"Hey, ye notice they don't zoom in close on the Prez's face, hm?" Angel pointed out, "They always love showing off that dental work of 'is, but not now. Why?"

Radio told them of the Army closing in on the precinct house, and there were some cheers, and jokes about Fort Apache. Then they heard the mahcine gun fire. There's nothing like the sound of a heavy caliber machine gun hammering away, the whine of white hot glowing ricochets bouncing between walls.

While the police force may like a little breaking of heads now and then, the thought of people being machine gunned wasn't a happy one.

A tank, three armoured personnel carriers and five truck loads of soldiers surrounded the precinct, and a weary looking Major, with a thick Alabama accent, took charge of his troops--all clad in chemical warfare suits and gasmasks--and the police officers.

"Look, we got orders to impose martial law, any help ya all can give would be much appreciated, but I ain't gonna lay nothing heavy on ya. I don't believe the crud that's loose!? Some psycho set himself on fire in front of us, and a whole street full of people had been butchered, ripped and skinned about two blocks from here! Ya can call me Major, ya can call me Snake, or a son of a bitch, I don't care just help me!" He was a veteran officer, but this was way beyond the ordinary, he wanted help, and there was no way he could force it, not and live with himself.

So, for a three block radius, order was imposed. As people coughed and bled to death, as others raped and murdered while they could, law still existed, at the cost of swift punishment. People staggered around, desperate for relief, or simply out of their minds with fever, and were run over by horrifed drivers...Looters and arsonists were hung from lamp poles...the tank's gun simply levelled a house where a sniper had splashed two cops and five women's entrails over the street...

By the end of the night, most of the police officers were dead, generally from the plague, and now the soldiers were starting to get it too, despite their gas masks.

The city died that night, it became a hecatomb, the cries of some insane survivors echoed through streets of solitude, forlorn calls of a dead populace. Blood pooled in nearly every house, and it's scent made the air thick. Here and there, gunfire still rattled the window panes.

In one room of the precinct house, Angel was toying with a radio while his friend sat beside him rubbing tired eyes.

"See, there it is again! I told ye someone was still broadcasting some sense!" Where as most younger folk were into computers, Angel was an old fashioned radio ham.

Thank God! Someone was still alive and in control! Even the East Coast TV stations were down, and it looked like it had spread to the west coast as well.

"Major," The SWAT commander called on the officer who was desperately trying to get some much needed sleep, "Snake!" the man responded to his nickname and came alert. "We've got to get the hell out of this city! Only five of your men are on their feet, the rest have got the plague, and eight are dead. The phones are still working, so I know a friend of mine who's a doctor is alive, and Angel heard on the radio there's a military base still in operation and needing survivors! It's some kind of research lab, they were asking for men to be sent from army units who were immune, they need to do tests, maybe make a cure. With your vehicles and men we could get there?"

Hope glowed in the Major's eyes..."Saddle up men! We're moving out!"

Those men still unaffected came with them in the tank or an APC, the others who weren't too far gone they put in a truck. As for the rest...the Major hated to leave his men, but this wasn't any ordinary war, he had to get his men to safety, where some of them could be cured. He felt lower than dog shit, they were his men, goddamn it!

Two soldiers died while the truck was being loaded, there was no choice, they had to get out of the city!

Over the bodies of the dead, the small column rolled, through streets that only 3 days ago had been filled with shoppers and workers and lovers...

They stopped at the chapel, Father Anderson had been hiding out in cupboard, he told them the Brood cultists had tried to torch the church after murdering those who couldn't run away, he was ashamed, he had run when his paritioners died.

"Well you're alive, and we need you! At least by running you distracted those bastards and maybe some else lives because of that. And many more will need your medical skills", Blade tried to cheer the old man up to get him to realise his life wasn't over, for he could see the priest had wanted to die with his chapel, with his people. And he thought of his brother and his family, they'd found them, all dead of the plague, sometimes just living was a bitch.

Years of struggle and surviving horror resurfaced, the priest's spirit revived. "Aye! There's lives and souls to be saved! My poor people, my poor city! God has punished you most harshly!"

"More like the Devil!" Snake pointed out. "Let's MOVE!"

With a grim laugh, Angel looked through the APC's vision slits, at the yellow lines in the middle of the road they travelled over, "Follow the Yellow brick road! Well this sure ain't fuckin' Kansas!"