Day Zero

Day 0:

The USS Salvation anchored in the Gulf of Oman was a hospital ship used to assist in the evacuation of injured soldiers and civilians during the War on Terror. Captain Marian Jackson was sitting in one of five lifeboats half a mile away from the hospital ship. They heard the F-15 jet before they saw it, the roar of the engine as it approached, then the sound of the explosion as the ship suddenly burst into flames. Bits and pieces of metal flew in every direction as the ship slowly began to sink beneath the waves.

“Ma’am request to search for survivors?” one of the sailors inquired from the lifeboat next to her.

Marian remained silent. They had abandoned ship, locking innocent sailors below deck as the creatures that had once been human attacked. Locking the hatches to every room below deck had been the hardest order to give. When her Lieutenant had asked if she was certain that was the order, she couldn’t reply instead she just nodded. The way General Lee had when he gave the order for Pickett’s Charge, eyes wide and jaw tight.

“Denied. We don’t know if any of those things survived” she shook her head. She noticed the look of resentment that the man sent her as he turned his attention back to the ship. Drew Pennington…she knew that his twin brother was aboard the ship when the United States Air Force dropped the bomb on the hospital ship.

“Whatever happens, this disease cannot spread” Commander Hall at the United States base in Pakistan had stated when Marian called for assistance.

“Sir, I have 400 sailors aboard this ship plus about fifty civilians” she had attempted to argue.

“Get as many of your sailors out as you can. Lock the hatches below deck and abandon ship” Commander Hall replied.

“Sir” Marian attempted to cut in.

“That is an order, Capitan” the man said.

“Aye aye, sir” Marian managed to choke out.

An hour later, the F-15 jet dropped the napalm bomb on the ship. She followed the orders, her body tense. Sacrifices have to be made Hall had said.

Over 300 sailors and civilians both sick and recovered had been locked in the ship when it was bombed. If there were any survivors, the order had been to leave them behind. She closed her eyes willing the scene before her to disappear. But when she opened her steel gray eyes, she found herself and the rest of the crew staring in shock at the scene before her, the smoke rose and the ship sank creating a beautiful and heart breaking contrast.

“What now, Capitan?” one of the medical corporals inquired. If Marian tried hard enough she would have remembered the young woman’s name.

“We are waiting for a pick up from another ship” she answered.

“What then?” a sailor from another boat demanded.

“We meet with the Department of Defense and go from there.”

She stood up in the lifeboat and looked at the sailors and medic corporals staring wide eyed at the still burning wreckage floating on the surface.

“Attention!” she yelled out.

The one hundred survivors turned and looked at her; some had tear stains on their faces, others looked to be in shock, and a few were being bandaged up by a medical corporal. “The decision to sink the Salvation was made because whatever that disease is cannot be spread,” she pointed at the sinking ship. There were looks of disbelief, betrayal, sympathy and even a few of them had grim looks of understanding. “We will be picked up at 14:00 by the Coast Guard.”