A harsh artificial light bathed the room. There was only one window in this room and it did not look out across anything outside. The window looked into a modern military control room covered with monitors and computers. People sat at their desks or moved around, fulfilling their assigned roles. Most were dressed in military uniforms, with a few civilians mixed in. Looking out over this small group, it was clear to see the exhaustion and signs of people just beaten down by constant bad news. One of the lights in the room flickered briefly, drawing the room’s sole occupant’s attention and he looked at it.

“We’ll need to have that replaced soon.” He spoke to himself.

The door on the other side of the room opened. He turned his attention to the door, knowing he would come through but still looking towards them.

“Richard.” He greeted the other man as he entered. General Holsan was in field fatigues. Like most people in the control room, he was clearly shown signs of exhaustion and weariness. He wondered what he looked like to him as the officer looked at him.

“Roger.” He nodded in greeting.

“Time for the daily report, is it?” Hamilton asked, not bothering to hide the despondency in his voice.

“They’ll be here soon.”

“Very well.” Holsan came over and sat next to his old friend. Hamilton went over and sat at the large conference desk that dominated the room. They used to do this upstairs in the administration building, but they had been forced to move downstairs to the emergency control bunker due to the changed situation.

“Well, Roger, I have to say it I think you look as bad as I feel.” Holsan tried to lift the other man’s mood with a lousy quip. Hamilton appreciated it but knew it would not change what they were about here.

“I expect I do. I have been home for nearly a month for more than a day. The last six months have been absolute hell on us all.” Holsan nodded at this, for he had been the same. Both men were tired and beaten down, but duty kept them going.

“So, Richard, is anything I am going to not like in today’s report.”

“More of the same, I’m afraid. Things have not gotten better.” One of the lights flickered in the room again, and both men looked at it.

“That will need to be changed.” Holsan commented.

“I was thinking the same before you came in.”

Before either man could say any more, there was a polite knock at the door. It opened and a Colonel was standing in the doorway.

“Permission to enter, Sir.”

“Granted. We are ready for you.” Holsan told the other officer.

People entered the room, four military and two civilians. They all showed signs of exhaustion and overwork in their body language and appearance. It had become a well-practised routine for them. I didn’t speak as they quickly took the seats they usually occupied. When they had settled, Hamilton started talking. They promptly sat around the table, as he had done this many times over the last few months.

“Right, let’s start.” He nodded to the Colonel, who had knocked at the door.

“The following report covers the last 24 hours leading up to this moment at 11:30hrs April 18 2040.” He had become far too used to say this for the record. He took a moment here to collect himself before he dived into the main body of what it was about to say.

“Starting with the British Isles. Zone Command has sealed another two zone breaches in the last 24 hours. The casualties of the operations are as follows three operatives were killed and four were wounded. Amongst the support teams, we lost an additional 18 with 32 more wounded.” It was a sad fact of their situation that was no significant reaction to the casualty figures amongst those sitting in the room. Six months of this had beaten them down to the point that they no longer had anything left emotionally to express their dismay.

“Adding these figures to this month’s casualty tallies, we have lost nine operatives with 21 wounded. Support team casualties stand at 64 dead and 137 wounded. The total number of zones sealed stands at seven.” A year ago, they could have sealed seven breaches in a week with no major losses. Now they were lucky to close one with only half a dozen wounded. Again, there was no reaction from the table.

“Over the last 24 hours, we have lost an additional 32 perimeter guards around several zones with 197 wounded. Eleven zones in total are showing increased hostile activity. A full list has now been sent to your inbox for review.” The colonel touched a button on the pad he held and everyone else pads in, telling them they had received mail.

“The national rationing act is now in full force. Ration cards have been issued to the population and the food crisis seems to have been averted for the moment. Civil unrest is on the rise in some areas, but by and large, the country seems to be holding together. The areas of the country with the highest civil unrest are Sheffield, Birmingham and Glasgow. The National Grid has lost several more power lines and one power station. This is causing rolling blackouts across northern Wales.” The colonel stopped again here, knowing this was where if anyone had any questions, they would ask them. None came.

“In the last meeting, a question was raised about the status of Zone Command and its active personnel levels. Factoring in the recent casualties, Zone Command’s active front-line personnel consisting of operatives and support teams stands at 50%. The number of zone containment personnel stands at 73%.” This did get a reaction from the table, as they all knew it was bad but not this bad. Before anyone could ask any questions, the Colonel continued.

“I regret to inform you that we have lost two more operatives and 11 support personnel to suicide.” The terrible truth was that the attrition rate amongst operatives and support team members was alarming. When in the zone on active duty, but was becoming far worse for those outside of them. Overwork and constant zone exposure were taking their toll on all the personnel. Several have been lost to mental breakdowns due to corruption as well. This meant those who committed suicide were not listed as active casualties and were added to the overall totals.

“Please continue, Colonel Jackson.” Holsan said at the meeting on track.

“Yes, Sir. Overall, the situation with new zones forming or existing ones expanding has been rated stable.” There was a monitor on the meeting room wall and it now displayed a map of the mainland United Kingdom. On it was a colour-coded display of all the zone locations. Green being closed, yellow static and red newly formed or aggressive. Compared to this seven months ago, it showed a far more depressing picture.

“We will continue the national briefing in depth later. Let’s move on to the rest of the world.” Hamilton said to the table’s occupants. The Colonel sat down and one of the civilians stood up and took his place next to the monitor.

“The international situation is far worse than we originally thought now that we have more data over the last 24 hours.” The civilian was looking down at the pad in her hands and she was pressing several icons on it. Pings of received messages came from several other pads around the table.

“Starting with Europe, the situation there is becoming critical.” If the situation in Britain could be described as bad, the one in Europe was disastrous. The map on the wall monitor changed to one of Europe.

“We can now confirm that Switzerland is gone. It has been completely overrun by zones that have expanded and emerged. Most Alpine regions in Italy, France and Austria have also been lost. At the moment, it is believed that up to 20% of the Swiss population has not been accounted for. The Swiss government is presently based in Brussels and is organising humanitarian relief efforts for their population.” The map zoomed in to display the Alpine region of Europe.

“The population of northern Italy are also moving south in more significant numbers. Across the country as a whole, most are heading towards Sicily, as this is the only part of the Italian nation primarily unaffected by the current zones. As you all know, Naples was subsumed by a zone three days ago. Italy is suffering from massive power outages and supply shortages.

Austria has lost its western half now completely. Its population is moving to the east of this country and they are suffering from shortages across the board. All the local zones expanded and emerged with the one coming out of Switzerland.,

France is suffering from the loss of most of its Alpine region. Added to the losses suffered in the last six months with Bordeaux, Brest and Orleans all falling into zones. Paris is also under threat now. Economically and socially, they are teetering upon massive disruption or even collapse.” Months ago, this would have been a disaster. Now it was the new normal that truly terrified Hamilton.

“The situation in Spain and Portugal continues to deteriorate. The northern half of Portugal is now completely dominated by three large zones. They have merged yet, but we believe it’s only a matter of time before they do. The city of Oporto was lost two months ago. Our analysts believe that 30% of the Portuguese population is currently unaccounted for. Spain is also been suffering since the loss of Madrid on Christmas Day last year. Seville and Cadiz have both been lost, with Gibraltar now under threat from the zone they have merged into. Most of the population has moved to the north of the country or the east along the Mediterranean coast. We believe up to 18% of the Spanish population is not accounted for.”

She stopped there for a few moments to let the information sink in. The water map changed to show a satellite picture of the Iberian Peninsula. It was impossible not to miss the massive zones that stretched across large swathes of the countryside. The rapid and aggressive expansion and the formation of new zones had caught many populations by surprise and quickly tallied the massive figures of missing people.

“Moving to the lowlands of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, the situation has not changed for them. The loss of Rotterdam five months ago is still causing massive economic disruption across the continent. There has been some aggressive activity from some of their zones, but they have been able to contain them. The only exception is the zone that swallowed Brussels, which seems to be moving slowly towards Antwerp.” She took another moment before letting the occupants look at the map.

“Southern Germany has suffered from what we’ve dubbed the “super zone” in Switzerland. The area presently located outside, Munich itself and everything south of that has been subsumed. The east of the country has also suffered from extensive zone expansions. Berlin is almost now surrounded and Hamburg has been completely subsumed.”

The monitor again showed the changed map and satellite images of the South and East of the country.

“Power and supply issues are racking them nationally like most of Europe. The population is moving, but there is nowhere safe to go. Frankfurt and the surrounding area have the least zones and is becoming a popular destination for refugees in Germany.”

The monitor images changed again.

“Not counting Scandinavia, Southern and Eastern Europe, what are we looking at here?” Hamilton decided to ask. He had seen the collapse in Europe for the last six months I was in no mood to go over it all again. The others all looked at each other and the other civilian man spoke up.

“I can answer that for you. Our most realistic projections gathered from data mining, personal contacts and signals intelligence indicate the collapse of most European nations within the next month.”

That brought silence to the room. The situation in Europe was clearly deteriorating at a speed that no one could stop without some form of massive intervention or a miracle. The problem was that Britain did not have the resources to implement such a massive intervention. And the growing concern was that with the collapse of the European nations on the horizon, where would the population attempt to flee to?

Britain and Ireland were the least affected nations close to the European mainland. Iceland and Greenland were also unaffected and had seen massive influxes of refugees in the last few months, like Britain. Ireland was struggling under the sheer weight of people trying to flee to the island and their social infrastructure was straining to collapse.

Before the briefing could continue and move on to the rest of the world, both Holsan and Hamilton’s pads suddenly chimed not with one but two high-priority alert messages. They briefly looked at the pads and Hamilton spoke to the other occupants.

“Sorry, we will need to reschedule this for tomorrow.” The others nodded, knowing this was a possibility as they had been through it several times already in the last few months. They quickly got up and filed out of the room, closing the door behind them.

“Project slammer has moved to final lab testing.” Holsan said, reading the first message.

“Finally, some good news on that front.” Hamilton replied, reading the second message. “It seems that Operative Harrington has finally awoken.”