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“The nearly dying from heatstroke part wasn’t that much fun, no. And I guess the other parts weren’t ‘fun’ in the conventional sense.” Jane uncurled her legs and shifted forward in her seat. “But that had to have been the most exhilarating time of my life.” She looked at Dr. Evans and back at Rick. “So if you two are planning something to save the world you can count me in.”
Dr. Evans laughed and clapped his hands on his knees. “Now that’s the spirit!” He looked over at Rick. “I’ll add my two cents to this as well, if you don’t mind. Jane’s been absolutely incredible since I got here. Helping me obtain a computer to perform some research, distracting some of the soldiers when I needed to get some data from their archives and that sort of thing.”
“Huh.” Rick nodded approvingly. “Color me surprised and impressed.”
“So what’s the plan, gentlemen?” Jane took another sip from her mug and watched Rick and Dr. Evans intently.
“Good question.” Rick glanced upward and sighed. “The first thing we should do is see if General Black will listen to both Dr. Evans and me try to explain what we have to do to stop Damocles. If he’ll listen then he might be able to help us figure out where to go to get the data we need.”
“Another question.” Jane put a finger up in the air. “What’s the plan for when he says no, laughs in your faces and tosses you back into your rooms?”
Rick looked at Jane and Dr. Evans with a determined expression set in stone on his face. “Then we find our own path.”
Chapter 11
Somewhere between Ellisville, VA and Blacksburg, VA
When Jason finally pulled the truck to a stop, Dianne slowly released her death grips on the overhead handle and her left armrest. It had taken nearly three-quarters of an hour for Jason to get them to within half a mile of the gas station and Dianne had been holding on for dear life most of the way. The journey off-road had resulted in three near misses at rolling the truck over on its side, two instances where they had nearly gotten stuck in the soft dirt and at least seventeen new dents and scratches in the vehicle’s paint.
“Jason?” Dianne whispered his name as she stared out the front windshield.
“Yeah?”
“Can we find a different way back next time?”
“I’d like that.”
“Yeah.” Dianne nodded. “Me too.”
After taking a few minutes to collect themselves the pair got out and retrieved their gear from the truck bed and the back seats. Once everything was set Dianne turned up the volume on the radio and pressed down on the microphone button.
“Dianne to Sarah. Dianne to Mark. Anybody home?” A few seconds of silence passed before the radio screeched and a static-laden voice replied. “Hey mom, we’re here. Any updates?”
“None yet. We think we may have figured out where they are but we won’t know for certain until we get there. We’ve got half a mile of walking to do and we’ll know then. We’re going to go quiet on the radio for now and we’ll call you in a couple hours or so.”
“Sounds good. Stay safe out there.”
“You too.”
Dianne switched off the radio and slipped it into her backpack before hoisting the bag onto her shoulders. “You ready for this, Jason?”
“Ready as I can ever be, D.”
“Let’s get going.”
Leaving the truck parked far off the side of the road hidden in a dense cluster of trees and bushes, Dianne and Jason headed out. They followed the path of the highway, staying well clear of the road as they cros
sed the rolling hills, open fields and occasional lightly forested areas of southern Virginia. Their pace was slow—mostly due to Jason—but after an hour or so they finally found themselves approaching the location of the gas station.
From their vantage several hundred feet across the street on a hill it was easy to see that what used to be a large, clean and well-lit building had been radically altered and turned into something completely different.
Sandbags were piled high along the perimeter of the property around the gas station, surrounding both the main building and a few sheds that were located to the sides and back. Barbed wire had been crudely attached to the sandbags which stood about four feet tall and were at least four or five bags in thickness. Burned-out cars had apparently been pulled into position around certain parts of the sandbag interior, helping to shore up sections where the ground sloped sharply in one direction or another. The roof of the building and the covering over the pumps had been transformed as well, with a single row of sandbags three layers high stretching around the edge. A ramp constructed of scrap lumber stretched from the ground up to the roof, looking like it could collapse at any moment.
The windows of the main building were covered with plywood and boards, but only halfway up. The top half of the windows had been left exposed likely to aid those inside by providing natural lighting and allowing them to see out of the building. A handful of fires had been built inside rings of cinderblocks across the property of the gas station with two of them being particularly large and having dishes suspended over them. A few people sat near the fires, talking as they tended to the dishes which Dianne assumed were filled with food for a late lunch or early dinner.
Two entrances to the gas station—one off of the highway and the other off of the country road—were visible and a handful of people Dianne assumed were guards standing around them. Each of the guards carried a rifle of some sort and were dressed in normal street clothes, though they appeared more tattered and dirty than normal. A handful of people stood outside the country road entrance talking to the guards about something in an animated fashion.
The look of the compound had a very end-of-the-world feel to it and Dianne couldn’t help but feel reminded of Mad Max as she studied its layout and the people walking around inside. “I think we found it.” She whispered to Jason as she crouched on the hill behind a tree.
