Chapter 9 - THE LAST BROADCAST
The emergency broadcast tower stood on Blue Mountain north of Harrisburg.
Under normal conditions, it carried weather alerts, state police traffic, and public radio.
Now it was one of the last high-power transmitters still operating in central Pennsylvania.
Theo believed he could use it to send the Blood Dawn files across emergency frequencies.
Not just audio.
Data.
Documents.
Video.
Vance’s orders.
The trial records.
The formula.
Everything.
“If we broadcast wide enough,” Theo said, “some station outside the quarantine will capture it.”
Marcus drove a stolen Harvest vehicle along a back road.
“They can jam us.”
“For a while.”
“How long do you need?”
Theo thought.
“Ten minutes.”
Sarah looked at him.
“Why is it always ten minutes?”
“Dramatic structure.”
Nobody laughed.
Mason’s body lay behind them at the annex.
They had not been able to bury him.
Sarah hated that.
Jack had vanished in fire.
Mason on a laboratory floor.
Too many people ended without graves.
Emily sat beside Sarah.
Her eyes were clear.
The inhibitor had not been used on her.
Naomi wanted to preserve doses.
Emily’s condition remained stable enough.
For now.
Lena had received one dose.
Her bite wound still carried virus, but conversion had stopped.
She was exhausted, feverish, alive.
That changed everything.
Not cure.
Time.
In the apocalypse, time was medicine.
Theo monitored military traffic.
“Ashfall strike package launches in forty-five minutes.”
Marcus swore.
“From where?”
“Probably western airbase.”
“Can we call command?”
“We can call. Vance controls the authorization net.”
Naomi said, “Then expose him.”
They reached the mountain access road.
Trees had fallen across it.
They walked the final mile.
Lena used a crutch made from a rifle stock.
No one mentioned the absurdity.
The tower compound appeared through fog.
Chain fence.
Concrete operations building.
Two dead technicians outside.
Not bitten.
Shot.
Sarah knelt.
Harvest rounds.
“They were here.”
Theo looked at the transmitter building.
“Then they expected us.”
The door opened.
Colonel Vance stepped out.
Alone.
Sarah raised her rifle.
He raised empty hands.
“You’re late.”
Marcus aimed too.
“Where are your men?”
“Most died at the annex.”
“Good.”
Vance looked at Emily.
“She’s deteriorating.”
Emily said, “You keep saying that.”
“And I keep being right.”
Sarah moved in front.
“What do you want?”
“The formula.”
“Why?”
“To manufacture it.”
Naomi laughed.
“You tried to bury it.”
“I tried to prevent uncontrolled distribution.”
“You killed Maya.”
“Her marrow was the only available source.”
“You could have used nonterminal extraction.”
“We didn’t know that protocol worked.”
Naomi stared.
“You had Vey’s research.”
“No. He hid it.”
That was possible.
Sarah hated that some of Vance’s words could be true.
He continued.
“If you broadcast the formula, every surviving lab, militia, criminal group, foreign intelligence service, and desperate parent will try to synthesize an unstable viral inhibitor.”
Theo said, “People are dying.”
“And bad synthesis could create new strains.”
Naomi went silent.
Sarah noticed.
“Can it?”
Naomi answered carefully.
“Yes.”
Vance nodded.
“Thank you.”
Emily asked, “Then what are we supposed to do?”
“Centralize production.”
“With you?” Sarah asked.
“With surviving federal infrastructure.”
“You are not federal infrastructure. You’re a man cleaning up his own crime.”
Vance’s calm slipped.
“My crime?”
He pointed toward the burning horizon.
“You think I wanted this?”
“You authorized live infection.”
“Under containment.”
“You delayed the warning.”
“Eleven hours because premature disclosure would have caused mass flight from Baltimore.”
“It did anyway.”
“Yes.”
His voice rose.
“And by then we had lost the chance to isolate.”
Sarah saw exhaustion beneath his control.
He had not slept either.
That did not make him innocent.
It made him human.
Worse, sometimes.
Vance looked at Emily.
“We can still use her.”
Sarah lifted the rifle.
“Wrong phrase.”
“To stabilize the treatment.”
“Wrong phrase.”
Emily stepped around Sarah.
“If I go with you, do you cancel Ashfall?”
Vance hesitated.
Sarah shouted, “No.”
Emily looked at him.
“Do you?”
Vance answered.
“I can delay it.”
“How long?”
“Six hours.”
Theo whispered, “He’s lying.”
Vance looked at him.
“I can hear you.”
“Good.”
Emily asked, “Can you stop it?”
Vance did not answer.
That was enough.
Sarah said, “He never had full control.”
Naomi understood.
“Ashfall can proceed without him.”
Vance’s face hardened.
“You don’t understand command architecture.”
“Then explain.”
He did not.
Theo moved toward the building.
Vance drew a pistol from behind his back.
Sarah fired first.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He spun and fell behind a concrete barrier.
Gunfire answered from the tree line.
Harvest survivors.
Not alone.
Marcus returned fire.
Lena dropped behind a vehicle.
Naomi pulled Emily toward the transmitter building.
Theo crawled to the door.
Sarah shot a Harvest operator behind a tree.
Another round struck the wall beside her face.
Concrete dust filled her mouth.
Vance shouted.
“Destroy the transmitter!”
A rocket hit the outer antenna support.
The tower shuddered.
Theo screamed, “Inside!”
They reached the operations room.
Old equipment hummed.
Theo locked the door.
Marcus stayed outside with Lena.
Gunfire continued.
Naomi connected the hard drive.
Theo brought emergency transmitters online.
“Eight minutes to full upload.”
Sarah laughed breathlessly.
“Of course.”
Emily leaned against a console.
Her nose bled.
Naomi noticed.
“Sit.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.”
Black veins had reached Emily’s shoulder.
Sarah grabbed an inhibitor dose.
Naomi stopped her.
“Wait.”
“Why?”
“We have five left.”
“So?”
“So Lena’s dose suppressed conversion in a normal infected host. We don’t know what it will do to Emily’s integrated state.”
Sarah stared.
“It could hurt her.”
“It could destabilize whatever balance she has.”
Emily wiped blood from her mouth.
“Then don’t.”
Sarah looked at her.
“You’re getting worse.”
“I know.”
Outside, something roared.
Not helicopter.
Horde.
Emily looked toward the wall.
“They’re coming.”
Harvest sonic devices.
Vance had drawn infected toward the mountain.
Theo said, “Four minutes.”
The building shook.
Marcus shouted over radio.
“Fence breached!”
Lena screamed gunfire.
Sarah moved toward the door.
Emily grabbed her.
“No.”
“They need help.”
“I need you.”
Sarah froze.
Emily’s voice softened.
“If I lose myself, I need you here.”
Sarah stayed.
The first infected hit the building.
Then hundreds.
The walls trembled.
Theo stared at the progress bar.
Forty-two percent.
Too slow.
Naomi opened a wide emergency channel.
“We need carriers.”
“What?”
“Other transmitters.”
Theo understood.
He began sending a spoken message.
“This is an emergency request to any active amateur radio, public safety, civilian broadcast, or military receiver. Record and rebroadcast incoming Blood Dawn package. Repeat. Record and rebroadcast.”
Static.
Then a voice.
“Blue Mountain, this is amateur station Whiskey Three Echo Mike. Receiving.”
Theo almost cried.
Another voice.
“Lancaster emergency net receiving.”
Another.
“Pittsburgh relay receiving.”
Another.
“West Virginia civil channel receiving.”
The information was escaping.
Vance could no longer kill one tower and erase it.
Sarah heard pounding outside the operations door.
Not infected.
Human.
Vance.
“Open the door!”
Theo shouted, “Two minutes!”
Vance fired through the lock.
The door burst.
Sarah aimed.
He entered bleeding from his shoulder.
No helmet.
No armor now.
Just a wounded man with a pistol.
Emily stood between them.
“Move,” Sarah said.
Emily did not.
Vance aimed at her.
“Come with me.”
“No.”
“You are the only viable integrated host.”
“I’m a person.”
“You are both.”
Emily flinched.
Vance saw it.
“So you know.”
Sarah shouted, “Put the gun down.”
He ignored her.
“Emily, if you stay with civilians, someone you love will eventually be exposed.”
Emily looked at Sarah.
Vance continued.
“You will spend every day wondering if your blood, saliva, tears, anything can kill her.”
Emily’s eyes filled.
Sarah said, “Don’t listen.”
“He is not wrong about the risk,” Naomi said quietly.
Sarah looked at her.
Naomi continued.
“But risk is not ownership.”
Vance laughed.
“The world ended and you’re giving ethics lectures.”
Naomi answered, “That is exactly when they matter.”
The progress bar hit eighty-eight percent.
Vance saw it.
He fired at the computer.
Emily moved.
Faster than Sarah could see.
She knocked his arm aside.
The shot shattered a monitor.
Vance punched her.
Emily barely moved.
He looked shocked.
She grabbed his wrist.
Bones cracked.
Vance screamed.
Sarah raised her gun.
“Emily.”
Emily held him.
Her face changed.
Not eyes.
Expression.
Hunger.
Sarah saw it.
Emily smelled blood.
Vance’s blood.
She leaned closer.
“Emily.”
No response.
Sarah pointed Jack’s handgun at her sister.
The empty gun had been reloaded days ago.
The promise.
Emily turned slowly.
White haze moved across her pupils.
Sarah’s hand shook.
Outside, the infected began screaming.
Emily released Vance.
He fell.
Sarah kept the gun raised.
“Come back.”
Emily stared at her.
Sarah cried.
“Please.”
For one second, Emily looked gone.
Then she whispered, “Sarah.”
The infected outside went silent.
Sarah lowered the gun.
Vance crawled toward the door.
Emily saw him.
He reached the hallway.
A bloody hand pulled him away.
He screamed.
Sarah ran to the doorway.
The corridor was filled with infected.
Vance fired until his pistol clicked empty.
They dragged him down.
His screams lasted seconds.
Emily watched.
She did not tell them to stop.
Sarah looked at her.
Emily said quietly, “I could have.”
Sarah had no answer.
Theo shouted.
“Upload complete!”
Across Pennsylvania, then farther, the Blood Dawn files began moving from station to station.
Vance’s orders.
Halcyon’s trial.
The eleven-hour delay.
Maya’s death.
The countermeasure.
The formula.
Everything.
Then the military emergency channel activated.
“Ashfall strike package airborne.”
Marcus came through the radio.
“They’re still bombing Harrisburg.”
Theo looked at the transmitter.
“Can we reach the pilots?”
Marcus answered.
“Maybe.”
Sarah grabbed the microphone.
She had no rank.
No authority.
No idea who was listening.
She spoke anyway.
“This is Sarah Walker at Blue Mountain relay. Harrisburg contains surviving civilians and a working HBX countermeasure. Blood Dawn evidence is broadcasting now. If you drop those weapons, you are not containing an outbreak. You are destroying the only treatment we have.”
Static.
No answer.
Emily sat beside her.
Sarah continued.
“My sister was bitten thirty hours ago. She is alive. Another bitten soldier received the inhibitor and did not convert. If you can hear me, give us time.”
Theo watched the military frequency.
Nothing.
Then a pilot’s voice.
“Blue Mountain, identify countermeasure verification source.”
Naomi grabbed the microphone.
“Dr. Naomi Reyes, infectious disease, Temple University Hospital. Halcyon credential NR-4471. I personally produced and administered inhibitor batch.”
Pause.
Long.
Too long.
Then another voice.
“Ashfall Lead to Eastern Command. Requesting authorization verification.”
No response.
Vance was dead.
Command fractured.
The pilot spoke again.
“Ashfall Lead holding outside target perimeter pending verification.”
Sarah collapsed into the chair.
Not canceled.
Held.
Time.
They had bought time.
Then Emily fell.
Sarah caught her.
Her skin was burning.
Naomi checked her pupils.
“Now.”
She took an inhibitor syringe.
Sarah looked at her.
“You said it could destabilize her.”
“If we wait, she may convert anyway.”
Emily could barely speak.
“Do it.”
Sarah held her.
Naomi injected.
Emily screamed so hard the infected outside screamed with her.
Every light in the building seemed to shake.
Then her body went limp.
Sarah pressed her ear to Emily’s chest.
Heartbeat.
Fast.
Then slower.
Then dangerously slow.
“Emily.”
No answer.
Naomi checked.
“Pulse dropping.”
“Fix it.”
“I’m trying.”
The infected outside began walking away.
Thousands.
As if whatever had drawn them had disappeared.
Sarah stared through the broken doorway.
“Why are they leaving?”
Naomi looked at Emily.
Then at the empty syringe.
“The inhibitor cut the signal.”
Sarah looked down at her sister.
Emily was alive.
May you like
But for the first time since the bite, Sarah could no longer feel the infected reacting to her.
Whether that meant she was getting better or dying, none of them knew.
