*****
Master Sergeant Bennet woke up in a fog, having drunk too much the night before at the concert. He didn’t see Erika that day but figured she must have gone out to the farm with Vince since her children were in town.
When she didn’t come into the weight room the next day he began actively searching for her and Vince. He headed to Major Virgis’s office.
“Have you seen Erika or Vince since the concert?” Master Sergeant Bennet inquired.
“No...I haven’t,” he replied slowly.
Major Virgis punched up their tracking device signals on the computer.
“They are in Brad’s office,” he replied, watching the signals blink on the screen.
They stormed out of the office, headed for the lab. Master Sergeant Bennet opened the door, but Brad was the only one in there.
“Hello, Master Sergeant,” he said surprised by the intrusion.
“Are Erika and Vince in here?” the Master Sergeant asked, looking around.
“No...” Brad said, eyeballing a tiny glass dish with two trackers in it.
The Master Sergeant followed his gaze and picked up the dish.
“Son of a...” he cursed, showing them to Major Virgis. “How did she learn to do this, Brad?”
“I don’t know...I may have...,” Brad bumbled.
The Master Sergeant flew across the room and grabbed him by the collar. He slammed the man against the wall so hard his glasses cocked on his head. The vein in Bennet’s forehead bulged.
“You may have what, Brad?” the Master Sergeant barked at him.
“I may have shown her how to do it. She is always so inquisitive and wants to know about everything,” Brad answered fearfully.
“What else have you told her, Brad?” the Master Sergeant wondered why she would risk such a rash move without having talked to him first.
“Nothing...” he lied.
“Why is it I don’t believe you?” the Master Sergeant shook the man. “What did you tell her?”
“I told her about the next wave,” Brad admitted.
“Fuck!” the Master Sergeant cursed the scientist. “And did you tell her that I knew about this?”
“Yes, I begged her not to tell you,” Brad confessed.
Master Sergeant Bennet dropped the man. He fell hard on the floor. Master Sergeant Bennet looked at Major Virgis, dumbfounded.
“She’s going to get her mom and her friends. She doesn’t think she can trust us because we didn’t tell her,” Major Virgis declared.
“Oh shit! That’s what she was talking about at the concert,” Master Sergeant Bennet thought out loud.
“What do you mean?” Major Virgis inquired.
“At the concert, I was so drunk. She kept carrying on asking me if I thought we’d have another quake,” he explained, his mind connecting the dots. “She was probing to see if I would tell her...and I didn’t.”
“You didn’t know she knew,” Major Virgis saw the guilt in his eyes.
“Maybe there’s still time to catch her. I’ll go check her pod.” The Master Sergeant hurried off.
He returned to Major Virgis’s office within the hour. “They’re gone. Took their packs and weapons. What are we going to do? Should we shut down the borders and tell the General? They probably left with Sean’s band,” he commented, thinking out loud.
Major Virgis rocked back in his chair, deep in thought.
“What should we do, Major?” the Master Sergeant urged him to make a decision, knowing the longer they waited, the further away she could be.
Major Virgis sighed deeply.
“Take a team and follow them,” he ordered.
The End
The Changing Earth Series (Book 3): The Walls of Freedom Page 29
