"I made up fliers and put them on telephone poles. It was the best I could do." The pacing was beginning to get on my nerves, so I had to fight to keep from telling her to stop it. I felt a nudge at the edge of my mind and thought, What? followed quickly by a cough coming from behind me. Just wait her out, JD, George said, she's just posturing for the benefit of the others. She's almost done.
I jumped when Mason said, Does all your family know how to do that? I'm not nervous, nope not me.
I hope Ken never finds out, he'll be so pissed. He's tried to it but never could manage it. If he finds out George can do it, he'll be devastated.
The general stopped pacing and stood in front of us with her hands clasped behind her. The change took me by surprise, since I had wanted it to stop already. When she did, I was more nervous. Looking intently at each of us, she took a deep breath. "I have no choice but to believe you. Now that you're here, you have to stay so it might as well be on good terms. Just a note of warning. Those three men who brought you in are hardcore. They shoot first and don't give a damn about asking questions. I'm controlling them at this time, but just barely. So don't get in their way, understood?"
We nodded our heads like good little kids.
"Dr. May, would you find them some bunks and assign them duties we all can live with?"
"Sure, sir." She said to the pixie, who seemed satisfied and turned back to the monitors. We were clearly dismissed so George grabbed my hand and began to lead me to another portion of the Command center. We headed down some more steps and walked into a room that was clearly a lab. It was a long narrow room, with two counters running down the middle nearly to the end. Each counter was loaded down with microscopes, burners and machines that probably did some amazing things. Northern Uncle Bill stood at the other end, talking to a man in a lab coat. They were so intent on their conversation, that George had to tap him on the shoulder to get his attention. That had evidently been tried before, because he shrugged her off and continued as if she was a pesky fly. She blushed, then stood meekly by waiting for him to notice her. It seemed practiced, like she had done it many times before. I didn't doubt it a bit
He was a tall man with white hair and a white goat tee and mustache. His slender frame had never seen an ounce of fat because he was too busy with his work to eat. Wearing a white lab coat and blue booties on his shoes, he ignored us which I was all too familiar with.
When the other man finally nodded and left, Northern Uncle Bill turned, saw George and his face lit up. The light went out when he saw me and Ken. Yep, been there, done that. I wasn't offended because I already knew where I stood in his heart. It should have hurt my feelings but I only get hurt by the people I care about. I found I was only mildly irritated. That irritation was due mostly to our reception more than his indifference. I wondered, briefly, if he would be hurt that I really didn't care, but only briefly. I turned to Mason and smiled. He looked puzzled for a moment but our connection was solid and he smiled back at me.
"Dad, this is JD's husband, Mason." He glanced briefly at Mason, then turned when Ken spoke.
"We need to discuss the reason we're here. Is there a safe place around here to do that?" Ken asked, clearly not happy.
"Yes, follow me." George started to lead us into what looked like a storage room filled to overflowing with boxes labeled 'files'. Northern Uncle Bill stayed her with a tight grip on her arm. "I think this can wait for a bit."
"No sir, it can't wait. Not even a few minutes ." Mason said, leading the way into the storage room. Northern Uncle Bill hesitated a moment, with a look on his face that my mother would make when she smelled something nasty. He followed us into the room anyway. George looked around outside before closing the door and locking it.
"We have to be careful. They're so scared someone will escape, they watch us like hawks."
"Why don't they care if someone leaves?" Mason asked.
"They're afraid everyone will find out about this place and want in. They can't handle many more people in here, the food and water is getting scarce and our medical supplies are dismal. Of course, in four days it won't matter anymore."
"I would think with basic supplies getting low, they would encourage people to leave."
Northern Uncle Bill made a sound that was similar to a dog clearing their nose or a muffled sneeze. Clearly he disagreed. "The blast radius will be 100 miles so that means we need to leave by 5 pm Sunday in order to achieve maximum safe distance." Northern Uncle Bill said crossing his arms over his belly. I think he thought it made him look important, I thought it looked confrontational but hey, who am I?
"Sunday? We are not waiting till Sunday to leave. I'm not taking any chances on managing to get to a 'maximum safe distance' If we leave tomorrow we can be in Montana when it goes off." Mason replied, "It will take half an hour to get off this mountain, then the land is so flat the blast wall will travel pretty fast. If we cut it that close we'll need to be underground rather than far away."
"Mr. Mason, is it?" He knew his name, he was just being an ass. "I'm sure you may think you know what the situation is, but I beg to differ."
"Mr. May," Mason began.
"Doctor May." He said, puffed up like a toad ready to do battle.
"OK, Dr. May, we just got here, so I think we know a little bit more about the route we need to take than you, who've been sitting on his..."
"Well, this is going well, don't ya think?" I said, jumping between the two of them. "Uncle Bill," and putting my hand up in a stop-right-there signal, "we went to a lot of trouble to find a place that would keep us safe after we leave here, just in case we left too late. Mason is right. The blast wall is going to travel much faster over flat land, so we have no chance of outrunning it. We'd have to hide. Just in case that should happen, we found a place far enough from here to be safe so stop pissing off everyone and lets figure out a way out of here." I was out of breath by the time I finished. Mason had walked to the end of the room and stood with hands in his pockets staring at a spot on the floor. I could tell by the tension in his shoulders, he was infuriated. Not bad, it only took him 3 minutes to become frustrated while it took us years. Northern Uncle Bill just glared at me. George and Ken were staring at the floor.
"Well, it looks like Margie's daughter grew up." He said tilting his head back and literally looking down his nose at me.
"Dad, be nice."
"Why does everyone think I'm not being nice?" Oh well, that answer would just take too much time to answer. So I ignored it.
"Do you have a plan or do we need to come up with one?" Mason said, almost growling. You could see the white line along his jaw where he was clinching his teeth. I sent him some love, and he took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Then he smiled at me, nodded and rotated his shoulders. He'd be ok for a bit. I just needed to keep them apart for awhile.
"I believe I was the one to send the information out so Ken could get it to you in Montana. I'm also the one that will get us out of here, we just needed a little help from the outside to get clear of this mountain."
"Well, then, we will just let you lead the way out of here then." Mason said, then walked to the door, unlocked it and stomped out.
"I can't abide insolence," Uncle Bill griped. He was still puffed up although his feathers were now ruffled.
"We aren't tallying up who has done what. We got here, we just need your plan to leave. As to insolence, you encourage it from everyone and most people are able to resist or just don't care. Mason cares, so don't push him to far. You won't like the results."
He turned and "harrumphed" at me. When he turned away I said, "and that means you think I am beneath you so you don't have to reply."
"Well!"
"That one means you can't believe I said that and you're insulted."
"Whatever".
"That's my favorite... you think you're right and I don't know what I'm talking about."
He started to say something, thought better of it, then he lifted one eyebrow, flutter
ed his lips, and walked out of the room also.
George just stood there and stared at me.
"Close your mouth, sweetie and show me where the food is. When everyone calms down we really need to plan to leave."
"How did you do that?"
"Years of hard work and dedication to the dilemma of NUB or Northern Uncle Bill. We would spy on him for hours and then talk about it for days trying to figure him out. The really sad part was, no one had an answer."
"It's his work."
"No, George it's not his work. Remember the Christmas your mom had the family over for dinner? If was the first time for her and she was so nervous. She had the table set, dinner getting cold while she kept checking the driveway to see if he was home yet. He never showed up, didn't call, nothing. There is NO excuse for a man to be away from his family on Christmas. When he did show up, he was clearly mad at your mom for having 'these people invading his home' when he knew we were all coming because we RSVP'd, per his request. I believe that was the reason he didn't get you or your mom gifts for Christmas."
"No, he always got us something, even if he couldn't be there."
"No, George, your mom bought the gifts for you from your dad and she bought herself one labeling it from your dad so you wouldn't know. I don't think he ever gave her a gift for anything. There was no praise, no love. She just covered for him to the absolute aggravation and embarrassment of everyone else in the family.
But that doesn't have anything to do with right now. He has to relinquish control of the situation to us because we just drove the route. We know more than he does ab out what it's like out there and that's chapping his ass. We'll lead the way, once we're get clear of this place but until then you and I and Ken have to diffuse the bomb building between your dad and Mason.
Now, we need to eat, sleep some and find a way out of this prison the pixie has engineered before we all become toxic waste."
The lab was vacant when we finally emerged from the storage area. It took us a bit to find the others, who had wandered into the lab dorms and were gathered around some bunks. Northern Uncle Bill was not present but I didn't expect him to be, because he'd lost the argument. Mason turned as we approached and smiled. That made me smile too.
"The way we have it figured, we're near the base of the mountain. Is that right, George?"
"Yes, that's very good. We aren't far from the exit door hidden in the mountain. The general doesn't believe it's even there and won't let the men check it out. She's afraid they won't come back or worse bring back enforcements."
"How did she respond to the fact that the place will blow up in three days?"
"Disbelief. She thinks it's just a ploy to get out. Says the place wasn't designed to self destruct. Read it somewhere, she says, but not from the information we got. When the fuel that runs the generators run out, the computer is programmed to self destruct. End of story."
"Well, I plan to be far enough away when it happens to avoid it but I was just wondering what the radiation is going to do to the earth. Are we looking at a world ending event? Nuclear winter? What?"
"Dads been doing some figures and assures me it will mostly be localized with some radiation poisoning in this general area. Further away, it won't be so bad and Montana is far enough away that it shouldn't be noticeable."
"Good, I'd hate to spend the time and energy to fix up a paradise just to have it rendered unlivable by some safety feature."
"Is it really a paradise, JD. I am so ready for paradise other than the heavenly one, that is."
I put my arm around her and as we walked to the mess hall, to eat a little something, I told her about the lodge and Montana. I put my heart and soul into describing my home and how easily it could become hers and her fathers. I told her they could share one of the cabins on the property and he would have all the room he needed to run his lab. When we got to the mess hall, her father was leaving. He motioned her over and after she left me, I walked up to Mason and put my arm around him.
"Have a nice visit?" He asked after kissing my nose.
"Yep, I described the lodge and our friends. I think she might be able to fit right in but it may take a bit for Northern Uncle Bill to warm the others up. Kinda like hell freezing over." Picking up my tray I looked over the offerings on the buffet table. "Yuck, I think I'd rather eat MRE's." Meals Ready to Eat are the dehydrated food in a bag the military eats. Ever eaten freeze dried ice cream? Get the picture?
"I hope he has a plan to get out of here. I don't want to wait till the last minute either. It'll take us nearly an hour just to get off this mountain, I want to be securely buried in one of the three places we found on our way here or better yet in Montana."
"I know what you mean, but I'm counting on them having the plans finalized before we got here."
"Do you know when exactly the fuel will run out?"
"According to the paperwork, the fuel runs out at 6:53 pm Sunday. That means we need to be out of the door by 6:01 or we won't make it to the first safe house."
"So it's Thursday," I scanned until I found a clock..."2:15 pm. That means less than 53 hours to leave."
He tilted his head smiled, calculating in his head to see if I was right.
"The little lady can add, imagine that." said one of the soldiers that 'captured' us when we arrived. We'd slipped up, badly. I turned to see the soldier in question was standing directly behind us. I would've been alarmed if he didn't have his arm securely wrapped around George and she had a big smile on her face. I hate complicated things and this just keep getting more so as each minute passed.
"JD, I want you meet Riley, my husband. This is my cousin, JD and her husband, Mason. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner but dad had a cow when we got married and doesn't want to hear about it."
I smiled, because I could just bet Northern Uncle Bill nearly had a heart attack when he found out.
"We had to sneak off to do it, then he tried to have me stationed overseas and nearly managed it to. When we headed here, I had been assigned to the general and he thought he had finally gotten rid of me. You should have seen his face when he saw me. It was priceless. Now he just ignores me and takes all of George's free time if he can."
"Ignore him back, it works for me. Although, I've found joy in telling him the way it is, I wouldn't recommend it, unless you have some really good comebacks stored up. He's quick."
We grabbed our grub and sat at a table George indicated. I was sure it was the most secure table in the room, so we sauntered over to it like it was the most natural thing in the world. We talked about childhoods and friendships and marriage. I figured they would get around to talking about the matter at hand sooner or later. I wasn't wrong.
"We have about five minutes before someone notices the mike is turned off at this table so this is it. We don't want to wait till the last minute to leave. The trip down the mountain well be miserable let alone getting out of blast range before the explosion so we want to leave by Saturday. Why then you ask? Because her father refuses to leave until he is sure the anti-virus will work. We won't know until then. The 'patient' is locked up in the lab and I'm not happy about it but if he doesn't die by Saturday noon, then we are out of here. If he does, then I don't know how we are going to get Dr. Darling out of here."
"He can be a hard ass when he wants to be."
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
"JD be nice. I know you don't like him, but..."
"It's not that and I don't want to go into it right now. Time is wasting."
Riley nodded his head, glanced at his watch, frowned then quickly said, "Meet me at the third locker from the door, at midnight. I'll be off duty by then and I'll talk about it more."
He gave George a kiss that made my stomach clench, then was gone. She followed him with hungry eyes then caught me watching her. Blushing, she picked at her lunch.
"Don't let it bother you, I do the same with this guy ." I nudged Mason with my shoulder who returned the favor. I love you to, sweetie. We ne
ed her to nudge her dad about leaving earlier.
You know know I can hear that, right? she asked. Mason muttered "Damn" then while slowly eating he 'talked' to us. You need to beg, plead and promise your dad anything to get him out of here earlier.
You don't think I haven't tried? I even threw in some tears and guilt but he won't budge when it comes to his work. He knows he's putting everyone's life on the line but it doesn't matter to him. And before you get any ideas, I won't leave here without him.
"Then get this clear and you can tell your dad. I didn't come down here to save people who don't want to be saved. I won't put JD's life on the line again like this for people who don't appreciate it. For the record we are leaving here by noon on Sunday or earlier with you and your dad or without. End of story." He threw his napkin on the table and walked from the room.
He really loves you. That's good. I wouldn't like him otherwise. He is right though, JD, your life means more to me than to let you risk it past noon Sunday either.
"I've missed you, George, you have no idea. I missed Ken too, until I had to share the truck seat with him on the way here."
"You two still fighting over who gets the seat? I'd have thought you two would've outgrown that nonsense by now."
"She's just greedy is why." Ken said over my shoulder. "I keep telling her the man gets the seat but she won't listen."
"That's because you're still a little boy and want your way. Not happening for sure."
"I have a question. You said Northern Uncle Bill has a patient in the lab. You aren't talking about a walker are you? That would just be irresponsible as hell to bring one of those things in here."
She looked guilty enough that I knew it was true. I sat back and tried to control my breathing. He wouldn't bring a walker in here with his own daughter would he? From the look on her face, I knew he had done exactly that. I jumped up and started a fast walk in the direction of the lab. Ken managed to stop me before leaving the mess hall.
"You can't JD. You have restrain yourself a day or so longer."
George jumped in. "I know it looks bad, but he needed a specimen to work on. It's in a locked room, tied down and sedated."
Walkers (Book 2): The Rescue Page 4