by David Spell
Trang and Walker knew exactly what the admiral was referring to. After the last big attacks in New York, DC, and Atlanta, Shaun Taylor had met with the two agents and given them an off-the-books mission. The terrorist mastermind for all the east coast attacks had been located, hiding at a remote farm house in Pennsylvania.
Jay and Tu had accepted the mission and infiltrated the property in the middle of the night, killing both of Imam Ruhollah Ali Bukhari’s bodyguards. The imam had then been subjected to a very thorough interrogation and then executed by lethal injection, zip-tied to a chair.
The result of that interrogation led to Chuck McCain and Andy Fleming capturing the main Iranian mole who had managed to get inside the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Special Agent Mir Turani had been turned over to the CIA and transported to a secret location where one of their special interrogation teams could work on him. Terrorist sympathizers in the FBI and other federal agencies had since been identified. Several had been captured, while others were still on the run.
In some cases, the agents were not Muslims or even sympathetic to Islam. They were just corrupt and were willing to take money to betray their country. Others, like the late Deputy Director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, Charles E. Trimble, III, had been caught in compromising positions and were being blackmailed. When Trimble’s indiscretions became public, he put his service weapon into his mouth and pulled the trigger while sitting at his desk.
Williams turned to Kim Bae-yong. “Dr. Bae-yong, I’ll leave you in the hands of these very capable men. They will take care of you and get you to Georgia safely. I’m very sorry we couldn’t get you home earlier, but I know that your presence at the CDC research site is going to be a blessing.”
“Thank you, Admiral Williams. You don’t need to apologize. The CIA seems to be the only federal agency right now that is getting anything done. Thank you for everything.”
The scientist reached over, and to the admiral’s surprise, gave him a hug. William’s patted her back and turned towards Trang and the others.
“I have another mission that I’m involved in so I’m leaving right away. My hope is to join you in Georgia sometime next week to discuss a very important operation that I’d like for you four to be a part of.”
Jay and Tu both snapped to attention and said in unison, “Yes, sir!”
Trang and the other CDC agents led the scientist and Shaun Taylor out of the hangar to a nondescript brick building further down the tarmac. Trang unlocked the door and ushered them inside. Walker crossed the room and opened another door, revealing a staircase. They descended one flight of stairs, then accessed an elevator that took them even deeper underground to a secure bunker containing a command and control room, guest quarters, a dining room, and several offices.
Andrews Air Force Base was one of the very few military bases still functioning on the east coast. Zombies had overrun most of the others and some large criminal gangs had inflicted heavy losses on additional bases. When the virus was unleashed in Washington, D.C., the President had been removed to Camp David. The Vice-President was transported to Andrews. He was subsequently relocated to an underground bunker outside of DC.
The headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation was located in the heart of the nation’s capital. The car bomb and suicide bomber both detonated just blocks from the J. Edgar Hoover Building, forcing the FBI’s operations to be evacuated to Andrews, as well.
The FBI as a law enforcement organization, however, was reeling. The President had fired the Attorney General, the FBI Director and most of the assistant directors. The reputation of the agency was tainted and what was once the premier law enforcement organization in the country had lost the confidence of the President and his administration.
They had given him poor intelligence and bad advice, to go along with the traitors who had been uncovered inside the agency. These were bad enough but it had also come to the President’s attention, with Admiral William’s help, that the FBI had been given information on the zombie virus and it’s potential as a terrorist weapon over a year before the first bio-terror attacks. The CIA had provided solid, actionable intelligence and nothing had been done. To hedge his bets, the President had signed the executive order creating the CDC Enforcement Unit.
For the time being, he had also signed another executive order, this one allowing the CIA to lead the fight on American soil against the terrorists and the zombies. The FBI was assigned to a supporting role, and it’s agents were expected to follow the orders of the CIA director or any of his assistant directors, such as Admiral Williams.
When they exited the elevator, Tu led the way down a corridor and pointed to a room on his right. “Dr. Bae-yong, these are your guest quarters. Mr. Taylor, yours is across the hall. The plan is to be in the air in the morning by 0800 hours. There will be breakfast served in the dining room down this hall and to the right starting at 0700 hours. One of us will be guarding your rooms all night and if you need something, please let us know.”
Kim smiled at Tu and nodded at the other agents. “Thank you. I feel very safe with you and I’m glad to hear that you’ll be traveling with us. Good night.”
CHAPTER SIX
Hope Deferred
Travelers Rest, South Carolina, Saturday, 0730 hours
Sunlight streaming through the window woke Chuck up. He and Elizabeth had spent the last two nights in the guest bedroom at the Foster’s residence, while Diya had slept on the couch in the living room. Beth’s back was pressed up against him and he turned towards his wife, wrapping his arms around her.
McCain could get used to being in a warm house, snuggled under the blankets with Beth. Today, however, they would hit the road again. The previous two days, Thursday and Friday, had featured snow, freezing rain, and freezing temperatures. The Fosters had very kindly allowed their visitors to stay with them until the weather had cleared up.
Chuck kissed Elizabeth on the back of the head and slid out of bed. He slipped on his pants and pulled a green Northeast Georgia Technical College hoodie over his head. After using the restroom, McCain followed his nose towards the living room.
Kim smiled at her guest, pouring him a cup of coffee. “Good morning.”
“Thank you so much,” McCain said, sipping the hot liquid. “It’s been nice getting to know you and Jack.”
“We feel the same way about you folks. It was very kind of you to go out of your way to bring us that letter and to let us know our Karen is doing so well.”
Mrs. Foster had two cast iron skillets working on top of the wood-burning stove. One contained scrambled eggs, the other held several pieces of frying ham.
“Hopefully, it won’t be long and she can visit you herself,” Chuck smiled.
“Good morning, Mr. Chuck,” Diya said, walking in from the sunroom.
“Hi, Diya. You’re looking a lot stronger today,” McCain told her. “How are you feeling?”
“I feel very good, sir. Miss Elizabeth and Miss Kim helped me so much.” The young girl paused, unsure of herself. “Mr. Chuck, can I please talk to you in private?”
McCain glanced at Kim and saw a slight smile on her face. She knows what’s on Diya’s mind, he realized.
“Sure,” he answered, following the young girl out to the sunroom. What’s this about? he wondered. He knew that Diya had wanted to stay with he and Elizabeth as they continued their journey, but that was a recipe for disaster. It was dangerous enough for the two of them. Adding a physically weak girl to the mix just wasn’t a good idea.
They sat on opposite ends of the couch, the sunlight pouring in, the brief, late winter storm finally gone. Chuck savored his coffee, letting Diya start the conversation.
“Mr. Chuck, remember when I told you that I wanted to stay with you and Miss Elizabeth?”
The big man nodded.
“Well, I talked with Miss Kim last night and she asked me if I would stay with her and Mr. Jack. After I get stronger, I can help them around here. They h
ave chickens, pigs, and in the summer will have a garden. I think I’d like to stay here, if that is OK with you and Miss Elizabeth?”
“Of course. That’s a great idea,” McCain smiled. “What made you change your mind?”
“Mr. Jack and Miss Kim are very nice people and I think that I could help them and learn a lot from them. Plus, I know that you and Miss Beth have a tough trip ahead of you and I don’t want to be a burden.”
After a moment, the young girl continued. “Mr. Chuck,” she said softly, lowering her head, “I feel so lost but Miss Beth told me that you and her were Christians. She said that your God told her to come to the jewelry store and save me. I don’t understand that but I believe her. I should have died there but she said she thinks that maybe your God has a plan for my life?”
This was not the conversation that McCain had expected. “She’s right, Diya. God saved you for a reason. The main reason is that he loves you and wants you to get to know him. It wasn’t an accident that we found you and were able to save your life. Can I leave you with a Bible? I’ll let you have mine so that you can read and see what God might say to you.”
The girl’s eyes lit up. “I would love to have a Bible, Mr. Chuck. You and Miss Beth have been very good to me. The jewelry that you took from the shop is worth a lot of money and will help me so much. Maybe I can even help Miss Kim and Mr. Jack one day.”
The day before, McCain had given her the jeweler’s bag stuffed full of all the gold, silver, and diamond jewelry from the display cases in her father’s store. It was the only remaining link that she had to her family but would also provide for the young girl’s needs.
“Miss Beth told me how you saved her from some bad men and how the two of you fell in love. She said you’ve only been married a few days. I have something for you, Mr. Chuck.” Diya said, quietly, handing him a small black box. “It’s a wedding present.”
When he opened the box, he saw a matching set of eighteen carat gold wedding bands. The bigger one was plain, while the smaller ring was encrusted with diamonds.
McCain didn’t surprise easily but this gift caught him off-guard. “They’re beautiful, Diya, but you don’t have to…”
“Mr. Chuck, it’s a wedding gift for you and Miss Elizabeth. I thought you might like to surprise her with them sometime. You two have done so much for me, please accept my present.”
“Thank you, Diya. She’ll be very happy, but wouldn’t you like to give Miss Beth her ring?”
“Oh, no, Mr. Chuck. You give it to her. She’ll kiss you so much!”
“Hey, you two,” Elizabeth said, walking into the sunroom, holding her own mug of coffee.
Chuck palmed the box and slipped it into the pocket of his hoodie before his wife could see it.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” McCain said. “This young lady has just informed me that the Fosters have asked her to stay on with them, and she wants to make sure that its OK with you and me?”
Beth slid an arm around her young friend’s shoulders and winked at Chuck. “I think that’s a good decision, Diya. Mr. McCain and I don’t know what’s in front of us and we’ll both feel better knowing that you’re safe.”
After a breakfast of ham, eggs, and more coffee, Elizabeth and Chuck sat around the table with the Fosters looking at the maps Karen had provided.
“My suggestion,” said Jack, pointing to the map, “is to use Old Highway 25. It’s a winding road through these foothills but it’ll keep you off the main highway for a ways. Just stay on it for nine or ten miles and it’ll dump you onto Highway 25, which will eventually merge with I-26 and runs through Hendersonville. At that point, y’all won’t have any choice. There aren’t many other roads to choose from. You’re gonna hafta take your chances on the main thoroughfare.
“This is where your daughter’s at,” Foster continued, now pointing to a spot northeast of Hendersonville. “Those folks planned well. It looks like they have a similar setup to ours. I know that area, Chimney Rock Road. It’s beautiful country but there’s no easy way to get there. Y’all are going to have to go through part of Hendersonville and you said those troopers told you they had some zombie activity there.”
Chuck nodded and stared at the Google satellite page. The map didn’t provide street numbers but comparing it with the hand drawn map that Tommy Mitchell had left him seemed to point to a house that was two hundred yards off the road, with a winding driveway, nestled behind some trees.
McCain sensed that this wasn’t going to be an easy travel day. He briefly considered asking Beth to stay with the Fosters but knew that she’d never go for it. A knot of fear formed in the big man’s stomach and he took a deep breath, saying a silent prayer for protection for his wife and for himself. A Bible verse from deep in his subconscious made it’s way to the surface. “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything.”
Chuck checked their equipment and made sure his wife got everything on correctly. Even though he had been working with her and training her, she still wasn’t used to wearing body armor and weapons. McCain had also asked her to wear several layers of clothing, not just for warmth, but to protect her in the possibility of a zombie attack.
All the CDC agents had been issued protective, kevlar-lined pants, jackets, and gloves. The kevlar wasn’t very thick but it had kept McCain from getting infected on two different occasions. Since Beth was not so equipped, he made sure she was layered enough so that a hungry Z’s teeth wouldn’t reach her flesh.
At 1030 hours, it was time to say their goodbyes. McCain pulled his worn New Testament from the backpack and handed it to Diya.
“Oh, Mr. Chuck, this is a very special gift. Thank you so much.” She started crying as she tried to wrap her small arms around him.
“You’re welcome. Remember what Beth and I told you. God has a special purpose for your life and he loves you very much. Pray and ask him to speak to you as you read that New Testament. I’ll be interested to hear what you’ve learned when I see you the next time.”
Kim and Elizabeth embraced as Chuck and Jack shook hands. “Y’all are always welcome here,” Mrs. Foster said. “Thank you for coming by to give us the update on Karen. And thank you for bringing Diya. We’re going to have a lot of fun together.”
Jack Foster rode down to the gate in the armored Toyota Tundra. “I expect y’all will stop by again sometime,” Foster called as he closed the gate.
Beth and Chuck waved as they started for what they hoped was the last leg of their journey to find Melanie.
Jack was right about the route he had recommended for the first part of the trip. The rural, two-lane road was empty and the scenery was beautiful.
“They were sweet people,” Beth commented. “I’m really glad we did that. Thank you for stopping.”
“Yeah, good folks. It worked out well with that storm coming through just as we got there. I know we met in a blizzard but I think I prefer the Foster’s warm house to that cold one where we spent three nights. That was a pretty cozy bed, as well.”
Beth laughed. “No argument from me, although I didn’t get quite as much sleep as I would’ve preferred. Some big man couldn’t keep his hands off of me.”
“Get used to that,” Chuck smiled.
“Did you really mean it about wanting to have a baby one day?” Elizabeth looked up at him in the rear view mirror.
Chuck saw the uncertainty in her eyes. “Of course,” he answered reassuringly. “You’ll be an incredible mom. It might be a little weird for Melanie to have a sibling who is twenty-something years younger than her but she really loves kids and it’ll all work out.”
Beth smiled contentedly. She didn’t know what she’d expected when she had broached the subject of children with her husband. She had hesitated to even bring it up, expecting to hear him say ‘no.’ He already had a daughter, after all, and he was forty-four years old. Chuck was constantly surprising her, she realized.
Elizabeth braked the Toyota Tundra to a stop as they both scanned the a
rea. Just ahead of them, as Jack Foster had said, they merged onto Highway 25. A few miles up the road, Highway 25 would connect them with I-26. Ten miles north from where they currently sat was their exit, Chimney Rock Road. After getting off the interstate and turning right, it was a straight shot to Melanie and her host family, the Mitchells, just another eight miles down the road. Eighteen miles, McCain thought. Only eighteen more miles to my daughter.
They hadn’t seen any infected yet, but they could see abandoned vehicles dotting the highway up ahead. That usually meant that Zs were close by. A tractor-trailer lay on it’s side in their lane several hundred yards in front of them. That doesn’t look good, McCain thought.
Chuck had Beth place her Glock under her right leg where she could reach it quickly. Her AR-15 was muzzle down, laying on the passenger seat. McCain was wearing his M4 but he also had his pistol out, under his left leg for easy access.
“Let me climb up in the back of the truck and take look,” Chuck said, grabbing his binoculars out of his pack.
From the bed of the pickup, he had a little better view and what he could see through the binos didn’t make him feel much better. The southbound lanes didn’t appear to contain as many vehicles. Not many people would have headed south if that was where the biggest problem areas were, he thought.
He saw movement around two of the abandoned cars that had been going south. Maybe a half-mile up, two groups of Zs were milling around a Ford pickup and a Honda accord. Chuck didn’t see any infected on their side of the highway, northbound, but he couldn’t see around the overturned eighteen-wheeler, either. There were a few abandoned vehicles between them and big rig, but the area looked relatively clear.
Even though the tractor trailer was almost completely lengthwise in the road, there appeared to be just enough room to get by on the right shoulder, between the rear of the trailer and the metal guardrail. He scanned the southbound side again and counted the zombies. Twenty-three that he could see in the two packs. That’s not too many, he thought, unless they managed to get their hands on you.
