Auspocalypse Now

30. Yes, Prime Minister

Chapter Characters

Phil - Senior ASIO officer, ex-Military Intelligence, the boss

Prime Minister - of Australia

Judith and Lee - report to Phil

Ox - SERT, ex commando, martial arts expert

Reginald - Infectious Dsisease Specialist, holidaying when the GC incident occurred, seconded by the US to the lab set up for analysing the Gee's

Geoff - forensic pathologist attached to the lab

ADF - Australian Defence Force

Phil was having a quick consult with everyone on the Network, it was currently quiet down South and the defences at the three bridges in Tweed Heads were regrouping and preparing for the next onslaught. Then his phone rang, it was the Prime Minister calling back.

The Prime Minister went straight to the point, "we cannot risk the deaths of any more of the population of Tweed Heads, your men are killing civilians."

Phil responded, "with respect Prime Minister, we are not killing civilians, these are reanimated dead people. The virus created monsters and they are in turn killing people and creating more monsters. We estimate in the next hour for there to be around twenty thousand of these monsters within the boundaries of Tweed Heads. We also estimate there to be minimal, if any, of the human population still alive."

The Prime Minister took a deep breath, the penny had dropped, "I thought we had contained the situation at the hospital, what have you been doing?"

Phil shook his head, "we were about to contain the situation, but you ordered us to stop. We had less than fifty casualties at that time, we are now looking at several hundred. In an hour we will be faced with twenty thousand coming at us and if they escape from Tweed Heads, we will likely lose the Gold Coast and Brisbane with Sydney less than a week later. The main population in the Eastern States is likely to be overrun in less than four weeks."

The Prime Minister was almost speechless, but he still blurted, "we, we, we cannot go there, I will release whatever resources you need."

Phil then asked, "are you giving us permission to bomb Tweed Heads? We need to take out the core of the problem and we can then mop up around that. We estimate around a thousand Gee's at the moment, but that is likely to double every ten minutes, it will be at least twenty thousand in an hour. The Black Hawk has not used its rockets."

The Prime Minister was reeling, "if you use the rockets now, there will be civilian casualties on Australian soil."

Phil remained calm, "during our conversation the drone and the Black Hawk are reporting around five thousand Gee's amassing around the centre of the town. We will lose control of the situation if we wait another ten minutes. The Black Hawk is also carrying one of the Queensland SERT team, who was bitten, we need to use those rockets and get that man to our lab in the Gold Coast, he could be the key to understanding further the way the virus is mutating."

The Prime Minister was losing it, "we cannot use the rockets, there must be a better solution. I will confer with my advisors and get back to you as soon as possible." He hung up before Phil could protest."

Phil asked Judith, "are the Sydney teams up to Tweed Heads?"

Judith replied, "no, they have been confined to barracks, including the helicopter crews assigned to them. The Prime Minister did that earlier. He has authorised regular troops, but they are in trucks, they will take at least five hours to arrive."

Phil shook his head, the Prime Minister was not taking this seriously, "see if you can get any of those troops airlifted North, have them divert to Williamtown. The F35A strike fighters are there, perhaps we could use them, find out."

The pilot of the Black Hawk came onto the Network, "I am flying on vapours, I have to refuel. The airport has facilities, if you can make that work for me, I can drop off Ox and be back within fifteen minutes. I can fire my rockets before I go, I need an immediate order."

Phil breathed in deeply and gave the order that he didn't want. Adhere to line of command or lose the country. He had no choice, "go to the airport, we will have the fuel ready for you, can you also rearm your guns?"

Judith interrupted, "by the time they get to the airport a few trucks will arrive to rearm the helicopter and load them with supplies for the bridge defenders."

"Understood and on my way," said the pilot.

"How is Ox?" asked Phil. Ox came online, one of the crew chiefs had passed him a headset, "I am okay, actually better than okay. I felt a bit off when I boarded the helicopter but put that down to realising I was still alive. I am now feeling stronger and more tuned in. The bite on my arm has almost healed, weird." Phil asked Judith to get Reginald and Geoff on a call and he signed off.

Phil started his call to Reginald and Geoff and brought them up to speed about Ox, "so there you have it, Ox will be with you within the hour, but we may have to move the lab at short notice, you are too close to the Tweed Heads outbreak."

Reginald replied, "we can do that, but we would need to start now, perhaps a more mobile solution rather than bricks and mortar would be best? I will also suggest that Ox is returned to his unit, my very best guess is that he is the first of the immunes. Or, should I say, probably not immune but something in his DNA has mutated the virus to make him into what was probably the original intention for the virus, a fast healing soldier with greater strength and mental facilities. If we could be sent a few vials of his blood, we can check it against our existing samples. We will see if this can provide ideas or clues for a vaccine. Just keep him alive, or at worst do not lose his body."

Judith indicated to Phil that the helicopter had landed and a medic there was taking blood samples from Ox. Fifteen minutes before the Black Hawk could take off again.

Back at Tweed Heads, the drone was showing that the Gee's now were over an estimated ten thousand. The Prime Minister had still not called Phil back. The drone operator then spoke on the Network, "the mass is moving North, there are only a few aimless stragglers, perhaps a hundred that haven't joined the mass."

Phil ordered Greg to mop up the stragglers and search for survivors but to keep the defences on the bridges, should they be needed. Greg and Baker took their vehicles over the bridges and started the cull.

Lee informed Phil that there were no defences set up to the North of Tweed Heads, however Police and limited military units had started evacuating Burleigh Heads and the Gold Coast, with over six hundred thousand population in that area, it was going slowly. Phil had given up on waiting for the Prime Minister to call him back, so he rang him.

The Prime Minister answered at once, "I was about to ring you, I approve the use of the rockets."

Phil stayed clam, "we are now too late for that to have any effect. The mass of Gee's is now almost ten thousand and is moving North, Burleigh Heads will be breached in about three hours' time. We are trying to evacuate as much of the population between the Gee's and the Gold Coast, to Brisbane as we speak. Can I suggest we use the RAAF Williamtown resources to air monitor the mass of Gees and to set up a solid defence line north of the Gold Coast, we must acknowledge that the Gold Coast cannot be saved, we must protect Brisbane."

The Prime Minister's voice wavered, "my advisors tell me that you are over reacting, if we lose any more of the population I will lose the next election. There must be a more peaceful way to resolve this?"

Phil was dismayed, "if your advisors have not come up with a more peaceful solution why continue to hypothesise? We need to ring fence from Tweed Heads to the Gold Coast. If we can evacuate half before the Gee's reach the perimeters, we are looking at restricting the losses to around three hundred thousand. You have grounded my Sydney units, they also need to be released as part of my reactionary force."

The Prime Minister responded, "I will mobilise the ADF, they will have plans in place for catastrophic events, I will tell them that you are my point of contact on this and your units will be made available for your use only."

Phil looked across his Control Room and saw Lee waving at him, she mouthed, we have a problem South of Sydney....

Phil said, "thank you Prime Minister, we will do our best to contain this."