Free Under a Graveyard Sky-eARC by John Ringo

overloaded. All the hospitals are overloaded. Transport of all ten sixty-four hotels is now to 127 Curb Court, Warehouse Seven…”
    “Warehouse district?” Young said, looking up finally.
    “They’re maintaining them there pending some more appropriate facility…” Young said. “Just… Try to get a solid ID, secure and transport. Don’t call an ambulance unless you have a seriously injured civilian that absolutely requires ambulance transport. Ambulances are overloaded with injured and there’s a shortage of ambulance crews… There have now been confirmed locations of the attack vector device on the East Coast. FBI is saying they may have been in place for as much as a week. One was found right here in Williamsburg…”
    “Oh, holy shit…” Young said, shaking his head. He had called his parents and brother. They were all staying inside and basically skipping work.
    “The one bright spot is that CDC is now saying that ten sixty-fours may, again may, not be airborne infectious,” Simmons continued. “The downside is that they are infectious through the blood pathogen and the blood pathogen is extremely aggressive. If you are exposed to the blood pathogen, either due to bleeding from the subject or due to…blood spray, decontaminate immediately. We’re issuing a decon kit per car. We have them onhand thank God.”
    “ Don’t let them bite you,” Patterno said. “Don’t.”
    “Young, that came from you first. I never got the story?”
    “I was responding to a ten thirty-seven yesterday,” Young said. It seemed like ten years ago. “Family loading a sailboat. They were using a dock on one of those foreclosure properties over in Hunter Creek. Loading it for a long trip and they admitted to having a large quantity of weapons in their vehicle. The male subject knew about the upcoming announcement from the CDC. This was just a bit before noon. He stated that I should avoid the blood pathogen as well. Right after that things started to, well, degrade. It was one of the reasons for my decision to act with lethal force in the encounter that day. I swear to God I wasn’t going rogue…something something killer. It was just I was dealing with two ten sixty-fours…”
    “Don’t…” Simmons said, grimacing. “It’s not up for discussion right now. I can’t comment on the shoot. On that subject, though, our rules of engagement remain unchanged . Use minimum force necessary to subdue the ten sixty-fours. Given our new understanding of the situation… The specific wording that I was given is ‘use minimum force necessary consonant with a full understanding of the threat and nature of threat to protect self and others with a high priority to ensure safe processing of the presumed H7D3 afflicted subject.’ Try to remember however these people are acting they are people . People sick with a God damned disease. This isn’t they’re fault…”
    “In a lot of ways it would be easier if they were walking dead,” Patterno said, shrugging.
    “Let’s try to stay away from that meme if we can,” Simmons said.
    “Think I wanted to double tap some poor guy who was just sick?” Young asked, shaking his head.
    “You’re not the only one, man,” Rickles pointed out.
    “We’re recommending that all officers dealing with ten sixty-fours in general use rain gear for the time being until there’s a better fix,” Simmons said, nodding.
    “That’s going to be hot as shit,” Young said.
    “Fortunately, it looks to be a cool day,” Lieutenant Simmons said.
    “For who ?” Patterno replied with a snort.
    * * *
    “If it wasn’t for the reason, I’d be really enjoying this,” Steve said, glancing over at Stacey.
    The wind was kicking up white caps on the choppy waters of the Chesapeake bay and the Hunter was heeled over at a thirty degree angle as it plowed north towards the Baltimore Canal. Steve was being careful to steer well clear of the main shipping channel to the east so they had a clear view