Just as the truck past them about fifty feet, it came to a stop.
Marissa smile, Harris showed excitement, and Toby did a little skip and jump
It was one of those long, green military trucks with a tarp canopy covering the entire back. They quickly made their way to the truck and as soon as they got there, relieved and slightly out of breath, the back gate dropped, the tarp opened, and two Chinese soldiers jumped out, aiming their weapons at them.
“What the hell?” Harris asked.
“Bags. Bags. Down,” the one soldier said. “Hands up.”
Toby did as instructed, dropping his bags and raising his hands. Once Harris and Marissa did the same, the soldier swung his weapon and pointed to the truck.
“In,” he ordered. “In now.”
Toby didn’t have a clue what was going on, or why Asian soldiers had guns on them. He did as he was told, he would have believed that maybe China came to help if he didn’t have a gun in his face.
As soon as Toby was close to the back gate of the truck, he knew they weren’t rescuers and they were in trouble. The inside of the back end of the truck was filled with people, all looking scared and all of them Americans.
Outskirts of Houston, TX
He was tired. His journey from his homeland to America had been nonstop and long, but General Liu wasn’t ready to stop, he couldn’t. He relaxed on the plane, taking the time to look over his area and the plans laid out for him.
He hated it.
If his country were to put on the appearance of being humanitarian and helping America, the detention camps were not the way to do so.
His folder stated his area had already initiated nine detention camps. Four of which were filled to capacity. They were wasting valuable resources and manpower detaining people. People they had to feed, house, and guard. That wasn’t including the camps erected for those who were displaced. Americans who had lost their homes to the bombs and were seeking refuge and answers. In his opinion, it was an undertaking that was too large.
There was no inkling of war, nothing to suggest that China would attack and invade the United States. The only reason he could think of were the recent tariffs that hurt their country. Not to mention the tax placed on imports of food.
All of those were negotiable items, not war worthy.
He was supposed to go to San Antonio, his base of operation. Instead, he needed to see something he never thought he would see in his lifetime: the devastating effects of a nuclear weapon on a large American city. The George Bush International Airport was unaffected by the bombs, at least the runways were. He set a course for that. Fen Shu wasn’t happy and expressed her dismay. General Liu didn’t care. He set a course to land at that airport after circling around Houston.
When they did, he couldn’t believe it and couldn’t take his eyes off of it.
The gleaming city of Houston which was spread across a flat terrain, encircled by its intricate wide roadways, took the brunt force of the nuclear weapons.
The bomb had hit dead center causing a massive crater that ate most of the city and buildings. The outer area of the crater was rubble and the roadways were twisted wreckage.
A thin cloud lingered in the area hiding a lot of damage, but General Liu didn’t need to see fully to know what had happened and what was left.
The air was deemed safe enough for short term exposure with low level readings of radiation, and General Liu ordered that they land.
“I don’t understand why it is we are landing,” Fen said.
“This area is devastated. I need to see what we are doing with those who have survived.”
“Minimal. There is not much we can do without a surrender.”
“There were two million people that lived in this area, and you tell me we are doing minimal?”
“It is all part of the plan. If we take care of them their hands will not be forced for a surrender. Right now, the Americans are setting up their own medical camps. We are merely overseeing them.”
“Then I need to see what we have done.”
Once they landed, a car waited for them. Fen repeatedly expressed that it was not part of his job to but the general disagreed. If he was to control an area, he needed to know everything that he had to control.
The first medical station they visited was located not far from the Houston epicenter. The People’s Republic of China was present, but mainly it was an American set up.
At least two dozen large white tents were erected, and in the field surrounding that, hundreds of people camped out. This was their home.
They were shouted at, spat at, and even had items thrown at them as they walked into the medical area.
The Americans made it clear they were not welcome.
Liu looked at every person he passed. All of them began looking the same. Dirty faces, some had injuries that were not healing. People lay on blankets and in the grass. Their faces expressed loss, hurt, and anger.
The first tent they entered, Fen left immediately. The smell was horrendous, rotting, burnt, and sour. Liu took a mask and covered his mouth and nose, though it did little to cover the smell.
The large tent was packed with cots and every single one of them was occupied.
He walked through, looking at the victims, many of them burned, missing limbs. Some too sick to even move while only a handful of healthcare workers moved about.
He walked through that tent and into the next.
That one was different. Even though it was just as packed it had a quieter feel to it. Those in that tent didn’t seem to be injured, they were different, and he noticed it right away when he looked upon a man who lay on his side. The man coughed out of control and turned left to right as if he were trying desperately to get comfortable. His skin was pale, glistening with a layer of sweat, but the entire area around his nose and mouth was covered with sores. General Liu slowed down and looked at the man. Not only was it his face, but his hands had the same sores.
He turned to the cot next to the man and the person there, a woman, looked the same.
Something was wrong.
Immediately, he started to visually examine the patients. They all looked the same: sores, pale, sweaty, and the general then sought out someone on the medical team that was helping them.
His English was pretty good, and he approached a woman wearing scrubs. “These people here. What is this? Radiation? They don’t look like the others.”
The woman ignored him and kept moving.
Frustrated, he followed the woman. “I am speaking to you.”
She spun around. “I don’t care. I’m busy. I’m taking care of people you… you and your people hurt.”
“These people are victims of the bombs?” he asked. “They do not look it. This looks like sickness.”
“It is.”
“From the bombs?”
“I doubt that,” she replied. “These people survived the blast and the radiation.”
“Then what is it?”
“Why don’t you tell me,” she said. “Because they all just started coming in two days ago not long after you arrived. I guess the few bombs weren’t enough. It’s no coincidence that some sort of virus is now out of control. So why don’t you tell me what you brought? So we can try to help these people.”
General Liu didn’t have an answer.
“If this interests you, move on to the next tent, there’s another two hundred there. And take a deep breath, maybe you’ll get it.”
Before he could respond, she had moved on.
She had to be mistaken. If he understood her correctly, she was accusing and blaming the invasion for an outbreak, some sort of biological warfare. To the best of his knowledge that wasn’t part of the plan, not at all. Then again, with Fen Shu at the helm, he couldn’t be all that certain that they hadn’t brought the disease to America. Thinking about what Fen had said, make America weak and needy, a deadly viral outbreak would be the thing that would do just that. He had to wonder even as cold and callous as she was, would she do something as inhumane as that? There was only one way to find out, he would ask. In the meantime, he would move the supplies required to the medical station to get the sick the help they needed. That was the least he could do.