Janet stepped forward to shake hands but the Commander raised his palm towards her. 'Sorry madam, first we need to make absolutely certain you are who you say you are and that you're clear.'
He shone his torch across the eyes of each of them in turn and checked their IDs.
Commander Hodgeson looked thoroughly pleased with himself. 'Everything is just as it should be!'
'What about my son's discovery?' Janet said, pointing at the Commander's torch.
'You will each receive full credit for your actions, especially your son, madam. Not only do we have his detection system but the news from Breathdeep is that the latest attempt at a vaccine is successful.'
'Fantastic!' Graham said. 'We'll be able to open contact with the rest of the world again.'
The Commander looked amused and said in a reserved tone, 'That may take a week or two.'
Rachel had been preening for the last ten minutes and could contain herself no longer. 'But does this mean we'll be on TV?'
Again the Commander smiled. 'Young lady, I imagine there is every chance of that. Our next task is to fly you to London, where your families have been taken for you all to be reunited.'
In joy and relief, Alex flung her arms around the nearest person to hand and realised with a happy smile that it was Steve.
**
If you enjoyed this story by Peter Salisbury, you can find more by him at:
Smashwords.com Author Page
British Zombie Breakout: Part One
Spirit in the Circuits (anthology of 6 non-gory horror/ghost short stories; 18,000 words)
The Old Store: A Science Fiction Anthology (26 post-apocalyptic SF short stories based around the same group of survivors; 54,000 words)
The First Completely Electronic Robot and Science Fiction Limerick Book (50 limerick rhymes having an SF theme)
Phantoms of the Quantum Rift (SF – a longer short story; 12,000 words)
Passengers to Sentience (110,000 word SF novel)
Passengers to Zeta Nine (102,000 words; the second Passengers novel)
British Zombie Breakout: Part Two Page 7
