FALLEN PART ONE

PART ONE

4 years in the U.S. Army Infantry. 2 years working in a state prison and 18 years as a cop doing everything from bicycle patrol to SWAT/CRT. You'd think someone with that kind of experience...... Well you'd think they'd experienced it all........ Let me tell you. You haven't experienced squat until you've had half a city fall down around you. You can top that off with putting 6 Hydrashocks into some freak's chest, seeing the splatter and chunks come out his back and watching him just get back up and keep coming.

My partner, Kelly, and I were working 1300 to 2100 shift on November 7th, 2007. We were eating dinner with my wife, Janet, when the alert came in at about 1700 hours. All available units respond to assist city units with evacuation of the train and bus station. Meet on City Island to get your assignment. A runaway Amtrak train was heading into the Harrisburg Station. It left Nashville about 12 hours earlier. There was no communication with the crew. I told Janet to go home, load the horses and cats and head to camp. I knew I was in for a long haul. She didn’t argue this time. She looked at me as she got up and said “Ed, be careful. Take care of Kelly.” We'd all been watching the news from the rest of the country. We knew it was only a matter of time before the "Pandemic" reached us. People were sick and The hospitals were already crowded. After 9-11-01 Janet and I bought a a large hunting camp in Elk County. Our families were already up at the camp. I told Janet to head up sooner but she refused. She wanted to be with me until the latest possible minute. Well that time had come.

The train arrived early and at about 60 miles per hour. No one knew how many were lost in the initial impact. The evacuation was still in progress. Responders, civilians, men, women and children were strewn everywhere in the rubble. Gas lines were ruptured as the engine and train cars ripped through the surrounding buildings. Manhole covers were blown 5 stories into the air as far as you could see. Everywhere you turned you could see the carnage and gore from the chain reaction of explosions. People were screaming and crying. Kelly and I were on the State Street Bridge about 6 blocks from the station. We had been assigned to keep pedestrians away. Our first reaction was to start moving to the station to help. Then we saw the debris flying through the air and dove for cover. I poked my head up over the concrete portion of the bridge and watched as two buildings fell into the street. I saw the shadows of people running then being consumed by the debris.

The remaining responders regrouped in a make-shift field triage area set up near the Capitol's fountains. We split into teams and began moving into the rubble. We avoided getting too close to any partial walls or fires and started pulling survivors from the wreckage. We moved survivors to the triage area. The dead we moved to a parking garage that was still standing a block from the train station. Mike Barnes, a captain with 20 years on the fire department, and his team were the first to reach the train station. It was barely more then a pit full of rubble, debris, smoke and fire. No one ever thought they would hear Mike transmit over the radio that they had movement and could hear people groaning. Two more teams descended into the rubble pit. There was more radio traffic. Team members were asking for equipment to be lowered to them. Some sledge hammers and chainsaws and a “Jaws of Life” then a cutting torch were lowered down the slope on lines. Rope ladders were also lowered to allow for easier entry and exit from the pit. It didn’t matter where you looked, there was action. People doing what people do during a tragedy like this. They were helping their fellow human. I moved to the edge of the pit and could see Mike’s team cutting and tearing and ripping at concrete and metal. You could see that these guys had worked together before. They knew what to do and when to do it. I couldn’t hear them talking but I saw one of the team cinch a rope to his harness and start crawling into the opening they had cut in the debris. What happened next seemed so unbelievable. It shouldn't have been after watching the news reports.

I saw the rope that was tied to the team member stiffen up as though someone was pulling it into the opening. The scream that came from that hole didn't even sound like a human. The team went into action and began pulling on the rope. It wasn’t budging. A few more of us started down the steep banks of the rubble pit to help. I tripped over a lamp post and tumbled about 20 feet to the bottom. I checked to see if I had broken anything and I saw the rope give way and the team fly backward and sprawl to the ground. I got up and started to move toward the opening. Mike was up before me and heading to the opening with a light in his hand. He crouched down and began yelling “Tommy, Tommy are you okay? Can you hear me?” Mike said he heard something. He backed off. “Hey guys, someone is coming out!” He bent over and looked in. “Tommy???” “Hey, it’s a survivor!” “Come here”. Mike grabbed the survivor by the arm and started to pull him. It was one of the conductors. He was covered in blood and dust and moving slow and stiff but he was moving. Wow, what a gash in his face. It looked like half his face was just ripped off. You could see his jawbone and some teeth. He had to be in shock. They helped him to his feet and started to move him to the pit slope. “Come on brother, you’ll be okay. We’re here to help you.” Mike and Jim “Stack” Stackhouse were helping him to the rope ladder. Others tripped and stumbled to get out of his way. Then he stopped. The Conductor stopped. I could see him staring at Mike’s hand. His eyes didn't look right. He began to lift Mike’s arm up. “What’s your problem?” Mike growled. That moron tried to bite Mike. Stack pulled the guy away from Mike and tripped over some rubble. The conductor fell on Stack. “He’s biting me!” I saw a spurt of blood from Stack's shoulder. Stack threw him off. Two more guys grabbed him by the arms and the conductor tried to bite them. Stack was still lying on the ground and the guy came back for more. Marty Purcell, a city cop, grabbed the guy and tried to cuff him. Marty got one cuff on and the guy turned on him. Marty backed off and fell and the guy dropped on top of him. Marty grabbed him by the neck and tried to hold him up. The conductor was swinging that arm with one cuff on it like a club. “Someone else is coming out.” I grabbed the conductor by his cuffed hand, cranked it around his back and finally got him locked up. I didn’t much care that he cracked his head when he hit the ground. Marty may have got a kick in. I don't know, my back was turned. Mike was doing first aid on Stack and they were already moving him out of the pit. “Yo, come on out of there! It’s safe, it’s okay, come on out!” “Tommy, are you hurt?” "Hey it's Tommy!"

“Get out of the pit!” yelled Tommy. “Get out they’re coming.” “Run, run, get out!” Tommy collapsed to the ground. He was bleeding from multiple spots under his clothing and on his neck, face, arms and legs. He was loaded and secured in a litter and hauled up the wall. Marty and 2 other cops were struggling to get the conductor up the slope. There were about five of us left near the opening. I could hear movement from inside. The others heard it too. Then we could hear moaning. We decided to move to the top edge of the pit and watched to see who came out. We’d help any injured and direct others up the ladders. We watched as a couple people came from the opening. Two medics and a civilian came out. They didn’t say a word at first. They stumbled around. One of the guys said “That medic, his right arm, it’s gone.” The civilian looked up and let out a scream. She pointed at us standing on the rim and they all started to move toward the slope. They were all looking up at us. They were moaning and grunting and occasionally let out a scream. They were covered in dust and mud. Their eyes appeared as grey as the dust that covered them. One of the team members, a female medic, yelled down to them. “Wait, we’ll come get you.” I grabbed her by the shoulder and told her “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” One of the firemen started pulling up the closest rope ladder. Everyone else spread out and began pulling up ladders and ropes. Those folks had some kind of problem and we didn’t want them getting up with us until we could secure them. More people began to come out of the opening. The slope wouldn’t stop them from getting out but it would slow them down and give us time.

BANG, BANG. We all heard the shots ring out from the triage area about 3 blocks away. We started running that way. BANG, BANG. As I got closer I could see Kelly standing a few paces from Stack. He was getting up from the ground. I could see people fighting near the triage area tents. People were yelling and screaming and hitting. It looked like a riot. BANG BANG. This time I saw Stack go down. I ran to Kelly to help. “That guy just went nuts.” She said. “He attacked a medic. He bit a huge chunk out of the medic’s arm. I shot him and he dropped. He got back up and started towards me.” “I shot him again and he dropped. I thought he was finished but he kept coming.” “The last two I put in his head. He’s staying down this time.” More shots were ringing out around us. The whole place was in chaos. People were biting other people. Some of these folks kept going after taking multiple hits. The only thing that stopped them was a bullet or a crushing blow to the head. Soon there was a hand full of us left. It was dark out and we had our backs to the bridge. I had run out of ammo a while back. I was using my ASP(collapsible baton) to fend off any aggressor who got too close. If we could get to our cars on the other side of the bridge we could get some ammo. Or get away. We needed to make some space between us and these things, these Zombies.

Ratatatatatatatat, I heard automatic fire. Zombies began to fall but center mass shots didn’t stop them. I started yelling “Head shots, head shots.” Everyone else started yelling the same thing. Now the bodies started to stay down. I passed by members of the Crisis Response Team as I backed up. They had our backs and I wasn’t about to let them hanging. I grabbed the Benelli Tactical Shotgun and some Glock mags filled with .45acp from the trunk of my car and started back to the fight. I shoved 12 gauge slugs into the shotgun as I got closer. The CRT guys were holding but that wouldn’t last long. Mark Spence, the CRT commander, saw that too. It was time to pull back. He called it and we all began to leap-frog back to the vehicles covering each other as we moved.

Kelly was still with me. Marty was there too. He had a gash in his head and was limping. Mike Barnes and Jesse, the female medic I stopped from going into the pit, were still alive. Mike was wielding an axe from a fire truck and Jesse had been swinging a two foot pry bar at anything that got close to her. I don’t know if anyone got out another route. If not we were the last survivors from the triage area. I realized that the CRT only had five men plus Spence. I wanted to ask him what happened but anyone could figure it out. It was time to get to a safe area. We could talk later. I asked Mark, “Where do we go?” He looked at me and his shoulders drooped as he said, “We lost the city!” “The train hit at 1900 hours. It is 0230 hours now. We’ve been fighting all night.” “The streets in front of us are no safer than the ones behind us.” “I don’t know if these things have made it to the Townships yet. We just need to get out of here.” “Okay Mark." I interrupted. "My station is closest to where we are now. Let’s load up the vehicles. I’ll lead in the Expedition. Y’all follow in the raid van. Use County Channel 4 for comms.” He agreed and we loaded up. Barnes, Jesse and Marty jumped in with Kelly and me. The Team held off the zombies until the raid van was turned around. I backed the SUV into a pile of the creatures before they could swarm two of the operators. When they were loaded up we started to roll.

The streets were littered with wrecked vehicles. Homes were burning and the undead were all over the place. I had no choice but to ram through a few intersections. The Expedition was taking a beating. We could feel the front quarter panels beginning to rub on the tires. I remember hitting so many bodies that I ran out of wiper fluid from cleaning off the windshield. We crossed over the beltway on to “South Side” streets. There were less cars and zombies. Brandt Avenue was easier driving. We were about a mile from the station. The streets and chaos around us became little more than a blur. I had driven these streets so many times that I didn’t realize that we had no headlamps. We passed a patrol car that had wrecked into a house. The lights and sirens were still on. A short distance down the road I saw Mike Parker. He had four more years on the job then I. He had saved my ass on a couple occasions. I repaid him in kind. I slammed on the brakes. “There’s Mike!” I said as I pointed to him. I got out of the SUV. “Mike, hey Mike.” I walked over to him and put my arm out to grab his shoulder. I kicked some debris as I approached him. He turned to me. The right side of his neck had been ripped apart. His eyes were ash grey. He opened his mouth in what appeared to be a scream but nothing came out. I started to back up and drew my .45. Bang! That was no longer my friend Mike Parker. The others had set up a quick perimeter when I got out. I went back to the SUV and Kelly had already jumped behind the wheel and adjusted the seat. Bang! One of the CRT members just saved my ass. A kid lay at my feet. He couldn’t have been more than eleven or twelve years old. Damn it! We pulled away and turned off the avenue. About another half mile and we’d be at the station.