Tuesday, January 29, 2013

2.5.0 Children of the Atom























The ringing is what brought him back. He forgot he had ears up until then. Like when you’re about to fall asleep and something wakes you up, everything comes rushing back. He could feel the scrapes and cuts all over his body, and the warm concrete on his cheek. Atticus opened his eyes and saw the mushroom cloud out in the distant south. It looked like downtown Manhattan; he wasn’t even in the city.

Atticus got to his feet. He was in a neighborhood, a plain American suburban nightmare. Housewives with their faces falling off came rushing at him. Atticus went for his gun, but his holster was empty. Despite his pounding headache, Atticus made himself run away. He turned the corner and the coast was clear for the time being.

He continued running up the street, when behind him zombies collided at the crossroads. He was making too much noise. A horde was brewing, if Atticus didn’t lose them, he would not be able to safely barricade himself in time for fallout. And the clock was ticking; he had about five more minutes left to get inside. He stood under a traffic light and looked down both roads. One way led to a train station, and the other way led up a hill.

Atticus wanted to go to the train station. His instinct told him the train station. But something stopped him; something lied to him under the guise of needing to find his crashed ship. Atticus surveyed the sky around him for smoke. He could not make out the difference between smoke from the burning wreckage of his War Bird and the rotten grey clouds accumulating up above from the burning city. Atticus had to get inside. As he was looking up the hill at the crest before the grey sky, a boy with long blond hair peeking out of his baseball cap was waving and yelling out to him. Atticus ran closer, “OVER HERE!” he was saying, “THIS WAY!”
           
Atticus ran back up the street to get to the top of the hill when the approaching zombies cut him off. He turned down an adjacent alleyway. It could have been a bum in an ordinary day, but today it went for his flesh. Atticus fell back with his hands on the zombie's shoulders, keeping it out of biting range. He kicked it off him and swiped a busted pipe from under a dumpster. Atticus plunged the pipe into the zombie's gut. It was not fazed. Atticus kicked the pipe through and through, tossing the undead bum to the floor. The noise from Atticus bashing the brains of the bum in with the pipe attracted the rest of the horde down the alleyway. To the Captain's avail he hopped a fence ending the alleyway. Once he jumped enough fences, ditching the undead, he caught up with the kid at the top of the hill
“Hey kid! Where are we going!?” 

The kid did not answer but brought him to a man who was waiting behind the wheel of a pick-up truck.
“We’re going to a shelter…a bomb shelter…it’s my Dad’s”
“Simon that’s enough!” yelled the guy as they got into the truck.
“Wait, I have friends…”
“We’ve got her too,” The boy smiled as he showed Atticus a girl who was already in the back of the pick-up truck. Atticus had a look for himself, and the kid was right…it was Rebecca. Once he grabbed her hand she opened her eyes. “Atticus!”
“It’s okay…rest…”
“Where’s Samuel?”
“I don’t know. But we have to go; it might be our only chance at surviving.” Atticus put the blanket on her tighter and turned around. He tapped on the window and slid it open, “PICK UP THE PACE, WE GOT ABOUT TWO MINUTES TIL FALLOUT RADIATION!”
           
The truck took the corner on two wheels and Atticus compensated with a lean; standing strong and checking all the streets they passed for Dr. Chase. “Maybe Samuel has the guns too…”
“I have the guns.” Rebecca said casually.
“You…what?” Atticus turned around.
           
“I grabbed both guns while you were fighting and tucked them down my pants so you wouldn’t find them.” She explained, “When you strapped me in I thought I was going to get blown in half.” She took the blanket off and pulled her shirt up. The cold steel pressed upon her boney hips. Atticus pulled his Desert Eagle out of her waistband, cocked, and loaded it. Rebecca was not expecting that. When he tucked the gun into the middle of his waistband instead of his holster, he said, “You can hold onto the Doctor’s until he gets back,” and then covered the gun with his tan dirt-torn army-issued undershirt.
           
They arrived at the abandoned building. It looked like an apartment building. The boy and what turned out to be his uncle led them down the walkway and stairs to the basement shelter. Sure enough, there was the yellow and black fallout stencil spray painted on the wall. When they got to the lead-metal door it was closed, but visibly unlocked. The uncle tried to push it in when an alarm went off.
           
“GOD DAMMIT ED!” yelled a guy from inside.
“Sorry Clark,” the uncle apologized to his brother.
The door opened and Simon brought Atticus and Rebecca in to meet everyone.
“Luther’s gonna be pissed…”
“This is my Uncle Ed and my Uncle Clark,” Simon proceeded, “Guys this is Captain Atticus Ross and Doctor Rebecca Pratt.” Simon bowed and ran inside. Rebecca must have told them their names, pretty quick for a kid who couldn’t have been older than eight or nine.
“Ed, what are you doing? Luther won’t let more in.”
“He said it himself, the place can hold up to thirty people, we’re not even twenty…this is a doctor and a soldier…”
“It doesn’t matter now, come on!” Clark led Ed along with Atticus and Rebecca farther in.

Simon was hugging his father. He was a tall, stout-chested man with short blonde hair who intimidated his brothers and family merely with his presence. His name was Luther and he was king and ruler of his family as the oldest brother and owner of the bomb shelter. Once he was told about Atticus and Rebecca he greeted them with open arms.

“There is still one more!” Rebecca shouted at him in a dire rebound of subtly.
“We still have loved ones out there as well.”
“So you will wait before you seal the door?”
“The door can always be unlocked if need be,” Luther reassured them, “But in…one minute and twenty-seven seconds…I will close it permanently.”
“What!?”
“OR ELSE WE COULD ALL BE CONTAMINATED AND DIE!” His temper trampled anything else and everyone else in the room.

Atticus took Rebecca away, avoiding confrontation, as they met the other people in the shelter. There was Clark’s wife Brook, and their twenty year old daughter Nora. There was also their family friend Walter who was waiting for his father and son. He was pacing back and forth as Brook tried to calm him, “They should have been here by now…That crazy bastard is going to seal the doors on them…I just know it…”
“No he isn’t,” Brook reassured him, “They’ll be okay. They’ll make it in time.”

Walter settled down when he saw Atticus and Rebecca, something about them made him gather his frantic anxieties. He cooled off and met everyone along with Brook and the rest of the kids. The final seconds Luther counted down for everyone to hear. Walter pushed his fingers through his hair as he watched Luther seal the door after zero. His family was still nowhere to be found. Everyone’s cellphones were dead after the blast, along with almost everything else electronic.
           
Through the window of the door, Walter could see the rising dust from the tires. The clouds were all around them and dropping quickly, soaked in gamma radiation, toxic to human flesh. The car crashed through the apartment building, into the walls, as they jumped out and ran down to the door.
           
“It’s Frank and Wheeler!”
Walter was devastated… What were the odds?
“They have Mr. Summers and Walter’s boy!”
“And some other guy with glasses!” Clark yelled out from the door.
“That has to be him!” Rebecca grabbed Atticus’ arm. He didn’t want to crush her hopes so he smiled. But he also didn’t want her to get her hopes up. Atticus knew what kind of guy Luther was, he was the kind that never goes back on his word, and would do anything to keep his son safe, including letting other people die. He was not opening that door for anyone. Walter got in his face immediately; it took Clark and Ed to hold them back. Luther got free and punched Walter across the face, lifting him up off the floor, and throwing him back down on his ass.
           
Clark and Ed both went at Luther for resorting to violence so quickly. While Walter jumped up and unlocked the door. After that, everyone knew Luther would kill Walter. Even Atticus joined in to restrain Luther as Walter opened the door and let them in. The old man and the boy rushed by, hugging Walter. Frank and Wheeler carried the guy with the glasses in and the three brothers closed and sealed the door. Luther grabbed Simon and ran into the shower room to scrub themselves clean of fallout radiation. As he ran away he yelled, “YOU JUST KILLED US!” YOU JUST KILLED US ALL!”
           
Frank and Wheeler carried the guy past Rebecca and she cried out in joy. It was Dr. Chase. Samuel in the flesh, he had a gushing blow to the head and was unconscious but he seemed to be okay other than that. Atticus ran over and examined him, “Was he awake at all?”
“When we first found him…”
“…Crazy bastard wouldn’t let go of his seat…” Wheeler grinned.
“He was still in his seat?” Rebecca never would have thought.
“Looked like some sort of alien space ship if you ask me…” Frank theorized.
Rebecca shook her head up and down and pretended she had no idea what he was talking about. She looked over at Atticus who was wrapping Samuel’s head and covertly smiling. For the time being Atticus was relieved to see Samuel alive, but he knew the shelter would not escape fallout, nuclear or otherwise.

Monday, January 28, 2013

2.4.0 Project Clean Sweep





















The War Bird flew into the air leaving Saarsgard in Hartford. The horde had swallowed the stadium up whole. There was no front; there could never be a front. As much as the government wanted there to be, this wasn’t a war, it was an apocalypse. The stadium was a coliseum in the wasteland, the last structure standing. But just like the Roman Empire, the stadium fell.

 Waiting for Atticus was the military’s fatal flaw, General Saarsgard put all his eggs into one basket and lost everything when the plague devoured the base from the inside-out before they could mount an offensive. If it wasn’t for Atticus disobeying direct orders Samuel and Rebecca would be dead along with everyone else. Now they floated in the air while the ground underneath them rotted and the skies above contained the deadliest weapons known to man.    


Atticus switched over from hover-mode to get to New York as fast as possible.
“How do you know where you’re going?”
“Look at the map on my orders, I-95 goes all the way down to Florida and hits practically every major city on the east coast along the way.” Atticus explained, “I’m just following the highway.”
“…Arrow One please land at the next airstrip…”
Atticus looked back, “We’re in trouble.”
…You have not yet been issued orders in Project Cleansweep…”
What the hell is Project Cleansweep!?” yelled Samuel.
 “But that’s just a story they tell in boot camp,” Atticus rambled, “it can’t be…”
“Captain…” Rebecca came up next to him and put her hand on his shoulder, “What’s wrong?”
“They’re going to drop nuclear bombs on all the major east coast cities… I’m sorry, Sam…”
“…No…”
“Can we get there in time?” Rebecca remained ignorant.
“It’s too late.”
“We have to try!”
            
Atticus was scared. He did not want to show it, but he knew it would not be long until the bombs went off. Death surrounded them from every angle. Survival looked bleak. He pulled away and tried to land the ship.

“What are you doing?”
“We’re not going to survive the blast if we’re flying.”
“We can’t stop now!”
“The nukes are going off any second!”
“WE STILL HAVE TO TRY!” Samuel jumped on Atticus and punched him in the face, grabbing a hold of the controls and steering back on course. Atticus kicked Samuel’s legs out from underneath him and they wrestled on the floor while the navigation system went wild and the ship spun out of control.

“STOP IT!” Rebecca yelled at the top of her lungs as she held onto her seatbelt. Atticus pulled himself free from Samuel and got back in the pilot seat. Samuel took out his gun and went to pistol-whip Atticus in the back of the head when Atticus caught Samuel’s arm and twisted it, disarming him.

Samuel threw his head into Atticus’ forehead and knocked him onto the floor. A blast went off rocking the ship. Rebecca cried. The radar shorted-out. Atticus read the navigation charts, “That was Boston…”
           
Samuel kept flying the ship south; they were above the Long Island Sound now, rapidly approaching Manhattan. Atticus pulled his gun from his holster, took the safety off, and cocked the barrel, pointing it at Samuel. “I’m only going to say this once,” as he spat blood out of his mouth from his dripping forehead, “Get up or I’ll shoot you.”
           
Samuel put his hands in the air and got up from the cockpit. He backed away and Atticus did not harm him. Instead he restrained him and cuffed him to the table where he had thrown down his orders. There Samuel saw the names of things he had almost forgotten; it was the final phase of Project Clean Sweep, a last failsafe. Samuel kept reading, “After retrieving the three devices equip them to the ship and collect a hand-picked team for expedition. First recruit: founder and creator of the devices theoretical physicist Dr. Samuel Gordon Chase and his family.”
           
Samuel could not keep reading after that. He crumbled up the paper and threw it away. Atticus knew one last thing that Samuel had not seen on the objective list, the location of the three pieces.
“So where are they?” Samuel caught on quickly.
“Where do you think they kept them?”
“Somewhere close…”
           
“Somewhere close indeed,” Atticus frowned as he put the ship on an auto-piloted landing course and released Samuel from the handcuffs, "They're back at Hartford with Saarsgard."

"That was our last hope..."
           
Another blast rocked the ship out of auto-pilot, this time a light blew a hole in the atmosphere in front of them over the island of Manhattan. Atticus jumped back into the cockpit and had no other choice but to pull up. In one last desperate attempt to save their lives, Atticus tried to fly the War Bird into space. He changed course and blasted all his engines to maximum capacity. The ship was buckling and cracking, the pressure was rising. Samuel got Rebecca back in her seat safely and got his seatbelt on before the wave from the blast him them.
           
Combined with the pressure of Atticus’ drastic evasive maneuvers, the hull could not take it and cracked. The air pressure went through the roof and the controls spun out as the electromagnetic pulse emitted from the radioactive blast shut everything in the ship down except for emergency systems including life support. The ship went into its final tailspin for the ground.  
           
In the air they plummeted… towards a melting earth. Samuel stared at Rebecca as the world came crashing down around them. They were held tight by their seats on both sides of the ship, holding on for dear life. Atticus clenched his steering console as the ship tore apart all around him. The wires cracked and sparks snapped through the walls at them. The pipes broke and oil leaked causing fires, as the mushroom cloud outside the cracking windows drew ever closer and consciousness evaded Samuel, scorched reality had final swallowed him up.
           
He tried to hold on for dear life. He tried to hold on for his dear wife, for his family. He wanted to survive. Samuel had to survive. He could save humanity. If given the chance Samuel Gordon Chase could bring the light back to all mankind.

The sun was never seen again the same way in the east. After five nuclear warheads go off, how could it?  In one fell swoop south 200 years of country and capital was destroyed…the foundations of liberty and justice gone forever. And this was just a cannibalistic contingency for the end, a desperate attempt to sweep the slate clean, for many feared but only a few knew what was to come... 

Friday, January 25, 2013

2.3.0 Startling Realizations






















They came into Hartford from the North, the only way into the city that was not overrun. The stadium was filled with wounded and infected civilians. Not only was it reinforced with iron barricades along the walls, doors, and windows, but mounted hollow-point machine guns and mortar turrets stationed both inside and outside of the stadium.

The military was massing at the stadium for a retake of the city. The tactical maneuver was a sweep across the coast of the Long Island Sound until the liberation of New York was possible. If that could be attained other major cities riding down the eastern seaboard might be saved. If the front could not be held now, the infection would spread to every corner of the Earth. The end of the world was rapidly approaching and the United States Armed Forces were doing everything in their power to prevent it.
           
They no longer fought terrorists; they burned the dead and put a bullet in the head of the undead. A soldier, by definition, had a completely different role in society now. An enemy that shot back was virtually unheard of except for the rioters. Samuel had this ideal image of all the nations of humanity coming together to fight and endure the zombie revolution. That was in no way close to their current reality. A truth Atticus would have to brace Dr. Samuel Chase slowly for. Although Atticus was younger than Samuel, he had lost his youthful hopefulness and optimism, and inherited a soldier’s apathy and cynicism while in the military, making him much older than his years. He knew what this world was coming to, and what it called for now.

Atticus started the landing process. Every soldier around the War Bird looked amazed, like it was an alien space ship. The outside of the War Bird was smooth and the engines and boosters were prepped for deep space travel. It’s no wonder why they thought that. Upon landing Atticus adjusted the auxiliary engines on the wings into hover mode and the entire ship shifted. The wings flattened and the bow and the stern contracted, as the booster engines slid under the bird, switched off, and were replaced by sonic pulse emitters pointed at the floor. 

Atticus attached the pulse emitter’s coordinates onto the landing pad and brought them in flawlessly. They landed and Atticus shut down all the fancy equipment. Dr. Chase exited the ship with Rebecca and they have a look around. There was no man standing around. The ones that were not on guard or out in the fight were building and reinforcing barriers all around, using such materials from sandbags to extra benches and tables. This was nothing they had seen before. Amongst the troops were civilian wearing armor and carrying automatic weapons, they must be taking volunteers now. This was all out war. Atticus joined them and they stepped down the walkway.

“General Saarsgard is waiting for you, Captain. Right this way.”

They were brought through the base in the middle of the stadium’s center, an impromptu fortress, made up of mostly tents; they had a better look hovering up above. It seems that the skies felt the safest in this terrible world now. Atticus led them into the room and saluted the general, Samuel and Rebecca followed suit. The General sat them down at the conference table and began. 

“Rebecca, I’m glad that you are safe, but in a couple of minutes the CIA and FBI are going to come through those doors and arrest you, followed by interrogation, and then most likely they will take you away to a laboratory and conduct experiments on you all in search for a cure.”
“Is this a scare tactic, Saarsgard?” Samuel demanded to know.
“I’m afraid not, Doctor.”
“I never took the pills. If it’s a test subject you need, I kept my husband alive and trapped inside my house.”
The General, Dr. Chase, and Atticus all looked shocked to hear it.

“You mean to tell me that patient zero is still attainable?”
“Yes, sir.”
“It seems as though Ansem’s death might be the cause and cure of all this,” Samuel pointed out.
“…Ansem’s Death….”
“General?”

General Saarsgard walked out of the command center.
“What was that about?” Rebecca asked Atticus.
“Well, Doctor Pratt, the military has a niche for codenames, and I think our General just found the perfect one for this epidemic thanks to Samuel.”
Outside, General Saarsgard addressed the FBI and CIA agents and all forces not busy at the front were immediately assigned to the task of retrieving Ansem Weathers. The General walked back in.   
“Do we need to get her out of here, General?” Atticus asked.
“For the time being, no… They are distracted…you’ll be safe.”
“If there’s nothing else you need from us then, General. I would like to request Captain Atticus take me to my family.”

“I’m sorry Doctor but there are no personal escorts. NORAD won't admit it, but that vessel is one of our strongest weapons, so…essential to this operation that I have been awaiting its arrival to commence. Now that it is here, you are asking me if you can take it away again? I am sorry, Doctor Chase. Not while we still have it in one piece…Not while there is still a front to fight.”

Samuel slammed the table and walked out of the room. He was outraged, and there was nothing he could do about it. He was in Hartford, Connecticut…What was that…four…five hours away from the city? He had to find a car. Samuel began putting a plan together in his head as he wandered down the hallway, unaware of where he was going. 

Back in the command center, Saarsgard began to give the strike codes to his lieutenants. He issued Captain Atticus Ross his orders in the Rising Front Op. He was to blaze a path down Interstate 95 and firebomb every major city along the way…
“…along the way……to….”

And that’s when he saw the orders, written on a government piece of paper, that which Saarsgard just withheld from Samuel. Atticus looked back up and pulled the general aside.
“Sir…you told him…”
“I told him what he needed to here to stay alive. New York is lost…His family is dead…It’s a suicide mission…”
“Is that you’re call, sir?”
“Yes it is.”
“On whose authority?”
“Are you questioning my authority, Captain?”
“No sir, just pointing out that Doctor Chase is a civilian…sir…”
“…A civilian employed by the United States government and asking for military resources.”
“Yes, sir.”
“As you were, Captain.”

Atticus left the command center to try and catch up with Samuel. Rebecca watched Atticus stand up for Samuel and all her suspicions and bad feelings about him disappeared. Beneath his rough exterior he was a good man, and she knew what good men do. Rebecca followed Atticus out of the room, "This is bullshit," Atticus vented, knowing Rebecca was behind him. His soldier's reserve beginning to erode away. "That asshole is going to get us all killed."
"What are going to do?" Rebecca got next to him.
"Find Doctor Chase."

“Atticus,” Samuel dropped his bag, “What are you doing here?”
“He wants to help you,” Rebecca answered for him.
“Wait a second,” Atticus’ wheels’ turned, “Were you gonna steal the War Bird, Doc?”
“I was looking for the best ride to New York,” Samuel tried his charm.
“Well I can’t blame you for coming to the right place…” Atticus smiled. 
"What about the op? What about the fight?"
"I got news for you, doc..." Atticus told his story walking into the War Bird, "I've been trained to look at every scenario from a bird's-eye perspective and this whole clusterfuck reeks, I'm talkin' a success rate of zero."
Rebecca gasped. 
"Clusterfuck?" Samuel laughed, "Is that a military term, like...FUBAR?"
"Might as well be...It's time we start looking out for our own asses, starting with your family, doc."
Samuel didn't argue, but Rebecca felt the voice of reason, "You're going AWOL, and we're betraying our country."
"It's not about that anymore. Times are changing, sweetheart. America is dead and gone. And this might be the only chance we get to save ourselves. I mean they've got infected people inside the base for Christ's sake! It's just a matter of time before-"

Suddenly a shake within the foundation of the stadium erupted and an alarm sounded off. Screams down the hall and gunfire scared Samuel and Rebecca into the ship after Atticus, who was already starting the take off procedures when the General radioed in, “…Captain, come in Captain, Operation Rising Front has been compromised, they have infiltrated the sanctuary, prepare for extraction…”

Saturday, January 19, 2013

2.2.5 A Little Fun in the Apocalypse




















Atticus flew over New York high in the clouds for Samuel’s benefit. The poor doctor did not need to be tortured by the sight of a rotting city. After all, Atticus promised Samuel he would take him there to find his family, and he still intended on keeping that promise.
           
They quickly approached the impromptu command center located in Newport, Rhode Island, 90 miles east of the Red Zone’s northern tide. This base was constructed out of the old mansions on the islands. With their back to the ocean and the old stone walls the base could not be surrounded or penetrated.
           
After the initial outbreak of the disease in the tri-state area, the plague quickly spread in every direction, but it especially sprang south and west. The military’s best plan of attack was to focus on weak points within the infection: one seemed to be the cold air and another was rough terrain and high altitudes. So they used the New England coast with places like Newport and Cape Cod, to launch fronts against the spreading disease. General Saarsgard was located at the frontline command center, located somewhere in Hartford.
           
“We’re receiving the updated coordinates now,” Atticus informed them, “They want us to follow a convoy up the road to Hartford and offer aerial cover fire.”
           
“Does this ship have weapons?”
           
“Doc, you have no idea,” Atticus laughed as he flicked an orange switch on the console, turning it red and setting a verbal alarm off that repeated, “BATTLE MODE READY” while moving Samuel’s seat forward and opening up a new weapons console in front of both of them.

Rebecca got out of her seat and stood over Samuel as he grabbed the joysticks and triggers. A radar grid came up in front of him on a 3D screen and plotted out all recognizable zombie signatures by the temped temperature of the walking dead corpses. The screen adjusted and flushed parallel with Samuel’s own perspective out of the cockpit windows. The targets locked on and a carousel of armed weaponry came online for Samuel to scroll through.
           
“There are so many options,” he professed.
           
Rebecca helped him examine them all; two doctors of war.

Atticus instructed, “Just don’t use anything that there’s only one of…like the nuke.”
Samuel and Rebecca leaned back, “…there's a nuclear missile on this thing?”
“What do you think the reactor is?”
           
Samuel looked up at Rebecca and together they chose something safe for starters. The frag turrets armed on both wings of the ship spun into ready position and Samuel began to fire on the targets.
           
The convoy traveled up the highway ramp and was on route to their Triage base at the XL Center; formerly the Hartford Civic Center, “You know,” Atticus added, “Where the Whalers used to play.” He explained as the navigational screen had the route through Hartford pulled up and the Center highlighted. The frag cannons emptied and the trigger under Samuel’s fingers clicked.
           
“Switch to the scatter guns.” Atticus instructed.
           
The convoy turned off the highway and back onto the side roads. The plotted course was a 2 hour Northwest zigzag through residential Connecticut. People were already either evacuated or dead. At the gun, Samuel found that there were only two cases illustrated outside: the first being just the one random zombie along the road, and the other being what many have come to call “The Horde”, just an endless stream of bloodthirsty flesh-eaters overcoming any obstacle that is put in their way, like a swarm of insects.
           
The scatter gun made quick work of the horde. Samuel felt like he was playing video games with his son, Warren; a thought that could either keep him going or have him collapse in utter despair. Picking off arms and legs, popping zombie heads, he felt detached, like it was unreal; and that was good for this instant. If Samuel had thought about all the people’s father’s and mother’s, children, and loved ones he was putting down he would not have been able to pull the trigger. Samuel Gordon Chase was always a man of compassion and empathy.

Two traits that cannot survive the new world.
             
Samuel was working it all out in his mind slowly. He was not quite at the point of realization that Atticus was operating on. Atticus knew these people were gone and all that remained were corpse-monsters. He would do whatever it took to survive and never become one of them, whether it meant killing the dead, killing the living, or even killing himself…

Dr. Samuel Gordon Chase was a theoretical physicist with his head in the stars; he operated on hopes and dreams. By now they had both seen enough to have the same outlook on this tragic turn of events. But Samuel’s past moral and ethical foundations motivated him to hang onto his search for meaning and answers in this godforsaken world.
           
Atticus turned to reason and what he could see and grasp with his dirty callused hands. Samuel had faith in the unknown; nothing can be fully proven by science or mathematics. And that is why anything is possible; you just have to find the right equation. He believed that everything happened for a reason and one day who he was and who he was meant to be would merge together and change the world forever, saving mankind. They both put a lot on their plates, not knowing that the other was already stacking against them. But in the end they would need each other to clash upon the rock and show them the tide.  

“…Arrow One, please advise, a roadblock up ahead in five miles. The convoy will not be able to go around it…”
           
Atticus flew five miles ahead of the convoy to the roadblock.
“Would you look at that…” Rebecca gasped at a graveyard of tractor-trailers blocking the road.

“The scatter guns won’t be able to shoot through that,” Atticus figured out loud. He leaned over and punched a button with an orange icon of a flame on it. An alarm went off until it was quickly muted by the radio coming back on.

“…Use of napalm is authorized…”

“Napalm…”
"This just keeps getting better."
“Just aim carefully, Doc” Atticus laughed at Samuel’s naivety.

Samuel pressed the trigger reluctantly, dropping quiet bombs from underneath the War Bird, sending a blanket of fire down onto the suburban streets of Connecticut. Whoa. Rebecca watched over Samuel’s shoulder as the tractor-trailers and everything around it was turned to dust. The unlucky zombies caught in the blast never saw it coming. The convoy continued on its course unblemished. Every member of the military convoy spent the past 2 hours worry-free with the War Bird watching over them from above like a guardian angel.
           
“We’ve made it. I can see the stadium. Now switch to incendiaries and let’s plow a runway into the parking lot.” Atticus directed Samuel at the weapons station.

Samuel rotated the armory and armed the guns with incendiary missiles. He pulled the radar back up to an aerial view and targeted the massing horde outside the stadium walls. Atticus flew ahead of the convoy and hovered around the center as Samuel launched the missiles. They scattered and swirled wildly into the air like wayward fireworks. The explosions rocked the iron walls of the stadium. The dead and the undead burned up all the same from the missiles.
           
“…Arrow One, you have been cleared for landing…”
           
“…Welcome to Fort Troy…”