CHAPTER 2

Washington D.C.

​Styrofoam cups and plastic shopping bags blew between hulks of automobiles on Pennsylvania avenue, getting caught on tall clumps of grass and weeds that had sprouted up through cracks of the unused roadway over the past few months. It was another dreary day in the nation’s capital. Dark clouds blew quickly across the mid-day sky supplying a constant drizzle that refused to wash away the evil that stained the city to its core.

The Secretary of Homeland Security, call sign “Wolf,” watched through a pair of binoculars at a not-so-stealthily assaulting force that maneuvered through a congested avenue towards the White House overgrown south lawn. Although the assaulters were very well armed, by the look of their tactics, or lack thereof, this group of misfits was very poorly trained, if trained at all.

Wolf scanned the street as the assaulters came into view one at a time from around the corner of the Corcoran School of Arts building. Each of the gunmen dressed in dirty rags with no uniformity whatsoever. It was a pathetic looking bunch, he thought while searching the group for a specific individual. A minute later, he spotted her blond hair mostly covered by a fleece beanie cap, their fearless leader Mrs. DeVod looking as helpless and scared as the rest of her want-to-be army.

He had to give her credit though, she was elusive and had resolve for sure. Wolf has had many intense encounters with DeVod since the nation went dark a few months back, and not only had he failed to restrain her, but she kept fighting for more.

Patience was not a virtue of Wolf. He had come from a privileged family with connections both politically and industrial. If his family didn’t have the resources to complete a task, they knew someone who did. When he gave orders, he anxiously waited for progress reports. Failure was never an option. He always accepted constructive ideas but never excuses. While Wolf was reaching for one rung on the metaphoric goal ladder, he was already planning how to reach the next three. Success was always measured in an upward direction. So, the longer this tactical game of cat and mouse lasted, the more annoyed he became.

Even before the July 4th EMP attack, Wolf personally despised the White House and would dread visiting when called upon by the President for briefings. He had contemplated burning it down to the ground himself, but the White House was more than just a structure, it was a symbol of power and authority. A strong unified authority is precisely what America needed in this time of crises, and who better to handle crises better than Homeland Security? The power of the Oval Office was at stake, and he refused to let America’s uncertain fate rest in the fragile hands of the Secretary of Education.

Through the top floor mirrored windows of the adjacent Treasury building, Wolf could see dim lights flickering through a few windows of the White House. His Secret Service commander knew where the White House’s emergency generator fuel tanks were located, that could easily be turned off, but that sabotage would happen on another day. Today, he was only here to watch the show.

Inside the White House, shadows darted back and forth as security teams scrambled to take up defensive positions. Secretary of Education DeVod’s assaulting force had obviously been spotted, poor shmucks. Even though the White House was being occupied by the completely useless Secretary of Transportation, Mrs. Chan, and had an even more useless guard force of military admin officers and a few ceremonial Marines, the building itself was a fortress. With sandstone and reinforced concrete walls, bullet resistant windows, magnetically locked doors, and the most state-of-the-art surveillance system, the building could easily be defended.

Wolf wondered what Mrs. Chan had been doing squatting in the White House for the past few weeks. She obviously felt entitled to the Oval Office, but so far, she has done nothing with it. No resource distribution efforts, no inspirational words of unity, no leadership. She probably didn’t even know how to unlock the communications room inside the subterranean bunker. Obviously, the Secretary of Transportation was not the right person for the job.

“This is going to be fun to watch” Wolf said to the uniformed Secret Service commander to his left who wore black body armor and tactical kit matching the other dozen men in the room.

DeVod’s group hadn’t even scaled the fence yet before they were fired upon from the top of the stairs leading up to the White House. A barrage of gunfire abruptly shattered the curse of silence that entombed the city. The assault group’s forward momentum came to a screeching halt as the unit splintered into individuals diving for cover. The volume of fire was evidence of an undisciplined fighting force, on both sides.

“Take notes gentleman, this is what we came to see.” Wolf nodded to his agents on his flanks observing the battle as if watching a football game from their own private V.I.P. box suite.

“Defenders should have let the assaulters hop the fence before firing. It would have trapped them momentarily.” One agent said nonchalantly.

“Two machine gun nests on the porch.” Another agent said casually while writing notes.

“Good use of cover from Devod’s group on the street.” Another agent mentioned.

When a muzzle flashed from the White House roof, an assaulter’s head snapped backwards and collapsed into a pool of blood. Wolf turned his binoculars to a sniper team on the roof who gave the impression of working well together. “It appears that Secretary of Transpo has broken into our weapons room and are using our sniper rifles.” Wolf mentioned.

“They better not screw up my zero!” An annoyed agent said, who had once been the White House designated marksman.

A volley of gunfire pelted the front of the White House, chipping away chunks of white sandstone and concrete, leaving grey pockmarks in the iconic columns. Bullets left harmless divots in the windows that would remain for years, maybe centuries, to come. One lucky bullet found its way through the sandbag bunker into an unlucky machine gunner. As the defender slumped forward, his finger remained on the machine gun’s trigger sending a stream of tracers over the Ellipse lawn and stitched a perfect line up the Washington monument.

Secretary of Education DeVod was giving orders to the man next to her, when his head whipped to the side spraying her with brain matter. From Wolf’s position, he could easily read the curse words that had come from her mouth. Another assaulter collapse over the hood of a rusted car. DeVod finally gave the retreat signal.


Smart move DeVod, Wolf thought to himself while running his fingers through his long dark beard envisioning how he planned to evict Mrs. Chan from the White House with a completely different approach.

Over the past few months of skirmishes between the Secretary of Transportation, Education, and Homeland Security, they had also fought and killed thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands infected creatures in the District of Columbia. But countless numbers of creatures remain to prey upon the human survivors, and those creatures should be arriving in droves at any moment.

“Prepare the surveillance team to run parallel to DeVod’s retreat. Remind them not to engage unless absolutely necessary. We need to find their new base.” Wolf ordered his Secret Service commander.

Supplies and resources were plentiful in this city if a person knew where to look. What he lacked in his master plan to reconquer America, was human resources. As much as Wolf wanted to take advantage of the current situation and put a bullet through her annoying heart, the time wasn’t right. He needed to find her group’s hideout first. After taking out DeVod, her lackies would be given an irresistible option of recruitment, or death.