Chapter 14

The next day the CBRNE team arrived and after breakfast we had a short briefing on how things were going to go down. After making sure everyone knew what needed to happen, we moved into position to over watch the team. They sent a robot out in front of them with sensors on it that sampled the air and sent the results back to the team. Nine long hours later we were told that the chemical residue was so low we were not in any danger from exposure and the small trace of biological would not hurt us as long as we kept our masks on. Everyone was now wearing a M40 military issue protective mask. The biological agent had to be inhaled to affect you. Physical contact would only cause a severe rash unless you had an open wound then you might be infected. The team was already spraying disinfectant mixed with bleach and water inside all the buildings and aircraft were spraying the whole area crop dusting style with the same type of mix. Both the chemical and biological agents would be neutralized by this.

The bad news was that if you were infected then you became a carrier and could pass the infection just by breathing on someone. And death varied depending on how strong each person was. Animals could also be carriers if they were infected. Everything that had been exposed needed to be tracked down and disinfected. Either by washing the dead body or burning it the team recommended washing first then burning just to be safe. As long as anything that was infected moved around the infection would continue and spread. Hopefully anything infected would die and stop the spread. General Braxton was fired up and mad as hell when he talked to us after getting the briefing.

After discussing the matter with BG Villa-Verne who would help to coordinate a search of the surrounding land and ADM Nimitz who would handle the ocean and coastal search.

We would form teams to go after any infected people or animals. I suggested each team travel with a couple RVs a hummer and MRAP along with a couple of SUVs. The RVs would be portable living quarters, the hummer and MRAP would provide armored military vehicles with heavy firepower and the SUVs would allow movement without drawing too much attention. A team of 14 or more could man two RVs two SUVs a hummer and MRAP but these could easily support 20 people if more people were needed additional vehicles should be added too.

I would take one team east and Mike would take a second team south. After 1600 miles my team would turn south at the Mississippi River and travel for 500 miles to Kansas City where we would turn west and head for home. Mike’s team would travel south about 1200 miles to LA and then turn east for 850 miles to Santa Fe, New Mexico and then north for 400 miles to bring them home. If all went according to plan, we would meet at our home.

BG Villa-Verne was sending three teams out from her base in Texas and one from Bragg in North Carolina up the east coast to Maine. One team would go west to southern California the second would go north on the east side of the Mississippi River and the third would go east to Florida. The Bragg team would go north to Maine and then swing west to New York and then back south to Bragg.

We all were hoping that the infection would not cross the Mississippi River. The only unknown was if animals had been infected and how fast and far would they spread the infection.

It took us two days to prepare supplies load vehicles and finish final checks. My team was going to be Tammy Tia Emily Laura Daryl Jessica Helena Steve Dana Meghan Danny Shirley and Mika. Mike’s team was Earl Yvette Mirell Karen Lauren Riley Adriana Briana Colette Karmen Geof Jaime Jas Kat and Ben. We were all up and ready at 0630 so we said good luck to each other and took off.