Most satellite locations had little to no security measures. One was little more than a tent city inside of a warehouse. Interestingly, that one was still operational...
They were prepared to deal with the odd looter. Prepared to weather the chaos as all services collapsed. They were never prepared to defend themselves against hordes of undead.
Sage Wang kept speaking, not noticing that the Paladin was far away with his thoughts.
“–ansport them to more secure locations.”
“Sorry, what did you say?” The paladin snapped out of his reverie, knowing he missed something vital.
Sage Peter Torrance adjusted his glasses as he spoke. “What Sage Wang was referring to, sir, is that we need to act quickly. Before more satellite locations are overrun. It is imperative that we save as many people as we can.”
“I agree with you, Sage Wang.” Kevin nodded. “But we need our military in order to do this.”
The paladin turned to the last man seated at the table. “Sage Enright, what news do you have about our military?” Kevin had been getting intelligence reports every day, so knew that the news would not be good.
“Sir, as you know, we have lost contact with nearly all of our army infiltration teams. Up to last night, Captain Shaw had been the only one that we managed to establish contact with.” Sage Enright supplied.
“We had over a thousand soldiers out there. Are you saying they’re all dead?” Sage Wang was not privy to the daily intelligence reports. This news hit him like a slap in the face.
“No, Sage Wang. They may not be dead. However, we have failed in our attempts to contact them, and they were under orders not to attempt to contact us. We still have contact with three Optios in the field, and one Captain has re-established contact as of last night.”
“Three?” This surprised Kevin. Yesterday morning’s report had double that number.
“Yes sir. Three Optios have been in touch with us over the last twenty-four hours. The others... The others have not and are unaccounted for.”
“Oh Summuh!” Kevin exclaimed. “Those Optios were specially trained. There were twenty of them out there!” Kevin couldn’t hide the disappointment in his voice.
“But sir,” Sage Enright spoke up again. “The Optios were only to contact us when an opportunity to do so presents itself. It very well could be that all of them are still active!”
Kevin directed a half-hearted smile towards the Sage. “Ok. Who were they?”
“The Optio Silverman, Optio Mclhenny, and Optio Brown.”
“Alright. You mentioned one Captain... Who is it?”
“The Captain that made contact is Captain Janzen. He is in Boston. His unit is down to about half strength. That’s about a dozen men...” Sage Johnson trailed off as the Paladin grimaced.
“Why half?”
Sage Enright sucked on his bottom lip for a moment. “It’s what I feared. We embedded our teams into the military, and they got dragged into missions. To be quite honest, sir, I believe that only a fraction of our military still exists.”
Kevin opened his mouth to reply but closed it, unable to form any words. He sighed deeply and shook his head in disbelief. The room was silent for the next several moments.
Silent, with the exception of the fan in the projector. It continued to whir. Kevin looked at the projector. The heat it was throwing off had become considerably less pleasant.
Finally, he turned back to Sage Johnson.
“Summarize for me. Our people. How many people do we have left? I know we went through the satellite status – just tell me the totals.” Sage Johnson grabbed his notes and found the information in short order.
“Sir, we have 892 people left at our location.” The presenter cleared his throat. “And we estimate that there are still 6350 people at our satellite locations, including 1200 whose status is unknown.” He hesitated for a moment. “That’s out of a starting number of 9629 people.”
Over 3000 people of the Order. A third! Gone! The grimace had returned to Kevin’s face.
“So many lives lost...” Kevin looked at Sage Enright with a pained expression, almost as if he were pleading with the man to change his numbers. “We had a thousand soldiers out there. They were supposed to help set the next step of Brenin’s plan in motion... Is all lost?”
None of the Sages knew how to answer that question. Kevin felt the heat of the projector blast him. It was now verging on painfully hot.
Suddenly and without warning, the paladin leapt out of his chair. In one smooth motion, he scooped up the projector and tossed it. The two men sitting opposite cowered as the projector smashed into the wall behind them, breaking into several pieces. Sage Johnson barely managed to hold on to his laptop or it would have been dragged off the table with the projector.
“HOW DO WE SAVE THEM, IF WE HAVE NO MILITARY?!”
The room was silent, save for the heavily breathing Paladin. He stood with his hands on the table and slowly got his breathing under control. Several moments later, the paladin sat back down.
The room was silent as Kevin regained his composure. He looked at each Sage in turn.
Look what you’ve done Kevin. Now they’re afraid to speak. He berated himself.
“Find a way.” He said softly. “Find a solution. ... And bring it to me.”
The others sat in silence. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw them exchanging glances.
Bereft of the heat from the projector, Kevin suddenly felt cold.
“Get out.” It was barely more than a whisper, but the men reacted as if the Paladin had shouted the order. They jumped out of their seats and rushed out of the room, leaving Paladin Kevin Wallace in silent contemplation.
Epilogue
Ben
November 4, 7:45 AM
It was an overcast morning. The wind was gusting, growing from a low whine to a window rattling howl every now and then. Benjamin watched as all matters of debris was blown around the tarmac. Some of the items would briefly settle or catch on obstacles. Ben felt like these brief respites were akin to acts of
