The Doctor was silent for several long seconds before he answered, taking another look into the chamber. "All of our tests indicate that the specimen has mutated into some sort of gestation pod."

Jenkins and General Parker both shot the Doctor a questioning look.

"Gestation pod for what?" General Parker asked.

But instead of answering the Doctor turned away from the window. "If you'll follow me over here to the console." They were standing in the main laboratory control room. The Doctor led them over to a computer terminal. He quickly punched a few keys on the keyboards and the screen came alive with a full color, thermal display of the pod, with its biological and physiological readouts to the side.

"As you can see this particular strain of the creature is warm blooded as opposed to the Alpha and Beta strains."

"Zombies didn't show for shit on thermal optics." Jenkins said.

"Of course not. They are dead." The Doctor said stiffly. He didn't like being interrupted. "But as I was saying, this creature is warm-blooded."

"You said that thing is morphing into some kind of gestation pod, but for what?"

The doctor gave Jenkins an annoyed look, as if he were keeping him from something far more important. But he also caught the Generals hard stare. The doctor punched a few more buttons on the keyboard and the image on the screen changed. It was still the gestation pod, but the image was more transparent, making the insides of the thing visible. There were dozens, perhaps hundreds of small, slug sized creatures writhing and squirming about the sack of fluid inside the bloated torso. The little creatures were just a few inches long and their wriggling reminded Jenkins of sperm seen under a microscope.

"What the hell are those?" Jenkins asked.

"Until I am able to examine one I cannot offer anything more than a hypothesis."

"So hypothesize." Jenkins said.

"It's the true face of the virus. The Alpha-Alpha so to speak." The Doctor got a dry little chuckle at his attempt at humor.

"You mean those little bastards in there caused this whole thing?" Jenkins asked, pointing into the room.

"That is one theory for what is transpiring in there. Nothing more. Indeed, all we have for the entire phenomenon is theories. I've shared many of these with General Parker."

"The General and I discussed a few ourselves." Jenkins said. "So what do you think Doc?"

The Doctor put on his most serious face and looked Jenkins straight in the eyes. "I am of the belief that the plague is extraterrestrial in origin."

"Fucking aliens." Jenkins said.

"I didn't say alien invaders Colonel. I said extraterrestrial in origin."

"What's the difference Doctor?" The General sounded genuinely curious.

"I believe, as do many of my colleagues on the medical staff, that the Bio-Necrosis is the result of an extraterrestrial virus unleashed upon the earth from a meteor impact."

"What evidence do you have of that?" Jenkins asked.

"The theory of planets seeded with life via meteors and asteroids is an old one Colonel Jenkins. I'll explain. You have a planet teeming with life, Earth for example. Now along comes a large asteroid that impacts with the planet, a planet killer like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. It would be worse than any nuclear holocaust you could imagine. Millions of tons of debris will be hurled into the atmosphere, some even out of the gravity well and into space. Gravity will naturally cause the debris to coalesce and over millions of years form into large, solid objects, such as meteors. Most are dead, frozen hunks of rock but maybe, just maybe, there is one out of every hundred million or so carrying bacteria, perhaps strains of virus and other microscopic forms of life. Then these meteors drift through space for millions of years until they are caught by the gravity of a star and eventually one of the planets orbiting this star. The meteors fall into orbit of the planet, plunging into the gravity well. Most probably burn up before they impact, but some will impact the surface. And there, a new life form is introduced: A sort of galactic pollination. Survival of the organism depends entirely on the new environment and its ability to adapt to the foreign ecosystem. If a seed meteor were to hit say, Mars, or even the moon, most likely any organism present would perish. But what if one were to hit earth? Lush, fertile, teeming with life?" The doctor ended his statement as a question, unanswered and open for interpretation.

"You think that's what is happening right now on earth?" Jenkins asked.

"I do. We have an extensive database of known bacteria and viral agents, both natural and man-made. The BioNecrosis virus is something entirely new."

"Could it be an engineered virus?" Jenkins asked.

"That was our first assumption. However under close examination the virus shows none of the genetic markers associated with of engineering. As far as we can tell it is a naturally occurring virus."

"They are discovering new viruses and diseases in the jungles all the time. Deforestation sets them loose. Maybe that's what we're dealing with here." The General said.

"Maybe." The Doctor said without any conviction.

"I think it's fucking aliens too." Jenkins growled.

"Now we mustn't jump to conclusions Colonel Jenkins." The Doctor said. "This may very well be as The General said; a terrestrial virus released through deforestation."

"Don't give me that bullshit Doc! You just said you thought it was extraterrestrial in origin. Look at what's taking place in that fucking room! That isn't right! Dead men walking around and eating the living is not the result of deforestation!"

"Colonel I understand you are confused and upset by what is happening. About your friend."

"Don't try and comfort me Doctor!" Jenkins snapped. He took several deep breaths before continuing. "I was down in Salt Lake City on a supply run, right in the middle of the shit. One of those superzombies looked me right in the eye. Those empty, rotted sockets looked me right in the eye and I'll tell you right now I could hear the devil laughing. They are pure fucking evil! If they are extraterrestrial like you say, and which I believe, then I can assure you they are alien invaders! So can the bullshit about being seeded by a meteor."

When Jenkins finished Dr. Cooper's bug eyes were even larger, seeming to fill his wire rimmed glasses. His face flushed red and his mouth was clamped tightly shut. He looked back and forth between Jenkins and General Parker several times before he finally relaxed enough to breath.

They all turned their attention to the computer console and the dozens of wriggling little slugs inside the pod.

"What sort of danger does this gestation pod pose?" General Parker asked. It took the Doctor several seconds to answer. When he did, his anger had cooled and his voice was under control.

"It is under strict quarantine General. Look how quickly the contagion spread through the subject's body. Less than forty-eight hours after infection and metamorphosis and gestation has already occurred."

"You didn't answer my question Doctor. What kind of danger does this thing pose?"

"It should be burned." Jenkins muttered.

The Doctors face went aghast at those words, the Generals question forgotten.

"Burned? You can't be serious Colonel Jenkins? This is the most important scientific phenomenon to ever occur. This plague threatens to eradicate human kind from the face of the planet. We may have the only link to finding a cure and you want to burn it?" The Doctor looked at Jenkins as though he would rather burn him.

"I heard a lot of this same bullshit down at the U and Fort Douglas. A bunch of goddamned eggheads with their arms full of papers and graphs talking bullshit is all it was. It didn't amount to a glass of piss down there and it won't matter to that up here either. I got a real simple theory for you Doc. Earth is under attack by alien invaders who are using some kind of biological weapon to reanimate the dead for use as their army. The Alphas are the Generals who lead the deadfucks into battle."

"That is some theory Colonel." General Parker said with a smile.

"I watched a lot of Sci-Fi when I was a kid. Read even more of it when I joined the service. I took all the known facts you presented and connected the dots under an alien invasion framework." Jenkins looked up from the console screen to see the General and Doctor were both looking at him in slight confusion.

"That may be the most preposterous thing I have ever heard." The Doctor said.

"I'm serious!" Jenkins snapped angrily. "We are in a war! I hope you realize this?"

"Colonel Jenkins, no one doubts the severity of the situation." General Parker said.

"You had me worried there for a minute." Jenkins said with a dry laugh. "But I still say you should burn that thing in there. Who knows what those slugs will turn into once they get out?"

"I think the Colonel is right." General Parker said.

The Doctor's face went aghast. "You can't be serious General?"

It poses too much of a threat. We know what it is. Time to eliminate the threat."

"But we DON'T know what it is!" The Doctor exclaimed. "At least let us harvest some of the slugs for study."

"What do you think, Colonel?" the General looked at Jenkins.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I think Doc is right about the slugs. I don't like it, but what do you do?" Jenkins shrugged his shoulders. "So long as it's burned once they harvest their slugs."

"Perform your vivisection Dr. Cooper." General Parker said. "Take a few of those slugs for research and burn the rest."

"General, please?" The Dr. pleaded.

"If even one of those slugs were to escape the laboratory the r--"

"NONE WILL ESCAPE!" Dr. Cooper shouted, cutting the General off in mid sentence. "WE HAVE THEM UNDER COMPLETE QUARANTINE!"

"The risk of widespread contagion within Park City is just too great."

"BUT GENERAL PARKER-".

"YOU HAVE YOUR ORDERS DR. COOPER!" The General's shout drowned out the doctors. "IF YOU CANNOT FOLLOW THEM I WILL REPLACE YOU WITH SOMEONE WHO CAN. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?" The heavyset, barrel-chested General seemed to loom over the wiry doctor.

"Yes General." Dr. Cooper said very meekly.

"Good." The Generals voice returned to normal. "How long will it take your team to prepare?"

"A few hours at least."

The general looked at his watch. "It is zero-eight-fifty hours right now; I want your team ready by sixteen hundred hours."

"Yes General."

"Colonel Jenkins and I will be observing the vivisection from here in the control room."

"Yes General." Doctor Cooper sounded defeated and he looked physically deflated.

"Now I'm sure you have plenty to do, so the Colonel and I will be out of your way."

Jenkins followed the General out of the laboratory and into a nearby elevator to the main floor. Outside the main entrance the Generals jeep was waiting to take them back to HQ. Once there they both went straight to the War Room where Captain Sheen was on duty. He gave Jenkins a cold, hateful look as they walked up to him.

"Good news General. The last Alpha has finally been destroyed. Without it to control the Betas we are routing them with ease."

"That's very good news Captain."

This Alpha-Beta deadfuck classification system was really annoying to Jenkins. They were deadfucks, simple as that, only some of them carried guns and were really hard to kill.

"Since we seem to have things under control I see no reason why Colonel Jenkins shouldn't return to his mountain hideaway." Capt. Sheen made no effort to hide the contempt in his voice.

"Well, I'd love to do that Captain, but I think I'd better stick around one more day just to make sure." Jenkins made no effort to hide the sarcasm in his voice. Sheen's anger smoldered in his eyes and face, but he kept it under control. Before he could say another thing Jenkins turned away from him.

"I'll be in my office." Jenkins said. His office was down the hall from the War Room. It was small, but held a desk, a phone for communication within the city, a computer tied to the base network and a filing cabinet. He sat in his chair and unclipped his radio from his belt. He had gone straight to the hospital after waking this morning and had not radioed home. He dialed in the Rainbow Lake frequency and radioed the compound. It was Matt who answered. He passed on what he had learned at the hospital. Matt in turn told him about the attack last night.

"We just finished piling up the bodies down bye the water. They are burning right now... How is the fight going up there?"

"It's in the mop up stage right now."

"No more came up Parleys Canyon?" Matt sounded surprised.

"I'm surprised too. I thought for sure this last one was just a scout force. Oh well. I should be back up there by tomorrow night, the next morning at the latest."

"Good. We need you up here. Guard duty alone is straining us for manpower." Matt sounded weary.

"How would you feel about bringing a few more people on board?" Jenkins had been thinking about it last night as he lay in bed.

"Did you run into some one you know?"

"No. But I know how short we are on manpower. Counting myself, there are ten adults up there, four of them women. I know Susan can handle herself as good as anyone, she proved that, and Jennifer seems pretty strong but her sister is just a kid and Sharon still hasn't recovered from her husbands death."

"Frank hasn't been dead a week yet, give her some time." Matt said apologetically.

"All I'm saying is I don't think she can handle the pressure of a firefight. Plus there is a lot of work to do up there. A few more strong backs wouldn't hurt."

"It makes sense."

"Chew the idea over with the others. I'll keep an eye open for a few prospects and we'll talk about it later."

"David got the house computer up and running. He says the entire estate is networked; The Solar panels, the locks, the water pumps for the pool, the phone lines, the security system, everything."

"What kind of security system does the place have?" Jenkins asked, truly curious.

"Door alarms, video surveillance including the driveway and grounds, inside the barn. It'll make sentry duty a hell of a lot easier."

Impressive. "Was the kid able to connect to the Internet?"

"No. He says way up here the service was provided through a satellite connection, but all the providers have gone offline." Matt said dejectedly.

"He babbled about the computer network on the helicopter, saying it was linked-up by a news satellite and the connection was still good." Jenkins mulled his thoughts a moment..."Is the kid really a whiz on a computer?"

"From what I've seen. He hacked into the high school computer easy enough."

"I might be able to get him some military access codes from here. I bet if the kid had access he could tap into the military network." Jenkins said shrewdly.

"Do you think you could get them?" Matt sounded suddenly enthusiastic.

"I can try. I know they are tied into the military network up here. With that kind of access we can keep up with what's going on all over the world." The prospect excited them both and they talked about it for several manic minutes until they both agreed they had better things to do than talk on the radio. Jenkins signed off and clipped the radio back onto his belt. His stomach rumbled with hunger.

"Time for breakfast." He said to himself. He stood up and exited his office...