Transmission: Voodoo Plague Book 5 Read Online Free Page A

found it, I must say it was the nicest, cleanest, shiniest latrine I’ve
ever been in.  One thing about the Air Force, they live in luxury compared to
the rest of the services.  I still harbor resentment for time I spent in
Panama. 
    My entire company was housed in tents at the bottom of a
large hill.  Being at the bottom of a hill means you damn near get washed away
every afternoon when it rains.  You live in mud, mosquitoes and whatever shit
trickles down from above.  At the top of the hill sat a large, modern brick
building, complete with running water and air conditioning.  This was where the
Air Force was housed.  Every night we’d go to sleep hearing their AC units
humming away and boom boxes blasting.  If one of them had been dumb enough to wander
down the hill I doubt he would ever have been seen again.
    Needs taken care of, I headed back to the Black Hawk and
kept an eye on the ground crew while Tom and the door gunner took their turn. 
While I waited, I spread out a map of the area.  West Memphis was 133 air miles
east of us.  The terrain was so flat and the freeway so straight it was only 142
road miles.  There were two other helos out searching, one to the north of
I-40, the other south.  I didn’t see Jackson leaving the Interstate without a
compelling reason, but I was still trying to figure out why the hell they’d
gone into town in the first place.
    “That is the fucking cleanest, fanciest, five-star shitter
I’ve ever had the pleasure of smelling up.”  Tom said when he walked up.  “Knew
I joined the wrong goddamn service.”
    “Hell, I hear they have some openings.  Maybe you should
re-up and try life as a wing wiper.”  I said with a grin, not looking away from
the map.
    “Fuck that.  I can’t drink tea with my little bitty pinkie
sticking out.”  He said, moving in next to me to see the map.  “So, what’s the
plan?”
    “We know they went into West Memphis.  First stop is town. 
A couple of days ago there were still three cops left alive and working.  I
want to find them and see if they know anything.  We’ll follow the Interstate
and keep checking vehicles.  After that… let’s see what we find out when we get
there.”
    By now our door gunner was back and we mounted up.  Tom had
us in the air a few minutes later and we picked up I-40 and resumed our
eastward path.  A few miles to the north a blot of greasy, black smoke stained
the sky and I asked Tom to take us closer.  As we flew over I could see heavy
equipment carving deep trenches out of the ground.  A few hundred yards to the
west was another, larger excavation which was where the smoke was coming from. 
    Tom went into a hover, positioning us in clear air with an
unobstructed view into the pit.  At first it looked like deep piles of tree
limbs were being burned and I couldn’t understand why they were doing that. 
Then I made out more of the flaming shapes and realized it was human bodies. 
Thousands of human bodies.
    “Christ on a cross!”  Tom breathed.  “What the hell are they
doing?”
    “Infected.”  I answered.  “Probably the best thing to do
with the bodies.” 
    A small group of figures dressed head to toe in white,
bio-hazard suits was standing at the edge of the pit watching the fire consume
the dead.  One of them held what had to be a bible and looked to be praying
over the departed. 
    “Let’s go.”  I said, snapping Tom back to the mission at
hand.  He nodded and spun us around to head back to I-40.

4
     
    Rachel had been in shock after shooting Jackson.  Yes, he
had turned and tried to kill her, but she had felt a small part of herself die
when she pulled the trigger.  She hadn’t known him long, but he had become a
friend.  A friend that deserved better than to turn into one of the raging
infected and get shot in the head.  She couldn’t even bury him.  He was still
strapped into the cab of the pickup, sitting in the bottom of a flooded ditch. 
Not a