Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 71

We did not see the child again after the soldiers arrived, and I doubted she'd be under the pile of dead bodies considering that the other vectors were smart enough to flee. No. She's still controlling them, so I kept an eye out.

The convoy headed down Madison Avenue, and I could already see the skyscrapers ahead. We're getting closer to the others, but something caught my ear from upfront.

"We're evacuating the entire city," Faraday, the soldier, said. There was something familiar about his face.

"But I thought we're retreating to Arbor Hill and regroup," Peter pressed on.

"Too many good men died to those freaks. General Donahue thinks we cannot take it back. The cost outweighs the benefits, er, that sort of thing. The city is lost, kid."

"How about the rest of our men trapped and needed rescue?"

At this, Faraday paused. He and the driver shared a look of pity, probably had heard this question before. "If they can't contact us before nightfall, then they're on their own."

"But the civilians—"

"We work with what we get. Our mission is to scour the nearby districts for survivors who managed to make contact with us and bring them in before nightfall. That counts for something. You all are lucky we found you when we did. Then, we're taking everyone west. We'll do a last-ditch effort to reduce their numbers later tonight."

"How?"

"We'll release sarin gas in the heavily affected areas."

"Holy shit." I blurted out. They're going to use nerve gas.

"Relax. It won't be the entire city, and we're careful it won't reach downtown. We're strategically releasing them around our exit routes. Before you know it, we'll be heading for Pittsburgh once the gas clears in a few days without resistance. Perhaps we'll go south and head down to Baltimore or to DC. I heard the president is still alive and has surrounded himself and his cabinet with two regiment-worth of soldiers. Greedy bastards."

"If we're releasing gas, we can clean house easily," Haskell said confidently. "Why can't we hunker down and wait for them to die? Then rebuild the zone?"

I shook my head, and Faraday caught it. "You know what will happen, kid?" Faraday asked me.

Peter, Luke, and Haskell all turned to me. I sighed. "Nerve gas is twenty-six times more potent than cyanide. It can enter your system by breathing it in or by touching your skin. You'll have thousands of bodies out on the streets by the end of the day. It'll be hard to clean them up, which means those bodies will rot and decompose, attracting flies, rats, and insects, which breed all kinds of diseases. And you didn't mention anything about the infected outside the walls."

"Nope. I did not."

"Then, they can still fill the bucket the second you emptied it out."

"Bingo. Hear that, Haskell? This city's fucked already."

Haskell did not bother to respond.

I also learned from Faraday that the VIPs—government officials, research scientists, engineers, and the top brass—were not evacuated to the university. They were transported to the walled-in Albany International Airport, around three miles north of the central safe zone (at this time, I did not know that the university was being sieged by a massive horde).

Clemons was probably still waiting for me, perhaps wondering if I was still alive. He's the type of man to leave last on a sinking ship, so I reckoned he must still be at the university, organizing the evacuation.