by Chesla, Gary
“What information did you hear about the alleged survival vault that was being built out west?” Mike asked. “Any idea if it would be better than what is here?”
“No idea, really,” Tony replied, “except it would be a lot newer than this seventy-year-old facility. I would think it would be bigger and better equipped but that’s just a guess.”
“I guess it could be a good thing,” Linda finally said. “Especially if it’s somewhere with nice weather.”
“That’s another thing,” Tony smiled. “The Captain said the heating system doesn’t work here and so far, none of them can figure out what’s wrong with it.”
“I hear the winters in the West Virginia mountains can be worse than Johnstown winters,” Linda said then smiled. “Maybe you should go see if you can help their radio man get in contact with Doctor Kennedy?”
Mike laughed, “If nothing else, it would be nice to know why he stopped broadcasting.”
“Let’s go talk to Smitty,” Tony said. “I’m sure it won’t help, but it’s the least we can do to help.”
“You want to come with us?” Tony asked Linda.
“No thanks,” Linda replied. “Jamie and I are going to go look for George. After eating three cans of sardines, he wandered off. I figured he either is hiding under the bed or is looking for a litter box, but I promised her I would help find him before he got lost.”
“You would probably be a distraction anyhow,” Mike grinned. “Just be careful you don’t get lost. I’m sure we won’t be very long.”
Communications room below the Greenbriar Hotel
Tony and Mike sat across the table from Smitty in the communications room talking about Doctor Kennedy’s broadcasts.
“I don’t know what we can tell you,” Mike said. “We picked up the Navy doctor on a small AM radio. He didn’t say where he was or how we could contact him. All he said was when the time was right, he would contact us, meaning everyone that might be listening to him.”
“Our guess is that he is out west somewhere because of some scuttlebutt I heard a few years back,” Tony added. “But for all we know, he could have been broadcasting from the other side of that hill over there.”
Smitty thought then said, “What can you tell me that you know for sure, based upon what he said?”
“OK, let’s see,” Tony replied. “He said he was in the Navy, he was using a satellite to follow the infected across the country, and he was located at a survival vault built by the government and stocked with supplies to help the country recover after a major disaster.”
“I can’t think of anything else to add,” Mike said. “But the way he talked about seeing large groups of walkers in places like Chicago, New York, San Francisco and other places, he either had a good imagination or he could actually see what was going on around the country.”
“I believe the man was really in the Navy by the way he talked,” Tony added. “I think he was trying to be helpful and his intentions were real, but I just don’t think he had the ability or resources to do everything he talked about. He never spoke about what the military was doing which I thought was strange.”
“You would have thought that he would have told us what the military was doing to push back the walkers,” Mike added.
“I wonder why he didn’t say where he was?” Smitty asked. “If he intended to help people, they would have to know where he was.”
“He did say he was keeping his location secret for now for security reasons,” Tony replied.
“I think you’re right about him not having the resources to do everything he talked about,” Smitty said. “If he is trying to keep his location a secret, to me that means he doesn’t have enough men to protect the facility. He might be afraid of being overrun. Maybe that’s why he never gave any updates on what the military was doing to fend off the infected.”
“That thought had crept into my mind,” Tony replied. “Maybe Kennedy is just part of a small medical unit,” Smitty added.
“That would explain a lot,” Tony replied.
“It could also be why I haven’t been able to contact them with the satellite radio,” Smitty said.
“Why is that?” Mike asked.
“Because if they are just a small medical unit,” Smitty grinned, “those guys wouldn’t know how the hell to use a satellite radio.”
“But how were they able to broadcast so we could hear them on the radio?” Mike asked.
“If their facility was set up similar to the facility here, they probably have a basic broadcast system.
We have one here, I believe it was intended to get messages out to the surviving population after a nuclear war. As long as you can find the on/off switch and can talk into a microphone, you can broadcast,” Smitty replied. “It could also be why the broadcasts stopped.”
“So how do you contact someone like that?” Mike asked.
Smitty thought for a few minutes, then an idea came to mind.
“I assume that when they broadcast, that they have a speaker so they can hear what goes out over the air,” Smitty said. “I could try using our broadcast system to broadcast over the same frequency that they used.
They just might hear our signal through their equipment. I would have to bounce the signal off one of our satellites to get the signal to go all the way across the country.
It's a long shot, but it could work.
What frequency did you receive Kennedy’s broadcast?”
“102.5,” Tony replied.
“Thanks,” Smitty replied. “I’ll see what I can do and let you know what happens.”
“Do you think it will work?” Mike asked.
“Can I broadcast a signal over the same frequency that Kennedy used?” Smitty smiled. “Yes, I can do that. The question is will there be anyone there to hear it? If Kennedy is just part of a small medical unit like we suspect, it wouldn’t have taken much for the virus to take them out. It could be why the broadcasts stopped.”
“Let’s hope the broadcasts stopped because someone accidently turned off the microphone,” Tony replied.
“Do you think it could be something that simple?” Mike asked.
“Hell Yes,” Smitty laughed. “Remember, we’re dealing with the Navy here and not the Marines. Let’s just hope they aren’t complete idiots.”
Chapter 29
July 5th, Granite Mountain.
Doc walked out of the administrative office where he and Rogers had spent the night.
He was happy to see that he and Rogers weren’t showing any signs of being infected.
He didn’t expect that they would, but with such a small group in a confined area, he had to be cautious.
There wasn’t any room for error, a careless oversight could doom them all.
Doc smiled to himself as he walked across the tunnel to the room where the girls spent the night.
It was exciting to have women at the facility.
The girls were the missing ingredient needed to help the facility begin to grow, maybe even to jump start mankind’s efforts to avoid extinction.
It would be a very long slow rebound if they weren’t able to find any other survivors, but it would be a start.
Doc knew it was way too soon to be thinking about such things, but after the last month and the excitement of the last few days, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander in that direction a little.
Doc approached the girl’s door, he raised his arm and tapped his knuckles lightly against the door.
Snoop started barking as the door opened a few inches and Fran’s eye moved across and filled the open space between the door and door frame.
Doc laughed when Snoop’s nose pushed through the crack at the bottom of the door and he began sniffing.
“Don’t worry,” Fran said. “He doesn’t bite, he just likes to smell things.”
Abbey pulled the door open and said, Good Morning, Doc,” as Snoop ran out and jumped up on Doc’s legs.
“Even if he did bite,” Abbey s
aid, “after the lasagna you gave him last night, I think you would be safe.”
Doc smiled, “I hope you ladies slept well last night.”
Fran looked at Abbey but didn’t say anything.
“We slept OK,” Abbey replied. “But we stayed up and took turns keeping watch. No offense. It just felt strange being here.”
“Besides, your floor wasn’t as comfortable as the bed back at the farmhouse,” Fran added.
Doc smiled, “I hope we can make up for that today. After breakfast, you can pick out your own room and a comfortable bed.”
“We get to have our own room?” Abbey asked.
“We get breakfast?” Fran asked.
“Yes, to both of your questions,” Doc laughed. “If both of you are ready, we can go down for breakfast and you can now officially meet the rest of our group?”
Fran bent down and picked up Snoop, then she and Abbey began to follow Doc down the tunnel.
After answering questions about why the facility still had electricity, what was in each of the bays they passed and how Doc and the men managed to find this place, Doc and the girls finally reached the bay that served as the mess hall.
Snoop and Fran had started sniffing the air five bays down as they approached the mess hall.
“Does it always smell this good around here?” Fran asked.
“Most of the time,” Doc smiled as they walked into the mess hall.
Chervy, Davis, and Rogers jumped up from the table and began to pull out chairs for the girls to have a seat.
Connors and Reynolds rushed over with two large plates and one small plate of powdered scrambled eggs and bacon and put them on the table in front of Fran and Abbey, then they set the small plate on the floor for Snoop.
“It’s been a long time since anyone served me breakfast,” Abbey said.
“No one ever served me breakfast,” Fran added as she took a big mouthful of eggs, then mumbled, “Thank You.”
“Sorry my mouth was full,” Fran said after swallowing the eggs. “This looked so good I couldn’t wait to try it.”
“You girls go ahead and enjoy your breakfast,” Doc said as he began to introduce all the guys to Fran and Abbey.
After breakfast, we’ll all give you a tour of the facility, but I have to warn you that it pretty much all looks the same, stone walls and floors and a lot of tunnel.”
“I’d like to see the room that you used to find me at the farmhouse,” Abbey said.
“Maybe we can look and see if we can find John?” Fran asked. “We tried the CB again last night, but he didn’t answer. Maybe his CB is broken and he is just wandering around looking for us. He said after he made it to Stone, he would try to go north on Route 84 to meet up with me. Can you see out that way too or does your satellite only work as far as Stone?”
“We can do that,” Chervy replied. “You would be surprised to find out what we can see with the satellite.”
“Really?” Abbey asked raising her eyebrows. “And what all did you see after watching me for three days?”
“It’s not that good,” Rogers said, “I mean if I understand what you meant.”
“What did you think I meant?” Abbey asked, then her serious look turned into a grin. “I’m just messing with you. It’s been a long time since I tried making jokes, I’m probably out of practice.”
“I thought it was funny,” Davis laughed. “I haven’t seen Rogers squirm like that since he lost the last of his paycheck playing poker.”
“Do you play poker?” Rogers asked Abbey.
“I like playing poker,” Abbey smiled.
“I think if you are looking for someone you can beat,” Davis grinned. “Maybe you should try the dog.”
“Very funny,” Rogers frowned as Fran giggled.
“I hope you like the breakfast I made for you,” Reynolds said smiling at the girls.
“This is great,” Abbey smiled.
“Are the eggs done well enough for you? I could do the next batch a little longer if you want?” Reynolds asked.
“These are perfect,” Fran smiled.
“Are you sure?” Connors asked.
Abbey laughed, “You guys don’t need to try so hard because Newb and I are very easy to please right now. This is way better than what we’ve had to eat for the last couple of months. Fran, why don’t you tell them what you had to eat before we met up?”
Fran swallowed another mouthful of her breakfast before answering.
“Let’s see,” Fran replied. “Snoop and I had a rotten banana, some pretzels and a rattlesnake.”
Reynolds looked horrified.
“Where did you find a rattlesnake?” he asked.
“It found me, in fact there were two of them,” Fran replied and held up her leg so everyone could see her tennis shoe. “See those two marks on my shoe? That’s where a rattlesnake bit me on the shoe.”
Then Fran calmly went back to eating her breakfast.
Abbey looked at the startled look on the men’s faces.
“There isn’t a lot to eat out there,” Abbey said. “After going a few days without anything to eat, you eat whatever you can find, no matter how gross it is.”
“How did you kill the snake?” Doc asked.
“I hit it with a rake,” Fran smiled.
“You were a brave girl,” Doc added.
“I had to kill it before it ate Snoop,” Fran replied. “Then we decided to eat the snake. Snoop wanted to eat it raw, but I made him wait until I roasted it over a fire so it didn’t look so gross.”
“Well I think you will find it a little easier to get something to eat around here,” Doc smiled.
“But you might want to carry that rake with you when you come down to eat,” Davis grinned. “If Rogers get down here first, sometimes the only way you can stop him from eating everything, so you can get something to eat, is to physically drag him out of the mess hall.”
Rogers just shook his head.
After breakfast, Doc showed Abbey and Fran where the bunking quarters were.
After the girls picked out their rooms, the girls anxiously followed Doc down to the communications room, stopping at every bay to look in amazement at everything that had been stored at Granite Mountain.
As they walked into the communications room, Fran looked around.
“Where are the big screens that are supposed to be mounted on the walls?” Fran asked. “In the movies the men always are watching satellites on the big screens that cover the walls.”
“I think you’re thinking of NASA,” Doc replied. “All we have is a computer to monitor the pictures transmitted by the satellite. If you go over to where Mr. Chervanak is seated, he will show you the image we are receiving from the satellite.”
Abbey and Fran walked over behind Chervy and looked down at the monitor.
“This is where we were dropping the food for you,” Chervy said as he turned and looked up at Abbey. “Grab a chair and have a seat.”
Abbey and Fran pulled a chair over to the computer and sat down next to Chervy.
Chervy typed in a command and the picture blurred as the satellite camera moved, finally stopping and focusing in on the farmhouse where Abbey had been staying.
“This is the farmhouse where you were staying.”
Abbey studied the picture for a minute.
“That’s the farmhouse alright,” Abbey said. “But how did you know I was there? I was being real careful to only move around at night so no one would see me? Can your satellite see at night too?”
“In a limited way,” Chervy replied. “Let me show you how we found you.”
Chervy tapped on the keyboard and a black screen appeared with a red dot and a green dot on the black screen.
“This is a night shot of the food drop,” Chervy said. “The green dot is you. The satellite has a limited ability to pick up heat signatures. The green dot is your body heat being detected by the satellite.”
“You found me like this?” Abbey asked. “How could you
tell that dot was even a person?”
Chervy pulled up another screen that showed a faint green splotch that appeared to have arms and legs.
“The first green dot got our attention, this green shape let us know that there was a living human coming to where we dropped off the food,” Chervy replied.
“But couldn’t that dot have been a zombie?” Fran asked.
“Zombies are dead and don’t have any body heat to show up on the satellite night vision images,” Chervy replied.
“I never thought about that,” Fran said. “I’ve kind of made it a point not to touch zombies.”
Chervy brought up the next picture, it was a clear green picture of Abbey.
“When we knew that someone was coming to the food drop, we set up some night vision cameras at the food drop site to get a better look at who was coming for the food,” Chervy said.
Next he brought up a series of pictures showing how he had tracked Abbey back to the farmhouse.
“It took a little work, but that’s how we discovered that you were coming to the food drop and how we tracked you back to the farmhouse,” Chervy smiled and began to tap on the keyboard again.
“This is a picture of you getting into the helicopter to come back with Doc, here is the picture of the two of you meeting up out on Route 84, and a picture of you talking with Doc at the food drop,” Chervy added.
“Talk about big brother knowing your every move,” Abbey said.
Doc, who had been standing behind where the girls were sitting, laughed.
“But in our case, we were only trying to find out who was taking our food so we could figure out a way to talk with you,” Doc said. “Since we haven’t been able to find any other survivors on our own, we were hoping if we could talk to anyone, they might be able to lead us to where the other survivors are hiding.”