Tomorrow's Dawn (Book 3): Escape and Evade

by Wohlrab, Jeff

  Rob shrugged. “Just a feeling. We’re east of where we left the tub. They flew right over the top of us. I’m pretty sure they know where we are.”

  Brent’s face fell. It had been his idea to go east, hoping their enemies wouldn’t expect it. It had seemed logical to him at the time.

  Jessica put her hand on his shoulder. “Even if they do know where we are, it’s not your fault. Maybe that drone has been following us since the explosions.”

  Daniel chimed in. “So you’re saying we froze our nuts off in that stream for nothing? Son of a bitch! I’m getting chafed from all of this walking.”

  “So what do we do? We’re in the middle of the forest and they’ve got drones and helicopters” Jessica added. “It’s not like we can just fly out of here.”

  Jensen didn’t have an answer. It was really demoralizing to be on the wrong end of the drones. Even in the dark, their thermal signature would be visible, and it was going to get dark soon.

  He grabbed his night-vision goggles and tried to power them on, but they wouldn’t work. One more piece of electronics fried by the EMP. Or maybe they were damaged in the stream. He had no idea, but they weren’t working now. He felt naked and helpless. The whole time they’d been together, he’d been the guy with the tub. Armor, grenade launcher, machine guns. Mobility.

  He had none of that now. He wasn’t even wearing his vest because of the burns across his back and shoulders. He only had a dirty pistol in a holster to defend himself. Against drones and helicopters? He might as well have a slingshot. Everyone else looked similarly dubious. What chance did they have?

  “We have to keep moving.” Heads lifted as Jensen spoke up. “There’s a chance they don’t know where we are. I mean, we got nuked this morning because they knew our location. Do you think they would have just kept on going if they really knew we were here?”

  That raised an ugly thought. Were they going to get bombed again? Is that why the helicopter departed?

  “If we stay here, we’re dead. If we keep moving, we have a chance,” Jensen decided.

  Daniel, not joking for once, asked, “But which way? Which way is our best chance?”

  Jensen didn’t know. All he could think of to say is, “We follow the stream.”

  Nobody else had a better idea.

  Marcy kicked the door as they were leaving. “I really had to pee, too.”

  Daniel shook his head, “You didn’t go in the stream earlier? I did.”

  That got him a glare from Jensen. “You pissed in the water? With me and Jessica downstream from you?”

  Daniel grinned. “Yup.”

  Jessica punched him in the arm. “You’re an asshole.”

  Daniel looked hurt. “I had to go! Besides, I owed him for making me climb into that jockstrap sauna to get my rifle.”

  “Oh really? He brought you your rifle and you decided to pee on him?”

  Daniel nodded. “Yeah. I had already paid him back for the rifle by saving his life.”

  Jessica punched him again. “Brent did most of the work!”

  Daniel’s response was, “But I started chopping. That counts!” He looked over at Jensen. “Life debt.”

  Jensen groaned. “I wondered when you were going to bring that up again.”

  He started walking toward the water to curtail more chatter. It didn’t work. Daniel tried to explain. “I pulled him into the tub back in Helen when some guys were shooting at us. I saved his life. He owes me a life debt.”

  Jess put her hand on Daniel’s arm, not punching it this time. “You know he saved your life this morning, right? He pulled you out of a burning tub after you got blown up. Marcy, too.”

  Daniel’s eyes widened. “He did? I don’t remember that.”

  Jessica nodded, “That life debt has been repaid.” She thought for a second. “And he probably saved your life when you had the virus. He’s the one who brought back the medicine and the ventilator. If anything, you might owe him a life debt.”

  Daniel looked concerned. “So he might have saved my life twice?” He turned to Jensen, who was walking ahead of them trying to avoid the whole conversation. “Jensen, would you say there’s about a 33% chance you saved my life with the antivirals?”

  Jensen called back over his shoulder, “Sure, that sounds right.”

  With obvious glee, Daniel called out, “Then we’re even! I cut 33% of that tree off your tub today. I don’t owe you anything. We’re even.”

  Jensen, who was even further away now, called back, “Fine, no life debt. But you peed on me. For that, I’m probably going to kill you.”

  Daniel looked concerned again as he turned to Jess. “Do you think he means it?”

  Jessica patted his arm and walked after Jensen. “Probably not. But I might.”

  Daniel brought up the rear as they got to the edge of the campground next to a waterfall. As the others slowly climbed the bank, he waded into the water and under the waterfall. He came out gasping and wiping his face moments later.

  Marcy looked at him with concern, “Are you okay? What were you doing?”

  The big man sputtered. “I was checking to see if there was a cave behind the waterfall. There’s usually a cave in the movies.”

  She shook her head and looked up at Jensen. “Because he’s intel?”

  Jensen nodded, “Because he’s intel.”

  She turned back to Daniel, “You’re so lucky you’re hot. Now get out of the water and get up here.”

  She mumbled, “I swear. You’re a little boy in a man’s body sometimes.”

  Brent, who had been listening to all of this, leaned back so she could hear him say, “That’s the secret, Marcy. We all are.”

  Chapter 19

  Doug made sure all of his men were fed and hydrated before he deployed them down the mountain toward the stream. Based on the drone feed, he was pretty certain the little group would continue to follow the waterway up the mountain. With darkness closing in, they wouldn’t be able to see well without giving away their position, not that it mattered. They also wouldn’t be able to hear very well in the water.

  Rookie mistake. They were taking away their two most important senses voluntarily. He understood why, they were scared. Doug watched the dots of his men moving down the mountain toward an intercept path with the small group. From the comfort of his seat, he could watch the drama unfold.

  Don was taking his men across the stream to the far side to cut off escape in that direction. Ricky would be on the near side. Between them, they had 14 men with night vision, body armor, and modern weaponry against whatever those others had with them. Doug suspected at least two of them were Army, based on the armored vehicle and the Humvee, but the Humvee was National Guard out of Elberton. He doubted they were trained killers.

  His men were. Aside from Nathan, they’d all been with the company for at least two years and had several deployments under their belts. His teams worked in seven-man units, each highly trained and capable of working alone. Two units normally worked together, mostly because the troop capacity of the Canids was 14. Doug didn’t see any need to change. It worked.

  He watched them get into position on his monitor as the sun dipped behind the mountains to his west. Once the Pine Mountain group got into the kill zone, they were in for a surprise. “Doug. Don, here. All men in position.”

  Doug keyed his microphone. “Copy that. Your sniper is too far up the hillside; bring him down toward the stream a little more.”

  Don responded, “Copy. Will do.”

  Doug watched as moments later, Rodrigo moved several feet down toward the stream. He watched in approval as Ricky’s team set up. Perfect placement. “Doug. Ricky. All men in position. How far out are they?”

  Doug checked his screen. They were less than two hundred yards south of the kill box. It was time for him to join his crew.

  “Less than two hundread yards. Figure full illumination in about ten minutes.”

  It was already growing dark up on the mountainside.
It was complete dark down along the stream. It didn’t matter, that’s what they did. “We attack in the night.” It was a little early, but darkness had arrived. Doug pulled down his NVGs to see more clearly as he walked down the hill. It was time to get some answers.

  Chapter 20

  Brent stumbled again in the cold stream. He could barely feel his feet any longer due to the cold. They had tried following the bank of the stream, but the plant growth made it difficult. So they were in the stream. He worried he had pulled something in his hip earlier when he slipped. He was so focused on trying to judge his foot placement in the dark that he almost bumped into the man standing in the middle of the stream.

  His feet suddenly became visible when fourteen lights clicked on almost in unison along the sides of the stream. Brent stopped, with the other five members of his group strung out along about twenty yards of streambed. Behind him was Rob, then Marcy and Daniel, and finally Jensen and Jessica. He slowly raised his hands, knowing behind those lights were gun barrels pointed in his direction. His route had been a mistake. They had walked right into an ambush.

  The man in front of them looked over the group. He didn’t seem impressed as he stood there silently. He looked like some sort of future trooper with his body armor, thigh holster, NVGs perched on his head, and futuristic rifle held in the crook of his arm. The man, with blond hair sticking out from under the NVGs, didn’t even bother to point his rifle at them. He just stood there, casually.

  Then he raised his chin in their direction. “Drop your weapons in the water. Slowly.” When they weren’t fast enough to comply, he raised his left hand and held one finger in the air. A single shot barked in the night sky and slammed into a log next to Brent’s thigh. “Weapons, or the next one goes through your head.” The blond man watched carefully as pistols and rifles splashed into the water.

  He closed his raised hand into a fist, and the lights slowly converged on their position. Brent couldn’t see through the blinding light, but he suspected they were hung on the fore-ends of rifles. When his men were in position, the man looked past Brent at Rob. “Rob, so good to see you again. Why don’t you come over here? No, keep your hands on your head. I know how fast you are.”

  When Rob moved just in front of Brent, the lead man took a single step back and two others came in to check him for weapons. One of them pulled a small pistol out of a holster in Rob’s lower back, and another from his ankle. When they were satisfied, they stepped back.

  “Rob, tell me, what happened?”

  “Sir, when we arrived on the mountain, they were ready…”

  The blond man held up a hand. “No Rob, tell me about the fire station.”

  Brent sensed Rob’s body go rigid; so did the man in front of him. Brent saw his hand flex slightly on the grip of his rifle as he looked at Rob’s shoulder, where a patch used to be. He sensed he’d just gotten some answer he’d been looking for.

  “Doug, it’s not like that. He was trying to call out. Snead’s men would have come back and killed us all!”

  The man named Doug tilted his head to the side slightly and spoke quietly, barely loudly enough for Brent to hear. “So, you killed him? You shot my son-in-law in the back? Blew out his brains? Because he was trying to call us?”

  Rob slowly lowered his hands. He knew he was going to die, but he wasn’t going to go out with his hands on his head.

  “Is that your answer?” Rob just stood there. In his mind, he was going through moments and moments, each one impacting the next. He felt the two men to his side shift slightly to the rear. The light changed. He almost welcomed the next instant, because he knew it was an end. He was reflecting on those moments when Doug nodded slightly, and those moments came to a crashing end.

  Bullets from each side crashed through his brain, entering right behind the ear and exiting near his temples. All of his moments disappeared forever.

  Brent jumped at the sudden noise and the splatter of warm liquid on his face. He watched as Rob crumpled into the stream and rivulets of red flowed back toward his friends.

  He felt something warm run down his leg. It wasn’t blood; he was pissing himself. Brent willed himself to stop.

  The man in front of him looked down at Rob for several minutes. Brent was afraid to speak, and no sound came from those behind him or those around him.

  Then Doug looked Brent in the eyes. “I only wanted him. The rest of you are free to go.” He started to turn back up the hill and stopped. “A warning. I’m not after you, but Senator Snead might be if he finds out you’re alive. I’d run.”

  With those words, the lights snapped off, leaving Brent blind in the darkness. He sensed more than saw the shadows around him as men splashed across the stream and up the mountainside. He stayed frozen in place for several more minutes, unable to see much of anything and afraid they’d return. It was only when he heard the rotors of the helicopter start up that he started to move out of the stream, stumbling slightly when he hit Rob’s body.

  Then he remembered his rifle and fished in the water near his feet until he felt the cold metal. He lifted it and stumbled again as his foot hit Rob’s body. Brent collapsed on the bank, shaking with cold and fear. He had been powerless. Those bullets were inches from his head. He could have been lying next to Rob if those men had wanted him dead. He’d pissed himself.

  “Brent, are you okay? What was that? What happened?”

  The former construction worker felt heavy as the adrenaline flush left his body weak. He felt far older than his years. “His name was Doug. Nate was his son-in-law.” He didn’t feel like there was more to explain. The blond man had the equipment and the firepower to enact vengeance, so he had.

  He shuddered slightly. He’d just seen power and powerlessness firsthand. He’d been powerless. Brent had wet himself. He touched his face. He still had blood and probably brain matter on his face from when it had been expelled from Rob’s skull, so close to his own. “I need to clean up. Give me a second.”

  Brent felt his way back to the stream, upstream of where he knew Rob’s body was left lying in the water. He sat down in the stream to wash away the urine and the shame as he splashed water on his face and rubbed it, handful after handful. It wasn’t until he felt warm water on his face that he realized he was crying.

  He sat there in the water until Daniel lifted him up to carry him back onto the bank. He barely noticed as Jessica managed to get a small fire started. His only thoughts were that it was time to go home.

  None of them saw the missile streak across the night sky over the Oconee National Forest, destroying Doug and all on board. Only Jim, who was driving the drone that night, knew they were still alive.

  Chapter 20

  The sound of Daniel using the Pulaski adze to dredge out a shallow grave awakened Jensen the next morning. He had remained on watch for most of the night, trying to reason through what they could have done differently. It didn’t seem to matter what choices they made or direction they took, every possible choice seemed to result in carnage.

  Once they booted that computer, their fates were almost certainly sealed. It was like Pandora’s box. Once open, the contents couldn’t be put back inside. They knew about the origins of the virus, and that made them marked for death. It didn’t matter where they went: If Snead knew they were alive, they were doomed.

  Three men and two women, with no food, water, or shelter, in the mountains and lightly armed? How could they stand up against people with nuclear weapons? People that were willing to use them? They only had two real options. The first was to hide. The second was to not be the only people who knew the origins of the virus. Both were risky.

  If they were isolated, they were vulnerable. If they told people what they knew, eventually Snead would find out and they’d be hunted down. There were no good paths forward. He listened to the sound of the adze hitting the errant stone or digging deeply into the soft earth near the stream. Jensen found himself thinking of the two tubs left at Fort Benning.

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nbsp; Daniel had chosen the multicam tub when they visited, but two others were still in the warehouse. At least, they had been. He wasn’t sure of their status now. Jensen looked with concern toward Brent, who still hadn’t stirred. He hadn’t been alright the night before.

  Something about the shooting had deeply scarred him. They had called out to him for several minutes before Daniel scooped him up out of the water and carried him over by the fire. He hadn’t said anything to anyone since, just slept.

  Marcy and Jessica were off in the woods, taking care of their morning routines. Jensen felt a little bit sorry for them. All he had to do was pick something to aim at and release fire. He wasn’t complaining. No, not at all. He liked all of Jessica’s parts just where they were. He was just glad to be a guy.

  Eventually, he sat up and walked over behind a tree to relieve his bladder. This time he aimed at a pinecone. Last time had been, what was it? Oh, a little rock. He was facing the stream as he looked up at where Rob’s body should be. It wasn’t there.

  His first thought was critters. There were some big animals that lived up here. Maybe something grabbed him in the night. But Daniel was digging a grave for a reason; he must have checked before he started. Jensen looked first toward where Daniel was standing—but saw nothing. Then he looked down the stream and saw Rob’s body up against the bank about twenty yards away.

  The current must have caught him. He sighed, luckily Rob was a small man. Carrying a dead body was a lot more difficult than carrying a live one. As he approached, he took note of Rob’s pale skin. It was almost as if the water had washed away all his pigment in the night. He knew that could be possible, but there was no rush of blood beneath his skin any longer. He looked almost transparent.

  Jensen waded out into the water, which was only a little bit above his ankles in the deepest spot, and grabbed Rob’s arms. He tried to figure out if it would be easier to bring him up through the water, where he might have some buoyancy, or along the bank. He decided instead to drag him through the water until he got to a low spot on the bank, about midway back to where he could see Daniel.