to the bunker’s gymnasium to work out some frustrations. He had no doubt that Josef would come to get him when the connection was established. The man had been with him far too long to become negligent in his duties now.
Walking down the corridor to the gymnasium he privately wondered how other world leaders were handling the massive outbreak, and whose strategy would be the most successful.
Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Kim Jong-un sprawled out on the couch in the Executive Recreation room of the office of the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army. Since it was one of the lesser titles he held the recreation room only had three fifty inch LED HDTV’s connected to his game system. He’d tried playing with just one television as he’d heard most other people did but had decided that three screens offered a more realistic range of vision.
This was especially important when he was playing his favorite war simulation games. He’d done so well in them that his favorite generals had confided to him that they felt he could probably win the battle in any foreseeable conflict with no trouble.
Their acknowledgement of his skill was particularly good because he’d only had to feed two of them to his hyenas before the others had suddenly come to the realization of his brilliance. At first they’d only thought he’d brought them out to the hyenas’ exercise area to see the resolution of a conflict between himself and an old classmate from Liebefeld Steinhölzli.
Well, initially they had … Herr Birchmeier had gained some weight since their days at the school. The days when the budding bank executive had traitorously paid his bodyguard to abandon him for two hours. Two hours which had allowed Herr Birchmeier the time to stuff him into a large trunk; leaving said trunk in the lobby of the school. When at last his cries for help were heard, Herr Birchmeier was there to record his release from the trunk, which had also resulted in the nickname he’d worn for the rest of his time in that school, “Un-Pack”.
Herr Birchmeier had been understandably nervous about the visit at first but had slowly been charmed into accompanying him out onto the balcony overlooking the hyena pen.
He never even suspected that he’d be pushed off that same balcony.
The hyenas finished the big man off in less than fifteen minutes …
It was … amusing
So much so, that he laughingly pointed it out to his generals …. two of whom were a little slow on the uptake … who, for their transgression, joined the Herr Birchmeier in being known as ‘the late Mr. …’
Kim Jong-un’s six remaining Taejang, his generals, now stood assembled behind him as he played another of his brilliant war simulations. If only his secret agents could steal the plans for the American pulse rifle, his armies would be unstoppable!
Kim was quite certain that if he spent a few weeks studying the skills of the super spy that he could master them well enough to accomplish the theft himself.
He was … a genius … after all.
The generals looked at each other uneasily, the father had been bad enough but they’d never imagined that they would ever have to deal with someone even further detached from reality than him. The largish man child before them was virtually impossible to work with unless his ego were sufficiently assuaged. None of them could recall just exactly how many times he’d planned some grandiose scheme such as the invasion of the US mainland, or crossing the border into China for the purpose of revenge. It required time but so far they’d talked him out of putting his ideas into action.
There wasn’t a coward among them but that didn’t mean that any of them had a deep seated death wish either.
The problem currently before them though, required that he take some sort of action, soon, or all would very quickly be lost.
A disease was sweeping the country, had come down to them from China, in the north, and was now moving across the country toward them. The spread was slower than it had been anywhere else in the world because their cities were few and the villages were spread out thinner than in other parts of the world. Those factors wouldn’t keep them safe forever; it wouldn’t even buy them enough time for the western nations to develop a cure for the disease.
If the western world, or even China or Russia could develop such a cure the six generals would do whatever kind of backroom dealing they had to, to get it to their people. They’d all sworn to do whatever they could to protect their people and had become fairly adept at bringing needed items or technology past customs for the good of their nation.
But what to do now …..
This disease was like nothing they’d ever seen before, terrifying in the rapidity with which it struck down its victims and the speed of spread they’d seen. Entire villages, once the existence of it had been confirmed, had been hit with napalm strikes and FAE bombs. The only accomplishment they could boast of was clearing the land for whatever may come next and tossing those … things … created by the disease … around before setting them loose on the countryside.
They’d first tried to gun down the infected people with conventional weapons but the sound of the gunfire had drawn every infected person in the area to the battle.
Entire rifle companies had been lost …..