(I DO NOT own The Walking Dead, Code Lyoko, or any names/brands that might appear in the story. Any references to any person living or dead is merely a coincidence, and should NOT be taken as intentional. All of that being said, I hope you enjoy the story!)
Washington D.C.
The capital city of the most powerful nation in the world.
Within the District of Columbia are 541 elected officials. 175 foreign embassies. Over 30,000 U.S. military personnel. And a population of over 702,000 citizens.
In the event of an emergency such as a terrorist attack, critical government personnel in Washington are immediately evacuated from the city. Both local authorities and United States military personnel throughout the region are then activated to respond to any and all threats against sovereign U.S. soil. Since the events that occurred on September 11th, 2001, Washington D.C. has not suffered from any major domestic or foreign attacks...
But right now, the capital of the American republic was hell on earth.
Nothing stopped the pandemic...
It was just two days after the first confirmed reanimation of a human being in the world was recorded in New York City. Within the last twenty four hours, the infection spread at an extremely rapid pace, and now the whole country - the whole planet - had fallen to the verge of complete and utter collapse.
Whatever the virus had turned them into, the infected people have been growing in number throughout the nation, breezing through nearly every major American city.
The United States Armed Forces was virtually powerless to stop the infected. Aside from minor victories against small numbers of the infected, the only results they get most of the time is just high casualties...
Unfortunately, the situation quickly grew so desperate for the military that they had even resorted to dropping napalm and other incendiary explosives down onto the streets of many of America's own cities - incinerating both infected and non-infected Americans alike.
But even desperate measures like this just wasn't enough, and one by one American cities across the nation were being lost.
The darkest period in American history had arrived and it seemed like there was going to be no end in sight.
To many, it was almost as if the virus had a mind of its own. Some select few even believed that as a fact. No one knew how the infection managed to spread so fast and so quickly throughout the entire world, but whatever this virus was it had hit nearly every weak point in every single nation practically at the speed of lightning. The very best scientific and medical minds of the world were completely stumped.
Somehow, all over the world, whenever people died - whether it be from natural causes or from unnatural causes like car accidents, suicides or drowning - they all simply came back as rotting, flesh-eating monsters that attacked any living thing in sight. The walking dead.
The only thing that seemed to prevent this mysterious reanimation process from happening was if the person's brain was destroyed. Unless the brain was destroyed, nothing can stop them from coming back as one of them. Even severed heads seemed to reanimate. There was no effective way to prevent this process whatsoever and the virus was spreading like a wildfire because of it.
Unfortunately, Washington D.C. was one of the places that was bearing the full brunt of this virus.
Tens of thousands of people throughout Washington D.C. were already dead or dying. Military and Washington D.C. police positions in the streets were collapsing with every passing minute, half of the United States Congress was either dead or missing, and all official communications in and out of the city had already been terminated hours ago.
The Fall of Washington D.C. was all but assured, and it was growing more and more certain that a miracle won't be enough to save them. Not this time...
With the United States Capitol Building, the Pentagon, the State Department building and practically all of the Federal Triangle already lost to the infected, the situation was nothing less than chaos at the White House. The infected were growing in number and God only knew how many were amassing outside the perimeter of the presidential mansion, and there was an ever-growing certainty that they would make it through the defenses and compromise the building's security. Once that happened, the mansion would see bloodshed and so much death.
Meanwhile, hundreds of District of Columbia National Guardsmen and Washington D.C. police officers bravely held the line with lethal force against the crowds of infected people outside. As they fought along the fences, all of the employees and government officials inside the White House hurriedly prepared themselves for an emergency evacuation.
Ammunition was growing more and more scarce. Morale was far too low. Some of the defenders who ran out of bullets had even resorted to just using combat knives to desperately stab the infected through the iron bars on the fences. Several had already suffered bites or scratches from the infected, but most of them were still fighting on despite the limited amount of time that they now had left to live.
As the troops and police officers fought outside, dozens of United States Secret Service agents and many more D.C. police officers were within the building and they were all struggling to keep the peace in the midst of this chaos.
The civilians were panicking. Even some of the agents and officers suffered some nervous breakdowns. One officer shot himself in one of the public restrooms and several others simply ran off to try and save themselves...
... but of those that were brave enough to remain, they intended to do everything they could to fulfill their sworn duties. They were determined to do their duty no matter if they live or die or even become infected themselves.
"Let's go! Hurry up! The clock's ticking, everyone!" a police officer shouted at several frightened employees in the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing, all of whom were still busy shredding sensitive documents or doing whatever else they needed to do before they could finally evacuate.
They were taking too long. There was a schedule that everyone within the building had to keep. Whoever didn't make it to the evacuation area when the time came was going to be left behind no matter their importance to the U.S. government...
Nearby in the White House Cabinet Room, two high-ranking members of the Presidential Cabinet were taking what little time they had to catch a break before they both had to get ready for evacuation. They both looked like a mess. Ties disheveled, hair a mess, sweat-stains under the armpits of their shirts, eyes very baggy like they hadn't had a decent night's sleep for weeks. Stress and fatigue was practically all they had left to their names thanks to this damned mess they found themselves in.
One of the men was the United States Secretary of State, Edward Lansing. The other was George Souers, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The two of them were sharing a cigarette as they watched a news report on television...
The report on TV was coming straight out of Atlanta, where the military was enacting a full retreat out of the city and abandoning it to the infected. Anyone still left inside would have to fend for themselves. Unfortunately, the city of Atlanta, Georgia was already far from the first major city that was abandoned like this...
"Jesus Christ..." Director Souers muttered as they watched a huge caravan of surviving Georgia National Guard troops driving by on the camera. So many of those soldiers looked haunted by what they had seen inside the city - terrified even.
He couldn't blame them. As the Director of the CIA he's seen or at least has been aware of some bad, bad things that has happened worldwide, but this pandemic was a whole new ballgame.
The only consolation in all of this was that America wasn't dealing with this by itself. All of her enemies were in just as bad of a shape as she was right now.
Secretary Lansing took a nervous puff out of his cigarette. Ironically he wasn't even a smoker before this mess started, but now he had a three pack a day habit. The sight of dead people coming back to eat the living was enough to make anyone a smoker.
"It's getting bad out there, George. Very bad." Secretary Lansing said, finishing off this cigarette and lighting up a fresh one from the pack on a nearby table. "What the hell are we going to do if we can't contain this mess?"
Director Souers sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I honestly have no idea, Ed..." was all he could say about that. He still knew exactly what would happen if this pandemic couldn't be stopped. All of human civilization was at risk from the infected.
"Well, the boss said that-"
"He says a lot of things lately." Director Souers replied, his voice growing a bit more stern. "The president's not a miracle worker, Ed. Hell, he's far from it... He's got a lot of ideas but they haven't worked out too well for us, have they? Let alone the rest of the country. People are dead under his watch. Maybe Speaker McCarthy could've handled this better if he won in the last election..."
Lansing rolled his eyes, "C'mon, George, of all things...?"
"Yeah," Souers responded flatly, "I firmly believe that if the other guy won, we'd be in a better position right now..."
"All of this probably would've ended up the same way no matter if he's still 'Speaker' McCarthy or 'President' McCarthy." Secretary Lansing replied, not looking away from the TV. "C'mon, George, every other country on earth is going through the same stuff we are right now... The boss is just one guy, y'know."
"That 'one guy' is supposed to be the most powerful man on earth..."
"One guy can't change the course of a global pandemic no matter how much power he has at his fingertips. We'd be in this same situation if McCarthy was POTUS..."
Director Souers didn't respond to what Secretary Lansing spoke of. All that the CIA head was sure of was that Elijah McCarthy, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, was leading efforts out west and winning against the dead...
His anger at the near-hopeless situation had blinded him, making him feel certain that the man he answered to was only failing miserably at his job. Director Souers never really respected the president before this crisis but now his feelings were bordering on true hatred towards that man.
The two men were then told by an approaching soldier that they needed to get ready to move. With that, they stopped their break and they hurried to gather anything of importance before they would head to the helicopters. Souers knew that the choppers would wait for important Cabinet officials such as them. They had to.
Even so, neither of these two men were the top priority for the evacuation. That privilege was for someone else.
Someone who was far, far more important.
Inside the Oval Office, a tired and very stressed man was using what little time he had left before the evacuation to speak on his telephone. The last day or two had been nothing but pure hell as he struggled to hold the United States together, but perhaps nothing was hitting him harder than the news that his wife was stranded in Britain and that she was surrounded by the infected at the U.S. embassy in London. She was visiting London as one of several capitals in a goodwill trip to Europe and she was in the middle of the city when the outbreak reached it.
All attempts made to evacuate his wife and the rest of the people inside the embassy in London had completely failed. Consequently, her being killed had become nothing less than a certainty. London and almost every other capital city in Europe was in the same situation as Washington, and by the time the man picked up the telephone there was simply no one left to help get the people in the embassy out of the city.
His wife's fate was sealed. All he could hope for was that her death would come quickly, and that she wouldn't have to turn into one of those... things...
The man in the Oval Office was Thomas J. Resnick - the President of the United States of America. He was the man that Director Souers, Secretary Lansing, and the rest of the United States federal government answered to.
He was the man that was duly elected by the American people to the most powerful office that the human race had ever known. He was the one who had solemnly swore to faithfully execute the office of the presidency. The man who, to the best of his ability, will preserve, protect, and defend the Construction of the United States. So help him God.
He was the Leader of the Free World. The caretaker of the Land of the Free and The Home of the Brave. He was the most powerful man on the planet...
... but right now he felt completely powerless to save the woman that he loved ...
President Resnick stared deeply out of the windows of the Oval Office and watched as the smoke from countless fires in the city rise into the ever-darkening sky. So many people out there in Washington and beyond were dead or dying or infected by whatever this horrible plague was.
His beloved country which he had served throughout his whole fifty five years of life was likely in its final hours... but his wife was the only thing he cared about right now.
She was likely going to be dead within the next few minutes and there was simply nothing he could do about it aside from be there for her in her final moments...
"Sweetie, I'm still here..." President Resnick said to the telephone on his desk, trying his hardest to be a comforting voice for his wife. "I promise I'm still on the line. I'm not going anywhere, okay...?" Don't cry, man. Stay calm for her. Stay calm for her. Stay calm for her.
President Resnick had the phone on speaker. He could hear everything happening on the other line... He could hear all of his wife's terrified breaths, he could hear the shouts of several people struggling to hold back the infected, and he could hear the sounds of distant gunfire and police sirens and all of the other sounds of a collapsing civilization. The love of his life was stuck right in the middle of it.
His wife Catherine knew she was going to die soon. She was terrified. She was struggling to keep herself calm enough to speak with her husband, but her hands were shaking so much that she could barely hold onto the phone.
"T- Tommy? Honey...?" Catherine said in a shaky voice. "Oh my God, there's so many of those things outside!... W- We've barricaded the top floor and we've locked ourselves in the ambassador's office, but they're already inside the building! I- It's just me, a couple of policeman, and a few Secret Service agents left... I- I don't know what to do..."
"Cathie, listen to me..." President Resnick said, fighting tears as he went back to his desk.
The President reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a treasure that meant almost as much to him as the United States Constitution itself - a pristine King James bible that has been owned by his family for the last 212 years. It was literally almost as old as the United States of America itself. He needed it right now.
President Resnick carefully opened the ancient book and he turned page after page, carefully flipping through the holy verses within the book until he found the one that he was looking for. He took a deep breath as he focused on it, trying to find every shred of willpower he had left to devote to his wife. He's loved this woman for the last fifty years. It was hard for him to know that these were going to be their last moments together.
"Remember Romans, Cathie? 14:8?" the president asked, "C'mon, honey, I know you remember all those bible studies from when we were little..."
"I-I remember how boring they all were. Father Sørensen wasn't that good of a storyteller when we were kids..." Catherine flatly joked, trying to use a little bit of humor to stay calm. But then she cleared her throat and she nodded as the reality of the situation hit her again by way of several distant gunshots somewhere in the streets outside. "Y- Yes, I remember that verse, Tommy..."
The trapped First Lady took a deep breath before she spoke the verse from memory. "'For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die...'"
"'...we are the Lord's.'" President Resnick finished for his wife as a lone tear escaped his eye. "J- Just remember that verse no matter what happens, okay? Whatever happens... I want you to know that you're the love of my life, Cathie, and-"
Suddenly one of the doors to the Oval Office burst open and several people came inside, all but one were armed with rifles or handguns.
Most of these men and women were regular Secret Service agents, but among them was leading agent Ryan Mettic - a man who had served under President Resnick and the last three United States Presidents before him. The sole unarmed person who came in was the Vice-President of the United States, Amaya Inouye - a Guam-born woman who had known President Resnick ever since they had served in the United States Senate together.
The Secret Service agent and the politician were growing more and more nervous since the evacuation of the White House needed to commence before the infected could get inside the compound. But before Agent Mettic or Vice-President Inouye could speak, President Resnick held up his finger to shush them. His only priority at the moment was Catherine. And as much as he hated to admit it he knew that this phone call wouldn't last much longer anyways...
The president took a deep breath and turned his attention back down to the phone. "...and I know that we will meet again." he said, "Someday, somehow, whether in this world or in the next... I promise you that I will never stop loving you, and that we will see each other again... I promise you, Cathie..."
Everyone in the Oval Office could hear the sounds of crying coming from the other end of the phone. But before the First Lady could speak to her husband again, a very loud crashing sound suddenly came through the line and it was followed by the sounds of much, much more gunfire. The infected had finally broken through the last defensible barricade inside the U.S. Embassy in London.
Catherine Resnick's life would end in the next few moments.
The First Lady's next words to her husband was completely drown out by the sounds of the police officers and her team of Secret Service agents fighting a doomed struggle for survival against the infected. Whatever she wanted to tell her husband, whether it was a final "I love you" to the man she loved or whether it was a terrified "God save me", will go with her to the grave.
Several voices were heard over the gunfire. Some with English or Scottish accents, others with American. All equally doomed.
"Oh Christ, they broke through! They fuckin' broke through!!!"
"Leftenant Townley!!! Bloody hell, get back against the wall, man!!!"
The sounds of screams and shouts from God only knew who.
"Oh god, they're everywhere!!! They're everywhere!!!"
"Shut up and keep shooting them!!!"
The sounds of their very last rounds of ammunition being fired.
"This is it, everyone! Take as many as you can with you!!!"
"I'm out of ammo!!!"
The sounds of a final stand against an insurmountable enemy.
"Agent Samson, take the left flank! Keep 'em away from the First Lady for as long as you can!!!"
"Madam First Lady, watch out!!!"
The sounds of sheer desperation.
"THERE'S TOO MANY OF THEM!!!"
The sounds of death.
President Resnick fell to his knees, anguish forming on his face as he listened to his wife's very last screams before the phone line finally died and the sounds of a dial tone replaced it. The love of his life was now gone...
A stunned silence filled the Oval Office as the reality of the First Lady's death hit everyone, but to Agent Mettic and the other Secret Service agents in the room there was only one thing that they had to worry about right now - protecting the President of the United States with their own lives.
They had to get out of the White House and get airborne while they still had the chance. Tragedy or not.
Agent Mettic approached the president and he felt both pity and sorrow as he hung up the phone for him. He had known the First Lady ever since his childhood...
Catherine Resnick was a very kindhearted woman to everyone she had met, whether it be foreign diplomats, everyday Americans, or Secret Service Agents. She was the type of person who would even take the time to sit down and talk with people like the White House custodians, and the people who worked in the kitchens...
She was a saint on this earth. She raised millions for cancer charities over the last thirty years. She as First Lady did volunteer work at local homeless shelters throughout the capital. If her husband was the face of this nation then she was arguably its living soul...
And he was going to miss her terribly...
"Mr. President..." Agent Mettic began with a soft tone in his voice. "Sir, I... I'm so sorry about Catherine... but we need to evacuate now..."
A moment went by where the president didn't say or do anything. It only made the knot in Mettic's stomach twist even more...
"We don't have anymore time to wait, sir..." he urged, "If we don't leave right now, then-"
Without saying a single word, President Resnick suddenly held up his hand again and silenced his agent. After another moment of silence, the president rose back to his feet.
His wife was gone, but even so he couldn't shed tears about it. Not now, at least... President Resnick still had to try and be a beacon of hope and strength for what was left of the American people. He had to show strength and resolve, not sadness and despair.
He was just going to have to find his own way to mourn his wife later. Because right now his country was in chaos and above all else he had to be a president.
"Just... Just lead the way, Ryan..." was all that President Resnick could say after gathering his things, "... please ..."
Understanding that the president needed a little time to deal with the loss of his wife, Agent Mettic simply nodded and he focused solely on evacuating him and Vice-President Inouye from the White House. Whatever happens, he had to get them out of this place...
Marine One, the presidential helicopter, was on standby out on the South Lawn and it was ready to evacuate them from D.C., but they needed to get there fast before the infected break through the defensive perimeter around the mansion.
God willing, everything would be okay once they make it to Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews. Agent Mettic wouldn't rest easy until they were in the sky.
Washington was lost. That much was a certainty. There was a plan in place for the remnants of the U.S. government and military to reform around Sacramento, California, which has thus far held itself against the spread of the pandemic - this "Wildfire Virus" as many called it.
Sacramento was among the last safe havens left. However, the president, vice president, and the officials with them were planned to go to another location first...
The Secret Service had to escort their grieving president to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex - the NORAD headquarters housed deep underground close to Colorado Springs. It was remote enough that the infected would hopefully not be as much of an issue as they are here in D.C., and most importantly it was safe and secure enough that the president could still run the United States government for the duration of this emergency. At least until he would go to Sacramento and continue there.
For now, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex that housed NORAD was going to be the safe haven for both the President and Vice-President of the United States. Depending on where they were once the order was given to relocate, the survivors that made up what was left of both chambers of the United States Congress were heading either directly to Sacramento or to other secure places.
One, which was close to D.C., was the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Virginia. Originally built during the Cold War, this facility which was to shelter much of the government from Soviet missiles was to now shelter them from the dead...
Hopefully after everyone gets to their temporary destinations there will still be a nation for them to continue to govern.
Maybe they can even find a way to create a cure if they were lucky...
The other Secret Service agents hurried out of the Oval Office to secure the hallways that the President, Vice-President and Agent Mettic were going to head through. Agent Mettic stayed close to Vice-President Inouye as they headed to the door. Inouye, Resnick and Mettic all felt a certain weight on their shoulders as they knew that this may very well be the last time that a President of the United States ever leaves the Oval Office...
President Resnick made sure to get his precious family bible off of his desk along with a few other items of import from the desk drawers. The items he gathered were mostly stuff like some sensitive government documents that he needed and a few old photos of him and Catherine - which of course he wouldn't dare leave behind.
He placed all of these things within the inner pockets of his suit jacket and then he hurried to follow Agent Mettic and Vice-President Inouye to the door leading directly to the West Wing hallways. But as he approached the door, President Resnick took one final moment to stop and gaze back at the now-empty Oval Office...
Every President of the United States had for over the last 120 years used this room as their office. Presidents like Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan made decisions in this very room that changed the course of history forever. Decisions that altered the balance of power on this world. Decisions that killed and saved countless millions. Decisions that built up and tore down whole nations...
Resnick himself made those same kind of decisions as well, but now all of that was in the past just like the office that this room represented...
He prayed that he was wrong about that though. Resnick didn't want to go down in history as the last President of the United States.
As he gazed upon the presidential flag which hung limply behind the Resolute Desk, President Resnick silently hoped that God would allow him to step foot in this room again someday. If not him, then at least another president someday in the future, when this room and mansion could be nothing more than an old ruin...
It didn't matter to him if it was a true President of the United States or even if it was someone from some sort of a successor nation many years from now. But whoever it would be, he hoped that they could find inspiration from this office and from all it represented... and he hoped it would be someone who could lead the surviving American people to greatness once again...
The clock was ticking. Agent Mettic checked his watch and saw that they were already too far behind schedule. That helicopter was their only way out of Washington and God help them if the undead broke through and got to it first.
Before Agent Mettic could ask the president to finish, President Resnick already turned and he finally walked out of the Oval Office to follow his agents. His business within the White House was done now, perhaps forever...
Agent Mettic looked back at the Oval Office one final time and then he shut the door, locking it behind him. Locking the door was more of a symbolic act at this point but he still wanted to keep the room as intact as possible for whoever comes through next.
With that, the group hurried down the hallways of the West Wing. They needed to cut through the White House and they had to try and get to the South Lawn where Marine One was awaiting.
President Resnick, who's callsign among the Secret Service was "Torchbearer", and Vice President Inouye, who was "Pioneer", were the top priority for all of the agents. Their lives mattered more than any of the Secret Service agents. It didn't matter if the agents died so long as they helped get POTUS and VPOTUS to safety.
God help them.
And God help the people of Washington D.C. and the United States of America...
Agent Mettic hurried through the halls of the White House with his fellow agents, President Resnick, and Vice-President Inouye on the way to the presidential helicopter Marine One. Sheer pandemonium reigned throughout most of the presidential mansion as White House employees and other U.S. government officials scrambled to make it to their own evacuation vehicles, and the Secret Service agents and D.C. police were struggling to keep order.
The security detail for the president and vice-president hurried as quickly as they could. They knew that the White House's defenses would collapse any time now. Gunfire sounded on practically every inch of the fences and barriers around the White House complex and from the multiple teams of snipers on the rooftops. D.C. National Guard guardtowers around the perimeter each held a couple of riflemen and they were shooting everything in sight that was outside the fences.
President Resnick, Vice-President Inouye, Agent Mettic and the rest of the group made it to the Cross Hall in the center of the mansion when a National Guardsman hurried to meet them. The poor bastard looked as if he hadn't slept or had a decent meal in God only knew how long, but he was still doing his duty regardless.
The guardsman, a colonel by the name of "Jones" if Mettic remembered right, saluted the president and vice president before he turned his attention over to Agent Mettic as he started walking with them.
"Agent Mettic!" Colonel Jones began. "Agent, we're rapidly losing control of the northern defensive perimeter! Dozens of my men have already gotten bitten or scratched and we've got reports of breaches all along the fences on every side! The White House is at the brink of collapse!"
Agent Mettic was dismayed by this status report. Although the primary mission was to protect the president, he didn't want hundreds of innocent people to be killed by the infected. The troops and the officers needed to buy everyone enough time to evacuate.
"How are you all on ammunition? How many casualties are you taking? Can you hold the infected off long enough for us to evacuate 'Torchbearer' and 'Pioneer'?" Agent Mettic inquired with some questions. He needed the answers.
"We're low on ammo and we're taking heavy casualties, but we're still holding off the infected!" Colonel Jones told him, "More and more of those bastards are showing up and we won't be able to hold out for much longer..."
"What's the status of 'Hawkeye' and 'Wrangler'?" These were the callsigns for Director Souers and Secretary Lansing, respectively.
"'Hawkeye' made it to his chopper! He's already airborne and on the way out of Washington! I have absolutely no clue where 'Wrangler' is!"
... that son of a bitch Souers evacuated before the President of the United States could?
Agent Mettic never truly liked that scumbag Souers nor was he ever fond of anyone else who worked in the CIA, but this was something that he never would have expected even from a guy like him. Director Souers practically abandoned his own Commander-in-Chief to the infected just to save his own ass!
If they lived through this mess then he was going to have a "friendly chat" with that idiot. CIA or not.
"Find 'Wrangler' and get him out of here on the next chopper!" Agent Mettic ordered to the colonel.
The colonel acknowledged the order and then he in turn ordered two nearby soldiers to head into the White House and find Secretary Lansing. The Secretary of State was going to go to NORAD with the president and vice-president originally onboard Air Force One, but since time was of the essence, he was just going to have to go to Mount Weather instead. At least for the time being.
Although Agent Mettic was pissed at Souers, he had to focus on the here and now and he had to keep President Resnick safe. As if on cue, the group now heard the sounds of explosions coming from somewhere outside of the mansion. The force of the explosions were so strong that bits of dust and plaster had fallen down from the ceiling on top of them.
The explosions were coming from rocket launchers being fired at the infected by the guys on the roof and by the guys on the newly-emplaced guardtowers. The situation outside had to have been growing desperate if heavy munitions were being used...
Vice-President Inouye was growing more and more worried as they made their way into the Diplomatic Receiving Room - the room which would lead out into the South Lawn. Her worries faded a bit when she could see the familiar green and white paint of Marine One through the windows.
Salvation was finally at hand. As the group hurried out of the room and onto the staircase leading down into the South Lawn, President Resnick looked to Colonel Jones with a determined look in his eye.
"Order an immediate evacuation of the White House as soon as we're in the sky, Colonel." President Resnick ordered. "Use the other choppers, the APCs, use any civilian cars that still work... Hell, use bicycles if you need to! I don't care! Just get all of your boys and all of the White House employees out of Washington any way you can..."
President Resnick frowned. "Is that clear, Colonel? I don't want anyone left behind to die for an empty building after we're evacuated."
Colonel Jones nodded at his Commander-in-Chief and then he saluted him before he hurried back towards the presidential mansion to spread the word among its defenders. The White House wasn't going to become a modern day-Alamo just yet.
As the group hurried out onto the South Lawn, a breathless, slightly-obese man with a black leather briefcase hurried over to meet the president and his entourage. This man was drenched head to toe in his own sweat, as if he was forced to run for at least a few miles with no break.
This man was gasping for air and his legs were wobbly, as if he was having some trouble keeping the strength to stand. Luckily the Secret Service knew exactly who he was and how important his briefcase was, so they allowed him to get close to the president without any hold up.
Vice-President Inouye offered the man a handkerchief from her suit pocket, which the man gladly accepted to wipe off some of the sweat from his face. The man was General Miguel Benavidez, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His callsign among the United States Secret Service was: 'Foxhound.'
The briefcase which General Benavidez had with him was handcuffed tightly to his wrist. This was for a very good reason - the special black briefcase was none other than the "Football" that contained all of the top-secret codes necessary for President Resnick to launch a powerful nuclear strike at anytime at any target anywhere in the whole world.
The Football literally had more than enough power to unleash World War III. If this special black briefcase was lost then the president would be powerless to defend the United States from any foreign aggression. Even in the midst of the pandemic it was absolutely imperative that the briefcase stays close to President Resnick from here on out. The fact that it had actually been separated from the president for this long was nothing less than horrifying to Agent Mettic...
In any event, the veteran Secret Service agent was angry at General Benevidez for a different reason. The general was supposed to have arrived at the White House a few hours ago. Football or not he would've been left behind if he hadn't gotten to the mansion when he did.
He was a very, very lucky idiot...
"You're late, General!" Agent Mettic snapped at his own superior officer as he and his agents hurriedly escorted the president and vice-president towards the chopper.
"The infected cut off everything east of the Treasury Department, Agent Mettic!" General Benavidez snapped back an explanation for his lateness. He kept a firm grip on the Football as he ran with the group. "We lost a lot of good men just to make it here! The roads were so clogged up that we had to get out of our car and run for the last two blocks! My bodyguards both got bit but they're helping the defenses now!" he further said.
Agent Mettic's eyes widened when he noticed the Football in the general's hands. The general was not supposed to have this thing with him. There was a designated aide who was trusted with the Football and it sure as shit wasn't this old bastard.
"Wait, where's Major Stillson?!" Agent Mettic demanded to know, "General, why do you have the Footb-"
"The infected got him two hours ago by the Capitol Building!" the general cut him off before he could finish his question. "We had to take the Football and leave him behind!"
The president simply lowered his gaze at the news that a close friend of his was gone. Lord knows that Harry Stillson was probably not the only friend that he's lost due to this damned virus, but he couldn't dwell on it right now...
As with what had happened to his wife, all that President Resnick could do was to try to keep pushing forward and focus on trying to be a leader during this crisis. He'll find the time to mourn his love and his dead friends once all of this starts to die down...
President Resnick, Vice-President Inouye, Agent Mettic, General Benavidez and all of the Secret Service agents with them hurried up the steps into Marine One. All of them buckled up and they put on flight headsets so that they could still communicate through all of the noises of the chopper. Seconds later the presidential helicopter started to head into the sky with its precious cargo onboard, and as it took off the remaining people at the White House began preparing for their own retreat.
As Marine One rose into the darkening sky, a saddened President Resnick looked out the window and he watched as the White House gradually grew more and more distant below him. The presidential mansion would not have a president in it again for a long time...
The president silently hoped that everyone who was still in there would evacuate in time before the mansion fell to the infected. He hoped that they would all make it to the military evac centers and find safety and shelter in distant Sacramento, or at least some other safe place for however long this pandemic lasts.
He hoped they would find a way to survive the rest of this outbreak which they now face. And he hoped that God would provide for them all and watch over them during these terrible trials...
As he gazed downwards, a quote from the Bible ran through the president's mind...
"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong..."
This was a time where everyone needed to stand firm... to be courageous... and to be strong...
Suddenly, the occupants of the helicopter saw the fences along the north side of the White House finally give way, allowing hundreds of the infected to begin rushing right on through this new hole in the White House defensive perimeter. They could only watch this in a stunned horror.
Any of the White House defenders who were unlucky enough to be caught in the middle of it were eaten alive and were killed. Everyone else that still carried a rifle hurried back to the front doors and prepared a last stand against the North Portico. They had to hold off the infected for as long as they possibly could so that everyone still in the mansion had a chance to escape the oncoming onslaught...
Everyone who was in the White House started rushing out into the South Lawn and toward any evacuation vehicles they could find. It was so chaotic down there...
People tripped, people were trampled by dozens of others... Even the soldiers and the police officers couldn't keep any order. In fact, several of them simply abandoned their posts and ran for their lives. Some didn't even make it...
President Resnick's heart shattered at the sheer desperation that he witnessed going on to those people down on the ground. The American people. His people.
God Almighty help those poor men and women down on the ground. God Almighty end this nightmare.
Please, God Almighty in Heaven above, please stop this madness...
With the trajectory they were taking, the presidential helicopter began to fly west and away from the now-fallen White House. In a few moments their flight plan would have them head towards Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, just south of Washington D.C. The presidential chopper was going to fly straight over the National Mall one final time. To the people in the helicopter, it felt like they were about to do an unintentional final salute for a dying nation...
Vice-President Inouye glanced out the window and she was greeted with the terrible sight of several survivors hanging some banners reading: "S.O.S." out of the observation deck windows of the Washington Monument. Unfortunately, the monument was completely surrounded by the infected, and it looked like they were already breaking into the visitor's center at the ground floor. It wouldn't be long before they would make it to the top of the structure...
Those people needed help. But help wasn't coming... Everyone who could've helped them was either dead, infected, or were evacuating D.C. right at this very moment.
They were on their own.
The vice-president couldn't bear to keep looking outside, so she turned her attention back over to the president. Her heart sank as she watched him silently utter a prayer for the trapped people in the Washington Monument.
She knew how deeply Thomas loved their country and all of their people. She simply couldn't imagine whatever was going through his head right now as he saw all of it go up in flames and death...
"Tom?... Are you okay?..." the vice president asked with a gentle tone of voice.
President Resnick was unresponsive for several more moments as he finished up his prayer. Although the first responders couldn't help the people trapped in the Washington Monument, he hoped that the Lord would somehow get them all through that terrible situation that they were finding themselves in.
No one deserved this terrible infection. No one at all. It was hard for him not to feel like he had failed the people of America...
Although he heard his vice-president speak to him, President Resnick couldn't bear look her in the eye. "No, Amaya, not really..." was all that the president could say to her about how he was feeling. This was the worst day of his life, after all.
Vice-President Inouye still felt great concern for her friend, but she didn't press him any further. He needed some time to deal with all of this...
As the occupants of the helicopter fell into an uncomfortable silence, Marine One and its valuable cargo continued south and onwards towards Joint Base Andrews. Air Force One was awaiting them on the tarmac, fully fueled up and ready to get airborne just as soon as President Resnick and Vice-President Inouye were safely onboard. Hopefully the facilities at NORAD were still operational enough to help run a whole country's military and government...
Agent Mettic, however, tried not to think about everything they were seeing out of the windows. He kept going over the presidential protection plans in his head over and over and over again, reviewing each and every detail sometimes six, seven, eight times in a row...
But even so, he couldn't help but take a moment to think about his older brother Jonathan, who was currently serving in a unit of the California Army National Guard.
Mettic and his brother hadn't been close for many years before the start of the pandemic. Their relationship had soured after John's newborn child was stolen from him and his wife straight from the hospital years ago.
A couple of arguments led to a couple of fistfights, and soon enough the two brothers were in opposite ends of the country pretending that the other just didn't even exist.
The last time that Agent Mettic talked with his brother was a loud argument on the front porch of his house. Honestly, he didn't even remember what they were screaming at each other about, but whatever it was it was enough for them to finally cut ties with each other. The last thing he heard from his brother was two simple words: "Drop dead."
After it became clear that the infection was going to kill a lot of people, Agent Mettic used his connections in the Secret Service to check up on his brother despite how badly they left things all those years ago. From what he was told, Sergeant Mettic and his unit were at Travis Air Force Base near Fairfield and were helping out with the ongoing evacuation efforts there...
He hoped that John was okay... Maybe if and when all of this finally dies down he could find some time to try and catch up with his brother. Talk things out with him. Maybe mend some old wounds between them too...
He felt that-
"Ryan?"
Agent Mettic was pulled away from his thoughts by President Resnick. Naturally, the Secret Service agent gave him his utmost attention.
"Yes sir?" he asked his leader, a touch of concern in his voice. "Is there something wrong, Mr. President?"
President Resnick went silent for a few moments, as if he struggled to find the correct words to tell his friend what he wanted to say.
Finally the president spoke up. "... promise me that we'll cure this thing someday." he asked in a soft voice, "I just... I need to hear it for myself, Ryan..."
The Secret Service agent honestly had no idea if this pandemic was going to end. From what he had seen so far, the infected were growing in number and they were winning this new war. Washington D.C. New York. Chicago. Los Angeles. Atlanta... Cities were falling like dominos and many millions of Americans were already dead or infected.
The fate of the human race as a species could be at risk. If a cure did come then it might be far too late... but he didn't dare tell the president that opinion of his.
"I... I'm honestly not sure, Mr. President..." Agent Mettic answered truthfully. "Sir, I don't know if we'll be able to fight this pandemic off. The infected are relentless and more and more people are being killed by them. I don't know if we or anyone else will even come close to finding a cure..."
The president looked a bit dejected by his friend's words. But then Agent Mettic went down on one knee in front of the president and looked him straight in the eye.
"... but I do know that we won't stop looking for a cure no matter what, sir." Agent Mettic assured his commander in chief, "And that no matter whatever happens to us, other people will find ways to survive and rebuild. That alone is something worth fighting for..."
President Resnick suddenly felt a hand slither into his and give it an affectionate, caring squeeze. He looked to his left to see that Vice-President Inouye was looking at him, her soft and reassuring smile conveying more to him than any word possibly ever could.
The president returned the expression. She's always been there for him even before their days in the Senate together... Amaya and Ryan were the closest things that he had left to a best friend. He loved and cherished them both...
Their support was something that he was going to need to rely on from here on out. Their support along with the support of everyone else who was going to NORAD or Mount Weather or Sacramento. To get through this terrible crisis they were all going to have to work together...
Whatever happens... they'll give it their all.
Marine One finally arrived in the airspace of Joint Base Andrews a short time later. As they approached the base, they received word from the control tower that the infected had already began to breach the front entrances and were now making their way towards Air Force One.
The National Guard soldiers on the ground were doing their best to fight the infected and hold them off long enough for 'Torchbearer' and 'Pioneer' to escape, but they were losing ground and the infected was gaining numbers.
If the Secret Service was going to evacuate President Resnick and Vice-President Inouye, they'd have to do it fast.
"Agents!" Agent Mettic said to the other Secret Service agents onboard the helicopter. "We're gonna be goin' into a hot zone! Keep close to 'Torchbearer' and 'Pioneer' and don't let any of those infected sons of bitches get close to them!"
As he spoke, the other Secret Service agents were already readying their weapons for a fight.
"Lethal force is authorized! Protect them both at all costs!" Mettic ordered. No matter what happens next, President Resnick and Vice-President Inouye needed to get inside Air Force One. Even if it cost Mettic and the other agents their lives.
The other Secret Service agents confirmed Agent Mettic's orders. They weren't going to lie - most of them were terrified about what they might find out there once the helicopter lands. But they all remembered the oaths they swore and they were going to protect their Commander-in-Chief no matter what...
Agent Mettic loaded a fresh seventeen-round magazine of ammunition into his handgun and he cocked it. Then he turned the safety off.
He didn't care how many of the infected were attacking Joint Base Andrews right now.
He didn't care whatever stood between them and reaching Air Force One.
He'll gladly die before he fails his mission.
As Marine One swooped in to its landing spot 800 meters away from Air Force One, President Resnick uttered one last prayer for good luck. They were going to need it.
A few of the other Secret Service agents joined in with the president and they recited prayers of their own, and so did Vice-President Inouye and General Benavidez too. But Agent Mettic, however, did not. He came from a religious household but nowadays he simply felt that he should rely more on his gun than on God.
Marine One touched down in a bumpy, rushed landing. Agent Mettic was the one who opened the passenger door and unfolded the steps that would lead them out onto the base's tarmac. Agent Mettic and all of the other Secret Service agents hurried out of the helicopter first in order to secure the immediate area before President Resnick and Vice-President Inouye could come out. General Benavidez and the Football both stayed close to the Commander-in-Chief.
Knowing that their jobs had become more or less useless for the moment, even the pilots of Marine One left their seats and borrowed a couple of extra handguns from the Secret Service agents to help them reach the presidential plane. The agents didn't mind getting a bit of extra help...
As he stepped out of Marine One, President Resnick was greeted with a horrific sight that was much worse than everything he had seen unfold at the White House...
Dozens of corpses littered the ground everywhere in the vicinity of Marine One. Fires burned uncontrollably in several hangers and buildings throughout the rest of the base. Hundreds of soldiers were desperately holding the line near Air Force One against what Resnick could only assume was thousands of the infected.
It was clear to him that all of the base had already fallen to the infected... but was there still enough time for them to make it into the air? Was the tarmac even clear?
"Sir, stick close to me! You too, Madam Vice-President!" Agent Mettic told the President and Vice-President, noticing that several of the infected had heard the rotors of Marine One and were now stumbling towards them right now. Both he and the other Secret Service agents prepared for a fight.
Using their bodies to shield President Resnick and Vice-President Inouye from any harm, Agent Mettic and the other Secret Service agents began to sprint with them straight towards the defensive perimeter surrounding Air Force One. General Benavidez followed close behind President Resnick, and luckily for him he also had a couple of agents protecting him thanks to him being the caretaker of the Football for the moment. The Marine One pilots followed close behind them all.
As soon as they got too close to the infected, Agent Mettic and the rest of his men began to open fire upon them.
"'Torchbearer', 'Pioneer' and 'Foxhound' are on the move!" Agent Mettic barked into his radio to the crew and security team onboard the presidential plane. "Prep Air Force One for immediate takeoff! We're coming in HOT!"
While the Secret Service killed anything that stood in their way, President Resnick and Vice-President Inouye were horrified to see the infected being shot down. They knew that hundreds of them were killed all around the White House, but to see this carnage for themselves...
These were Americans for God's sake! Americans! If a cure could be created then maybe all of these people can return back to normal, so shooting them was-
"MR. PRESIDENT, WATCH OUT!!!"
President Resnick was torn from his thoughts after one of the infected managed to get through the heavy fire and rush him. Before Agent Mettic or the other Secret Service agents could stop it, the creature had pushed the president to the ground and it started trying to claw at his arms and bite at his face. Only President Resnick's strength was enough to keep the infected from biting him, but just barely. Luckily the creature couldn't claw through the arms of his suit jacket.
The president struggled to keep the infected person from biting him. Its face inched its way closer and closer towards his neck...
God, this creature looked like it came from the depths of hell itself!
Agent Mettic didn't waste any time. He rushed over and he kicked the infected person off of the president, sending it barreling off of his Commander-in-Chief and down onto the ground next to him.
The Secret Service agent then walked over, pressed the creature down with his foot, and finally put a bullet in the infected's skull before it could attack the president a second time, shocking Resnick to his core. Vice-President Inouye was horrified by what she had just witnessed but she was relieved that President Resnick wasn't killed.
After he was sure the infected person was dead, Mettic hurried to President Resnick and he hurriedly helped him up off the ground.
"I've got you, Mr. President!" Agent Mettic growled, angry entirely at himself for the president's near-death experience. That was a major fuckup that he didn't dare allow to repeat again. "Come on, sir! We've gotta get moving before more of them swarm us! RUN!!!"
President Resnick was still greatly shaken by his near-death experience but he didn't dare ignore Agent Mettic's words. The gunshots against the infected were drawing even more of them straight towards their position. Hundreds of them from across the base were heading straight towards them now.
What was worse was that many of them were already pretty close by... and it wasn't long before they arrived.
One Secret Service agent was grabbed by one of the infected as she ran with the group. She was sent to the ground and swarmed by six more of them within a couple of seconds. Agent Mettic cursed at the sight of one of his agents getting eaten alive but he couldn't waste time trying to save someone who was bitten, especially when the president still needed to be saved. He left her behind...
Another Secret Service agent was attacked by an infected when they were about halfway to the plane, but he managed to shoot it in the head and kick it away after a couple of moments. Sadly, the infected person managed to scratch his hand and leave a bite on his neck - infecting him.
Knowing that he couldn't dare go on Air Force One and risk infecting anyone else who was onboard, he simply stopped running and he stayed behind to try and buy the group a little bit more time with the few bullets left in his gun. He didn't last very long, but he did kill two or three of the infected before he joined them...
Their deaths were tragedies, but the group couldn't dwell on it as they ran. President Resnick would pray for them after Air Force One was in the air.
"KEEP RUNNING!!! WE'RE ALMOST THERE!!!" Agent Mettic shouted to everyone else in the group.
"DON'T STOP OR YOU'RE DEAD!!!" General Benavidez added. He was breathless and struggling to keep up with the others, so this sentence was directed more towards himself than anyone else.
The remaining National Guardsmen defending Air Force One saw the president and his group running towards them from down the tarmac. They amped up their automatic fire towards the infected, wanting to try and help the group as much as they possibly could. They were all running very low on ammunition but luckily the troops still had enough to ensure that their president and all of the other survivors could make it to them.
Several National Guardsmen cleared the way so that Agent Mettic and the others could run through the defensive line, then the troops closed it up again and resumed firing upon the infected once more.
The president and the vice-president had finally made it to safety. Now the troops just needed to keep the infected at bay long enough for Air Force One to take off...
President Resnick, Vice-President Inouye, Agent Mettic, General Benavidez, the Marine One pilots, and the surviving Secret Service agents hurried as fast as they could up an opened retractable staircase which led into Air Force One. The president was so breathless that he had to lean against a wall after he made it in, but most of the others were fine. Although General Benavidez was so exhausted that he literally fell down onto his hands and knees after he made it inside.
After he was sure that everyone was safe and secure, Agent Mettic hurried over to a nearby intercom that fed directly to the cockpit where the pilot, co-pilot, and navigator were anxiously awaiting for the arrival of their Commander-in-Chief and their new orders.
"We're all onboard! GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE NOW!!!" Agent Mettic yelled into the speaker.
Several of the National Guard soldiers outside broke ranks and they hurried up the steps and into Air Force One to help provide security for the president, whereas all of the others kept holding the line against the onslaught. Agent Mettic and one of the soldiers lifted up the retractable staircase as they felt the plane start to move - much to the relief of nearly everyone. But Agent Mettic didn't dare allow himself to relax until Air Force One was in the sky...
Up in the cockpit, the pilot, co-pilot and navigator were all sweating bullets. The runway they were taxiing to was filled with debris, dead bodies and some stray infected. If they hit any of them then God only knew if it would damage parts of the plane or not...
They had no other choice though. If they stayed any longer then the infected outside would swarm Air Force One and they'd never be able to escape...
"... no matter what happens we get this plane in the air, is that understood?" the pilot spoke to his co-pilot and navigator with determination.
Both of the other men acknowledged this. Whatever happens to Air Force One, they still had to get in the air and get President Resnick out of Washington.
With that, the pilot and co-pilot lined up the plane on the runway and then they pushed the thrust lever. The plane gained speed pretty quickly after that.
The sheer amount of debris and corpses lining the runway made the takeoff one hell of a bumpy ride. Several surviving infected strays were knocked over either by parts of the plane or the blasts from the jet engines as Air Force One accelerated down the asphalt. The pilot, co-pilot and navigator foolishly started to think that they might just manage to get in the air without too much trouble...
However, something - whether it was an infected person or a piece of debris was simply impossible to guess - was sucked into the number three engine on the right wing. The engine sputtered, its innards damaged significantly by whatever had been sucked inside. The plane slowed down as the pilot and co-pilot desperately worked to try and regain some of the lost speed.
As they did so, they could see they were going to run out of runway soon...
"We've got to take off now!" the pilot said as he watched the approaching end of the runway get closer and closer through the front window.
"We can't! We don't have enough speed!" the co-pilot retorted as they struggled to keep the plane under control.
The pilot growled as he was forced to swerve off of the runway to avoid a horde of infected that stumbled onto the asphalt. That maneuver threw the passengers of the plane all over the place, but thankfully no one got injured aside from a couple of bumps and bruises.
Unfortunately, the swerve also had the effect of killing off even more of their speed, and what was worse was that they could see that they were now heading straight towards a parked military plane. They couldn't swerve out of the way of this obstacle because they'd just lose more speed, and they couldn't dare stop and risk the infected swarming the plane.
If Air Force One hit that fucking thing...
"We don't have a choice!" the pilot barked at the other two men in the cockpit. "Now shut up and help me get this damned thing in the air!"
The co-pilot was unconvinced that they would survive this, but what choice did they have?
Reluctantly, the co-pilot just focused on doing what the pilot wanted. He pushed the thrust lever as far down as he possibly could. The damaged engine was just going to have to deal with whatever strain was necessary for the takeoff.
Air Force One accelerated towards the parked plane like it was a bat out of hell. As they rapidly approached the parked plane, the pilot finally couldn't wait any longer and he pulled the flight stick as far back as humanly possible. Whether he had enough speed or not, he was going to get this bird in the air or die trying...
The presidential plane's nose arced upwards. The pilot gritted his teeth as he felt his plane finally start to get airborne, but he was still far too close to that parked plane for comfort. Beads of sweat caused by exertion and sheer worry ran down his face.
The co-pilot and the navigator crossed their fingers and hoped that the rear of the jet wouldn't clip the military plane as they went up and into the sky. Their lives and the life of President Resnick was hung in the balance for these next, critical moments...
"Come on you stupid bird, get up there!" the pilot demanded to the plane itself through gritted teeth.
After a few more breathless moments, Air Force One managed to get in the air and it didn't hit the parked plane - by some miracle it missed it by mere inches in the end.
The three men in the cockpit let out a collective sigh of relief as they gained altitude, leaving Joint Base Andrews and Washington D.C. behind them...
Further back in the plane, Agent Mettic allowed the breath he had been holding to escape as Air Force One took to the sky. He glanced out the window and saw the ground growing more and more distant, and with it, the countless infected hordes rampaging down there...
Exhausted but relieved that the president and vice president were safe, the Secret Service agent simply plopped himself down on a nearby chair for some desperately-needed relaxation as all of the other agents, the Matine One pilots, and the National Guard soldiers all went to other parts of the presidential plane to help with security or to get a bit of rest themselves. God knows they all needed it...
General Benavidez also left to find something to eat in the galley (how he even still had an appetite after all of that mess was simply baffling), but Vice-President Inouye stayed with Agent Mettic and President Resnick.
Though President Resnick was just as exhausted as Agent Mettic, he didn't sit down anywhere and he instead went to look out of a window for a moment. As Air Force One headed west he could see Washington from high up in the air. The city's electric grid had finally died by this point, but he could still see America's capital glowing from the light of countless burning fires. It was almost beautiful in its own, horrifying way...
The president turned to speak to Agent Mettic again but he noticed that the agent had already fallen asleep in his chair. President Resnick couldn't help but chuckle a little bit at the comical sounds of Agent Mettic's snoring, and both he and Vice-President Inouye allowed him to get the sleep that he had most certainly earned for himself.
Vice-President Inouye took off her suit jacket and she laid it on top of Agent Mettic to serve as a blanket of sorts, and then she and President Resnick decided to try and get some sleep themselves. The two leaders retired to the presidential suite at the front of the plane, hoping to get a few good hours of shuteye on the two beds in there before they would arrive in Colorado...
But after everything they had seen at the White House and Joint Base Andrews, they knew they probably wouldn't get any...