He loved her, but not as a wife. The loss of Janice was still far too raw to allow him to make any new emotional connections of that sort, or to rekindle an old one.
He was awake now, watching the countryside change into an endless procession of single-story commercial units, restaurants and gas stations. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, Vivian showed no signs of tiredness. She sat, erect and alert, guiding them safely along the highway. The roads were clear, except for the occasional group of people walking northeast towards, presumably DC. He wondered what was happening there. Had the Lee Corporation taken over yet, or was President Blaise still resisting them?
His mind began to whir again as it tried to desperately assemble all the disparate elements into some sort of cohesive whole. Bella had told him how the TLX had taken control in the South, and of how it was, itself, now under attack. The involvement of North Korean and, perhaps, Chinese, forces had floored him. As if they didn't have enough on their plate dealing with the Lees without a superpower and their medieval neighbor grabbing land on the West Coast. There had to be a connection between them, but he couldn't quite bring himself to believe that Lee Corp was a proxy for the Chinese, even though this was the obvious conclusion to draw.
He brought his focus back to what he'd learned in the past few days. Deal with your nearest enemy first, that was the only way to proceed. Like tackling only a small part of a much larger task instead of stepping back and seeing how much was to be done overall. That would lead to nothing but hopelessness and desperation.
Solly rolled the window down a little to allow a fresh spring breeze to play across his face. Though they were surrounded by enemies, he was heading to the place he felt safest and he had the beginnings of a plan.
Though the roads were now much clearer than they had been, the roadblocks were also much more common. The route from Elizabeth to the farmhouse was the best part of a thousand miles, and Solly was in no mood for them to pick their way across country, but if there was any sign of the Lee Corporation or heavily armed guards, whoever was driving at the time was instructed to immediately find a way off the road and go around. The Humvee was powerful enough to intimidate most local bandits, but it was no match for some of the more organized forces now springing up.
The first of these was outside Nashville and the barrier across I-65 was upon them before they could choose to leave the road. It was positioned ahead of the bridge over the Cumberland River and was made up of what looked like salvaged railway sleepers piled up into two walls, one on each side of the road, with a gap wide enough for a single vehicle to pass.
Solly was driving and he cursed himself for not seeing the barricade in time. Ross reached down for his sidearm, passing another across to Solly, who left it in the driver's door pocket. Vivian awoke instantly from sleep, looked around and slunk back into the shadows behind Solly, double-checking her weapon. Maddie looked behind them to see Skulls being handed a shotgun by Al as he drove.
A woman emerged from behind the barrier, followed by a man carrying an assault rifle. She put her hand up and Solly brought the Humvee to a halt alongside her, winding down the window.
"Oh, y'all not military?" she said. She was dressed in a high vis jacket and the black bags under her eyes suggested she was on the point of exhaustion.
"No, we're regular folks traveling northeast," Solly said, relaxing a little.
She smiled at that, taking ten years off her apparent age. "Regular folks in a Humvee? Well, I guess we all have our stories to tell."
"Why are you stopping traffic?"
Her face darkened. "Me'n Jayden here, we're warnin' folks not to go into town," she said, before signaling to her companion to begin opening the gap.
"Why?"
"We gotta sickness, back around the turn of the year. Spread like a plague from the Bible," she said, shaking her head. "And then, when we thought we'd seen the last of it, a new boss came into town, rounded up the survivors. Now they're no more'n prisoners. So, Jayden and me, we come up here to stop anyone fixin' to head into 'ville. They'll find nothin' but death and slavery down there."
Solly watched as Skulls got out of the car behind and, leaving his shotgun inside, went to help Jayden move the shorter blocks of wood. He was an impressive man, that was for sure. Though as heterosexual as it was possible to be, Solly could see what Bella saw in him.
"Well, I truly appreciate the warning," Solly said. "And I'm sorry for your loss and suffering. I guess your new boss works for the Lee Corporation and my best advice is to keep as far away as possible. My name's Solly, by the way, Solly Masters."
He held out his hand and she took it, her fingers feeling clammy under Solly's firm grip. "Stacey Robbins," she said. "Good luck."
As soon as the gap had been widened enough for the Humvee to get through, Solly waved to Robbins and guided the vehicle beyond the barrier.
As they headed northeast, he wondered how many cities the Lee Corporation had either destroyed or now had under their control and, for a few moments, he wallowed in despair.
They carried on driving that night, only pulling over once they were fifty miles north of Nashville. Finally, as even Vivian began to nod in the driver's seat, they found an abandoned motel and took a block of rooms. Solly and Ross shared, as did Bella and Steve, with Viv and Maddie in together and Al on his own. The old man had been subdued since the attack on the RV park, believing he'd brought that death down on them. He was right, but he'd also unlocked Alison and, though Solly didn't dare to activate her, he was as convinced as ever that she was the key. And he was finally beginning to get an inkling as to how that might come about.
The following morning, they set off, aiming to skirt the south of Louisville. Solly decided not to risk communicating with Oscar Weinstein, but he wanted to conduct a test, so they pulled into an abandoned forecourt and, while Skulls and the others scavenged for fuel, Solly pulled out the portable transmitter and diagnostic tool McBride had equipped him with and connected them to the Humvee's 12 volt power.
"What are you doing?" Ross asked. He could climb down from the cab unassisted now and, though his left leg was still practically useless, he'd become so proficient with his staff and right leg, he could move as quickly as anyone else. Solly suspected he was motivated by making sure he was never left behind again.
"You remember I said there was a Lee Corp transmitter on top of that building?" he said. "I just want to check they haven't found ours."
Ross watched as Solly placed the aerial on the roof and activated his scanner. "Yep, it's still working," he said, before adjusting the controls. "And there's the Lee signal."
"You're hacking into their communications?" Ross said, suddenly all attention.
Solly chuckled. "No, I'm listening," he said, as he adjusted the volume of the speaker so the blips and chirps emerging from it didn't hurt their ears. "It's an encrypted signal, as you'd expect. Military encryption, I imagine. Practically uncrackable without some sort of supercomputer."
"What's the point, then?"
Solly shut down the equipment and looked across at Ross. "No point. Not until Al fixed Alison."
"Yes!" Ross cried, his face more animated than it had been in a long time. "She can crack the code."
Solly nodded. "If anyone, or anything, can do it, she can. But we can't check without giving away our position. That's why I want to get back to the farmhouse—then I'll visit Colonel McBride and see how we can use Alison."
"What will we be able to do if she cracks the code?"
"You know how wars are won, son? Not by soldiers and weapons—though, of course those are important—but by information. If you know where your enemy is going to be and when, you have a massive advantage. But first we've got to get back home and find Scott Lee."
It took three days to make their way home. Three days during which Bella and Solly got to know each other again or, at least, got to know the new versions of each other. Solly found that all the bitterness he'd carried with him for the p
ast months had evaporated and they were both left with a feeling of supreme comfort in each other's company. He'd also lost any sense of jealousy regarding her obvious affection for Steve. It felt good to him that she had someone, even if he didn't.
Jake's absence was the shadow that hung over them both, however, and this was something Steve couldn't really help Bella with, aside from offering support. Jake was Solly's son, and, desperate though he was to head north, he felt the tug of guilt as it took him farther away from where Jake was last known to be. They were placing their faith in a man Solly had never met. And into all of this came the war that was brewing to the west of Texas.
Solly comforted himself by spending as much time with Maddie as he could. She'd also changed. The girl he'd last seen more than six months ago was now a young woman. She was in love with another missing person and, though she was obviously close to Ross, there was no room in her heart for anyone else.
Ross. Solly knew that this reunification had taken a heavy toll on his adopted son. However much he reassured the kid, that insecurity lurked in the background as Ross watched Solly and his genetic family become reacquainted. And the truth was that his feelings for Ross were subtly different from how he thought of Jake—not least because Solly's relationship with his natural son was longer, deeper and tainted by far more guilt. Maddie's obvious affection for Ross, however, tempered his dark mood, though it was clear enough that Ross would prefer that affection to be more than that of siblings. The irony was not lost on Solly, though he didn't press the point.
The familiar crunch of tires on gravel and the homey aroma of growing things welcomed the Humvee back to the lane that led to the farm. Solly felt tears moistening the corners of his eyes as he caught sight of the farmhouse and, running up the lane as the Humvee waited at the barrier, Jaxon, his smile wide with delight.
Solly didn't recognize the soldier on guard duty, but at a word from Jaxon, the barrier was rolled back and the Humvee rolled into the farmyard. The station wagon had run out of fuel fifty miles away and so was towed behind the larger vehicle, coming to a stop with a sigh as children poured out of the farmhouse.
Jumping out, Solly embraced Jaxon and reflexively looked up, before remembering that Janice wouldn't be here to greet him. She was gone. He swallowed hard and slapped Jaxon on the shoulder.
"Where's Scott?" he said. "I've got an idea."
Ross limped around the front of the Humvee, and Jaxon roared with surprise and delight to see his friend walking. "Come on Sol, we've only just got here. Can't it wait?"
"I've spent the past 900 miles thinking about this, Ross," Solly said. "I think I've found a way we can fight back, but we need Scott's help."
Jaxon released himself from the embrace of Ross, his face clouding. "Sorry, Solly. He's gone."
"Where?"
Jaxon shrugged. "Dunno. Just walked off one day. Said he was going into town for supplies. Never came back."
And, just like that, the sun went out. Solly couldn't hope to go up against the Lee Corporation without the help of its co-founder and technological genius. He would have to go after Lee.
But, for now, he was home. And, for now, his family was with him. He pulled Bella and Maddie to him as his daughter put her arm around Ross and introduced his old family to his new one.
The Long Night – Book 6
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Betrayed: Book 5 in the Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival series: (The Long Night - Book 5) Page 16