The Necropolis Trilogy (Book 2): The Contained Read online

  THE CONTAINED

  Book 2 of the Necropolis Trilogy

  Sean Deville

  Copyright 2017 by Sean Deville

  “They’re coming to get you, Barbara”

  – Johnny, Night of the Living Dead

  Important Characters

  British Government

  Arnold Craver – Head of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (MI5)

  Bill Dodson – Prime Minister’s Private Secretary

  ‘Davina’ – Interrogator MI6

  Sir Nicholas Marston – Chief of the Defence Staff

  Sir Michael Young – Head of MI5

  Sir Stuart Watkins – Head of MI6

  Snow – MI6 Agent

  British Military

  Arthur Mansfield (General) – Commander, Operation Hadrian

  Bull (Sergeant) – Royal Marines

  Craig O’Sullivan (Sergeant) – SAS

  David Croft (Major) – Investigating Officer for the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure

  Lewis Hudson (Captain) – SAS

  Lucy Savage (Captain) – Head of Biomedical Science, Porton Down Research Centre

  Mark Grainger (Captain) – Grenadier Guards

  Vorne (Sergeant) – Grenadier Guards

  US Government/Law enforcement

  Ben Silver – White House Chief of Staff

  Damian Rodney – President of the United States

  Fiona Carter – SAC FBI

  General Roberts – Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  Jason Tucker – Head of FBI

  Keith Johnson – CIA Director

  Madeleine Cozens – Head of Homeland Security

  Mitch Carter – FBI SWAT

  Philip Bradstone (General) – NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe

  Wynona Cooke – Assistant Director FBI

  The Sons of the Resurrection Cult

  James Jones – The Chief Cleric

  Abraham (Conrad Schmidt) – Cult Leader

  Fabrice Chevalier – Warrior of Truth

  Civilians

  Alexei – Russian Mob

  Brian – Police Officer

  Gavin Hemsworth

  Jack Nathan

  Owen Patterson

  Rachel – Undead

  Rasheed Khan

  Simone Holden

  Stan – Police Officer

  Victor Durand – Scientist

  TOP SECRET

  THIS IS A COVER SHEET

  FOR CLASSIFIED INFORMATION

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  UNLAWFUL VIEWING, REPRODUCTION, OR TRANSPORT IS A FEDERAL OFFENCE UNDER 18 U.S. Code § 798 AND CARRIES A TERM OF A MINIMUM OF LIFE IMPRISONMENT.

  (This cover sheet is unclassified)

  TOP SECRET

  703-101

  NSN 75690-01-21207904

  NSN 75690-01-21207904

  The Office of The Secretary of Defence

  A confidential report to the President of the United States

  11.17.2015

  To: The President of the United States of America

  From: Carl McGruber, Secretary of Defence

  Mr. President,

  Through liaison with the Director of the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we have collated the information regarding the events in the United Kingdom and have concluded that the terrorist threat to this country is real. It is our recommendation that we take no action at this time to suppress the biological threat on the UK mainland, and instead concentrate on finding the culprits and countering the potential threat that we believe our country now faces.

  Our present understanding of how the contagion works is this. Although initially spread through contaminated milk in coffee shops, the pathogen is now spread by bites and by direct exposure to bodily fluids. From analysis of the information forwarded to us by the remnants of the UK Government and MI6, who are still holding out in their London headquarters, we know that someone exposed to the virus, even via skin contact, will turn within, on average, ten minutes. They will then become violent, with immense strength and stamina, similar to someone on PCP. They will be immune to most painful stimuli and can sustain injuries that would kill most humans. If they are killed by anything other than brain trauma, they will resurrect as—what you will know from popular horror fiction—the undead. Of the samples captured by MI6 agents on the ground, we have been told that the undead display no vital functions. They have no heartbeat, no blood pressure, and show only the faintest of brain readings on MRI or EEG. Although dead, the isolated virus seems to kill all other pathogens in the body, slowing decomposition considerably. The reanimated can move although they cannot perform fine motor functions. It is understood that they can, however, climb and open doors. It has been shown that they can ultimately only be stopped by destroying the brain stem. This explains why the UK forces had such difficulty killing anyone infected.

  The NSA were able to salvage much of the data from their UK counterparts at GCHQ upon the facility’s evacuation. That combined with the MI6 interrogation of the captured terrorists has led us to believe that, whilst the laboratory used to make the virus was on the UK mainland and the chief scientist behind the virus was still at that lab on its destruction, the main perpetrator of this atrocity is still at large. We have as yet no knowledge of how the lab was funded or whether further samples of the virus have been smuggled out of the country. We have been advised that we will be kept appraised of any developments brought forth from the data seized at the laboratory, but we have not, as of yet, been given access to it. Due to the biological hazard presented by this contagion, the Joint Chiefs rejected the initial proposal to send our own Special Forces to aid the operation to seize the laboratory.

  Regarding the threat made via the hacked National Emergency Broadcast Network, that was later uploaded to YouTube. Despite our attempts to suppress it, the video has reached almost one and a half billion views. The original upload was done through a host of proxy servers, and it is impossible to determine even which country it originated in, never mind who created the video. We believe, however, the video is authentic, and that the threat posed to our nation is possibly the worst since the Cuban Missile Crisis. We advise that all Federal and State law enforcement agencies be put on high alert and that operation Clean Sweep be implemented immediately. We have confirmation from the Justice Department that Clean Sweep is legal under executive order and that FEMA can have the detention camps ready for detainees by the end of the day. The first stage of Clean Sweep should see half a million radicals, terrorist suspects, and undesirables taken off the streets within 48 hours. The NSA will begin blocking alternative media sites, and the main news broadcasters and print news have confirmed they will push the narrative we give them. All it requires is your approval, Mr. President.

  Regarding the quarantine of the UK mainland, this is now complete. There is a twenty-five-mile naval exclusion zone, and all civilian air traffic is banned from going anywhere near the UK in a one-hundred-mile radius. NATO assets will still be able to do aerial operations within the exclusion zone. This has obviously impacted European air travel, but no country has yet objected. Any vessel or aircraft trying to breach this quarantine will receive one warning, before being either shot down or sunk. We have confirmation from NATO and the Russian Republic that they will aid in this quarantine. The Russians have assured
us that they will not use this crisis to further their territorial demands, but we have seen evidence that they are moving troops to their borders. The official line on this from the Kremlin is that they are securing their borders, which at this time is deemed to be an acceptable explanation. The only other fear at present is if infected individuals try and swim the UK channel, or if reanimated corpses fall into the ocean and get swept away.

  We will brief you further as and when developments arise. We do not at this stage recommend declaring martial law, and do not advise suspending the Constitution at this time. However, that may well be a necessity in the future.

  Carl McGruber,

  Secretary of Defence

  AC/324- D(2016)0007

  COSMIC TOP SECRET

  Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe

  Confidential Report Regarding the Quarantine of the UK mainland

  (This cover sheet is classified)

  17.11.2015

  Progress report on Operation Hadrian

  Ref AC/324- D(2016)0007

  To: General Philip Bradstone, Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR)

  General Bradstone,

  As you are aware, the evacuation of military assets from the UK mainland has been of limited success. Whilst many of the active front line troops and assets have been retrieved, much of the administration and logistical support could not be salvaged in time. The unquarantined assets available to NATO are outlined in Appendix A. As you can see, the majority of the Royal Navy’s surface fleet has been salvaged, as well as around 70% of RAF aircraft. However, much of the British Army’s heavy equipment could not be removed from the mainland in time, and over 50,000 front line troops from the Army, Marines, and Parachute Regiment were left behind.

  It was decided early on to abandon attempts to contain the virus, as the contagion was too widely dispersed and too virulent to have any chance of stopping its spread. Upon assuming command of all military and civilian forces on the assassination of the Prime Minister and much of his cabinet, I made the decision to abandon the areas of infection, and those assets I could not evacuate to Ireland have been ordered moved to Cornwall, which so far seems to have been spared from the infection. The town of Newquay will be our centre of operations for Operation Hadrian. Cornwall will be where we will have our designated safe zone. Martial law has been implemented, and civilians are being conscripted into work details based on specific skill sets. There is a heavy flow of refugees into the area, and these people will be allocated to the work zones after medical checks. At some point, however, we will have to deploy military assets to turn further refugees away so we can start bridge demolition and set up the defensive kill zone. This is regrettable, but it is essential we maintain a foothold on the island. Consideration may have to be taken on reducing the threat of the infected by heavy carpet bombing of the areas approaching this safe zone. This will regrettably see the deaths of thousands, but better that than see them converted into the undead army.

  We estimate we have three days before the first of the infected arrive. Satellite imagery shows the bulk of the infected are still in the major cities, although they are spreading rapidly. We cannot abandon the island completely; we must at least try and attempt to salvage something, even if just to give those left behind some semblance of hope. General Arthur Mansfield, who lost his immediate family in the Birmingham outbreak, has volunteered to command the air and ground forces. Under his guidance, construction has already begun on the defensive walls around the new safe zones. The plan is to construct the walls with the associated fire zones from Padstow in the north to the town of Par in the south. This is a twenty-one-mile-long stretch of land, and there is no guarantee we will achieve this task, but we are fortunate that there are four regiments of the Royal Engineers Corps that were airlifted to the area. This followed the assessment of the virus by Captain Savage (Head of Biomedical Science, Porton Down Research Centre) and Major David Croft (Investigating Officer for the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure) during the initial outbreak.

  I have two pressing concerns regarding the safety of mainland Europe and Ireland. Firstly, we saw first-hand in London that the infected can swim, and I know you are coordinating with the countries on the southern aspect of the English Channel to secure their coastlines. My second concern is the nuclear power stations. We need to prepare for the inevitability that at least one of these will go into meltdown. It is hoped that their remote location will mean the bulk of the infected will stay away from them, choosing instead to concentrate on the population centres. That being said, we have taken steps to fortify these facilities as best we can, in the hope that they can be somehow decommissioned. It is, however, a problem that is not going to go away, and will present challenges for years to come.

  Regards,

  General Nicholas Marston

  Chief of the UK Defence Staff and Commander of remaining UK forces

  17.31PM, 16th September 2015, The London Eye, London, UK

  Rachel. She had been called Rachel. The memory was fleeting, like mist on the wind, and then it was gone, the ghosts of the last synapses as they finally died. All she was now was primeval hunger, a hunger for something that would never satiate her, never satisfy the burning that churned within her core. The hunger for human flesh that she could never digest, and within hours, would probably not even be able to swallow. But the hunger was there, and it would not be denied. It roared at her, consumed her. She lifted her head up and sniffed the air, the smell of burning still strong. But even with the buildings around her still aflame from the napalm strikes, she could almost taste her prey on the wind, and her mouth salivated. Flesh, juicy, soft human flesh. She wanted it, she craved it, and she let out a low moan of what could have once been desperation. The smell of humanity was all around her, and she turned slowly, her balance unsteady from the damage that had been inflicted inside her by the virus and by the ravages of humanity’s assault.

  She was dead, and yet she wasn’t. If doctors had connected her up to their machines, all they would find would be a slight spark in the brain stem. Everything else was dead. Her heart no longer beat its life-giving rhythm. Her lungs no longer yearned for the air—and that was probably for the best because they were presently filled with water from when the explosion had flung her body into the Thames. Her kidneys no longer filtered the blood, because no blood was sent to them. And yet despite all that, she moved. She moved and she craved.

  She saw the motion with her one remaining good eye and lurched drunkenly towards it. Not human, infected. They were too fast for her, scuttling away, aware of the danger she represented to them, quick enough to avoid her grasp. She was beyond the new species now, no longer linked to their hive mind. Occasionally, words would float through her liquefying brain, but they meant nothing to her; just sounds, their meaning lost. The infected were now just something else for her to eat, but first, she had to catch them. Deep down, they knew to avoid her, knew to avoid all her kind, even as their numbers slowly swelled. Rachel had died, her right arm being blown clean off, her abdomen pierced by steel rebar. Her face was now a mass of scars and burns, and she was a moving, broken specimen. But still she walked, for nothing meant more than the call of the flesh. To feel its texture between her teeth, to feel it and taste it as she swallowed, only to instantly need to consume more. That was now all she was.

  Then she smelt something else. She looked behind her, almost falling as she turned. Approaching her was another lumbering monstrosity. No limbs missing, but half the scalp gone and the suit burnt and charred to mere rags. They looked at each other briefly, recognition that they were the same registering somewhere in their diseased, dead minds. Awkwardly, they moved together, drawn by some invisible force. Close now, they could smell each other, could feel the connection, the need to stay together, to find more of their kind. To join, to hunt, to feed, to consume. To kill. And kill and kill.

  17.42PM, 16th September 2015, Watford Islamic Mosque, Watford, UK
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  Asr was over, the prayers finished, but many of the true faithful stayed in what they saw as the safety of the mosque. They had all seen the news, and many worshippers had stayed away, either in their homes or fleeing to the illusion of safety. But dozens had still come and Dr. Mohammad Khan circulated amongst them, offering reassurance that their fates were always down to the will of Allah, and that Allah was just and protected those who believed. Some, he was able to reassure; most looked at him with helplessness and despair. Many of the women huddled together, their children clinging to them, eyes full of the terror for what they had seen on their news hours before. The men tried to comfort them, but their hearts were just as heavy, despair and anguish filling the building like thick smoke. Hell was coming, and there was nothing anybody could do about it. Despite his best efforts, Dr. Khan knew his words did little to help. Heck, half of what he was saying he didn’t believe himself.

  The mosque doors were locked and the windows were secure, and he was sure that this was as safe a place as any for the faithful. He himself had overseen its fortification last year, ever since the day some apparent white supremacist maniac had smashed all the windows and desecrated the insides by hurling in rinds of uncooked bacon and defecating in the middle of the floor. The police had known who the culprit was, but the lack of proof had prevented any meaningful action. Now, the windows were grilled, and the doors reinforced with steel. It would take a sustained effort to breach this holy inner sanctum. But that moment wasn’t here yet. They still had time, time to prepare, time for others to join them in their refuge.