Fortress Britain - Book One

> *"It was true that the diciest and most critical jobs had always been reserved for the Tier- 1special operators - Delta Force, SAS Increment, SEAL Team six and the USAF 24th Special Tactics squadron. Now unsurprisingly, the job of saving humanity had mostly fallen to them."* Fortress Britain
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ARISEN - Fortress Britain is the first book released by Glynn James and Michael Stephen Fuchs. Released in late 2013 on the Kindle and their first collaborative project together. By October 2014, Audible released Fortress Britain with RC Bray narrating.

## Book Description

*Over a half-million ARISEN books sold, with a 4.7/5.0-★ average on over 5,000 reviews...*

When the Zombie Apocalypse came, one country had shut down its borders in response to a major terrorist attack. Now Fortress Britain is the last bastion of the living – with 50 million beleaguered survivors facing down a world of 7 billion animated corpses. And when civilization fell, one international team of supremely elite special operators was being assembled for a nearly impossible mission, deployed out of the SAS barracks at Hereford. Supremely trained and armed, always the most skilled, resolved, and unstoppable amongst us, now the commandos of Alpha team are humanity's last best hope for survival. Searching through the detritus of fallen Europe, scavenging pharmaceutical labs for clues to a vaccine that might bring humanity back from the brink, now they are tasked with one last desperate operation.

They must cross the Atlantic aboard the world's only remaining super-carrier, insert by air into the very middle of a dead continent, and then fight their way on foot through a city of 3 million ravening dead guys. But these Zulus will not be like any zombies they have ever fought before...

**ARISEN**

***Hope Never Dies.***

## *Plot(Spoilers)*

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> "Only the dead have seen the end of war" ~ George Santayana
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> *And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men* - KJV Rev 13.13
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The first book of the series starts off with a mission by ALPHA Team, who is tasked to obtain vital information stored in a crumbling science and tech company Merck; located in Darmstadt, Germany, which is now zombie infested. During the operation extraction, Alpha Team loses two procurement officer's and has their first encounter with a new zombie they eventually start calling “Foxtrot November.”

In Southern England, Andrew Wesley, a security guard in charge of monitoring the closed off Channel Tunnel searches for his two missing colleagues, Addison and Chambers. Wesley discovers they both were scratched and infected by a loose Foxtrot November. By the time they get back to the security office, both Addison and Chambers have fully turned, forcing Wesley to defend himself and kill his infected co-workers. Wesley then hails the local military Garrison, Three Acres, with no response.

Back at Hereford, the home-base of USOC, Predator and Juice are speculating if Ali is meeting up with someone “privately” on base. Ainsley also calls his wife in London who explains the worsening conditions for civilians.

Wesley barely avoids a collision in the road and checks on the passengers, one is dead and the other is talking about how a zombie hit them and ran away after biting his friend. He frantically explains how quickly his friend has turned, and tells Wesley they were the communication unit coming in on orders. Wesley uses their radio and is able to reach CENTCOM to warn them of the zulus outbreak in South England. After Wesley relays the info, he was instructed to proceed to Three Acres, that's when the Inn exploded. Wesley and a fellow survivor from the explosion, Martin, urgently race to Folkestone to warn everyone in town before it's too late.

In Hereford, ALPHA team briefs the Colonel, the ranking officer of USCOM, on the new type of zulu they came in contact with back in Germany. They learn it has been named “Foxtrot November” for Fucking Nightmare from others who’ve seen them. The Colonel brings up the outbreak in Folkestone, but won’t confirm if it has anything to do with the new type of Zulu. Everyone takes a break, so Ali and Pope train with their bokken.

Homer was surprised by Mikey, an old SEAL buddy from Coronado, CA and they spent some time touching base.

Wesley and Martin nearly collide with another fleeing car. They stop and try and warn the other car to leave, but the passengers hardly seem un-surprised and they notice everyone in town is already packing up. That's when they see the zombies on the horizon. Leaving them no choice, they start firing at the approaching Zulus. British Army troops arrive to their relief.

Pope and Handon head to the USCOM operations center and they learn a US Navy SEAL team is needing help with a Tunnel operation.  Homer arrives at the ops center fully kitted up to help his fellow SEAL brothers, The Colonel realizes he doesn't have much of a choice and let's four ALPHA team members rescue the SEALs.

Ainsley, Handon, Pope and Homer travel to Calais, France when they lose comms with the SEAL team. With boots on the ground, the team gets close to the SEALs GPS transponder, where they find a turned Mikey eating one of his previous teammates.

When they get back, ALPHA team meets with the Colonel to discuss new intel that's been discovered from the Germany operation. The only viable intel was an email containing research from a biotech company located in Chicago. They all agreed that ALPHA Team needs to travel to Chicago to trace the origin of the email.  Handon and Ainsley begin planning for their upcoming mission code-named Operation “Secunda Mortem'' that's when the Colonel reveals that world’s last remaining super-carrier, *U.S.S. John F. Kennedy*, is still up and operable.

Major Grews has eight minutes to get the situation in Folkestone under control before CENTCOM destroys what he has come to know as Camp Folkestone. He finally gets good news, that the situation is handled, and wants to see Wesley and Martin. He then informs his troops to prepare for a full detailed sweep and sends an excavation team to open up the destroyed tunnel to determine the origin of the outbreak.

   The team lands on the U.S.S. *John F. Kennedy* (*JFK)* and meet US Marine Gunnery Sergeant Fick, who is in charge of the MARSOC unit on-board the *JFK.* Fick advises Alpha Team that his Raiders will be their quick reaction force during the mission. As they settle in, Juice and Pred see Ali slip down the hallway, which reinforces their speculation that she is seeing someone privately. Meanwhile, Pope and Henno prepare their kits as Henno makes an observation that Handon is having a morality issue with killing zulus. Pope tries to give some insight into Handon’s past before the fall of the world.

    Wesley and Martin are flown by helicopter to the *JFK*. Wesley learns that his employer, UK Security Services and the British Army, both agreed that he is to be drafted into the British Army and is now a Corporal.

Homer reminiscences about his family as he walks around the *JFK,* and happens to stumble upon the chapel while it’s in service. Elsewhere on the ship, Commander Drake, the JFK’s first officer, meets with Handon and Ainsley to discuss plans and status of the ship.

Because of Major Grews past, he has extreme motivation to get inside the tunnel, and  gets a team together to go and see what broke the defenses of Fortress Britain.

While Handon is getting the team together, he asks Predator and Juice if they know where Ali and Homer are, and requests them both to pass on a message to the rest of the team for a mission brief in one hour. At this point they suggest a relationship with Ali and Homer and try to do some investigating.  Meanwhile, Henno and Ainsley talk about Ainsley’s family and how he hasn’t been able to talk to them since the first mission briefing.
As Ali gets up, she contemplates her decisions, goes back to her own room she shares with Pope and asks if he wants to train with their bokken. Now alone, Homer gets out of bed and wanders the ship and decides to head to the chapel. When he finally finds it, Homer listens to the chaplain’s  extremist view on how the zulus are God’s creatures. This talk makes Homer uncomfortable. That's when he notices a huge closet of a weapons cache, which he calculates can arm the whole congregation.

The battle underneath the water, inside the channel tunnel took four hours. Jameson and the team pressed on for miles, until they walked upon a barricade of train parts and other debris. When Major Grews gets the report from Jameson, he is  immediately thrilled about the news, although cautious because they expected more than double the zulus they have been sent out to destroy. That’s when Jameson finds 38 survivors and the Major urges him to hurry up and get them on British soil before they’re stopped by any bureaucracy.

Ainsley briefs the ALPHA Team and MARSOC unit of the mission details. ALPHA Team is going to make a combat jump into Chicago. As the briefing continues, the topic of the new zulus, Foxtrot Novembers, comes up. Corporal Wesley and Captain Martin enter the room to provide ALPHA and MARSOC teams their first hand experience of the FN from the Battle of Folkestown.

The team's extraction will be on a little island, called Northerly Island Park.

## Locations

Merck, Darmstadt, Germany - The start of the book has us at one of the rooftops on one of the largest multinational science and technology companies in the world. ALPHA is looking for any sort of intel that might assist in helping humanity survive the outbreak.

Channel Tunnel - Source of the outbreak in Folkestone.

Camp Folkestone - The town of Folkestone, now taken over by the military. Three Acres is the communication hub for Folkestone.

Hereford - Former SAS headquarters and now home to USOC

Calais, France - Town where the channel tunnel links Britain to France, SEAL team were sent there to check that the tunnel was still blocked. They were swarmed and didn't come back from their op.

## List of Deaths

Addison and Chambers - The first victims of the Battle of Folkestone

Aleister - Manager of the Premiere Inn at Camp Folkestone

Mikey - Friend of Homer's, SEAL team Medic, swarmed Zulu's on an OP to the french side of the Channel Tunnel