Steinmetz Dead Country 1 - State of Emergency

1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-3-945493-79-3
Verlag: Mantikore-Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 504 Seiten

Reihe: Dead Country

'Run while you can!' Young Markus is in Germany, hundreds of miles away from his family and girlfriend when he hears the shocking news: A disease is spreading extremely fast. Soon the entire country will be affected! While civilization is breaking down and darkness is spreading over a dying country, Markus embarks on the dangerous journey home with his friends - to a place which might not even exist any more. A gruesome race against time begins! Totes Land - first volume of the brilliant apocalyptic trilogy by Mario H. Steinmetz! - NOMINATED FOR THE GERMAN AWARD DEUTSCHER PHANTASTIK PREIS --

Autoren/Hrsg.

Steinmetz, M.H.

Leseproben

The journey begins

The plan was to go around the capitol on the Berliner Ring keeping as much distance as possible, because if this insanity had reached the little backwater village already where Daniel had met his fate, then Markus did not want to imagine what was going on Berlin.

Once his engine was running Markus first plugged his mobile phone into the cigarette lighter with the help of the charging cable and turned the heater up to dry his wet clothes at least somewhat. The phone should be working again after half an hour at the latest and be able to receive new messages.

Markus had the route in his head vaguely and tried to calculate the approximate driving time. If everything worked out fine he should be home in about eight hours. Maybe some time later, but at least in a foreseeable time frame.

In his rearview mirror he could see the pale face of Sabine behind her steering wheel, who was moving her vehicle behind his. Slowly Markus let the Defender roll out of the exit. The highway lay deserted and gloomy ahead of them, not even one vehicle seemed to be about. Everybody had surely holed themselves up at home, to simply sit this thing out. Maybe the empty roads were also a result of the curfew.

Markus accelerated, making a left turn. Soon the exit, and the adjacent playground, had vanished behind them in the darkness. In Germany simply everything was regulated and there were emergency plans for every situation. Thinking back on the news of the last weeks, on the moment, when this novel flu virus had spread at first in Russia and then across the entire European continent, he was still fascinated with how fast emergency centers and contact points for immunization had been set up.

Regardless, whatever they had given the patients, their conditions only worsened even more. Slowly at first, as if the virus was still adapting to the human organism, and then consistently faster.

There had been deaths at the beginning, of course, which had been attributed to the virus, but that was nothing new when it came to such diseases. One only had to think about how many people die every year because of the normal flu. Numbed, as a result of the bird flu, BSE and finally EHEC, Markus and Sabine finally had gone near Berlin - ignoring all the signs successfully - in order to participate in the long desired role playing game.

They had just shared the common view that nothing would happen to them, especially not in Germany. Markus was jerked out of his thoughts suddenly when the gas station, about which Daniel had told them, appeared on the left side of the road.

The whole area was bathed in glistening floodlight, it stood out of the all engulfing darkness like a bright island. Typical gas station structure, in front the covered area with gas pumps, behind it the main building and on the right two large doors, through which one could reach the repair shop area. Some cars were still standing around the gas pumps, one car still had a gas nozzle stuck in its gas filler neck.

Markus‘ focus however was shifted towards four heavy vehicles of the Bundeswehr, which were standing with their motors running in front of the area. The first and last one of them were heavy armed Dingos with attached MG3s, the two vehicles in the middle were big, edgy MAN with container like superstructures. The MAN at the rear even had a long telescopic arm extended, on which halogen headlights were attached, bathing the whole area in cold light. Between the vehicles, heavily armed soldiers with gas masks and rubber gloves were busy with some activities. Two of them were just about to lay an apparently heavy black plastic bag on the side of the road, which formed, together with the other bags already placed there, a long row. Markus swallowed hard. Those were surely for body bags.

But no, that was just not possible. Not here, not in this country. It did not escape Markus that behind the MG3 in the first Dingo was a rifleman who followed the movement of his Defender with his weapon. Scared he slowed down in order to not make the soldier even more nervous. When two soldiers stepped on to the road with a red glowing signaling disk, he slowed the vehicle down and finally stopped.

When he was about to lower his window it dawned on him that he would probably be an odd sight for the soldiers. There is this guy in his old, rattletrap Defender, wearing this used army outfit and a protective vest from the British Army. The man with the disk was shining a light in his face with a Maglight and moving towards the driver‘s door, while the other one stood a little off to the side with his G36 at the ready.

“Please turn off the engine and place your hands on top of the steering wheel. In a way that I can see them. I‘m moving towards you now in order to check your documents.”

Markus followed the orders without hesitation even though the soldier‘s voice sounded young and insecure. The guy with his sandy hair in his camouflaged armor was not much older than twenty-five years of age, at the most.

The men made a strained impression and he could imagine just too well what was going on inside their heads. It was not everyone’s cup of tea to be on duty with an uncertain outcome on a deserted highway, while ones family had to fend for themselves at home.

The engine noise of Sabine‘s Peugeot behind him died down as well. The man looked systematically through the interior of the car with the beam of his flashlight. Daniel had not told them bullshit after all - the Bundeswehr was doing the police‘s work.

Internal military deployment, something that before had seemed nearly unthinkable.

“Where are you coming from and why are you on the road during the curfew?”

This question had to come. Markus decided to not tell some flimsy story but to tell the truth instead. “We, I mean myself and the woman in the car behind me, we‘re coming from the recreation area of the KJG and we‘re on our way home.”

“What were you doing there?”

“Role playing.”

“Role playing?”

“Yes, role playing. You think of different characters and a plot and then...”

“I know what role playing games are!”

There was something about the tone of the soldier‘s voice that Markus did not like. Something different than the usual rejection when he told people about his role playing. Normally he earned incomprehension or a weak smile at the most, but this man was annoyed by the topic right away.

“What‘s inside the aluminum box in the back of the car?”

Markus had forgotten all about the box. He stored some medieval reenactment weapons inside it. A mace and a homemade crossbow to be exact. Marcus’ real hobby was acting as a sergeant of the Milites Templi from around the year 1250. Actually Daniel had wanted to buy those two weapons after the game, but that would not be the case anymore now.

“A couple of things for medieval reenactment.”

The soldier frowned, but did not ask anything more. It was for the best. “Do you carry any modern weapons with you?”

“You mean firearms?”

“Yes.”

“Not that I know of.”

“YES or NO!” The man really seemed pissed.

“No.”

Right at this moment his mobile phone came back to life with a loud signal tone. The soldier flinched, reaching right away for his weapon, the barrel of the G36 which had been aimed at the windshield jerked up as well. Markus raised his hands reassuringly.

“Guys, that‘s just my mobile! Just my mobile, understand?”

The soldier nodded curtly instead of giving an answer and withdrew with Marcus‘ documents in order to check on them. He could observe Sabine through his rear view mirror. She seemed really nervous, smoking a cigarette, agitated. He had no clue what would happen next.

Finally the soldier returned, giving him his papers through the open window. “Everything is in order so far. We‘ll take care of your safety now. Our convoy is about to leave, we‘ll escort you to the checkpoint Platkow. Then we‘ll go from there.”

Markus was thinking hard while he drove his Defender onto the parking lot beside the military vehicles. They were losing precious time right now and he was sure that once they had reached this mysterious Platkow that they would not leave it for awhile. As soon as he had stopped, he already held his mobile in his hand.

>> Stuck at a checkpoint. Hope we‘ll be moving soon. I‘m ok. Everything is fine. Will touch base again. Take care. Many kisses. M.<<

What followed was endless waiting. The soldiers were kind enough to bring them hot coffee and Bundeswehr blankets. Sabine wrapped up in hers thankfully.

They had already been sitting in the parking lot for over two hours and were able to watch with a strange feeling, how the men loaded the body bags on the truck with the lighting post. On the doors of the gas station big yellow signs, bearing the symbol for biological hazard, were put up, that cryptic sign one normally only knows from movies.

There was nothing left to do but to watch the soldiers at work. Markus was so tired that his eyes burned everytime he opened them. The moist cold had succeeded to crawl into even the tiniest gap of his clothes, letting him shiver. Not even the steaming coffee could change that.

It was the same for Sabine. Systematically she had used up her last cigarettes one after another. Besides that, she was...