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DDay +37North Carolina USA

The Appalachian Mountains run for 1,500 miles along the east coast of the United States from Northern Alabama to Maine. The highest point of the Appalachians is 6,684 feet at Mount Mitchell in North Carolina. The Appalachians are part of a temperate forest biome and are mostly covered with a variety of trees including pine trees, spruce, birch, and maple trees.

Inside Mount Mitchell, one of the biggest and the most advanced United States secret bunkers was hidden. "The Fortitude". The bunker began its construction after the September 11 disaster in 2001. A privately owned mining operation was enlisted by the U.S. Military to begin blasting out caverns within the mountain itself. A series of main chambers were cleared out, creating acres of underground space in which a series of buildings were created, supported on springs to shield them from earthquakes and reinforced against the surrounding rock. Other support chambers such as water reservoirs and supply storages were also created, making the site fully self-sufficient for an extremely long period of time.

Other than having dozens of huge chambers that could refuge tens of thousands of people, "The Fortitude" is also an "HEMP-protected" bunker and missile silo command center. This bunker is the best ideal place to survive the zombie apocalypse.

In one of the chamber rooms, a long wooden table and screens are being set up in front of dozens of men. The people in this room are what's left of the United States government. The one sitting at the head of the table facing the screen is a beautiful middle age blonde woman who just only one month ago held the secretary of state position. But right now, this woman is the new president of the United States, Elizabeth McCord.

The last few weeks have been a nightmare for everyone, as the commander in chief, Elizabeth must stay strong and decisively make hard decisions for the survival of the country.

"Give me the latest overall update of the situation."

A man backed by a team of analysts has a presentation prepared.

"Yesterday, we manage to established contact with Fort Carson in Colorado, they have managed to secure the Cheyenne Mountain Military Base, and have started to move survivors inside the bunker."

"That is good news, how many states and military bases have been secured so far?"

"Currently only 95 military bases."

Elizabeth seems frowned hearing this number. The United States has by far the strongest military in the world, and to support the nation's armed forces, America has established military bases in every state. The Department of Defense oversees more than 420 military installations in the 50 states. Currently, within one month they have managed to secure a quarter of them, all thanks to the government's quick response and the help of advanced radar communication in all of these bases.

"What of the news from Fort Bragg?"

"The army battalion from Fort Bragg is in progress to secure Charlotte City, it is estimated that it will takeanother two days to secure the city and clear all the paths from Fort Bragg to this bunker."

Elizabeth has never been worried about the Army Division in Fort Bragg, it is the largest United States military installation, even after the doomsday there are still more than 10.000 soldiers ready for battle. She is sure that Charlotte City is in good hands. Thinking about it made her remember about yesterday's incident in Washington DC.

"The meeting is adjourned, send in General Max."

A few minutes later, the secret service, the president's personal guards brought in a man in his 50's with a steel cuff on his hand.This man brings an aura of a seasoned fighter, most people would be afraid by just a simple gaze from this man, but not Elizabeth.

"I already gave you one night to reflect on your mistake, general, do you now regret what you did yesterday?"

"..."

The general just kept his silence and seemed uninterested with the conversation.

"General Max, you are the most respected general in the army, please work with me."

The general gave a slight stare.

"I did what I did and I will not regret it, I will do it again facing the same situation."

"General Max, your action, has killed about 5000 American citizens, many of them are American soldiers."

"I know exactly what I did, those 5000 men should be glad. With their sacrifice, we managed to kill at least a million, maybe two millions of those zombies. It's a 1: 500 situation. If we wait anytime longer those millions of zombies will only spread and move to different cities, more people will suffer."

"That's your assumption General, we don't know that, but what I know for a fact is that 5000 human beings died yesterday. In a world like this, one more survivor is important for the future of humanity."

The general suddenly laughed in amusement.

"HahahahaI what future? The world has changed… Those things are abominations, I will do whatever it takes to kill as many of the undead."

Elizabeth seemed unable to meet eye to eye with the old general, it's a shame. She decided to strip him of his rank and let the secret services take him into custody.

Staring at the back of the old general while he walked out of the room, Elizabeth felt this was not the end of it.

Elizabeth then sent her secret service to bring in another person, a few minutes later Kenny the CIA analyst went inside the room.

Kenny was still in shocked, a few hour drives and one good night's sleep in a secure base will not be able to cease his anger, but currently, the woman in front of him was not only the president but also his idol. Elizabeth McCord, before becoming the secretary of State, she spent fifteen years as a CIA analyst and afterward a few years as a professor of political science at the University. She's a legend in the CIA, the boss of his old boss.

The President sat in front of him, staring at him with her beautiful eyes.

"I am sorry about what happened, it was my mistake. I have known Roy longer than you, he is like a brother to me, so somehow I understand your loss."

The president's one sentence made him unable to argue anymore...

"As you might have guessed, you are here because of the reports you made on the doomsday video, without your reports, we would have not known about the spirit stones, the EMP effects or the infected human who turn into monsters. With this information, we could quickly prepare the vehicles and also start collecting and giving spirit stones to our soldiers. but I really believed there's a bigger story behind this, at first we sent a team to seek Professor John, went to the office at Harvard University and to his home and only to find his body, it seems he was infected."

"The professor died? That's too bad, then what you need is..."

"We need to find the guy named Alex."

"..."

"We have reason to believe that he's currently building a base in Bali, Indonesia. I want you to go there and do whatever it takes to bring him here to America."

"With all due respect madam president, I might not even survive traveling to the next city, and you are sending me to Bali? Indonesia? That's halfway around the world!!"

There were a few seconds of silence, Elizabeth also thought this mission was quite unreasonable, but then she said:

"Do you know when this bunker was built?"

"Yes, Ma'am, right after nine eleven."

"Do you know why it's named The Fortitude?"

"No... Ma'am."

"Fortitude also means endurance, resilience, fearlessness, the courage in pain or adversity.When the first airplane hit the twin towers we were not prepared, we endured lots of pain. We built a bunker like this so we would have better preparations, but again, this bunker is not enough, your report said about things that will come in less than two months, we need to be prepared, I believe there are a lot of things that this guy named Alex kept from us, I believe you think the same"

.

.

The next day the president sent Kenny away with three fully armed delta force soldiers who already reached maximum strength of the mortal realm. Kenny's mission was to drive all the way to the San Diego Naval base in California. In there, USS Midway Aircraft Carrier will be ready to send his team all the way across the Pacific to Bali.

Just an hour after sending off Kenny, suddenly, a loud sound could be heard inside the bunker

KAAABBBOOOMMM!!!

TEEEEETTTT!!!TEEEETTTTT!!!

Loud alarms echoed in the hall of the bunker, Elizabeth get off from her chair and asked his staff

"What happened?"

"Madam president, General Max escaped, dozens of men helped him out."