Chapter 1

The normally cool and collected morning news anchor looked very near panic as he began to rattle off the details of a story which fit the criteria of shocking and appalling. Many who were experiencing the onset of severe cramps now learned that they were caught up in a far reaching epidemic.

Hospitals were filled to capacity. The waiting rooms of urgent care centers were filled to overflowing. The dedicated men and women in the medical field were just as affected by the plague as anyone coming to them for treatment. The Centers for Disease Control had no answer and were completely unprepared for the malady that seemed to have traversed the globe overnight.

Slowly but surely the various news networks began to stop broadcasting. In some cases the cameras were still aimed at the anchor desk, but no one was manning the cameras or sitting in front of them. Radio stations seemed to be broadcasting since the channel frequencies were not filled with static, but as their automated programming ran out, they were sending out an empty signal devoid of any real content.

Ju Chang was delighted with the news coming his way! The microscopic warrior he had unleashed was doing its job with incredible speed; yet those who had received the antidote in advance were largely unaffected. For the past two years, before his 'company' had begun to distribute the special 'filter paper' that was used to distribute the organism, General Chang's operatives had been lacing the public water supplies all over China with an antidote that should effectively eliminate the organisms ability to bond with human genetic material. The entire sequence of lab tests had shown that, denied the ability to make the genetic bond, the organism failed to activate and was passed harmlessly through the system.

No projection was available concerning how much of the antidote had to have been consumed, or for what length of time it remained effective; but the General and his hand picked members of the "New Party" drank their dosage undiluted each day without fail. General Chang hoped that the majority of his fellow countrymen would make it through the plague, but considered their lives to be of only partial consequence. The plan must succeed either way and he would see that it did.

Jim Bridgert was a very big man. His pappy used to say that things came in four sizes: small, medium, large, and Texas sized. Jim definitely fit into the last of the four categories and that couldn't be denied; but if you were looking to find an ounce of fat on the recently retired Army sergeant you'd be out of luck.

Uncertain just what to do with himself after his twenty four years of service, Jim had been looking for someplace to call his own. He had saved up as much of his pay as he could each pay period planning for the day when he'd be a civilian again. Following the advice of a friend, Jim had pulled out about half of what he'd been saving for retirement and invested in a startup company that had done quite well for itself. It wasn't the goldmine that some of the dotcom companies had seemed to turn into; but it had stayed alive during several of the cyclic up and down periods the economy was subject to and still turned a decent profit.

By the time Jim finally had decided to make a change and retire, he had enough to make an offer on a pretty little place in New Mexico not too far from Santa Fe. He decided that a morning ride might be pleasant and saddled up one of the two horses he'd bought during the summer months and was now housing in the new barn he'd built.

Rosie, the calm and well mannered mare he liked to ride the most, was happy to see Jim and had grown very fond of the big man who often brought her an apple or two. She gently nosed around near the pocket of the jacket he was wearing trying to see if he might be hiding a nice juicy sweet apple in there. Jim laughed at Rosie's antics. He led her out of the barn and was just getting ready to mount up when he looked to the north just as a large plane plummeted down from the sky several miles away. The subsequent explosion shook the ground he was standing on. Rosie was pretty spooked by the noise of the explosion and the movement of the ground. Jim led her over and tied her lead rope off. He ran into the house and dialed 911 and was very amazed when no one answered. Quickly pulling the phone book out of the kitchen drawer he'd stashed it in, Jim looked up the emergency services page and found the number for the local fire department. Again he got no answer. "What in the hell is going on?" he yelled as he slammed the receiver back down.

Running out to his jeep, he hopped in and hit the gas as he headed the four wheeled drive vehicle in the direction of the crash. When he got there, Jim decided there probably wouldn't have been much point in the rescue workers showing up anyway. "God damn!" he muttered as he looked at the flaming pieces of wreckage littering the impact site and the surrounding area. "No way in hell anyone could have survived that."

He took a good look around and verified his original conclusion - no survivors. Back in his jeep he again, Jim headed out to the road that would take him to the nearest town. As he was driving he couldn't help but notice that the road seemed just a bit too empty even for a Saturday morning. The feeling of uneasiness that had been growing ever since he'd seen the plane plummet was ratcheted up yet another notch when he reached the edge of town. Glancing at his watch to double check the time, Jim was amazed that no one seemed to be up yet. He didn't get into town much and hadn't for a week or so; but this was just downright weird!

He drove up to the police station, parked his jeep, and pushed open the glass door. The hackles on Jim's neck rose as he saw the dead bodies on the floor. Jim could see no evidence of a struggle having taken place but he took a look around the place to see what he could learn. His examination confirmed the fear that had been rapidly growing in his mind. He was the only living person in the building. "These bodies don't look right," he said speaking aloud to the empty room. "Don't be an idiot!" he chided himself. "Of course they don't look right. They're dead."

Placing the toe of his boot under the shoulder of one of the victims who had been laying face down, Jim gingerly began to turn the body over. Before he could complete the maneuver, the corpse of the unfortunate officer began to crumple into fine powder.

Jim went back to his jeep and sat down trying to get a handle on things. "Is anyone else alive?" he wondered. He decided the best way to find out might be to make a lot of noise - so he blasted his horn for a minute or more and then just sat back and listened to the eerie silence.

It took a little while, but after about fifteen minutes he saw four other people heading his way from four different directions: two women, a teenage girl, and a young man who looked to be in his early twenties. The next few minutes were a bit chaotic as they began to ask questions all at once.

Finally Jim couldn't take it anymore and the sergeant in him stepped forward, "Quiet everyone!"

"Everyone will get a chance to speak; but we need to remain calm. Obviously something terrible has happened on a massive scale. Now let's just go around the group here and introduce ourselves. I suggest we each tell our name and just a bit about what we've discovered over the past few hours or so."

"My name is Jim Bridgert. This morning when I was out by my barn I saw a large jet crash a short ways away. No one answered my call to 911 or any of the emergency service numbers. I drove to the crashed plane and discovered that there were no survivors. Then I came here to the police station to report it and found all of the people inside were deceased," Jim concluded as he nodded his head towards the woman on the immediate left to indicate that she should go next.

And so it went around the group. Jim met Ann, Jasmine, Heather, and Rick. They were able to give him more of a progression as to what had happened since they lived in town and had seen everyone around them dying over the past three days.

After Rick told what he had seen, he looked at Jim and said "So how isn't you didn't see anyone dying?"

"Well just last year I retired from an Army career as a Sergeant and bought a little secluded place where I could relax and enjoy the scenery. I like company well enough but I don't have a family and I'm new around here so I hadn't really gotten to know that many people yet. I usually drive into town at least once a week for gas and groceries or sometimes to catch a movie or get a bite to eat. This just happened between visits," he told them.

Chapter 2 »