The bulk of the people in the United States were slowly starving as they cowered in their homes. They watched angrily as the news showed refugees being fed three hot meals per day. Meanwhile their own children survived on handfuls of stale Fruit Loops. Sensing the turn in public sentiment the politicians ordered the military to take a harsher stance. By this point the military leaders had already made up their minds what needed to be done and were only paying lip service to the civilian leadership anyway. When it came to making the hard choices, politicians were useless.
Europe had fallen as the refugees overran it. The surge followed right behind them. The exact same scenario was playing out in the United States. The same lack of action was going to doom them all if no one took definitive action quickly. The General of the Air Force took a call from the President to discuss the options available to them. The general hung up the phone after an intense conversation and immediately got in contact with his tactical team. Within the hour ten stealth bombers were dropping thousands of pounds worth of ordinance on the massive groups of refugees headed north through Central America.
The brigades that’d been stationed near the border were deployed to mop up the refugees that made it through the air raids. The soldiers were told that it’d been confirmed that all of the refugees were asymptomatic carriers. That lie wouldn’t have held up under close scrutiny but when told to scared young men and women being sent into combat it held up well enough. The soldiers already understood the need to stop the flood of refugees to try to halt the spread of the infections. Even the ones who knew better pretended to believe. It made it easier when you were sniping groups of women and children if you pictured them as monsters. Of course, it was even easier to accidentally miss most of the time.
The border was a bloody disaster. Miscommunication led to most of a battalion dying from friendly fire when a bomber unleashed on them due to the wrong coordinates being called in. The flow of refugees didn’t stop. It may have paused for a minute but then it resumed with twice the intensity of before. The surge had caught up with those in the rear of the refugee packs. With the infected stalking them the refugees were more than willing to take their chances running the gauntlet of the US defenses.
Another key difference at the border was that the refugees started fighting back. These weren’t groups of the poor trying to sneak up north to work the fields and send money back home. These were desperate groups of people from countries that for all practical purposes no longer existed. Intermingled with the civilians were plenty of men lugging along weapons. When the men guarding the border opened fire the hard-core gang members from places like Columbia had no problem shooting back. They had a lot more experience under live fire than the US soldiers shooting at them.
The pitched battles at the border made for fantastic TV. If only anyone cared about buying ad space anymore. The battles not captured by the media were the unseen ones happening all around them in the air and on the water. The Navy of Brazil has over a hundred ships with almost a hundred thousand marines and sailors. The leaders of Brazil didn’t just sit in their houses and let the surge carry them away. They took their families and as many people as they could fit and boarded those ships. They pointed the bows northwards and set sail for the United States. The United States Navy immediately moved to blockade them.
Small planes took people over the border to all the places they’d been dropping off drugs and other contraband for decades. The border had always been more of a filter than a dam. A filter with really big holes in it if you knew where to look.
“We’re so screwed.” Drew said. They were watching the news as a family like they did every night now. School had been canceled and may never come back. Yue had switched to on-line courses that her professors no longer bothered to show up for. Drew and LeBron had the option to do something similar but hadn’t pursued it. Drew because he could care less and LeBron because he was so far beyond the standard virtual school curriculum that it would’ve been a waste of his time. Bart and Nancy had left it up to them what they wanted to do as far as virtual school went for the time being.
“It’s going to be a rough ride all right.” Bart agreed. He was standing behind the sectional drinking water out of a tall glass.
The house looked pretty empty. They’d spent a lot of time hiding all the supplies they’d been able to gather. The box springs of every bed in the house had been transformed into secret pantries. The only obvious signs of preparation were the thick pieces of plywood secured in front of every window. Each of them carried a weapon at all times. They could all feel the tension building outside the house. The lack of supplies, the coming invasion from the south, the constant barrage of doom and gloom on the TV, and the complete collapse of anything considered normal were all adding up.
Trucks stopped showing up at Publix. On the news it said the government was working on creating new distribution points for food. Bart snorted loudly causing everyone to look over at him.
“They’re not creating new distribution points. They’re routing all the supplies to the shelters and military bases. I wouldn’t be surprised to be ordered to evacuate here shortly. They figure they can get people to leave their homes easier if they’re hungry.” Bart said.
“Well why
