“Damn it,” she said out loud before she started typing back: I’m on it.
Good luck. Update as soon as you can, the reply came back, and the green light on the message box turned red, indicating that the other person had left the conversation.
“Damn. Damn. Damn. What the hell have I just done?” Hope exclaimed out loud as she started the process of shutting the computer down and putting everything back in place, before she exited the underground labs and reemerged back into the yard in front of Benjy’s house.
She stood in the yard for over an hour, just staring at Hunter’s window, trying to figure out how she was going to convince him to take her there, and how much trouble she would be in if they returned without anything to show for it. She finally got her plan formulated, and started walking over to Hunter’s window, ready to enact it, when she was startled by the sound of footsteps behind her.
Chapter 10
Kane was walking through the empty breeding pens in a large warehouse near the boat docks when he was approached by Byron and Isac.
“Master Rowland sent us to tell you we had to eliminate the entire batch last night, due to our inability to control them,” Byron stated as he bowed his head.
“Not a single one was controllable in that batch?” Kane questioned the two consorts. “Has Eva’s training not been sufficient?”
“Her training over the last week has been very thorough, sir,” Isac chimed in. “But it’s quite random as to which ones will be susceptible to control. So far, out of the dozens created, we have only been able to produce three that we have been able to control. Given more time and resources, we should be able to catch up to Eva’s amount.”
Byron looked at Kane. “On a positive note, Petrus and Petronella are sitting with six under their control. And they have already moved them to the Queen Elizabeth in anticipation of their departure back to Europe.”
“Donavan’s already preparing to return to Europe? This is the first I have heard of this. Very well, I will have another twenty subjects delivered tonight for you to continue with. Please report directly back to me as soon as you have turned them.”
The two men agreed and left Kane to ponder the news he had just found out. He quickly made his way back to the main door of the warehouse and exited it to his awaiting transportation. “Take me back to base. I have need to speak to someone immediately,” he commanded the security detail awaiting him at the car.
As he arrived back at his headquarters, he made his way straight to Donavan’s quarters. Upon arriving, he found Donavan’s servants packing the last of his belongings and preparing for his departure, while Donavan oversaw the packing.
“I’ve just found out you are leaving us. Were you planning on telling me before you did?” Kane asked as he walked into the apartment.
“I didn’t know I was on a leash with you. But yes, my brother, I had every intention of seeing you before I left.”
“What’s the rush? I must ask,” Kane said as he poured himself a glass of wine from the bar.
“Actually, it was at the behest of Rowland that I leave so abruptly. He has asked me to check on a potential situation in the Middle East on my way back home. Apparently, he’s received word that the Israelis are staging an offensive to take back their lands from the infected, and he wants me to find out what I can.” Donavan joined Kane for a glass of wine.
“This is the first I have heard of this. But if Rowland asked you, then he knows what he’s doing. What are your plans when you return home?” Kane asked as he wondered why he had been kept out of the loop on the mission.
“Without Mercer’s cure in our hands, I was planning on using your method of herding the infected towards a large military force that I left in place before we departed. I yearn to restore order to my home and to start on the path to rebuilding the country. Rowland made mention he will keep the seat of power in Europe, once we wrest control back from the infected.” Once again, Donavan was notifying Kane of something he hadn’t already been privy to.
“That would be appropriate, I suppose. Well, it was good seeing you again, brother, and I hope it is measured in weeks rather than years when we see each other again.” Kane gave Donavan a hug as he departed, trying to not show his frustration at just now learning so much important information.
As the doors to the elevator shut behind him, Kane lashed out at the wall opposite the door, and almost put his hand through the metal wall. He continued the rest of the ride to his penthouse office in silence as he contemplated all that he just learned, and how best to approach Rowland on why he hadn’t been consulted on the decisions being made.
As the doors opened, he came face to face with a young man he was not familiar. Kane, still calming himself down, reacted to the stranger’s presence by grabbing him and throwing him against the wall opposite the elevator opening. He rushed at the stunned man and hoisted him up to throw again, when the man spoke:
“Sir, I was sent to give you some important information.”
“Who sent you?” Kane asked.
“Your security chief, Michael. He said to bring this to you immediately, while he finished tracking a signal,” the young man answered as he handed Kane a sealed envelope.
Kane grabbed the envelope and tore it open to find a printout from a conversation picked up over a satellite interception. “Where is Michael now?” Kane barked at the visibly shaken man.
“Still in the communications room, sir,” he said as he flinched at Kane’s sudden departure upon hearing his answer.
Kane barged into the communication room just as Michael was receiving a printout from the printer. “Ah, sir, just got this printed off. I think you will be very happy with this discovery,” the older grizzled-looking man said as he handed the paper to Kane.
“Are you sure about these coordinates?” Kane asked.
“One hundred percent, sir, just verified it myself. I was finally able to track their conversation this time. It appears one of them didn’t have their decryption protocols up and running. Those first coordinates are up in the panhandle of Florida, accurate to within fifty miles. The second is a satellite picture of the Colorado Rockies, accurate to within a hundred miles. If they had given me about ten more seconds, I could’ve gotten it a lot closer,” Michael answered with a slight hint of disappointment in his voice.
“This is the best lead we have had so far. Get me Eva and tell her to pack for a trip. Tell her that her chance for revenge has come. Then get me Rowland and have him meet me in my office. Tell him we finally have a lead on Mercer’s cure.”
Chapter 11
“If you wanted a goodnight kiss, all you had to do was ask,” a voice behind Hope rang out.
Hope spun around, ready to swing a punch from being startled by the footsteps, but even more so by the statement made by Hunter as he stood behind her. “You are way too arrogant if you think that is what I want from you.” Hope relaxed a little, thinking about what she was about to ask of him.
“I know the tough girl act you put on is all for show, but you can relax around me. I’m not looking for a girlfriend right now. Got way more important things to be doing than playing kissy-face with you, sweetheart,” Hunter snidely remarked as he closed the distance between them. “Now, you want to tell me what is so interesting in that shed you’ve been hiding in for the last two hours?”
Hope was speechless and disgusted by his first comment, as it sounded like a huge insult coming from him, but even more speechless by the fact he knew where she had been for the last two hours.
“Relax, I’m not gonna tell Benjy you broke his new code. I’m just giving you a hard time.” Hunter grabbed a chair and sat down.
Hope calmed her emotions as she remembered she needed him for the mission and grabbed the other chair and plopped it down across from him, ready to drop the plan on him. “Listen, what I’m fixing to ask is way bigger than anything I’ve ever asked of anybody in my entire life.”
“I’m all ears, sweetheart, go for it
,” Hunter answered as he leaned forward to hear her better.
Hope winced at the sweetheart comment for the second time that night, but fought off the urge to again hit him in the gut. “So, this was what I just found out,” Hope started. She rambled on for over thirty minutes, catching him up on all the details and her plan on how they could pull it off.
After listening to every detail, Hunter leaned back and took a deep breath. “Sounds like a good plan to me, kiddo. I’m going to have to do some figuring on the mileage, though, with the plane. On a good day, it only has about a nine-hundred-mile range, but luckily, Benjy has a secure location near Fort Smith, Arkansas, with fuel stored there. But those are all details I will take care of. You just handle David and the others, and we can leave first thing in the morning.”
“Whoa, really? I thought I was going to have a harder time convincing you to do this,” Hope replied with surprise in her voice.
“Me and Benjy have been looking everywhere over the last year for that damn cure. I don’t know who the other person was, but I do know Benjy has a few contacts that have been helping him, and this sounds about as good of a lead as anything we’ve had in the last year. If he was here, we’d be leaving right now. Worst case scenario, we mark off one more spot on his map, best case, we come home heroes. I’m all for the hero status, sister.” Hunter stood up and moved towards the house. “Better get some rest. We’ll leave as soon as you can get David to let us get out of here in the morning.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in the morning,” Hope said as she, too, got up and headed towards the house. “Hey, thanks for being cool about this.”
“Cool is what I do, girl,” Hunter chirped back before he opened the door and left her sight.
“What the hell have I done?” Hope whispered to herself as she made her way to hers and Renee’s room.
Chapter 12
The ramp was just a large piece of sheetrock that had fallen from the ceiling and was now lying on top of whatever it had crushed on its way down, but at the moment, it served a purpose. Zach lined up the center of the truck to the middle of the improvised ramp, and then he pulled the accelerator back on the remote and watched on the monitor as the truck sped towards it.
Hutch held his breath as he watched the truck take flight via the monitor, and then, finally, exhaled when he saw the truck safely land on the other side of the collapsed staircase. “Oh, yeah!” Hutch exclaimed as he patted Zach on the back.
“I told you I could do it,” Zach answered as he started to hand the remote back to Hutch.
“Yeah, you did.” Hutch pushed the remote away. “You keep it. This one’s yours after making that jump.”
Zach gladly took the controls and continued to pilot the truck through the new wing of the house they had been trying to gain access to for over an hour. He moved it slowly through the debris on the floor and occasionally stopped it to either inspect a suspicious sight, or to show Hutch something he thought was cool.
Hutch sat back and enjoyed the guided video tour of the once great Bultmoore House.
Zach stopped at a big grand piano and told Hutch how when he first moved onto the grounds, he accidently spilled a soda on that piano and had to hide from the manager of the estate for over three weeks to allow him to cool down.
“I have an idea. But let’s see if we can find some slabs first and then I’ll tell you my plan.”
It took them fifteen minutes of driving through rooms before Zach made it to another chained door that held back some slabs. As they had done a couple times before, Zach slowly moved the truck into position before ramming the truck into the doors to get the slabs’ attention. And just as every time before, it didn’t take long for the slabs to start pushing on the doors to get at the new arrival. Eventually, with a little encouragement from Zach, they pushed the doors hard enough to break free from the weather-weakened hinges and started to climb out of their prison.
Hutch watched the first ten come out of the room, then tapped Zach on the back before saying, “Okay, lead them back to the piano and park the truck underneath it, but turn it so we can see them coming.”
Zach nodded and slowly returned to the room with the piano. He backed the truck under the piano and the duo watched the monitor as the shambling zombies slowly made their way into the room. Hutch kept a count on a little notepad, marking a line down every time a new one entered the room. Zach kept them coming by revving up the engine every few seconds to keep their attention.
As the last one entered the room, Hutch grinned as he looked down at his scorekeeping. “Looks like we just hit two hundred. You can have the honors this time.” He handed Zach the detonator.
Zach grinned at the handoff of the device, and he got ready to push the button. But just before he did, he caught a glimpse of something on the monitor. “Wait a minute,” he said as he slowly turned the truck to realign the camera for a better view of one of the passing slabs. “I thought so,” he said as he found a specific one in the crowd.
“What is it or who, I guess, I should ask?”
“That guy right there used to pick on me relentlessly. He didn’t like my family living here and used to try to make my life miserable every chance he would get. He even tried to get my dad fired by picking a fight with him once, and then claimed my dad attacked him for no reason.” Zach kept the camera pointed at the slab.
“Well, normally, I wouldn’t even give it a second thought, but since the guy’s an even bigger threat to you now, I fully endorse a corrective action being taken.” Hutch watched Zach pilot the remote right up to his target’s leg.
Zach put down the remote control and picked up the detonator. He flipped the safety cover open, revealing the actual button, and grinned as he pushed it. The screen immediately turned to snow, and a large explosion was heard from the far side of the property before a large plume of smoke rose into the sky. “Oh, that felt good. So, which way are we going now?” Zach handed the device back to Hutch.
“Well, we only have three trucks left, and I think it’s time we put this place down for good. I’m going to strap a gallon of this hobby airplane fuel to the back of these last few trucks, and we are going to burn this place to the ground.” Hutch moved towards the back of the truck to make preparations.
After about twenty minutes of work, the trucks were fitted with the fuel and, to finish the job, a larger piece of C-4. One by one, they piloted the trucks into position on three different sides of the massive house. Then Hutch backed his own truck up a little to make sure they were at a safer distance.
Hutch again handed the detonator to Zach. “This was your home, so you get the honor of the final button push.”
Zach took one last look at the house that had been his home before the outbreak and his nightmare ever since. He didn’t even hesitate pushing the button.
Simultaneously, all three trucks exploded from inside the house. The shockwave rattled the van so hard the mirror on the driver’s side cracked. Almost immediately, thick black smoke started pouring out of any opening left as a fire ran rampant through the old dried-out building. Hutch and Zach sat in the truck and watched as the whole house was engulfed in flames.
The pair sat for over an hour watching the famous landmark burn as they traded survival stories since the outbreak, and laughed a few times at some of the things they had both had to do to make it. When the main roof collapsed inwards, Hutch turned and looked at his younger accomplice and actually contemplated allowing him to hang around for a little while longer. But the memory of Hicks reminded him of the dangers they would be subjected to, and he decided to rescind the offer before it ever came out.
Zach sat in silence as one chapter of his life came to an end, and a new one would soon begin. He could tell by his host’s posture that their time together was coming to a close. He also knew he was going to be alone in a dangerous world, but after the closure he was able to enjoy the day, and felt ready to face whatever was in front of him. He thought about asking Hutch if he could tag
along, but then realized that for the first time in his life he would be allowed to make his own decisions and become the man his dad had always taught him to be. So, he just sat back and enjoyed the last few moments with a friend he had made that day, knowing that soon he would be alone again in a world that if he survived, he could make a destiny all his own.
Chapter 13
The plane’s engine started to sputter and come to life with a loud roar and a single puff of smoke blown out the exhaust. Hope hurried, throwing her gear into the back of the small plane. Hunter was in the pilot’s seat checking all the instruments and loading his flight plans into the navigation computer. On the outside, the plane looked like any older Cessna single prop plane, but on the inside, it was as modern as any newer jet manufactured before the plague hit. It could hold up to six passengers, but today there would be only two.
Hope finished getting their gear stowed and moved to jump into the passenger seat, when she was startled by a hand grabbing her shoulder. Hope spun around, fully expecting to find David standing there telling her that her ruse was up, but, instead, found Morgan and Trip.
“What the hell are you doing?” Morgan yelled over the roar of the engine to Hope.
Hope struggled to think of an answer that would make sense, considering she was caught red-handed in the middle of a lie. “Hunter’s taking me out for some sightseeing today,” she answered, not sure of how convincing she was at the moment.
“Liar, watch out,” Morgan answered to the ill-fated attempt to fool her before she pushed Hope to the side and reopened the back door to the plane to throw her and Trip’s backpacks into the storage area.
Hope reluctantly stood to the side and watched Morgan finish securing their gear, before they both hopped into the second row of seats behind Hunter. She looked at Hunter, who was just shaking his head, but not looking like he was going to get involved in the situation.
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