As always, a huge thank you to everyone who is reading, alerting, or reviewing. I am trying really hard to update once a week. Its getting a little tough with holidays but I am going to keep doing my best.
The three weeks following the Raid that Wasn't (has Danny thought of it) on the cargo ship were quiet for Five-0, for which Danny was extremely grateful.
Robby Morris had never returned home. At first, the federal agents had been kind, trying to reassure Angie that her husband was being debriefed and would be home soon. Then, as more and more outbreaks occurred all along the East Coast, they had stopped returning her calls. Danny kept in touch as best he could but phone service all over the country was becoming increasingly sporadic.
There had been outbreaks in 38 states, most of them in more heavily populated urban areas. All US military forces were being recalled to help with interior security.
At first, Danny had been relieved. Steve might not be home in Hawaii yet, but he wasn't lost in some exotic foreign country. However, the more he learned about what was happening, the more the worry for his absent friend weighed on him.
Chin appeared in his doorway, "We've hit a snag on that John Doe that washed ashore the day before yesterday."
"Max can't find a way to ID him?" Danny was surprised. The body had been in decent condition, despite being in the water for awhile.
"Max is gone," Chin let that sink in for a moment, "I checked in with him yesterday before I went home. He was going to let the computer search for a DNA match overnight and call me this morning. He hasn't called."
Danny considered. It was only 9:30. For most people it wouldn't mean anything that they hadn't called yet. For Max, who kept to his schedule compulsively and always followed-up, this was an alarming red flag.
"You did try calling him, right?" Danny asked.
Chin nodded, "And when there was no answer on his direct line, I called the lab's general number. They informed me that Dr. Bergman had not come to work yet."
"This," Danny waved a hand for emphasis, "This is why we all spent 7 months talking Max into carrying a cell phone. Track his phone and we'll see where he is."
Chin shot him a look that was both insulted and put upon.
"You already tried that, didn't you?" Danny realized.
Chin nodded again, "His phone's turned off. We're not going to find him that way."
"Let's head over to the lab and see if we can find out what happened after you talked to Max last night," Danny grabbed his car keys on the way out the door.
A short drive later, both men were staring at Max's lab in shock. Both the lab and the office beyond it were empty. Everything was gone, even the piano.
"Where . . . How . . . What . . ." Danny sputtered as he turned a full circle in the middle of the now empty room.
Chin glanced over his shoulder to find a gathering crowd of medical examiners and lab techs watching them.
"Did anyone see what happened here?" he asked them.
Everyone shuffled their feet and exchanged nervous looks with each other. No one spoke up.
Danny sighed, "Who was the last person to see Dr. Bergman last night? Were any of you still here when he left?"
A brief discussion revealed that none of the doctors had worked late and Max had still been bent over his computer when they each left. They were finally able to sort out that a young female lab tech had been the last to leave.
"I'm going to a party this weekend but I can't find my favorite shoes, which I know my roommate stole, so I met one of my friends to go shipping at lunchtime," the girl explained.
Danny and Chin exchanged bemused looks.
"I'm not sure how this has anything to do with Dr. Bergman," Chin prompted her patiently.
"Well time sort of got away from us, so I was really late getting back. That meant I had to stay late to finish my work," the poor girl was talking fast and twisting her hair around her finger, obviously terribly nervous, "When I finally got done, it was almost 7:00. You can get the exact time by checking my punch on the computer. Dr. Bergman was still in his lab."
"Did you talk to him at all?" Danny asked, "Did his behavior seem out of place at all? Take a deep breath and think about it for a minute."
"I didn't talk to him. He had that John Doe from the beach on his table. Dr. Bergman seemed really excited about something. You know how he gets?" she smiled tentatively.
"Thank you," Chin touched Danny's arm and steered him towards Max's empty office.
"This place looks like it was wiped completely clean," Chin observed, "I'm betting all traces of what Max was working on have been wiped off the servers, but we'll need to check to make sure."
"Have Kono do that," Danny instructed, "I want us to head over to Max's house."
The quiet in the room was broken by the simultaneous ringing of two cell phones. They went wild with a specially programmed siren tone. Danny's heart was in his throat as he snatched the phone from his pocket and read the message that confirmed his worst fears: Rapid Response team required immediately on Lanai, followed by a series of coordinates.
As they raced out of the building, Danny realized that the Red Rage had now spread to 39 states.
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The frantic drive to the airstrip was followed by a frantic flight to Lanai, which was followed by more frantic driving. Danny, Chin, Kono, Lori, and 4 HPD SWAT officers were crammed into 2 SUV's as local drivers raced the vehicles towards their remote destination.
Danny's heart was pounding as he clung to the handle over the front passenger door of the front Suburban. In the past 2 months, his Rapid Response team had done multiple table top drills and even 3 live ones. None of them had involved Lanai. The freaking island was a giant pineapple plantation! It only had a population of 3100 people. It never occurred to anyone that the Red Rage would strike here.
To keep himself focused, Danny forced himself to repeat the information they had been given on the plane. A group of investors were working with the corporation that owned the plantation to develop some of the ocean front property, in a very remote part of the island, into a small exclusive resort. The investors, five men and two women, had gone out to look at the proposed site. They had 3 representatives from the plantation with them. It was one of these guides that had placed the hysterical phone call, claiming that they had been savagely attacked after surprising a group of trespassers.
Local law enforcement, such as it was, had responded. They had reported several casualties, the victims appearing to have been torn apart and gnawed on. Shortly thereafter, all communication had ceased. The mayor had called Oahu for help and the Red Rage alert had gone out.
"Captain Williams, should we stop?"
The driver's question pulled Danny's attention back to his surroundings. Ahead of them, a woman was walking down the center of the dirt road. She was fashionably dressed for a wildlife hike, but her clothes were torn in many places, dirty and stained with something dark. Her steps were methodical but jerky. One of her boots was gone and the bare foot was a shocking ruin of torn flesh, exposed muscle and bone, and black goo. The woman continued to walk on it without regard for her injuries. Her blond hair was tousled and full of leaves. Her pallor was a strange, sickly gray.
Watching her walk down an ordinary dirt road, on a beautiful sunny Hawaiian afternoon, wasn't scary – it was wrong. The very wrongness of it made it hard for Danny to process what he was seeing. His brain kept trying to supply a reasonable explanation that would make the details shift into something that made sense.
"Danny, we have to do something," Kono prompted softly from the backseat, her eyes also glued to the approaching figure, who so far seemed unaware of them.
Danny realized that both SUV's had come to a stop.
He keyed his radio so that everyone in both vehicles could hear him, "Let's get out slowly. I'll approach her, the rest of you cover me. Everyone stay alert – there may be other . . . infected people in the bushes."
Opening the door, Danny was immediately engulfed by the tropical heat. He felt the sweat begin to run down his back beneath his body armor. Suddenly the thick bushes on either side, planted to separate the road from the fields of pineapple plants, seemed menacing, full of hidden danger.
Danny took a deep breath to steady him, drew his gun, and began to walk very slowly towards the injured woman. Kono, Lori, and Chin fanned out behind him, the women with their side arms, Chin with his shot gun. The SWAT guys moved swiftly to the back of the vehicles to grab some heavier firepower.
There were still about 50 yards separating them; Danny approaching slowly, the unfortunate woman continuing her steady, oblivious pace when the trunk slammed on each Suburban in quick succession. The woman's head came up sharply as she became instantly aware of their presence.
Zeroing in on Danny, she began to make eerie, low pitched moans as she lunged towards him. Her ruined foot could not support the new momentum, sending her crashing to the ground. The woman immediately pulled herself up, trying desperately to reach Danny.
Now that she was closer, Danny could identify the dark stains on her clothing as dried blood. Through the torn fabric of her clothing, he caught glimpses of equally torn flesh.
"Ma'm, we're here to help you, but I need you to stay where you are," Danny felt ridiculous, even as he waited to see if she would obey. His words had no effect. The woman was obviously beyond help.
"She's dead, Danny," Steve's voice whispered in his head.
Movement from the brush beside him made Danny aware that there were more of these things all around them. Before he could yell out a warning, a gun was fired somewhere behind him. Danny whirled to find Lori trapped between a dead body and one of the SUV's. Part of the corpse's head was missing but Danny had the oddest impression that he recognized the man.
"Danny, behind you!" Chin shouted, even as he hurried to help free Lori.
Danny turned to find the original creature almost on him. He shot, instinctively aiming for the largest part of the body as he had been trained to. The bullet caught the woman square in her chest. At such close range, it flung her to the ground as it exited out her back. She was immediately scrambling back to her feet, hands reaching desperately for Danny the entire time. He fired a second shot into her head and watched with horrified satisfaction as the body dropped to the ground, settling into the stillness that only marks the truly deceased.
The next few minutes were a pitched battle between the living and the dead. Nine zombies total lurched from the brush. The monsters moved with straight forward determination and lack of coordination that made it fairly easy for the heavily armed party to pick them off. As the last echoes of gunfire faded away, Danny took stock of the situation.
One of the drivers was curled up on the ground, bleeding heavily from a neck wound. One of the SWAT officers and the other driver were treating the wound.
Kono appeared next to Danny and leaned into whisper, "It's a bite. I saw one of those things latch onto him."
"Damn it! The drivers don't have body armor like we do. Why didn't he just stay in the truck?" Danny swallowed back a helpless feeling and looked up to where Chin and a second SWAT officer were keeping watch from the roofs of the vehicles. There was blood running down Chin's arm. Danny grabbed Kono's arm hard enough to bruise, "What happened to Chin?"
"Hey! Relax, brah," Kono rubbed her arm once Danny had released her, but her eyes were full of understanding, "A bullet grazed him. Not sure who fired it, but he'll be fine."
Danny felt his heart rate edge closer to normal, "How's Lori doing?"
"She's still a little groggy. Must have wacked her head off the truck. That's why she couldn't get up once I shot this guy," Kono shivered, "He came out of the brush right next to her before any of us realized what was happening."
"I've got a straggler," the SWAT officer called out from above them. A second later he fired, "Got'em!"
"We can't wait for reinforcements," Danny decided, "We have to get out of here."
As the injured were loaded into the Suburbans, Danny took a quick look at the now dead infected. There were obviously two groups. Four of the corpses, including the late comer, were in much worse shape. Their clothes were ragged and filthy. Their hair was land and also filthy. Their skin was not only but loose and saggy. They seemed partially decomposed. With their heads all at least partially gone it was difficult to be sure, but Danny thought they were all Asian.
The second group were all dressed similarly to the woman Danny had first seen – like wealthy people out for a hike. They were all dirty from clawing through the brush but not filthy. Their skin had the pallor of corpses but not the bagginess of old corpses. Danny would have bet they were the investor group that had arrived on the island that morning.
"Danny," Chin called, "I've got more trucks coming up the road."
Danny waved his hand in acknowledgment, relieved that help was finally there. Not all the investors and their guides were accounted for, much less the first responders who had called in the Red Rage report.
As he waited for the reinforcements to arrive, Danny was drawn towards the corpse of the man who had attacked Lori. Even with most of his face destroyed, he couldn't shake the idea that he knew the man. Pulling on a pair of gloves, he knelt by the body. Careful to avoid all bodily fluids, Danny began to check pockets. He found a wallet on his second try.
"Dear God, please no," Danny moaned. The wallet slid from his hands and landed in the dirt, open to Stanley Edward's driver's license.
How could he possibly tell Rachel? Surprisingly, their relationship had become friendlier over the past year or so. Danny and Stan had even become quite civil with each other. This would devastate the girls, especially 2 year old Madison. She had been the center of her father's world.
Danny was aware of trucks arriving and more people moving around him, but he ignored them, letting Chin deal with their questions.
"Danny!" It was Kono's panicked shout that finally made him straighten up. He took a quick second to slide the wedding ring off Stan's finger.
Jogging around the SUV, Danny found Kono standing between Lori and several people in white biohazard suits. It was only then that Danny realized that the follow-up team had arrived along with his additional Rapid Responders.
"I'm Captain Williams. I'm in charge here," Danny addressed the newcomers.
One of the white suited figures stepped away from the others, "I'm Dr. Ingles and, actually, I'm in charge here." Dr Ingles was a tall woman. Through the faceplate in her suit, she appeared close to forty. Her voice was full of steely authority.
"They want to take Lori with them," Kono reported, her eyes tracking the white suits suspiciously.
"Why?" Danny turned to look at the blond woman leaning against the truck, "She hit her head, she probably has a concussion. She needs to be taken back for treatment while we look for the rest of the victims."
"Captain Williams, you know that all injured members of your team have to be cleared by us. It is at our discretion to decide if they can be released or need to be brought in for further evaluation." Ingles gestured for her people to escort Lori to one of their white vans.
Danny and Kono exchanged frustrated looks, but he gestured for her to stand down. Ingles was right, and she struck him as the sort that would follow procedure down to the letter. Besides, Danny told himself, Lori had a concussion. They'd check her out and release her.
Kono gasped softly as Lori was led away. Danny immediately saw what had upset her. A shockingly bright trail of blood ran from Lori's hair into the collar of her body armor.
Danny told himself that her scalp had been lacerated when her head hit the metal. But he couldn't shake the image of the taller male zombie slumped over Lori. Had it bitten her before Kono had gotten her shot off? Danny started forward but Ingles gave him a warning glare that was surprising effective, even through the thick faceplate.
Danny forced his own growing worry away and turned to his younger teammate, "She's going to be fine, Kono. We have a job to do. There may be people out there who need our help. Keep it together and let's go."
Kono took a few deep breathes and followed Danny over to where Chin was bringing the rest of the Rapid Responders up to speed.
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Aboard the small private plane that was taking them back to Oahu that night, Danny massaged his temples, hoping to rub away his growing headache. The cabin's lights seemed painfully bright, but every time Danny closed his eyes all he saw was blood, shattered bone, and gray brain matter trailing across vibrant green pineapple plants. The image of gore soaked pineapples would be with him forever. He was never, ever eating one of the damn things now.
Chin settled into the seat beside him, "Do you think this is the reason the Navy was so quick to grab that ship full of illegal immigrants from us?"
Danny glanced at him and took a moment to be grateful that the follow-up team had only looked briefly at Chin's arm before pronouncing him good to go. He wasn't sure what would have happened if they had tried to take Chin away, too. As it was, Kono was making clear that she was not happy with him for not doing more for Lori.
"It makes sense," Danny finally agreed, "Some worker on the plantation has family back in some country where the Red Rage is rampant. With all the travel restrictions, they can't come in legally. So they bring them in illegally and then think that they can hide them on some remote part of the island. Only at least one of them was already infected. And now we have 7 dead from the original infection plus 14 more today."
Danny didn't include their driver in that count, but both he and Chin were well aware that the man had been taken away by the follow-up team and would not be seen again.
Kono dropped down into the seat across from Chin, "I talked to HPD. They checked Max's house and nothings out of place. There's no sign that anyone's been there or that anything's missing."
"I almost forgot about Max," Danny admitted, "This morning seems like it happened a hundred years ago." He rubbed his temples some more, "I'll call Denning as soon as we land – see if he has some influence that can help us find Max."
Kono gave him a tentative smile. Her way of saying that she was still upset about Lori, but understood that there hadn't been anything else he could do.
The cousins left him alone while they went to check on the SWAT officers and start the paperwork that came with today's engagement. Danny fingered the wedding band in his pocket and reflected on just how personal today's outbreak had become.
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SEAL team 14 double and triple checked their equipment. In just a few minutes they would receive the order to head for one of the helicopters waiting to drop them off on the shores of the East River. There they would find boats that they would take to the Brooklyn Bridge.
The situation in New York City was becoming dire. Everyone had thought that the first few outbreaks of the Red Rage had been successfully contained. They had been wrong.
Over the past 48 hours, more and more troops had been thrown into the city in an attempt to end the growing outbreaks. It was obvious that the effort was failing. The areas of New York that were unsafe for the living were growing and casualties were mounting at a heartbreaking rate. The completely unimaginable was now being planned for: the loss of Manhattan Island.
Team 14's assignment was to plant explosives along the bridge. News helicopters that were covering the carnage in the city were providing a live look at the scene for them. The bridge had become a parking lot for wrecked and abandoned cars. Streaming through the silent metal was a screaming, frantic, panicked flow of people, all desperately seeking safety. Beneath the screaming and shouting were the ominous moans of the pursing dead.
"It could be worse," Ryan Evans pointed out, "I can't imagine what it's like to be the army guys at the end of the bridge, trying to sort out the infected from the uninfected."
"How do you think people are going to react when they see us under the bridge?" John Garrett asked, "It'll be obvious what we're doing."
"And once we're done, they'll never be able to clear it before it blows," Carson Scott added.
No one had anything to say to that. They were being sent to plant bombs that would kill terrified civilians in a probably futile attempt to protect countless other terrified civilians.
"Get your heads in the game," Thomas Becker finally told them, "The Commander will be here any second."
As if Becker's words had summoned him, Steve McGarrett stepped through the ready room door.
"Change of plans," Steve announced, "We're leaving immediately for DC. The Georgetown area has been abandoned entirely and other areas of the city have rampant infection. The President is being moved to a secure location in Colorado. We are part of his escort."
Carson whistled, "How many strings did you have to pull to make that happen?"
Steve's look was telling, but he chose to ignore the question, "You have 20 minutes to grab your personal gear and be at the chopper. We won't be coming back here."
Out in the hallway, Steve grabbed his own bag, eager to get going. He hadn't told the guys, but the favors he had called in extended to having a humvee waiting for them in Colorado. They could drive to Coronado. Steve would have to figure something out from there.
Yesterday, Steve had gotten word of an outbreak on Lanai. It was time to go home.