It was mostly a failure.
Most military units had already suffered catastrophic attrition by the time the order came in. Many more were severely undermanned for the task and ended up throwing away their lives against insurmountable odds. A few had a chance, though, and several even succeeded. Theodore was hoping the report in his hand had a positive outcome as well.
The report was started by a lieutenant colonel and finished by a major. Theodore skimmed over the header information, only picking up the location, Cincinnati, and the initial deployment head count of 3,282 servicemen.
Service persons. Theodore corrected himself.
Theodore similarly skipped over the planning-and-preparation sections. The only things he picked up from those sections was that the order was to secure Safe Zone Omega One-Three, and that the mixed battalion unit consisted of nearly eight hundred soldiers when the new order was received.
Theodore frowned at this. He flipped back to check dates.
So they lost almost two thousand five hundred men in two days... Damn!
By this stage of the game, the military knew what to do with the infected. Theodore could only guess how hard it must have been for these soldiers to take out their own comrades.
He ran his eyes over the last portion of the planning-and-preparation sections, noting that the entire camp had mobilized in four hours. Theodore nodded as he read this, impressed by the professionalism in the face of their own demise.
He flipped to the next page. Ah, here it is.
The third portion of the report contained the real meat. Lieutenant Colonel Wright dutifully noted that the convoy consisted of two M1A3 Abrams tanks, two M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, five Stryker armored fighting vehicles and a dozen special operations vehicles (SOVs), which were little more than land rovers with machine guns mounted on them, providing protection for the personnel carriers and other non-combat vehicles.
The SOVs were the most active in the journey to the safe zone. Their maneuverability and speed came to good use, as the vehicles constantly had to skitter up or down the convoy to provide security.
In other words, the convoy was continuously harassed by roaming zombies.
Upon arrival at Safe Zone O-13, the heavy fighting vehicles spearheaded the assault. The tanks and Bradleys lined up, forming a wall forty-feet wide. They did not use their main guns for fear of damaging the safe zone’s perimeter fencing. Instead, they lined up parallel to the fence and opened up with their 7.62mm co-axial machine guns. Wright described it as like turning on a meat grinder.
Two Strykers and four SOVs followed closely behind the tanks, mopping up anything that still moved. The remaining fighting vehicles lined up to provide rear and flank guards. According to Wright, the staccato sound of machine guns seemed to come from every direction.
The main manpower of the brigade entered O-13 and quickly secured the staging area. The dozen or so remaining soldiers in the camp had done their part to try to keep the inside of the gates cleared.
It looked like the battalion had gotten there just in time. Wright noted in his report that several sections of the outer fence were leaning inward dangerously.
It took a little over an hour to clear all zombies from the fence line. Even then, the noise of the initial battle attracted a continuous stream of undead to their location. The SOVs buzzed around the perimeter of O-13 like angry wasps well until after sundown.
Greater Cincinnati had a population of over two million, Wright astutely noted next in his report.
In the meantime, the second and third parts of the battle plan were set in motion.
The battalion of combined infantry was split into fifteen platoons. It would be their task to sweep the entirety of O-13 to clear out the undead. They figured there would be several thousand zombies roaming around.
There would also be living people. Some were buttoned down in the more defensible buildings. Most would be hiding somewhere.
This part of the operation went surprisingly well. The men knew what they were dealing with, so they were not met by a lot of surprises from the undead. The living, however, provided plenty of them. Wright described people doing the unexpected, like running towards the platoons. This caused startled soldiers to open fire several times.
By the end of the day, the camp was cleared, and all remaining survivors placed in zone A of the camp. There were still over one thousand seven hundred people alive. These people were processed by the medical corps, and anybody suspected of suffering from the syndrome was put into quarantine. Just to be safe, Wright posted pickets around the perimeter of Zone A and guards at key locations. It was a good thing he did, as there were several incursions during the night.
The remainder of the forces, consisting primarily of engineers, had been tasked with shoring up the fencing and organizing the camp infrastructure. They got to work immediately but were nonetheless unable to get all fences repaired by nightfall.
Wright reported sporadic action at the fence lines that night, along with a couple of disturbances inside O-13. It was sometime early the next morning when the outer fence was breached, forcing the men to retreat inside the second fence. One of the Abrams tanks pulled out and forced its way to the breach, plugging it with its own mass. The crew would be stuck inside that tank for several hours.
The more serious issue regarded the soldiers themselves, though. Wright noted the situation in his usual dispassionate prose:
Over half of our men and women have voluntarily admitted themselves to quarantine, as they sense the impending collapse of their constitution. I, too, will turn myself in after I complete this entry. Major Gary Petrovic will take over the CO duties. I leave him with the task of providing security for the remaining civilian population of this camp and the shoring up of this defensive position with our dwindling forces.
It was ominous. Major Petrovic must have thought so too,
