Chapter 2
Friday, October 28th, 1983.
1215
US Legion Base Fort Grove
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Hazard walked out of the room he shared with his mate and down the hall to the common room. The 448 had recently moved into new, larger barracks. They’d relocated to accommodate living with some of the members of their support team in order to build a bigger pack. The soldiers who’d chosen to house in their pack’s barracks would be moving in with them in the next few days. But for now, it was just Hazard, Ice, Jax, and Ortiz living there.
Their team had a rare day off from their duties, so he, Jax, and Ice were going to relax and watch an early season hockey game. Ortiz had elected to head to her office and use the time to get caught up on paperwork.
When he entered the common room, the TV was on, turned to the right channel. Jax sat in one of the big, comfy arm chairs, his long legs stretched out in front of him. Ice lounged on the smaller of the two couches. After greeting Jax, Hazard made a beeline over to Ice, plopping down beside his mate.
“ Ahhhh .”
With a content sigh, Hazard scrunched down to get comfortable, letting his legs loll open wide so that his right knee bumped up against Ice’s left. Then, he slid over on the cushions so that his shoulder rested against the solid bulk of Ice’s arm. Once he was settled, he looked up at his mate with a mischievous grin on his lips. “You don’t mind if I stretch out and get comfortable, do you?”
Ice gave him an exasperated side-eye.
“If you need room to stretch out, there’s another couch over there,” he said, pointing at the empty couch with the ugly green and yellow patterned fabric.
“I don’t like that couch,” Hazard protested.
“Why not?”
“Because it doesn’t have you sitting on it, sir.”
A groan came from Jax at his cheesy line. Hazard pretended he didn’t hear it.
His teasing made the captain blush. Even after a year of Ice going without a face covering in the privacy of their barracks, it was still a treat to see his expressions shown so freely on his handsome face. He adored seeing the rosy blush that swept his mate’s cheeks whenever he teased him.
“How many times do I have to tell you teasing like that will get you into trouble?”
“How many times do I have to tease you before you realize I love being in trouble with you?”
Ice tilted his head down to look directly at him. Hazard boldly met his gaze. As he stared into those lovely, expressive, coffee brown eyes, he almost sighed like a love sick school boy.
“Insubordinate brat,” Ice rumbled low and gravelly.
The sound of that voice sent shivers of desire down Hazard’s spine. He loved listening to his mate’s voice. It was all the more cherished since Ice wasn’t a big talker. That voice called to him, in a way that only a mate’s voice could. It sounded deep and rough in his ear when they made love and whispered sweet words of adoration to him every night as they fell asleep. He would never get tired of hearing it.
“Okay, Captain Anderson. I’ll leave you alone. For now.”
Hazard turned his attention to the TV to watch the game he’d been looking forward to. But he didn’t move out of Ice’s space. And Ice didn’t move either. Since they truly did love being close to each other, they sat there, knees touching, Hazard’s arm looped through Ice’s as they focused on the game.
The three of them watched, relaxed and mostly quiet except for occasional outbursts at a play or ref’s call. Then suddenly the game cut off and the screen turned to static. After a moment, the static went away and a public safety announcement card popped up on the screen.
We interrupt this broadcast for a public safety announcement, a disembodied voice said .
“Hey!” Hazard yelled at the TV. “What is this shit? My team was just about to score!”
“This might actually be important,” Ice said in his low voice.
Hazard crossed his arms over his chest. “Not more important than the game’s first score,” he grumbled under his breath.
The PSA faded from the screen but the game didn’t resume. Instead, the local newscasters appeared. A man and a woman, both brunettes. They sat behind the large newsroom desk, wearing matching expressions of professional concern. The woman spoke first.
“An unknown virus has broken out in Tulsa this morning, infecting dozens of people. We’re bringing you a look at what’s happening right now in the downtown Tulsa area.”
The man spoke just before the screen changed. “Folks, this is not a Halloween prank. This is extremely graphic, so viewer discretion is advised.”
The newsroom disappeared, replaced with shaky camera footage that appeared to be taken from a helicopter. On the streets below, multiple people sprinted back and forth with frenetic energy, chasing pedestrians, and leaping on them to drag them down to the ground. Then they did the unthinkable.
“Sweet Mother...” Jax trailed off into stunned silence before finishing.
“Are they eating people’s faces?” Ice asked with a mixture of shock and disgust in his deep voice.
Hazard was just as appalled. “When did cannibalism become the new diet craze?”
They continued to stare at the TV in horror. Some of those attacked were killed with terrible, gory violence. Others lay writhing and screaming in pain with blood splattered all over their face after their attackers got distracted and raced off in search of a fresh victim.
The camera changed and the male newscaster’s face filled the screen, while the on-the-ground footage continued to play in a small picture-in-picture square at the bottom of the TV.
“The Oklahoma public safety commissioner has issued the following instructions. Everyone is to immediately shelter in place. Barricade yourself wherever you are. Do not speak to strangers. Quarantine anyone who has been bitten or scratched. And call 918-555-4357 to report the infected.” The newscaster paused to shake his head. “This is scary, folks. Don’t take any chances.”
“It truly is, Felix,” his colleague said sadly. She gave the camera a tight-lipped smile. “Keep it locked here on Channel Five and we’ll be right back with more information.”
The broadcast cut to commercial just as the overhead lights began to flash on and off. A second later, the base-wide PA system started blaring an emergency siren.
As Hazard listened, the hackles on the back of his neck rose. That eerie siren was only used to warn of impending danger. His wolf stirred within him, alert and ready to shift if needed.
A sternly voiced announcement sounded over the siren.
This is a Code Z emergency. We are on lockdown. All personnel are to remain on base without exception. No visitors are allowed until further notice. Please report to your immediate commanding officer for further instructions.
Once the announcement finished it started over from the beginning, repeating in a constant cycle while the siren continued to blare. The lockdown order made sense. Their base in Broken Arrow was only a twenty-minute drive from Tulsa. They needed to make sure whatever was happening there didn’t spread through Fort Grove.
Ice stood. “We’d better get to Ortiz.”
Hazard and Jax rose too, and together they left their barracks and set off for HQ where their squad leader was in her office.
Outside, soldiers on foot rushed all around them, following the instruction to report to their COs. The three of them paused to let a vehicle filled with officers speed past before they continued on. When they reached HQ, they strode quickly through the busy halls until they reached Ortiz’s office.
Ice knocked once. At her call to enter, he opened the door for them to step inside. Ortiz sat behind her desk, the phone receiver pressed to her ear. They waited, tense and silent while she finished her conversation.
“Understood. Yes. We’ll be ready to move the second you say the word.”
“What’s going on?” Hazard asked as soon as the major ended the call.
“We don’t know much yet. Just that it’s a Code Z.”
“Fuck,” Hazard swore under his breath.
Code Z was the military term for zombies. They were rare. When they did happen, they mostly popped up in isolated areas and small towns. Each case was different. Sometimes the zombies were mostly dead with only the most basic brain stem function remaining. Others were fully alive but were taken over by an uncontrollable urge to maim and attack. Sometimes they could be cured and returned to their normal human state. Most often, they couldn’t.
But there was one thing each outbreak had in common. They devastated the population wherever they occurred. In some places, entire towns had been wiped out. Either at the hands of the zombies or by armed Legion intervention. All that remained in those cases were empty, sometimes bombed out ghost towns.
This was the first Code Z event in an area as big as Tulsa. In a city of that size, there were a lot more potential victims. It would be much tougher to control the outbreak. And it would be difficult to keep the fact that they existed a secret. As far as the general public was concerned, zombies were an urban myth.
“Let’s get out there and stop it,” Jax said.
“Negative.” Ortiz firmly shook her head. “We’ve been ordered to sit tight for now.”
That order didn’t make any sense to Hazard. “But there’s people out there being attacked left and right!”
“There are containment units mobilizing to take care of rescuing victims and containing the infected. Colonel Gibbs wants us to go after the source of the outbreak once the intelligence team tracks it down. That could be the only way we put a stop to this outbreak. And that’s more important than being on cleanup crew.”
“We may not ever find the source of this outbreak, Major,” Ice said quietly.
His mate was right. Legion forces didn’t always discover the origins of a Code Z.
Ortiz leaned back in her chair. “Have faith in intelligence. Wherever this shit storm originated from, they’ll find it.”