Free In Harm's Way by Shawn Chesser

bright lights--then I have a hunch the Z’s won’t be able to resist.” The Captain took a sip from his bottled water. The distant sound of an approaching transport plane ambushed the silent moment.
    “Airman Monsour’s idea to lure the dead wherever we want them has so far been working as imagined. However, there are some logistical logjams that we are trying to breach. We are nearly out of ammunition and about to deploy our backup slingshots...” This brought a couple of snickers from the shooters in the room, Cade included.
    The Captain let his joke ride for a moment and sipped his water before continuing. “Our 10th Special Forces group from Fort Carson recently spearheaded a resupply mission with remnants of the 4th Infantry Division. Their objective: the Hawthorne Army Depot in the middle of nowhere Nevada. They completed phase one of the mission with no casualties. Preliminary reports indicate that they located the ammunition that they were tasked with retrieving. In addition, they are returning with survivors, both civilian contractors and also the Marines that had been guarding the depot. The C-130s are wheels up, and en route, as of this moment.”
    The outside door opened and four stoic Secret Service men filtered into the room. President Valerie Clay entered next, followed by four more rough looking men making up the rest of her security bubble.
    The air went out of the room. After a brief shifting of bodies, the crowd straightened up and every right arm in the room saluted simultaneously.
    President Valerie Clay reciprocated to the best of her ability, returning a crisp salute of her own.
    “Madam President, do you want the podium?” Gaines asked.
    “No sir. Carry on,” urged the President.
    “Thank you, Madame. Lastly, there is very encouraging news to report on the Omega front. A team of Tier-One operators led by General Desantos successfully evacuated key personnel from the CDC along with all of the files documenting their ongoing research of the Omega virus. The doctor now has an operational lab at his disposal. I won’t go into detail, but we filled out the equipment list Doctor Fuentes provided us, thanks to the vacant genome research facility ten miles from here that, unbeknownst to them, so graciously donated their entire lab. Credit goes to the 4th ID for that successful mission.”
    A chorus of hooahs resounded from about the room.
    “Madame President, the podium is yours.” Captain Gaines replaced his beret and readjusted the microphone for President Valerie Clay.
    After the President took the podium and proffered a few off-the-cuff words of encouragement directed at everyone in attendance, she ended the general briefing and waited for the room to empty. President Clay then dismissed her security detail, leaving only General Desantos, Major Nash, Colonel Shrill, Captain Gaines, Cade and a handful of other shooters behind for the combat operations briefing.

Chapter 8
     
    Outbreak - Day 8
    Schriever AFB Infirmary
    Colorado Springs, Colorado
     
    Cade gently opened the door and entered as quietly as possible for a man wearing combat boots. Brook looked like an archeologist working on a dig, perched on a stool, hunched over with her face hovering just inches above Carl’s prostrate body. She was fully immersed in the task at hand. Cade felt guilty for intruding but he had little choice.
    Brook looked up from what she was doing. Her eyes smiled when she noticed it was her man standing a few feet away from her. “I’m finished removing the old dressings and now I begin cleaning up Carl’s back,” she said, thinking out loud.
    “How bad were his wounds?” Cade asked in a hushed tone as he crept closer to the bed.
    “In addition to the broken ankle, I think you only got to see his mangled face yesterday. He was peppered with a back blast of buckshot. I performed field surgery on him outside of Bragg with dime store tweezers. His modeling career is shot, but he’ll be prettier than the