Beth smiled, “If I told you then I would have to kill you….”
After a few keystrokes and a little time Beth had gotten access to the CDC. Beth clicked from one window to another then went on reading several emails that she had in her box. Beth continued, “Tabitha, we all know the world has gone to shit but if there is ANY hopes of this thing blowing over there might be a chance in here. I highly doubt it, but it is worth a shot.
Tabitha took a seat beside her and watched as Beth got very serious as she looked. Not wanting to bother Beth she just sat back and realized for the very first time how intelligent Beth was. A few minutes passed and Beth found nothing further in her files from her branch of the CDC, so she decided to go to the home office where she hit the jackpot. “PRESIDENT DECLARES A STATE OF EMERGENCY ALL OVER THE WORLD”
Below the title was simply a well written version of how the President, along with local and state governments, will be working with the Center For Disease Control, 24 – 7 to find a cure to stop the pandemic that races through the world.”
Beth shook her head and laughed at the same time, “Political propaganda which tells me shit! All this is saying is that basically, the world is gone, cut your losses and if you survived you won’t be alive for long.”
However working her way through some other ways of entering a back door into the CDC, Beth was able to find the department of the CDC that she had once worked for. Beth started typing, “This is Beth Canter, #573947913….Social Security # 555-24-8965….. I am alive and not infected. Right now, I have with me six survivors who have banded together and will be headed to Arizona. Could you please send me any information, if you have anything, that could shed some light or hope that there may be some way out of this, or if something is being done to contain this leak.”
Tabitha sat there and was totally amazed then asked, “So I take it that there are others out there alive?”
Beth hit the send button and sat back, “There is something out there and all we have to do now is wait to see if I get an email back. There is a containment area that is underground somewhere in the United States that was funded and went fully operational under the Reagan Administration. So when the shit hit the fan those down there would have been put on lockdown. In other words, no one was let out, and no one will be let in. That was about the best thing that President Reagan did do for this country because he probably saw the shit storm coming down the pike, years before this all happened and when it finally happened no one except for a few of us would know about this.”
Tabitha looked over with a very serious look, “Do you think Alden knows?”
Beth shook her head, “Not unless he is authorized personnel, and even though he had his picture and given the award of Medal Of Honor up there, he doesn’t have a clue. However, when I tell him all about this he won’t be surprised.”
Tabitha stood straight up and was bouncing around like her underwear was on fire. “This is great news then!”
Beth calmly said, “It could be, but we aren’t getting in there and they sure in the hell aren’t getting out; that is if there is anyone down there. With the new President and his budget cuts, I honestly have no idea how far he cut, or how deep he did it either. There could have been a skeleton crew down there or there could be dozens of people. Either way we still have to wait to hear something and unless we hear something in the next forty eight hours it won’t matter until we get settled again and hopefully we will have electricity when we get there.”
Colt had come back in and was leaning on the kitchen door frame listening to both women, he had read the email over her shoulder and kept his mouth shut. “Beth, you know you shouldn’t have given our position away, haven’t you ever seen the movies Resident Evil? The government is the enemy; they are the ones that started this. Why would we ask them for help? I don’t understand why it would be anything to us if they can’t get out and we can’t get in. They won’t understand shit about what’s going on, on the surface. I’m going to go let Alden know what’s going on, not so sure he will be happy.” He headed to the back door and grinned over his shoulder, “Good thing you told them we were going to Arizona, we changed that to New Mexico, remember?”
Colt went to the backyard approaching Alden, “We need to talk…” He told Alden what had just happen in the kitchen and waited for his reaction. “But Alden, she is right about someone being there, someone has to keep those servers up and running. There is no way she could have gotten to the CDC without the servers. I know what I am talking about here, I am the one that was in I.T. I know about this side of things.” Finally in his element he added, “The computer geeks aren’t the only ones there either, to be honest if there weren’t any that needed the access we wouldn’t keep it running. What’s more, the geeks know about the technology side of things, they wouldn’t give a shit about what the access is needed for. So if she does get a reply, it won’t be from them, but someone else. If there is someone else we better start worrying.”
Alden had been splitting wood just to stay busy when Colt told him what was happening. Turning he threw the axe and it stuck in a tree with such force the handle was still vibrating. He turned and headed into the house, walking up to where Beth was sitting. He reached over and turned the laptop so he could read the message. His face showed that he was about to blow up. Taking a deep breath, he started as he closed the lid and pulled the plug, “From here on you will clear any type of messages you send to the outside world. The reason no one knows we’re alive is because we are and have been off the grid for weeks. Charlie and I have already seen what factions of the military are doing, and at this point I don’t trust a single swinging dick in any Government run organization. Those folks may or may not have been your friends, but you sending information to them… well, you have no idea who is going to read that shit. If the grid is up even in limited mode, then we have to assume anything that runs on computers or GPS is now a danger to us. The soldiers we talked to back in that little town had told us the commander had gone rogue, I’m fairly certain he wasn’t the only one. Colt’s our computer genius,” turning to Colt who had followed him back in, “So let’s ask him.”
“Let’s say the computers were up in say a GM plant and people had locked themselves in, could they use that Onstar shit to locate vehicles?” Colt nodded, “Yes and also the same thing could be said for any cell phone company or even any web browser. If someone wanted and knew how or had the right program and equipment they could track that air card right back to this very location using a system similar to GPS.”
Alden turned back to Beth, “So you see missy, you have compromised our whole little unit here. You need to think ahead now,” Looking to the whole group standing there, “You all do. From here on no one is our friend, even when we got stopped back there, I had 2 forty fives locked loaded, ready if things went bad. We trust no one, especially anyone who is still acting within the Government rules and regulations, am I understood?”
Beth sat back with her arms folded in front of her taking all of the information that Alden was giving to her. She of course completely understood how she might have endangered them in a way, but there were a few things earlier in his speech that caused her to file those words to the side of her brain and would think of a way to form them so that when she did come back at him she would not sound like a little butt hurt baby. She knew what she had done but after he asked the question, “Am I understood?” Beth’s mind kicked into overdrive.
Quickly she looked around at everyone looking at her. She slowly stood up and backed away from her laptop, taking in a deep breath and slowly releasing it Beth placed her hands firmly on her hips, and in an extremely calm tone she had some things that she too needed to get out in the open. “Alden, I do UNDERSTAND that I may have compromised our position but Colt pointed out a bit of information, which he thought I did on accident and I didn’t. When I posted that we were going to Arizona then if those people that I USE to work for have gone rogue, then they will be headed
to that location and by the time they figure out we aren’t there, we will have left here too, as long as my Dell stays turned off and powered down we will be long gone by the time they get here, that is IF they themselves want to get this far out, because quite honestly, Alden with the Wanderers out there, a group of Special Forces no matter if they had thousands of drones wouldn’t be able to get that far that quickly.”
Then Beth looked over to Charlie who was standing right beside Alden. Those two had been together since the very beginning and the one comment that Alden made in his speech came into play, Beth decided now was the perfect time to lay all of her cards down, Beth sat straight, glaring at Colt than to Alden. “First off, I have no idea what you or Charlie saw. How could I possibly know that when you are the master of mistrust? I know what my life was and let me be the first to inform you, not all of them are evil. MOST will want to help people, that is, if they can. Yes, there are assholes out there, like we ran into back at camp, but there are people out there like those soldiers we ran into at that little store too… when they said that it was every man for himself. They knew right where we were and they meant us no harm so I ask again to you Alden, why were you not honest with us about what you and Charlie saw with the helicopters?”
The room now was extremely quiet and Colt looked over to Beth then directly at Alden. Alden squared his shoulders, “We didn’t tell you about the helicopters for the same reason you didn’t tell us your part in this major fucking disaster. As far as how fast a Special Forces group can move… well let’s just put it this way they can be anywhere in the world and in twenty four hours they can be anywhere else they’ve been ordered to go. Point being, we cannot trust any government organization, or for that matter any corporation that has been in bed with them for years. Communication, transportation, medical, I could go on and on. As for assholes, until I get to talk to them they’re all assholes. Beth, I respect your college degrees, and all that, but when it comes to this... it’s like the old commercial. A mechanic wouldn’t try and perform brain surgery, and a brain surgeon wouldn’t try and replace a blown motor in his own car. You handle the medical and CDC stuff, I’ll handle security and tactics and logistics.”
Ceara stepped up quickly, “Ok time for breakfast!!! She wanted to calm everyone down, Alden was upset and Beth was ready to blow. She pulled out the bread machine and placed the dough in it, “Hey Alden how does this work?”
Alden walked over and hit a button, she smiled bigger than needed, “Well that was easy wasn’t it!”
Alden turned and walked out the back door, Ceara nodded to Charlie and he turned to go with Alden. Ceara started the stove, then taking out the bacon, “Hey we could have bacon biscuits, kind of.”
Tabitha smirked, “Give it up Red, you ain’t fixing this so easy.”
Ceara looked to Beth, “Beth, I know you did that to help, I would have done the same thing if I had a way to contact anyone, or anyone to contact. You are super smart about the CDC so if anyone knows about those people it’s you, but even you have to admit, on military and how they act, Alden is our ace in the hole.”
Ceara looked to the back door then back to Beth, “He is trying to keep us alive and for some reason he thinks it’s all on him to do.”
Laying strips of bacon in the frying pan, she just stood there. She hated fighting and she could see both sides and both seemed right to her. As far as she was concerned both of them needed to learn to meet in the middle. The email Beth sent didn’t seem bad to Ceara, why not find help if they could? She decided she would talk to Charlie and figure out why Alden was so upset. Beth picked up her Dell, unplugged it putting it all away, “Well, I guess we will see what happens. I don’t truly believe I put us in danger, I wouldn’t do that.”
Ceara smiled, “I know you wouldn’t.”
Beth turned and left the kitchen. Colt looked from Tabitha to Ceara, “I knew he would be upset, but I didn’t think he would be that mad.”
Ceara patted his arm, “He wasn’t mad, really, he was concerned by the security breach. I won’t claim to understand it all, from either of them. I can see both sides, so I guess that makes me totally stupid.”
Colt laughed, “No, I am right there with you, but I can see more of Alden’s side because of the computer stuff.”
Tabitha laid a few of the strips of bacon on the plate, “Well you guys want my opinion on this?” Ceara and Colt both looked to her and waited, “I see it like this, Alden knows his shit and has got us this far, but the man don’t know the CDC and has no idea if the emails or…. What is the computers that have the data Colt?”
“Servers”
“Yeah, that… he has no idea if they could be encrypted to the point that no one will know our position. But, with us not knowing that answer, then the less communications goes out the better.”
Colt grabbed a cup of coffee, “Tabitha, it doesn’t matter about the servers being encrypted if the laptop isn’t, they will know in a matter of minutes.”
Tabitha shrugged, “Then we are fucked either way so why fight over the shit?”
Heath had heard the fighting and turned and walked out. He had thought Beth was just simply a doctor, he had no idea she was as involved with the CDC. He knew that talking to Alden was not his best choice right now, that would fall to Colt, who Heath learned had been with Beth since the beginning.
Sitting down on a stump he looked out to the wilderness. Thinking of all the stories he had heard from these people in the fireside chats, Beth and Colt had hooked up, Charlie and Alden had been together for a while too; the little dark haired girl Tabitha, kind of fell into the whole group like he had. Together they had survived and watched over each other against zombies and humans.
As he sat he felt more and more like an outsider trying to win them over. He could hear Alden back to splitting wood and could hear the voices in the cabin talking. Suddenly a hand landed on his shoulder and startled him. Heath jumped up grabbing at his knife when he realized it was Charlie. “Sorry I scared you man” Charlie said with a grin.
Heath let go of the knife, “it’s okay. So everybody cool back in there now?”
Charlie turned and looked at the cabin then back to Heath, “Yea, a little thing like that ain’t going to break us up. Beth was just doing what Beth knows how to do. Trying to get as much information on this… disease or whatever the hell it is, so she knows how to fight it. Alden… well Alden knows the government and how underhanded they can be. He told me a story once where he and his team were basically dropped behind enemy lines, and then when some reporter found out about it and the government denied it, they left them sitting there to fight their own way out. So he has his reasons.”
Heath sat back down on his stump and Charlie took the one next to him. Both were looking out at the beauty of the Ozark Mountains when Alden walked up. Taking a drink of water from a canteen he sighed, “I used to love to sit on that porch and look at those mountains hoping that they would hold the rest of the world back and away from me.”
Taking another drink, “Well that sure as hell ain’t going to happen now. I can handle them coming after me, but now I’m worried they will come after Beth. She was only doing what she thought was right, but she doesn’t know them fuckers like I do. I’m afraid they’re going to come after her. None of us knows how much or how deep she was into this thing. I don’t think she was responsible in any way, I do think she knows who may have been… and that, my friends, makes her very valuable to those who think they are still in charge.”
Charlie and Heath looked solemn neither could think of anything to say.
Heath could smell the bacon and bread cooking in the kitchen. He stood up and stretched, “I’m going to get something to eat and tell them all, todays lesson is still on.”
As Heath walked through the kitchen he grabbed a couple of pieces of bacon and tore off a chunk of the fresh bread. Picking up a can of easy cheese he put some on the bread and placed the bacon on it and popped it in his mouth. Tabitha look
ed at him with a frown, “Ewww that looks just nasty,” she said.
Heath smiled as he refilled his cup and washed it down, “Don’t knock it until you try it. You see if you get separated from the group you may very well eat things that you normally wouldn’t, but it will keep you alive. Today lesson in survival will begin immediately after breakfast, out front.”
Heath picked up a one more piece of bread and walked out. Charlie had followed Heath in and watched what he did, “Looking at the girls he smiled as he grabbed the can of cheese and the bacon and a chunk of bread. Ceara turned and looked at him, “Seriously?”
Charlie smiled as he popped his sandwich in his mouth and chewed it up, “Yes seriously, you ought to try it. It wasn’t that bad.”
Charlie walked over to the refrigerator and took out one of the jars of milk, shaking it first to get the cream mixed in, he then poured a glass and took a big gulp. As he put the glass down all three of the girls began to giggle, “Whaaaat?” he asked.
Surviving Day By Day (Book 2): Fears, Flames, and Future Page 19