“Ken, just let them join us,” Martina’s mom said. “You’re not going to shoot them, for God’s sake. They’ll freeze out here if they don’t find shelter.”
Martina’s father remained rigid for several more seconds, then his shoulders sagged. He lowered the rifle so that the barrel was pointing at the ground. “All right. You can stay. But if anyone else comes, we turn them away.”
“Sure,” Mr. Weber said. “Sure, of course.”
He brought his car over and together the families started unloading the two vehicles. They were only halfway done when the snow started to fall, so they rushed to get the rest inside.
“For a minute there, I was afraid your dad would shoot us,” Riley Weber said to Martina as the two of them made hot chocolate for everyone later.
“He was just trying to protect us, that’s all.”
“Yeah, I know. Still, it was kind of freaky.”
“Sorry,” Martina said.
Riley shrugged. “It’s okay. Dad’s been pretty crazy himself. When they started reporting about the shipping containers yesterday, he called my mom and told her she needed to get home right away.”
Martina looked at the other girl. “Where was she?”
“Christmas shopping. Down in L.A.”
Martina felt a chill run down her arms.
“Hey, don’t worry,” Riley said. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s okay. There weren’t any of those things anywhere near where she was.”
“How do you know?”
“She didn’t see any and there weren’t any reports of them on the news. Look.” Riley glanced over at her mother in the living room. “She’s fine.”
Martina followed her gaze. Mrs. Weber did, indeed, look fine. If she’d been exposed, it had happened almost a day before, and surely she would have shown signs of something by now. Still, shouldn’t Martina say something to her parents, just in case?
She decided to tell her mom; she’d know what to do. Her dad would just panic.
“I think it’s ready,” Riley said.
Together, the girls poured the hot chocolate into mugs and carried them out.
As soon as she found a moment, Martina took her mother aside and told her what Riley had said. Her mother was concerned, but not overly worried.
“Should we tell Dad?” Martina asked.
Her mom patted her on the arm and smiled. “He’s under a lot of stress right now. Best I’ll have a little talk with Mrs. Weber. For now, we’ll just keep this to ourselves.”
In that, Martina’s mother was right.
22
“We’re switching now to our Pentagon correspondent, Brian Keeter.”
The image of the anchor, Carl Morgan, cut to a split screen, with Morgan on the left, and Brian Keeter on the right, standing in front of a wooden paneled wall that had several flagpoles in front of it.
“Brian,” Morgan said. “What’s the latest from there?”
“Carl, while spokesmen here are not saying anything official at the moment, sources have told us that scientists working at the US Army Medical Research Institute have been able to confirm that the substance being released by the shipping containers is consistent across all the locations they’ve been able to test.”
“Biological?” Morgan asked.
“Again, nothing on the record, but yes, Carl. My sources say the institute has been able to precisely identify the biolo—”
The screen with Keeter’s image suddenly went black. Morgan looked momentarily confused, but quickly regained his composure.
“Apparently we’re having some signal problems with the feed from the Pentagon. We’ll go back to Brian Keeter as soon as we’re able to reestablish the link. In the meantime, we’ve received word that the planned test destruction of one of the boxes has been delayed. No reason has been given, but our experts speculate…”
Not sure how many of you were watching PCN a few minutes ago, but something I would classify as odd just occurred. Resident PCN talking head Carl Morgan was having a discussion with field reporter Brian Keeter when Keeter’s feed was suddenly cut off (Keeter was the reporter who broke the Martin Hills bribery story back in August).
I don’t know about you, but it sure sounded like he was about to reveal what these shipping containers are spitting out on everyone. He was able to at least report that it is biological, not that that’s a big stretch. We’ve all been presuming that. Still, I think it’s the first time anyone has said it as definitively as he did. Well, other than the woman purporting to be Tamara Costello in the viral YouTube video.
Morgan played it off like it was a satellite issue. I call bullshit. I think Keeter’s feed was cut at the source.
Oh, did I mention? He was broadcasting from the PENTAGON!
Lower third graphic over man walking to podium:
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY LIONEL SCHULTZ
SCHULTZ: I have a brief statement, and will be taking no questions after.
(Groans from crowd, and shouts of complaint.)
SCHULTZ: Please, settle down.
(Noise diminishes, but crowd restless.)
SCHULTZ (reading from sheet of paper): Progress has been made in identifying the nature of the threat to our nation and our friends around the world, and steps are being taken to mitigate the problem.
PAUL LUNDEN, REPORTER, ABC NEWS: What steps?
SHEILA BLACK, REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: What’s the nature?
SCHULTZ (still reading): The president has been apprised of every new development, and remains focused on dealing with this issue head-on. At two p.m. eastern time, he will address the nation.
MARY WHITMORE, REPORTER, BBC: Will he be in here?
KYLE NORRIS, REPORTER, PCN: Will he be taking questions?
SCHULTZ (looking at the press pool): The president will be addressing the nation from the Oval Office, and no, there will be no questions. Thank you.
(As Schultz heads off stage, pandemonium breaks out.)
My fellow Americans and citizens in nations throughout the world, over the last day and a half, we have all watched as signs of what we now know is a massive, unprecedented terrorist attack have appeared. The shipping containers we have seen on our televisions have been found in hundreds of cities around the globe. We have been working in conjunction with other governments to 1) determine exactly what the threat is, and 2) figure out how it can be stopped.
I wish I could bring you better news. Scientists working at both the US Army Medical Research Institute and the Centers for Disease Control have been able to isolate the bio-agent and identify it. With the exception of a few minor variations, it resembles the Sage Flu virus that devastated the Mojave Desert area of California last spring, and caused a minor outbreak in St. Louis less than a week ago. It is believed that while quarantine measures have helped isolate many of these viral bombs, enough of the virus has already been released to cause catastrophic problems.