Chapter 37
At six minutes past two o'clock in the morning, a B-2 Stealth Bomber soared high over the western ridge of the Arklay Mountains, nearly invisible against the dark sky. The only sign of its passing was the low rumble of its engine. The sleek aircraft dropped low, splitting the clouds, and came into range of Raccoon City.
Below, the dead city did not even notice the aircraft's passing. The city's population, now almost fully undead, congregated in huge mobs in the downtown area. Scattered groups coalesced at various spots around the city. Among the hordes of undead, other creatures lurked as well.
Any survivors with the desire and the ability to leave the city had already done so or had died trying. If there was anyone left alive, they were hidden too deep for rescuers to find, heavily barricaded and armed, unwilling to leave the safety of their havens. But as far as those in charge were concerned, there were no survivors left in the city at all.
The Stealth Bomber arced downward, following the descent of the mountains into the valley where the city lay. One of its missile bays slid open. From the rotary launcher assembly, a long white missile rolled into place.
The pilot's voice, mechanical and monotone, came over a scrambled radio frequency. “Target in sight. Ready to launch. Final authorization requested.”
“Authorization granted,” came the immediate response.
“Target confirmed.” A quiver of hesitation came into the pilot's voice.
The missile detached from the launcher and dropped into the sky. The Bomber lifted and shot higher through the clouds as the missile disappeared below it. The missile's propulsion system burst to life and it rocketed downward through the air.
“Fox three,” the pilot said. Within seconds, the Bomber was already up and out of range, booming through the air at maximum speed.
The 700-pound missile shot toward the center of the city, guided by active radar. It flashed across the sky like a meteor, a barely visible vapor trail behind it. But no one in the city was alive to see it. The missile, a B61 Mod 11 tactical thermonuclear device, fell to less than 100 feet before it detonated almost directly over the Raccoon City Police Station.
Its warhead consisted of two separate chambers, primary and secondary. The primary chamber contained a core of radioactive material surrounded by conventional explosives. When the explosives detonated, they compressed the fissile material, Plutonium-239, to the point where nuclear fission was achieved. A mixture of Deuterium and Tritium gas inside the core reacted to create nuclear fusion, which released additional neutrons that boosted the fission effect of the Plutonium.
The combined heat, radiation, and burst of neutrons was then directed by the interstage to the secondary chamber: a core of Plutonium, a thick layer of the fusion fuel Lithium Deuteride, encased in a shell of Uranium. The Plutonium, when compressed to a critical point, underwent fission, which spread to the Lithium Deuteride fuel, which then achieved nuclear fusion once more. It was this combination of fusion and fission reactions, taking place in close proximity and at almost exactly the same time, each one adding to the power of the other due to the release of neutrons, that made up the vast majority of the visible explosion.
All of this took place in seconds. The thermonuclear bomb exploded in a blindingly white point of light that turned the surrounding city blocks to ashes in the blink of an eye. The shockwave radiated outward at the speed of sound, completely obliterating every single structure for miles around in every direction. Buildings were reduced to a spray of rubble, like buckshot fired from a gun. Every organic creature within the immediate blast radius was incinerated instantly.
The B61 missile was variable yield, programmed for 170 kilotons, the highest possible yield, over eleven times the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The instantaneous destruction of the fusion reaction was immediately followed by a fireball 2000 feet wide. Anything not destroyed by the initial shockwave burst into flames. Glass melted, wood was reduced to ash, even steel melted under the 7,200-degree wave of heat.
And the thousands of zombies packed into the streets were wiped off the face of the Earth. More than 95% of the infected hosts in the city were annihilated immediately.
A tower of nuclear flame erupted into the sky, boiling over into a titanic mushroom cloud that sparked and glittered with internal flashes of lightning. The top of the cloud peaked at over 40,000 feet high and half as wide.
Raccoon City was destroyed in moments. Buildings were knocked flat, every single creature out in the open was vaporized, the destruction spreading for over twenty square miles, reaching from the bottom rim of the Arklay Mountains all the way across to the other side of the city. Even those outside the immediate blast wave were annihilated by the flash of scorching fire and powerful blast of radiation.
The fire spread across the city like a flood, burning everything in its path. Huge swaths of flame covered the city, destroying everything that was not destroyed in the nuclear blast, reducing the entire downtown area to nothing but a graveyard of smoldering remains. Residential areas were burned to the ground, each and every home going up in flames as the inferno continued on its path of destruction. Even the Arklay Forest was not spared from destruction, as the flames reached the woods and continued to burn.
Hours later, there was almost nothing left. The few infected hosts that still remained could be dealt with easily, from a distance. All that remained now was to start to begin the first stage of the cleanup process.
The Final Decontamination was a success.
A note from the author
Resident Evil Legends
Part One: Welcome to the Umbrella Corporation
Part Two: The Arklay Outbreak
Part Three: The Mansion Incident
Part Four: Calm Before the Storm
Part Five: City of the Dead
Part Six: Escape from Raccoon City
Part Seven: Aftermath - COMING SOON
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