Here We Stand (Book 1): Infected (Surviving The Evacuation) by Frank Tayell Page A

for the border. If you hurry, you can catch it. Be quick.”
    “Oh. Right. Thanks. Um…” She turned to Tom. “Bye, I guess.”
    “Good luck.”
    Tom watched her go. She ran a few steps, then walked, then sped up as the prospect of missing the bus added urgency, then slowed again as exhaustion overtook her. Others followed until only Tom and the rabbi were left.
    “You don’t know of anyone nearby?” the rabbi asked.
    “Nowhere a bus can reach. Did many people come through here?”
    “I’m not sure,” the rabbi said. “The colonel was establishing order when we arrived, separating out the infected from the sick, and telling others to find shelter.”
    “Infected? You mean bitten?” he asked.
    “Sadly, yes. There were a lot. I’m glad for the colonel’s presence. I don’t think I could have done what was needed.”
    “Which colonel?” Tom asked.
    “LeGrande. He’s…” The rabbi turned toward the group of soldiers he’d been talking with. The group had begun to disperse. “Well, he was over there somewhere.”
    “This wasn’t organized by the governor or a general?” Tom asked.
    “No one has been able to reach the governor,” the rabbi said. “At least as far as I know, but honestly, I don’t know very much. I was in the synagogue, trying to think of some way I could help when the colonel came in. He is in my congregation, you see. He asked that I organize the evacuation and resettlement of all these refugees. It had to be done quickly, and so it has been. He requisitioned the school buses, then the civic ones, and then the coaches. I don’t know how, except that a rifle usually carries an argument when the uniform can’t.”
    “He’s not regular army?” Tom asked.
    “Retired. Forty years in the Marine Corps. The soldiers you see – and sailors and Air Force – they’re National Guard, or on leave. The colonel lives over there.” The rabbi waved to the east.
    “Where’s the official response?” Tom asked. “Where are the police? They pulled them out of Manhattan, so where are they?”
    The rabbi gave a weak smile. “That’s what I want to know. The news says the Army has been deployed. I don’t know where.”
    “What about the bridge? The naval blockade? Who ordered that?”
    “An admiral. I don’t know which. The colonel informed me that it was going to happen. His words were that we were doing all we could, and it wasn’t going to be enough. He was right, of course.”
    “So you destroyed the bridge.”
    “Look around you,” the rabbi said. “We threw this together expecting the full weight of the government to take over. Even if they had…” He sighed. “It is a miserable truth that sometimes you have to cut out the infection. Yet, it is equally true that amputation doesn’t always stop the disease. We have done what we can. Now we must get off the streets. This is the only way the infection will be stopped. You should think of someone who lives nearby. If you can’t, there’s a shelter at the synagogue. It’s the blue bus. It’ll be the last to leave, but we will be leaving in three hours. No later.”
    “I have an old friend who lives a couple of miles from here. He’ll put me up,” Tom lied. “Is there somewhere I can sit down for a bit? I’ve been on my feet all night.”
    “There are cots in some of the tents, if you can find one still standing,” the rabbi said. “But don’t stay here long. It truly isn’t safe.”
    Tom nodded his thanks and went to look for somewhere more secluded. His body was tired, but his brain was leaping. Someone else might have put his suspicions down to shock and paranoia, but he knew a conspiracy did exist. There were plans to deal with a viral outbreak in New York. They’d not been put into place. The removal of police, the lack of any military or federal deployment; it all suggested that someone had actively sabotaged the relief effort.
    As to whom, it had to be Farley and his cabal. They’d seen this chaos and