Free Brent Acuff - Undead Nation 02 by Rescue Page A

has is a bit easier with the number of actual walled cities from their past. There is also lots and lots of people who don't live in or near a populated area. People in this country like their space and work hard to purchase property where they can spread out. That in itself makes containment very hard if not near impossible." Alex shrugged his shoulders as if what he was saying was nothing special. "If your goal is to slow down the infection by eliminating large portions of it at one time, well, you hit it where it is."
    "Okay, fine," Marshal said. "But why only the big cities? Why are only small towns included in the isolation process?"
    "It's really simple, actually," Donovan offered. "Smaller cities usually have a more spread out community. Their distance away from major populated areas and large hospitals will make them less likely to come into contact with the infection, greatly reducing the number of individuals that you have to screen and deal with. Also, the smaller the town, the easier it is to effectively seal off that community from the outside world and keep the contagion out."
    Alex smirked at Donovan. "Damn. Where were you when I was doing all of this? I could have used you."  
    "But if you take out the larger cities...there are universities, business, government. You'd be destroying the great minds that could help rebuild this country after the infection was cured." Marshal just didn't seem to have the right mindset for planning the containment of a global killer.
    "There are smart people in small towns, too, you know." Liam sounded genuinely offended by what Marshal had said.  
    "No...wait. That's not what I mean..." Marshal quickly back-peddled when he realized what he had implied.
    "Calm down, you two. Both of you are right," Alex said. "During the first phase, the President, Vice President and key members of Congress and the government would be moved to secure locations and quarantined. This evacuation of essential personnel would also include some of the great minds in our society today. This is relatively the same kind of evacuation plan that is in place should the country come under attack, with the key difference being the implementation of a strict quarantine of all personnel at the site. Anyone showing to be infected..." The rest did not need explanation.
    "And the city-states? They would just fend for themselves?" Dr. Cahn asked.
    "Not exactly," Alex responded. "It's no secret that the US Government has massive stockpiles of food and supplies in the event of a national emergency. These resources would be airlifted into the quarantined areas keeping those survivors supplied throughout the initiation of the plan. This could, in reality, be anywhere from six to eighteen months, depending on the size of the outbreak and the effectiveness of the containment procedures."
    "And after the initial quarantine period was over? What then? What do we do to take back this country?" Donovan asked.
    Alex laughed at this question. A great belly laugh that he struggled to keep under control. "And that, dear friends, I really did get from a book." He laughed again and everyone looked to one another, not sure what the joke was all about.
    "Don't you remember?" Alex asked. "I told you all that I knew what I was doing because I had read a book about it? Well, I did. 'The Zombie Survival Guide' by Max Brooks. And I'll be damned if he didn't have some pretty good ideas. Even struck gold with them more than once."
    "So what was his great idea that you stole?" Liam asked, very curious.
    "Simple. You form a line of men, arms with apart, from the southern to the norther borders of the continental United States. You start, literally, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and you walk. Step after step, mile after mile, destroying anything that isn't alive." Alex laughed again at the thought. "Genius. Pure genius."
    Marshal spoke up again. "That's it? Seriously...that's it? You 'walk' across the US, and that will get rid of every