District: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Read Online Free Page A

know we’re stretched thin in the recon-sat department.
I’ve got one parked over the California/Nevada border watching the Mountain Warfare
Training Center—”
    Cade interrupted. “Speaking of Pickel Meadows … how are the
Marines there holding up?”
    “Like they should be. Captain Swarr and his boys are kicking
ass and taking names. They’ve got the Chinese battalion fractured and on the run.
Scattered to the wind like a dried-out dandelion.”
    “Squirters?” he asked.
    “Just the advance element that got by their northern FOB
days ago,” Nash replied, and went quiet.
    On the other end of the line Cade heard his favorite Air
Force officer draw in a deep breath. Simultaneously, on the screen in front of
Heidi, he picked up movement on the lower right partition.
    Nash picked up after a long beat. She said, “I’m guessing
your undead PLA recon scouts were some of the first wave. Hell, there were so
many beachheads up and down the West Coast, California and Oregon, that
we’re just now getting a handle on how many troops they were able to land. A battalion
or two is our best estimate. No doubt the Zs chewed up a good number of them
the moment their landing craft hit land.”
    “But?” Cade said.
    “Half to three-quarters of them likely made it inland.” Nash
went quiet for a few seconds then said, “We are facing an invasion force on
American soil. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The East Coast will be
seeing landings in the coming days and we don’t have enough active subs or surface
ships to interdict all of the PLA Navy vessels in transit. I’m afraid the West Coast
is nothing compared to what is coming.”
    Now Cade went silent as he watched on the screen the woods
surrounding the feeder road disgorge an eighteen-wheeler, its squared-off snout
and wide cab making the surrounding tree limbs and ground-hugging bushes dance
and send airborne the few colorful leaves still clinging to their skeletal
branches. As the sun glinted off the gleaming chrome tank riding out back, Cade
posed his next question—one that he had been eager to ask for some time.
    “What about the Pacific Northwest?”
    “You mean Portland, specifically?”
    “Saw right through me,” Cade admitted. “Yeah … I’m curious
to know how Portland is faring. And to a lesser extent Seattle and the
coastline from Coos Bay on up to Puget Sound.”
    “That all?” Nash said, her voice carrying a hint of
incredulity. “I thought I sent you footage of Portland prior to you going off
to Los Angeles. I did thank you for rescuing my girl … didn’t I?”
    “The footage of Portland was eye-opening,” Cade said. And it worked at getting me back in , he thought. “But that was all
captured before the PLA Navy broke through your pickets. About the mission to L.A. Are the FEMA hard drives producing the intel you hoped they
would?”
    “And then some,” she said. “Using the individual logs of the
rescue birds coming and going from the Long Beach facility we were able to locate
and rescue dozens of surviving HVTs (High Value Targets) before the Chinese Navy
made landfall. Consequently, they’ve been instrumental in getting Springs up
and running.”
    “You knew about the PLA fleet before L.A.?”
    “It was need-to-know, Wyatt. President’s orders. Besides, you,
Ari … the team . None of you were in any danger. All of us watching from
the op center had zero confidence that the lead destroyer’s active phased-array
radar could pick up Jedi One. If, and I mean a helluva longshot if, that
Ghost Hawk somehow was painted, the PLA seaman watching the scope would
have thought the blip was a flock of seagulls.”
    “Flock of seagulls … so says the chair force Major
sitting in her air-conditioned office behind the wire and separated from
said destroyer and escorts by eight hundred miles and a formidable mountain
range.” Instantly Cade regretted his words. And as a result of his not
employing his usual filter between brain and