by David Spell
“If you only knew,” he said, smiling.
Colonel Doran shut down the engines on the helicopter and they didn’t have to shout anymore. The rest of the passengers disembarked slowly, allowing Chuck, Melanie, and Elizabeth to have their moment. McCain finally pulled free and nodded at Beth.
“We have a lot to talk about but I want to introduce you to Elizabeth. We got married this past week,” Chuck said.
Melanie’s mouth dropped open and she stared at the pretty young woman, not much older than herself. After a moment she regained her composure and put her arms around Beth, not knowing what else to do. As they were hugging, McCain stepped over to Brian and embraced the young man.
“Thanks, Brian. I asked you to take care of my daughter and you did.”
“Yes, sir,” he said. “We’ve been praying for you.”
“Can you introduce me to your family?”
“Of course,” he answered, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
Brian’s dad, Tommy, was short, stocky, and grinned easily. The two men shook hands and McCain quickly found himself in a bear hug as Tommy embraced him.
“It’s great to finally meet you, Chuck. This is my wife, Terri.”
A smiling, petite woman took Chuck’s hand. “We’ve heard so much about you that I feel like I know you already,” she said. “And we love Melanie. Oh, this is our other son, Barry.”
A teenager built like Tommy was holding an AK-47 with a Glock on his waist. McCain stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Barry.”
“You, too, sir.”
“Chuck, these are my parents,” Tommy said. “This is Claude and Betsy and this is their farm.”
The federal police officer shook hands with the elderly couple. Claude appeared to be in his eighties but moved well and had an M1 Garand slung over his shoulder and a bandolier of clips around his waist. A belt holster held a cocked and locked Colt Government Model .45. His wife, Betsy, was a plump, gray-headed matron with a happy demeanor.
McCain smiled at them. “I’m sorry to invade your farm like this but I’ve been trying to get to my daughter for over two months.”
Betsy dismissed the comment with a wave. “We love Melanie and we’re glad to meet you. Let’s all go inside and have some coffee. I don’t get to entertain guests very often.”
As they were walking to the house Chuck saw that Beth and Melanie were walking together, talking quietly. He sidled up to Tommy.
“Please let your parents know that we don’t want to be a burden. We’ve got MREs in the helicopter if they’ll just let us sleep here for the night. We’ll be leaving tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry about it, Chuck. We’re set pretty well for food and my mom would love nothing better than to cook for y’all. But why do you have to leave so soon?”
“Orders. We’ve got a bad situation in Atlanta that needs to be dealt with as soon as we can.”
“Worse than an invasion of zombies?” Mitchell asked incredulously.
“Surprisingly, yes. Thanks so much for taking care of Melanie. Oh, and I met your buddy, Ben Thompson, and his family. Actually, I also met your other neighbors, Leroy and Anthony. Good people.”
“That’s great! Did you stay in our house?”
“We did. Beth and I got married Monday night in Ben’s living room and we spent the next two nights in your beautiful home. Thank you for your hospitality.”
“Ben did your wedding? This week? Wow, Chuck! Congratulations!”
“Thanks. Sorry to change the subject but how secure are you guys here? We ran into hundreds of Zs down around the Upward Road exit. That’s not that far from here.”
Tommy took a deep breath. “We’re blessed. There’s a campus of the North Carolina Justice Academy less than half a mile away. They were running an academy when the zombies were seen heading this way. Over twenty of the recruits went and got their families and moved them into the dorms there. They’ve got a roadblock that they man 24/7. We’re on good terms with them and my mom will occasionally cook up some food and take it down there.”
McCain nodded. “There was a huge roadblock down on I-26 at Upward Road that got overrun. We had to abandon our vehicle there. It looked like they lost some police officers.”
Mitchell shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ve only had a few zombies out this way, thank God. We’re almost ten miles from the interstate. Those police recruits, well, they’re real cops now, they’ve had a couple of groups attack their barricade, but they’ve killed them all.”
When they arrived at the house, Chuck saw Colonel Doran say something to Sergeant Harris. The young non-com nodded, turned, and headed back for the helicopter. Smart, McCain realized. Doran is probably keeping someone on security to guard the Blackhawk. That’s our ride out of here and we can’t be too careful with it.
Claude Mitchell held the door open, welcoming all of his guests. Chuck waited for the two most important women in his life to catch up with him. They each took one of his arms and went into the beautiful farmhouse.
Hendersonville, North Carolina, Saturday, 1645 hours
Most of the passengers from the Blackhawk sat around the living room or kitchen table, sipping coffee or tea and munching on the fresh oatmeal raisin cookies that Betsy had baked. Claude sat engrossed in a conversation with the admiral, Scotty, Tim, and Tom, and Colonel Doran. The elder Mitchell had been an Army Ranger in the Korean conflict. When he found out that Smith had been a Ranger, as had Tim, a bond was immediately formed. The admiral’s and Tom’s Navy SEAL backgrounds had the five men sharing stories of their individual conflicts spanning over seven decades. Tommy, Brian, and Barry Mitchell listened as the warriors talked, envying the camaraderie that the men had already developed.
The short nap and a cup of coffee had perked Beth back up and she sat talking with Emily, Terri, Betsy, and Juanita Custodio. After a few minutes, however, the admiral poked his head into the kitchen and asked the women to join them in the living room.
“Now, Mrs. McCain, I don’t want to put you on the spot, but your husband told me that you might want to tell us all how the two of you met.”
It took a minute to register in Beth’s mind that he was talking to her. “Oh, you’re talking to me! I’m sorry, Admiral. I’ve never been called ‘Mrs. McCain’ before. Please just call me ‘Elizabeth’ or ‘Beth.’ So Chuck told you that, huh?”
“He did, right before he and Melanie slipped out to take a walk.”
Elizabeth had never been shy in front of a crowd. And if her husband wanted her to tell these people their story, she would.
Chuck and Melanie walked hand-in-hand out behind the guesthouse. He and Beth had both taken hot showers, courtesy of the Mitchell’s generator. Melanie had loaned Beth a pair of jeans and a black UGA hoodie. McCain had on a fresh ‘Army Proud’ t-shirt and sweatshirt which Scotty had handed him after hearing that his friend had lost his backpack. Chuck had left his body armor and rifle inside and was just wearing his pistol belt.
The big man noted with approval that Mel had on Rebecca Johnson’s 9mm Glock 19 pistol. He had given it to her that fateful day on the UGA campus after Rebecca had been killed. McCain had told Brian to get Melanie somewhere safe. The virus was spreading so fast that they couldn’t even go back to their dorms for any of their possessions. Chuck had given Mel the pistol and several magazines of ammo.
As McCain and his daughter strolled across the pasture, a memory popped into his mind. When she was a little girl, just three or four, one of their favorite pastimes was going by McDonald’s, getting their lunch-to-go and visiting a local park. They always ate next to the lake and Mel had squealed with delight when the hungry geese would come begging for bread.
“We’ve got a lot to catch up on, but I need to tell you something important,” Melanie said, her voice nervous. “Brian and I got married two months ago.”
Chuck squeezed her hand. “I’m glad. He’s a good man and I’m happy to hear it. Did Tommy do the ceremony?”
His daughter nodded
, exhaling with relief. Tommy and Terri Mitchell had been lay pastors in their church back in Hartwell before fleeing to the safety of Tommy’s parent’s farm.
“You’re not mad? I’d always dreamed of you walking me down the aisle.”
McCain pulled her close and wrapped his arm around her. “How could I be mad at you? These are crazy days that we’re living in. And you had no idea if I’d ever show up.”
“Yeah, what happened? I expected you months ago.” Melanie hung her head, sounding disappointed. “When you never came, I…I thought the worst.”
Mel led him across a field and into a clump of trees. A well-worn path stopped in front of a half-acre pond. A picnic table stood next to the body of water and they sat down, side-by-side.
“This is where I would come everyday to pray. I knew you were in the middle of fighting the zombies, terrorists, and who-knows-what. I’d sit here and pray for you and the other guys, not knowing if you were already dead or not. I wondered some days if God was even listening.”
“He was listening, all right,” her father said. “I left over two months ago, heading to Hartwell, hoping that you or Tommy had left me a note or a map as to where you were going. It turned into quite an ordeal.”
“Two months! What happened?”
He shrugged. “I kept running into people who wanted to kill me.”
McCain told Melanie about his journey. He normally would have glossed over most of the dangerous aspects, but this afternoon he wanted her to know how hard he had tried to reach her. Chuck especially wanted her know how he and Beth had met. McCain gave more details than even he felt comfortable sharing but he needed Mel to understand how they had connected and why it had taken him so long to finally reach his daughter.
Mel’s eyes registered shock and then started watering as he related how Elizabeth’s friends had been murdered and she’d been kidnapped. He told his daughter how he’d been able to save the young woman, getting shot in the process, and then of their three days in an abandoned house, waiting out a winter storm.
“I can’t explain it, but trapped in that freezing house, we fell in love,” he admitted.
Mel squeezed his arm as he spoke of getting shot again during an attack on the Northeast Georgia Technical College campus. McCain smiled as he related how Beth had stayed by his side for the next month, helping Karen nurse him back to health.
He didn’t tell Melanie about every ambush or zombie incident that they had had but he did tell her about the day that he and Beth had had. Chuck admitted that he had believed they were going to die earlier, running to the point of exhaustion, the hoard of hundreds of zombies relentlessly pursuing them. Trapped on the roof of a trailer in a mobile home park, his main goal was to allow Elizabeth to get away safely, even if he perished in the process.
Melanie held her father’s hand tightly as he shared how close they had come to dying just hours earlier. She took a deep breath, calming herself, but grateful that God had, indeed, answered her prayers.
“You’re going to stay with us, right? You and Elizabeth?”
He shook his head. “I have to leave tomorrow.”
The disappointment was immediate on Mel’s face. “Tomorrow?” she exclaimed. “But you just got here!”
“I know but I have a mission that the admiral needs my help on back in Atlanta. He promised me, though, that once we take care of this situation, he’ll fly me back up here for some R&R. My plan, though, is to leave Beth with you guys, if that’s OK?”
“Of course. I’m still not sure what I feel about you being married, but it’s fine. I want to get to know her. She seems really sweet, but I’m not calling her ‘Mom,’ though.”
Chuck laughed. “I don’t think she’d let you. Why don’t we head back inside? It’s getting cold out here.”
They stood but Melanie hesitated, looking up at her father. “There’s something else. The only other person who knows this is Brian. I was waiting before I told his parents, but you’re here and I’ve got to tell you. I’m pregnant! I just took the test yesterday and it was positive.”
McCain had been punched in the face by two hundred and sixty-five pound heavyweights during his professional MMA career. Those shots were nothing compared to the stunned surprise that he felt at this moment. He grabbed his daughter and hugged her, feeling his own eyes watering.
“Congratulations, Sweetheart! You’re going to be a mommy and I’m going to be a grandfather!”
Father and daughter let themselves into the house through the kitchen and quietly made their way to the living room, where they could hear Elizabeth talking. McCain realized she was telling her attentive audience about their wedding ceremony the previous Monday.
“So, then I realized everyone in the room was looking at me. Chuck had gotten up and was standing with Pastor Ben by the fireplace and he said, ‘If you don’t have anything better to do tonight, would you marry me?’ And I did.”
Her listeners burst out in applause as McCain glanced around the room. Emily wiped her eyes with a Kleenex, staring intently at Scotty. The bearded man stuck his hand out and she handed him the tissue so he could dab his own tears. Tim, the burly former Delta operative, was standing against the back wall next to Chuck, blinking and then turning away.
When he saw Chuck looking at him, Tim shrugged and said, “It’s dusty in here. Dust always makes my eyes water.”
Beth saw that her husband had slipped into the back of the room with Melanie and said, “Here he is now. Mr. Romantic.”
This brought a laugh from everyone. McCain slid over next to his wife’s chair, put an arm around her and looked at the all of the Mitchells.
“I can’t tell you how thankful I am for how you’ve all looked after Melanie. And she told me the good news that she and Brian got married. I wish I could’ve been here, but at least we get to celebrate tonight!”
It was a wonderful celebration and Chuck’s heart was full. Betsy Mitchell had served a simple dinner of scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash brown potatoes. Everyone agreed it was one of the best meals that they’d ever eaten. McCain watched Tom, the former SEAL Team Six member, eat quickly and then slip out to relieve Harris at the helicopter. A few minutes later, the young crewman was inside and devouring his dinner, as well.
After dinner, Admiral Williams went outside holding his satellite phone. The inside of the Mitchell seniors’ spacious home was lit by candles, the windows all covered with blackout shades. As Emily, Melanie, and Elizabeth sat talking in one corner of the room, Chuck pulled Scotty aside to catch up with him.
The two men shared some of their experiences from the previous two months. After the last big attacks in Atlanta, neither Scotty nor Emily had been able to return to their apartments so Chuck had let them stay with him. When he had left on his journey to find Melanie, he knew that the couple was planning to drive to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where Emily’s brother lived with his family. Her parents had fled there, as well.
“I saw you had my Remington 700 and Em had my Benelli.”
Smith smiled. “You told us to make ourselves at home and you were kind enough to leave your gun safe open. She loves that shotgun, plus she’s also wearing your little Glock 26. I found some fifteen round Glock 19 mags and that’s what she’s been carrying. I really like that rifle. It’s a good shooter and 30.06 puts Zs and people down hard.”
McCain nodded. “I killed a lot of deer with it. I’m glad you’ve gotten some use out of it. So what all did the admiral tell you about what’s going on?”
Scotty’s eyes got big. “Did you know that we’ve been working for the CIA all along? He told me that he’s the Director of Operations and that our CDC Unit was created to let the spooks stay in the middle of the fight against the terrorists and the zombies.”
Chuck was surprised. What Smith had just shared was classified. After McCain had put all the pieces of the puzzle together many months earlier, Rebecca Johnson had sworn him to secrecy. If the media had gotten ahold of that information, the firest
orm would have shut them down. Now I guess it doesn’t matter, he thought.
“Yeah, I figured it out early on but Rebecca made promise to keep my mouth shut.”
Smith shrugged, taking it all in stride. “Anyway, he told me something about a group of Mexican gang members trying to take over a section of Atlanta. He said we’d all get a full briefing later. What have you heard?”
“The pastor who performed our wedding has a ham radio,” McCain answered. “He told me that he’d heard people chatting about it. Then, a couple of days ago, we talked to some South Carolina State Troopers who said they’d heard the same stuff over their radio. The trooper said it was a Mexican Cartel.
“Admiral Williams showed me a video a drone took this morning of maybe ten armed gang members dragging eight young women out of the back of a van. I guess one of the girls tried to put up a fight because some bastard shot her and they threw her body onto the street. The admiral said this cartel has taken over several blocks of Buckhead and that these scumbags have maybe forty women being held as slaves.”
“Oh, man! That sucks!” Scotty said, shaking his head angrily. “Sounds like they want us to go in there and arrest them? Any idea how many there are?”
Chuck grunted. “He told me maybe two hundred, but that’s not all. Somehow, these bastards have gotten their hands on some of the virus. I don’t know how much arresting we’ll be doing. The boss’ exact words were, ‘eliminate the cartel presence on U.S. soil, secure the virus, and free the hostages.’”
Smith smiled grimly. “I like eliminating better than arresting.”
Laughter erupted from where the young women were sitting on the other side of the room, all three of them staring at Scotty. Suddenly self-conscious, he stood and walked over, standing next to Emily.