“What’s his play?” Mike asked.
“He’s manufacturing missiles at his factory here in Cincinnati. In Nashville they’re manufacturing the guidance chips. They’re planning on meeting in Lexington where there is a military base with launch capabilities. He already has men there preparing for both parties to arrive. I know their original timeline was to have everything up and running a week from now, but with the bridge gone I don’t know how long we’ve stalled him. I also don’t know how long it’ll be before his forces from the south make it up here to press us on both fronts.”
“How do we stop him?”
“We don’t need to take out all of the components of his plan; just one of them will cripple everything. We’ve been repairing boats in preparation for blowing up the bridge. We have enough to get everyone across, but we have no way of locating the factory or an understanding of their security structure.”
“That's why you captured me.”
“Yes.”
Mike wasn’t sure if he could trust Wyatt or not. For all he knew this guy was playing him too.
“Why should I believe you and your journal?” Mike asked.
“Because there is enough evidence in that journal to put me away for a very long time. Usually, bad guys don’t incriminate themselves like that to the people around them.”
“If I do this I want a guarantee that my family will be taken care of. That they are a priority for extraction when you make it across the river.”
“I promise.”
13
Day 27 (Cincinnati)
They drove west for almost thirty minutes. The road was in bad shape. It had been cracked and split into pieces from the weeks of bombardment from Bram and his men.
Dr. Wyatt sat in the back with Mike, while two soldiers rode up front. The top of the Jeep was open and they had to yell over the engine and wind to be heard.
“It’s just up the road here,” Dr. Wyatt said.
“How do you know Bram doesn’t know about this place?” Mike asked.
“His ordnance would have the range to take it out. If he knew, it would already be destroyed.”
They pulled into a small marina. There were dozens of boats lining the docks, ranging in size and function. Most of the boats had men still working on them but a few were being tested in the water.
“You’re sure there are enough to get all of your men across?” Mike asked.
“Yes, but it’s taken longer than we thought. We only had two marine mechanics. They’ve been working day and night and teaching our other mechanics as much as they could to help out,” Dr. Wyatt answered. “What we’ve really been short on are welders.”
“I can help with that.”
The welding equipment they had wasn’t the best, but Mike was used to working with older models. The steel mill back in Pittsburgh was always hesitant about spending money on anything that was new or worked properly.
Mike lighted the welding torch. It felt good to have familiar tools in his hand. He brought two pieces of metal together and sparks flew from the bonding. He could feel the heat through his gloves. He never thought he’d be happy to feel the singe of those sparks again. The focus and precision brought him a sense of normalcy that he hadn’t felt for a long time.
After a few hours of finishing up some projects that were high priorities Mike took his gloves off and started rubbing his hands. Dr. Wyatt came over and extended two pills and a bottle of water.
“How long have they been like that?” Dr. Wyatt asked.
“The past couple years.”
“We could have one of our doctors take a look at them.”
“I’ve had all sorts of doctors look at them, and they all tell me the same thing.”
“And what’s that?”
“Stop using them.”
The drive back seemed considerably shorter. They entered Wyatt’s headquarters and finished ironing out the details for the assault tomorrow.
“Bram’s men are going to vet you, and they might even try to kill you,” Dr. Wyatt said. “They won’t be giving you the benefit of the doubt, so we won’t have much time. You have to stay alive. If you can’t lead us to the factory, then we’re dead in the water.”
“Right. Well, when I left they still had the bridge heavily guarded. Most of the buildings within the city had two guards per structure. The armory, training facility, and heavy artillery are located here, here, and here,” Mike said, pointing to different areas on the map.
“As soon as you know the location of the factory, press this.”
Dr. Wyatt handed him a small remote, no bigger than his pinky.
“What is it?” Mike asked.
“It’s a low frequency radio transmitter. You hit that button and we’ll know the mission is a go. From there we’ll meet you at the rendezvous point along the bank,” Dr. Wyatt said. “We’ll have multiple teams landing in different locations, but we have some radios working now, so we’ll be able to communicate once you tell us where the factory is. All of our men have been briefed backwards and forwards on the blueprint of the city.”
“And what about my family?” Mike asked. “When do they get out?”
“When you rendezvous with our men after you’ve found the location of the factory, bring your family with you. We’ll have a craft waiting to take them across the river, away from the fighting.”
“So, how do I get back over there now?”
“Well, that’s where it gets tricky.”
Mike was led to the shore, over two miles north from the bridge, and given a small flotation device. He would have to swim for it.
“It’s about half a mile. The current shouldn’t be too bad,” Dr. Wyatt said.
“Right,” Mike answered, looking to the other side.
“It could be worse,” Dr. Wyatt said. “At least it’s not winter.”
“The chip will be able to survive the swim?”
“It’ll be fine. Good luck.”
Kalen couldn’t sit still at her post. She was paired with Sam, at Sam’s request, and both were on security for one of the housing buildings.
She hated it. It gave her too much time to think. The brainless motions of checking ID cards for everyone that walked in, for six hours, was driving her crazy.
“What time is it?” Kalen asked.
“We’ve still got twenty minutes before our shift is over,” Sam said.
“We shouldn’t be here. We should be out looking for him. This is a waste of time.”
“Until they have a way to move a unit of men across the river, then there’s nothing we can do.”
She knew he was right, but she didn’t like hearing it. As soon as their shift was over they beelined for Cadogan’s office.
The colonel was sitting at his desk when his assistant ushered both Kalen and Sam inside. He was jotting down something on a piece of paper.
“Well?” Kalen asked.
“Same story as yesterday. We don’t have the boats to get across the river,” Cadogan said.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. How have you guys not put anything in motion for that?” Kalen asked.
“Take it easy,” Sam said.
“If you just look at it from a strategic point it’s insane not to be scrambling to put a plan together.”
“Kalen.”
“But you’re just sitting in your office with your thumb up your ass waiting for something to happen!”
“Kalen!”
Cadogan didn’t lose his composure. He rested the pen on the desk, folded his hands together, and pushed the piece of paper he was writing on aside.
“Ms. Grant, the only reason I’ve allowed you this type of leniency is because of the delicate nature of your situation. If you talk to me like that again I will have you shot,” Cadogan said. “Is that clear?”
“Let’s go, Kalen,” Sam said.
She wanted to kill him. She could do it. She’d done it before. The strap of her rifle was still slung over her shoulder. It wouldn’
t take long; just one quick motion, a squeeze of the trigger.
Every muscle in her body was tense. Her adrenaline was pumping so hard that she could barely feel Sam’s hand gripped around her arm.
Once they were out of the building Sam kept trying to talk to her, but she ignored him. The only thing she could focus on at the moment was not running back into the building and spreading Cadogan’s brains over the back wall of his office.
“It’s not smart to pick a fight with a guy who has hundreds of men at his disposal,” Sam said.
The adrenaline was subsiding. She could feel herself getting tired. The strap on her rifle was slowly sliding off her shoulder. She didn’t realize it was falling until Sam caught it.
“Are you all right?” Sam asked.
“It’s not fair, Sam.”
“I know.”
“This shouldn’t be happening to us. My family didn’t do anything. My dad didn’t do anything. I didn’t do anything to have this happen to me.”
Everything was becoming overwhelming. She looked down at her hands. They always seemed to have a red tinge to them now, as if they were permanently stained with blood.
Sam pulled her in close. She didn’t want to fight anymore. She didn’t want to be a part of this war. All she wanted to do right now was collapse into nothing. She didn’t want to think about her family, or where she was, or what she’d have to do tomorrow. She wanted to go back to the place where everything was normal, but she knew that part of her life was broken.
Nelson pulled a wrench out of the toolbox and tightened the nut on the water heater. He wiped the grease off his hands and headed back upstairs.
There was a young man in a shirt and tie standing at the sink in the kitchen when Nelson walked in.
“Try it now,” Nelson said.
The young man turned the handle of the faucet and the water came rushing out.
“It’s getting warmer. Thanks for coming down and looking at it,” the young man said.
“You’re welcome.”
This had been what most of his days had consisted of since he’d been in Cincinnati. There were more broken things to fix than he had time in the day, but he did what he could. He was one of only five other maintenance workers in the city.
When Nelson made it back to his office building there were guards stationed out front along with one of the military vehicles he remembered seeing when they first arrived.
Inside, all of the other maintenance workers were corralled in the break room. Each of them had his head down. The guards had their rifles aimed at Nelson’s coworkers.
“You’re part of the repair team?” Sergeant Blake asked.
“I am.”
“Have you had any experience with infrastructure damage in factories?”
“A little. There was a bad storm that came through Pittsburgh five or six years ago that damaged some of the buildings the company I consulted for were working on.”
“You’re coming with us.”
The guards with Sergeant Blake grabbed Nelson by the arms and pulled him out to the vehicle.
They drove through the streets of Cincinnati toward the north entrance where Nelson and his group originally came in. From there they headed west for ten minutes and parked outside a factory, heavily guarded.
Nelson had never seen this part of the city. It looked more like a military base.
The soldiers led him around the back of the factory and through one of the side doors. The area where he entered was an office space, but he could hear the humming of large machinery, and the shouts of men beyond the office walls.
“Through here,” Blake said.
Nelson followed him through one of the doors and into the factory. Massive cylinders were being hauled around, then fed into an assembly line. He tried getting a closer look, but the soldiers kept blocking his view.
The back of the factory was completely sectioned off. All of the equipment in the area was destroyed and part of the wall had collapsed with crack lines running all the way up to the ceiling.
“What happened here?” Nelson asked.
“I need you to check the stability of the wall. Make sure it’ll still stand,” Blake said.
“I’ll need the original blueprints to have something to go on, and I’ll also need to inspect the rest of the building.”
“How long is this going to take?”
“Depends on what I find.”
Nelson laid the blueprints to the building across a table they set up for him in the back. He walked along the perimeter, doing a quick visual inspection on both the inner and outer walls.
While he was on the inside his eyes kept wandering to the workers in the factory. The more Nelson saw, the more he understood what the factory’s purpose was.
They made bombs.
He could see the stockpiles of weapons poking out from the tarps that concealed them. There were hundreds of missiles, all ranging in different sizes and shapes. Some of them were small, but the majority of them were massive.
All of the damage he could find seemed to be contained to the back wall. The rest of the building was intact. Whatever had happened didn’t affect the rest of the factory.
“I should come back in a few days, make sure everything’s stable. You’ll have to completely tear down that back wall though if you want it repaired,” Nelson said.
“That won’t be necessary,” Blake answered.
Blake nodded to his men and they grabbed Nelson by the arms and started pulling him outside. The soldiers were rougher with him than before.
Once they were outside the soldiers shoved Nelson to the ground. He caught himself on the palms of his hands and the skin tore against the concrete, causing them to bleed.
“Hey!” Nelson said.
Sergeant Blake aimed his pistol at Nelson’s head. Nelson’s hands flew up in the air.
“Whoa, just, listen… You don’t have to do this,” Nelson said.
Nelson crawled backwards on his hands and feet, his palms stinging each time he moved.
“We have our orders,” Blake said.
Three successive shots left Blake’s gun and sent bullets flying into Nelson’s chest. Nelson fell to his back and gargled what last few breaths of life he had left.
Mike was soaking wet when he crawled up the seawall on the other side of the river. He tossed the flotation device back in the water and ripped his shirt off and wrung it out.
He checked his pocket for the remote that Wyatt gave him. It was still there. He had to get to his family and let them know what was going on.
There weren’t any soldiers on patrol in the area Mike arrived in. He wanted to avoid any contact with anyone other than his family as much as possible. He didn’t want to waste time being questioned by Bram’s men about what happened.
After twenty minutes of walking north he decided to turn east and head closer to the epicenter of the city where his family was located. He was hoping his clothes would have dried a bit, but he was still soggy.
There was a men’s clothing store along the way and he managed to find a dry pair of pants and shirt. He snagged a hat off one of the shelves and pulled it low over his forehead.
The closer he moved to the center of the city the more people he saw. Luckily most of them were civilians. He kept his head down, not looking anyone in the eye.
The hotel where his family was located was only a few more blocks down the road. He was still tired from the swim, but the knowledge that he was so close gave him a burst of energy that he didn’t have before.
Then, right before he made it to the hotel he stopped. He couldn’t go through the front door. The guards would check him. He’d have to sneak in, but he had no idea if there were any other entrances to the building. He’d only been in and out the front exit.
The fire escape.
But he knew he couldn’t get to it from the ground floor. Mike walked to the building next to the hotel and checked the gap between both structures. The alley couldn’t have bee
n more than four feet wide. If he could get to the top of the other building he could jump for it.
Mike went down the side of the adjacent building. The fire escape there was still intact. He started the climb up and when he made it to the top the dry shirt he changed into was soaked with sweat.
His boots crunched against the grainy roof and when he made it to the edge of the building he looked down.
“This is a terrible idea.”
Mike backed up and sprinted as fast as he could. He pushed off the edge of the building and when he landed on the other side his feet slid across the roof and he hit the ground hard.
“Jesus.”
Mike got up, his legs still wobbly, and then headed for the fire escape. He descended until he made it to his family’s floor.
There weren’t any latches on the windows, so he took off his shirt and wrapped it around his fist. He peered inside, checking to make sure the hallway was clear. Then he smashed through the glass as hard as he could. He stepped through the hole, making sure to avoid the sharp edges, and landed on the carpet.
The ding of the elevator door opening made his heart drop. When he looked down at the end of the hallway he saw Freddy walking out, followed by Kalen and Anne.
“Dad!” Freddy screamed.
He ran toward his father and Mike scooped him up in a big hug. Kalen and Anne weren’t far behind and the four of them just squeezed each other tight.
“We thought you were gone,” Anne said.
“So did I,” Mike replied.
“I knew you’d come back,” Kalen said.
Mike pulled everyone into Mike and Anne’s room. Freddy and Anne sat on the bed, while Kalen leaned against the wall. He went through everything with them. He told them about Wyatt, what Bram did, and what he was planning.
“As soon as I find that factory I’m taking you guys down to the river and getting you as far away from this place as possible,” Mike said.
“I’m coming with you,” Kalen said.
“No.”
“Dad, I can help.”
“You can help by keeping your brother and mother safe.”
“How are you going to find the factory?” Anne asked.
Surviving The Collapse Super Boxset: EMP Post Apocalyptic Fiction Page 43
