Colonel Erik Frank walked though the brightly lit, corridors deep inside the pentagon. He rubbed some of the crust, which had built up in his eyes during the few hours he had managed to get some seep. It had been almost six days since the Raccoon City outbreak had begun and he had gotten little rest.
He approached the automatic doors, which led to the conference room. He was greeted by two, armed MP's and quickly showed them his identification. After looking over his information they scanned both his fingerprints and his iris. After confirming that Erik Frank was, who his papers said he was, he was allowed inside.
Security just keeps getting tighter… Erik thought as entered the relatively small conference room.
Inside the commanders from the United States Northern Command, as well as the United States Strategic Command and Unites States Special Operations Command greeted him. After a multitude salutes followed by greetings and shaking of heads, the men took their seats.
The general from United States Northern Command stood up and began the meeting.
"Gentlemen, as you know, as of September 24th 2100 hours, we have declared Raccoon City a biohazard zone. We immediately began sealing of all the roads in and out of the city, but unfortunately, we haven't secured all of them until now."
The general paused, and took a sip of water. Erik could see it in the man's eyes that he hadn't slept for days.
"Our current mission priority is finding a contingency plan for this outbreak. Colonel Erik Frank will fill you all in as to the cause of this outbreak."
As the general stood up, Erik walked up to the head of the table turning on a projector. The men were greeted with video footage taken from a security camera near and intersection in Raccoon City. Hordes of the infected were slowly advancing towards a group of police officers, barely flinching when the officers opened fire.
"What you see here are people infected with what Umbrella Pharmaceutical designates as "T-virus." As of now we know of no cure or vaccine.
Erik paused as the screams from the police officers drifted out of the projectors small speakers.
"Once infected, a person will die within an hour, then come back to "life" and pursue those who are not infected with the intention of… well… consuming them."
"So, these people are… zombies?" The representative from Unites States Strategic Command asked.
"Yes sir. We've determined that the virus is usually spread via a bite. Thankfully, the virus does not appear to be airborne. We don't have a lot of information regarding this virus, but what little we do know says that it was developed by Umbrella as a biological weapon."
"Colonel, are you saying that a respected pharmaceutical company, has been illegally developing biological weapons on US soil?" A voice from the entrance of the room asked.
Everyone turned towards the door as a man dressed in a suit walked out of the shadows. Immediately, the generals stood up saluted him.
"Secretary, sir!"
"You may be seated gentlemen, please answer my question colonel." The Secretary of Defense said.
"I believe so sir, however there is not enough evidence to support this."
"Good, because the last thing we need right now is a mudslinging contest." The Secretary of defense sat down at the opposite end of the table. "Our priority is to stop this outbreak from spreading. We will not play the "blame-game" when American lives are at stake."
"Yes sir, sorry sir." Erik said.
"Now," The secretary said, "As you've all told me, we have two options: send military troops into Raccoon City to purge it of the virus, or bomb the city and wipe it off the map. Which one is it going to be?"
The generals and the colonel looked back at the secretary in silence, unsure of what to say. The representative from the United States Special Operations Command was the first to speak.
"Mr. Secretary, we have deployed special forces teams into Raccoon City to analyze what the best course of action is. We have determined that a military invasion of the biohazard zone would not solve the problem. "
"What led you to come to this decision?"
"We have already lost a Blackhawk helicopter with about 6 crewman aboard, as well as about 13 of the men on the ground…. "
The Secretary of Defense sighed and shook his head, "So destroying the city is the only way to contain this?"
"There's something else you should no sir. An army patrol along the perimeter of the quarantine zone was attacked by a small group of infected. The men are fine, but the attack occurred deep within the Arklay Mountains, about 15 miles from the outskirts of the city." The USSOCOM representative said.
"Jesus… So we can't even effectively quarantine the city?" the Secretary said in shock.
"No, not with miles of forests surrounding the city."
The secretary shook his head and stared at the video payback the colonel had brought with him.
The secretary sighed and said, "How are we going to do this?"
The general from Unites States Strategic Command quickly answered,
"Sir, we have two options for bombing the city, either we fly in about ten C-130s and drop in the GBU-43/B. The GBU-43/B is a conventional bomb that has a blast radius of 150 yards, which is why we have to do multiple bombing runs to ensure that the entire city is destroyed. Just to let you know sir, the GBU-43/B is the most powerful, non-nuclear weapon we have…"
The Secretary stood up and slowly walked towards the map of Raccoon City. After studying it for a few seconds he turned around and asked, "And the other option, general?"
"A nuclear strike, sir."
The Secretary of Defense stared at the general in silence; he then looked at the other two commanders not believing what he had just heard.
"Sir, USSTRATCOM has the ability to launch a nuclear weapon at the city within the hour. It would take quite some time to mobilize enough C-130s and GBU-43/Bs for the complete destruction of the city."
"Are you actually considering nuking our own soil? Not only will the president be committing political suicide, but there's also a bit of a moral issue involved with using nuclear weapons." The secretary of defense said.
"Sir, it's the best way to ensure complete destruction of the outbreak. A W53 nuclear warhead with a 9 megaton yield, inside a Titan II ICMB will obliterate the city and the immediate forest area surrounding it. This should completely rid the area of the virus."
"Aren't there an other towns around that could be effected by the explosion?"
"No sir, the nearest town, Stone Ville is roughly 30 miles to the east, far out of range of the bomb."
The Secretary sighed and walked up to the video screen displaying the massacre of the police officers that had attempted to make a stand against hundreds of people infected with the virus.
Continuing to watch the footage, he said to the generals, "I've already spoken to the President regarding the possible use of nuclear weapons." He turned around and faced the four men inside the room.
"He said that if there is no other way to stop this virus, then USASTRATCOM is authorized to use a nuclear weapon." He walked up to the representative from United States Strategic Command and said in almost a whisper, "General, you have the president's and my permission to use nuclear weapons to combat this outbreak. However, when this whole thing goes public, which it will. I want everyone here in this room to stand by the president when he says it was the only option. There will be no "sole voice of opposition" from anyone in this room. If the president goes down for this, than you will all go down with him, is that understood?"
The other four men in the room stood up, snapped clean salutes and said, "Yes Sir."
"Good," the Secretary of Defense said, "Admiral Hammond, pull out the last of our special forces troops still in the city, Raccoon City will be destroyed within the next 12 hours." With that the Secretary of Defense left the conference room.
"Jesus Christ, it's finally come to this." Colonel Erik Frank said.
The USSTRATCOM representative nodded as he picked up the phone to give the order to destroy Raccoon City.
"God help us all." He said as the dialed in the number.