by RJ Crayton
“Because of rumors?” Josh asked. “Why would you believe some SOS message?”
Greg shook his head. “It wasn’t just the message. That was shocking, and I didn’t believe it at first, but I went through and looked at all the communication that had come in while Thoreaux thought we were able to communicate back. The things he was asking for, they weren’t what he should have been asking for. And then,” he said, pausing. “Then they abandoned us. They gave an order to leave us for dead. They were planning to release the virus into our unit, as soon as they had acquired all useful samples from it. They believed the comms unit compromise ran deeper than just the civilians in the unit. They planned to kill us all. My wife, my children, everyone’s family down there. That’s when I made the decision to go back. I didn’t believe I’d been compromised, so I went back to the SPU to talk to Jim and Kingston, to get them to help me clear the facility out, to save our people.”
Elaan swallowed. It was awful to think that you’d been betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect you. “So what happened then?”
“When I came back, your father — well both your fathers — were initially cool to me when I told them we needed to talk. I finally got them to speak with me privately and told them what I’d learned. That’s when they told me you two had left, that Nina had warned you.”
“Had you asked her to do that?”
He shook his head and smiled. “No. That’s just who Nina is. If it was an order I’d intended to follow, I would have been upset, but given what I knew, it was for the best.”
“Where is Nina now?”
“She’s safe,” he said curtly.
“But where,” Elaan pressed.
“Look, I like you, Elaan, but not enough to trust my family’s safety to you. We evacuated the facility, got people to places that were as safe as they could be, and Kingston and your dad went to Charlottesville, said I’d gone crazy, kicked them out and said I planned to release the virus in the facility. Soon after that, I began leaking more information as part of The Slam Report.”
“How did you get involved in that?” Josh asked.
Elaan leaned forward, watching Greg carefully. She was just as curious as Josh.
“The SOS message. It also had a suggested way to make contact with Slam people,” he said. “You don’t get good responses until they trust you, but they trust me now. And I trust them, and I want to show everyone out there who Thoreaux really is.”
Chapter 44 - Lijah
Shonda had managed to guide Lijah away from the SPU and back to the highway. They were heading east on Interstate 74. It was dark and he was worried about patrols, but his mother insisted they just keep driving. At this point, he figured she was right. Caldwell had been right there. If he’d chosen to enlist a search crew, it was best to get far, far away.
“Where are we going?” he asked her as they cruised down the highway.
“To your father and sister.”
She’d said it as simple as if it were…well, simple. But Lijah knew it couldn’t be. Nothing that had happened since this outbreak had been simple. “Where is that?”
“Virginia, in Nellysford,” she said, and then sat there looking out the window.
He kept driving, not sure how much he wanted to say. She seemed like perhaps she was in shock. Maybe it was best not to push, but at some point, he’d need further directions. Something more than Go East, Young Man.
He peeked into the rearview mirror and saw only darkness. He angled his arm to see his watch read 2:03 a.m. He was tired, but they needed to get out of this area.
“You know the directions?” he asked.
His mother nodded.
“Are you alright, Mom? You seem…” He didn’t really want to say what she seemed. And he didn’t have to.
She shook her head. “I’ll be fine once we get there. Tonight was just a lot. I was hoping Alex wouldn’t realize what we’d done.”
“Do you think he’ll send people after us?”
She shivered. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I just want to get to Elaan and Jim.”
“How do you know where they are?”
“I’ve been communicating with your father using Alex’s computer, whenever I got a chance. He told me he was sending Josh, Elaan, and Amadu out to a cabin not too far from the immune complex. They’re going to expose Thoreaux, so I want to be with him when that happens.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow,” she said. “Technically, it’s later today. But it’s a ten-hour drive if we go straight through. We can be there after lunch if we don’t stop too much.”
He yawned. “I can’t drive ten hours right now,” he said. “And we’ll need to get gas at some point.”
She nodded. “Why don’t you drive for the next hour and then we’ll switch,” she said, as she reached into the glove compartment. “I’ll look for the manual in here, see if I can figure out how big the gas tank is and when we’ll need fuel. For the moment, just drive. We need to get as far away from Champaign as we can.”
He nodded. She was right about that.
* * *
Lijah had driven for another hour and a half and then they’d switched. He awoke to the bright sunshine streaming into the car. His mother was still at the wheel, driving. He sat up and stretched. She glanced over at him, smiled.
“Where are we?” he asked her, as he felt the drowsiness of sleep start to leave him.
She looked out the window. “Somewhere in Ohio,” she said. “Closing in on West Virginia, then Virginia, and finally your sister and father.”
She seemed intent on getting where she wanted to go, her eyes focused on the road. Sitting in the cup holders between them was a map. It was folded so it showed Ohio and West Virginia. It looked like his mother had marked the route. He picked up the map, glanced at the remainder of the way, then put it back in the cup holder.
They drove for a bit more, and took a quick potty stop on the side of the road. Once they were back in the car again and driving, he figured it was time to ask some tough questions, things he didn’t want to talk about under the watchful eye of Alexander Caldwell. “What happened at the SPU?”
She turned to him, briefly, as if trying to better understand his question. “I’m not sure what you mean. We left.”
“I know that,” he said. “I mean, with you and Caldwell.”
She shook her head. “Nothing that concerns you,” she said.
“You’re my mother and what happens to you concerns me,” he said.
She softened. “That’s sweet.” She looked at him a moment more than she should have before returning her eyes to the road. “Are we OK? I know you harbored some hostility for me about things.”
He laughed. A delicate approach. More delicate than necessary. “I did resent you. I resented the pressure you put on me to be perfect, to do everything right, to do what you asked without putting up a fight. The pressure to be the opposite of Elaan.”
“I didn’t mean to put that pressure on you.”
He shrugged. Did it really matter now? They’d been through so much, all his hostility about the past seemed useless now. He looked up at her. “I believe you,” he said. “I don’t think you realized how much you expected of me.”
Shonda let out a long breath. “Maybe I did realize it, and I was selfish not to realize that it was more than I should have expected. I always wanted you to be just you. And lately, all I’ve wanted is for you to be happy. To not worry about me or what anyone else expects of you.”
“That’s easier said than done.”
She laughed. “I used to feel the same way, but at some point, you realize you’ve got to live our life for you. And you have to go to live with yourself, knowing that you’ve done the best for the people in your lives. Frankly, you’ve put up with more than anyone should have had to in the past few months and you’ve handled it marvelously. I hope you know just how proud I am of you.”
He blushed. It had been a long time since she
’d said anything even remotely like that to him. “You’ve handled more than your fair share recently, too,” he said. “That’s why I want to make sure you’re alright. Did you want to talk about what happened back there with Alex?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to dredge it up. I did my best to placate a man who reminisced too much and who held too much power over us.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“Not in any way that matters,” she said. “In the end, he sent Elaan to be with James, and I was able to get you out safely.”
“With Natalie’s help,” he added.
“Yes,” she said, a big grin breaking out over her face. “It was a stroke of divine providence that we happened to get trapped with your cousin.”
Chapter 45 - Lijah
“Cousin?” Lijah sputtered. “What are you talking about?”
Shonda kept her eyes on the road but spoke freely. “Nobody wants to be related to Mark Dayton, dear,” she said. “People are reluctant to admit it. Her father, his name is Lee Dayton. He’s Mark’s older half-brother.”
“How do you know this?”
“I don’t know how much you know about how I left” she said. “I mean, how I left when your father told everyone I was dead.”
“Just that Dad found out you were Dayton’s sister and told you to leave after he realized you were a carrier of the non-airborne strain.”
“Right,” she said, then swallowed. “He didn’t just tell me. He also gave me the file from Mark Dayton’s private investigator. Mark had hired the man to find me before he went to South America. In addition to information on me, it also mentioned that Mark had another sibling. A half-brother in Illinois, Lee Dayton.”
The name sounded right, but not quite. “I thought Natalie’s family name was Payton.”
“That’s apparently what he’s calling himself now. But just like me and just like Mark, Lee is Michael Dayton’s son. Michael was essentially a deadbeat. He left Lee’s mother, only about ten years earlier than he left mine and Mark’s. So, it listed information about Lee, his wife, and daughter Natalie. Mark wanted to follow up with me, first. He and I were full siblings, and he wanted to get to know me. Only, he ended up being taken to Facility One instead.”
Lijah stared at his mother in a new light. “So, you knew from the moment you met her that she was related to us.”
Shonda shrugged. “Not quite. I knew she resembled Elaan, but I also knew that Lee was a Dayton. If he was trying to hide, changing one letter of his name seemed like a poor strategy. But I realize now, he’s also trying to make it easier for his daughter to find him if he’s still out there. It’s close, but not an exact match. Enough to give her a clue.”
“So, I don’t understand,” he said. “Why didn’t she tell us?”
“Why would she?” Shonda said. “I mean, I’ve volunteered to no one that I’m related to Mark. People have a visceral reaction to him. It’s worse than saying Typhoid Mary. Plus, Alex knows and he’s been keeping it under his hat. He knows that she’s related to Dayton. The military actually vetted her and her father after the pandemics hit. Her father isn’t immune, but she is.”
Lijah felt a splint of shock hit him. “If she’s an immune, why wasn’t she sent to the immune compound?”
“Because Alex has been helping her. He knew her in nursing school, thought she was brilliant. He helped her fudge her initial test results so she wasn’t stuck in some crazy place being researched. They’d already met their quota for immune research then. This was before Thoreaux became in charge, so for Alex, it wasn’t a huge deal. Now, he’d never do it for her, but since he was involved in the initial lie, he’s reluctant to out her.”
“That’s why she’s staying with him?”
Shonda nodded. “I told her he still wouldn’t out her, but she’s worried he’ll do something to her father — sic authorities on him, something — if she leaves.”
“But he’ll have to know she helped us.”
“No, he’ll think it’s been me, all me. I’ve left lots of clues for him to discover. He’ll be very, very angry with me. He’ll feel like I really betrayed him.”
Lijah swallowed. He didn’t like the sound of that. His mother had left Caldwell with the impression that Natalie was loyal. Enough so that he would feel the woman he’d sacrificed so much for had betrayed him. “Does Natalie know we’re related?”
Shonda smiled as she looked at a road sign. “We need to exit in twenty miles,” she said. “Help me keep an eye out for signs. And yes, she knew. I told her. I took a leap of faith a few days ago and told her who I was, and who I thought she was. She admitted to me what Alex had done to help her, and I think she found even more resolve to help us escape.”
He stared at his mother a moment. “She didn’t help because she thought he was abusing you.”
“She helped us because we’re family.”
“Then how could you be OK with leaving her there with him? He’s not a good person.”
Shonda blew out. “Lijah, we can’t make people do what they don’t want to do. I’ve tried that in my life and it never works.”
He pursed his lips and looked out the window. He supposed that was true. People did what they wanted to in the end. But it still felt wrong to leave her at the mercy of Caldwell. “You think she’s alright?”
Shonda nodded vigorously. “I think so,” she said. “Let’s worry about getting to your father and sister.” She looked at the dash. It’s about seven hundred miles and if driven right, this car can get a thousand miles on one tank.”
Lijah shook his head. “That’s too much. Maybe six hundred for a hybrid,” he said.
“No, this one was modified for the unit. They wanted to make sure the director could travel quite a distance without refueling, if necessary.”
“Then we should get there no problem.” He paused a moment, waiting for his mother to glance at him for a second. She did. “What are we going to do when we get there?”
Chapter 46 - Elaan
Elaan had managed to sleep decently well overnight, but she was antsy this morning. Greg hovered over his electronic equipment and told her, Josh, and Amadu to make themselves at home inside. He didn’t want them going out, as the occasional military helicopter flew overhead. “That’s why we don’t light the fire,” he said.
They’d all agreed, but the cabin was small. Josh estimated it was about 1,200 square feet, which wasn’t a lot of space for four adults. She wanted to go outside and take a walk or maybe just explore the area. Looking out the windows, she could see the slope of the mountain. The trees were mostly bare.
“Penny for your thoughts,” she heard Josh say.
She was sitting on her bed, staring out the window, and she turned back in time to see him step over and join her. “I’m not sure they’re even worth that much,” she said. “Just looking at the scenery.”
“Well, I may have undercut you. That’s probably worth a nickel,” he teased.
“Or three sheets of two-ply,” she teased back. She wondered if Boxcar Willie was dead. Part of her thought he deserved to be dead. He was a miserable person. But so many people had died, she didn’t truly have the heart to wish anyone dead. She looked up at Josh, who was deep in his own thought. “Do you think the plan will work?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Telling the world what Thoreaux is up to sounds good. But, yeah, information doesn’t always cause revolt.” He turned and looked toward their closed bedroom door and lowered his voice. “I think there’s more than information on the line. Greg mainly listens to the frequencies over headphones, but occasionally, he’ll get up and stretch and leave the volume up on the speakers. It sounds like some of the military officers, or former officers, are involved in this plan. It’s not just leaking the information that’s going to happen. It sounds like people who aren’t happy are going to physically get involved.”
Elaan sat up straighter, as she considered the logistics of it. “A literal coup?” she asked. “Like w
e’re some sort of third-world country you hear about on the news?”
“Not like a third-world country, like any revolution. Don’t forget, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and that big signature guy, they were all revolutionaries. This isn’t that different, conceptually. But sending infected soldiers out to spread a deadly virus seems much worse than taxation without representation.”
She nodded. What Thoreaux had done was far worse. “I didn’t know you were a history buff,” she said.
He grinned. “Not a total buff, but my mom was really patriotic. For us, the Fourth was about more than fireworks. We’d always do something interesting.”
Sounded educational. She’d always considered her family patriotic enough, but the Fourth of July had just been about fireworks and barbecues for them. She sighed. It wasn’t the Fourth, but her family was about to be involved in something that would later be looked upon as patriotic or treason. A wave of apprehension hit her, as she realized the depths of their predicament. “Do you think we’re safe up here?’
Josh smiled. It was too quick, so she was sure it had been a reflex because he wanted to seem reassuring. “Yeah, it will be fine.”
“And our dads? I mean, if men are planning a physical coup, they’re both in there.”
Josh shook his head. “Greg knew we were in there, and I can’t imagine he’s not communicating with others. That’s the reason he’s up here, right? I’m sure they know there are other immunes there and scientists who were pressed into service. They’ll be careful of them, I’m sure.”
