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“It was… it was horrible. The batteries gave out a few days ago. We’ve been in the dark since then.”
“What happened? Were you able to get the locks open from the inside?”
“No… a few minutes ago they just opened. We heard them from downstairs and crawled up.” A panicked look crossed the woman’s face. “There are dead down there… so many.”
Recker patted the woman on the arm and motioned for a nearby officer. “Move her to the staging area. And get a search team in there with lights; she says there are dead in the lower levels.”
As the woman was taken away and Recker stepped back to watch his people work, the officer who had been talking with him before the doors opened jogged up to him. “Captain, I can’t believe so many survived. Sounds like they were in the final hours before the air gave out, though. We’re lucky that the doors opened when they did.”
Recker snorted. “Luck had nothing to do with it.”
“You know what caused it, sir?”
Recker looked out in the direction of Washington, thinking back to the strange run-in he had a few days prior with two men and a young woman who were on their way into the city. “I’ve got a hunch,” he replied, scratching his chin as he stared off in thought. Finally, after a moment of silence, he abruptly turned to the officer. “What’s our total force strength stand at?”
“Including our officers here now and the few that went out with the civvies in search of supplies this morning, about fifty in total.”
“Good. Find me eleven of the best officers we’ve got; they’re coming with me on a little mission. You’ll be in charge
here till I return.”
“Sir?” The woman blanched. “What about this attack? The whole virus and everything?”
Recker smiled and looked back out in the direction of Washington. “It’s over. He stopped it and saved these people. And now we’re going to go find him and his crew and return the favor.”
Chapter 18
The Waters’ Homestead
Outside Ellisville, VA
“I just don’t understand why we’re trying to kill them. We need labor!”
Nealson’s eyes were practically glowing as he spat back at the man crouched next to him behind one of the trucks in the driveway. “Are you questioning me?!”
“N-no, I just—”
“You’d better ‘just’ keep them pinned down!” He looked around the truck and house, searching in the woods for a sign of the pair that he had sent out in a flanking maneuver. Without radios at hand, they would have to rely on visual communications to let him know that they were in position. A moment later, amongst the trees at the edge of the property, he saw the two emerge from the deep of the woods where they had traveled to avoid detection.
The pair stopped and turned toward Nealson, waving at him. He waved back and began signaling for them to move in on the back of the house when the color drained from his face and a look of pure rage passed over him. He began waving frantically, trying to get them to pay attention and look behind them, but he was far, far too late.
***
“Hello, boys.” The seething whisper from between clenched teeth reached out and enveloped the pair like a serpent. Before they could turn and ready their rifles, a pair of shots rang out and they dropped to the ground, blood pouring from the holes in the backs of each of their heads.
Dianne stepped over the men without a second thought, hurrying into the woods where they had come from as she heard Nealson screaming in rage from behind the truck in the front drive. At any other point she would have felt guilt over taking life, no matter how horrid it might have been. Killing the two men elicited no emotions except satisfaction over eliminating yet another threat to her family and getting one step closer to ending the leader of the continual stream of threats.
Nealson fired at the figure as it vanished into the woods, hitting nothing but air and trees in the process. While he hadn’t gotten a good look at the person who gunned down two of his remaining men, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was her. The same devil who had been plaguing him practically since the event started. He had done well after the event, first killing two of his neighbors and plundering their homes before heading south and connecting with old prison mates from years gone past. That had swiftly turned into setting up shop along a highway where he could sell fuel and other goods to the locals, though more than a few of his customers had turned into slave labor.
He had been doing well. Until she showed up in camp, killing and stealing and turning the place on its head. In another situation, at another point in time, he might have been impressed and tried to convince her to join him. But she wasn’t that type of person, so she had to die. Unfortunately, she kept slipping from his grasp. Not this time, though.
“Stay here,” Nealson growled to the man next to him, “I’m going after her.”
“Are you…” the man started to question Nealson but thought better of it, instead just nodding and turning around to unload another magazine into the side of the house.
Nealson took off through the woods, heading parallel to the driveway in an effort to intercept the woman before she could sneak up and surprise him. Wearing camouflage pants and a jacket with a dark shirt on underneath, Nealson slowed down and dropped to his knees once he got far enough into the woods to be invisible to those inside the house. His wound made it impossible for him to crawl along like he wanted so he settled for sitting down with his back against a tree and pistol in his hand, waiting for the woman to come wandering through the trees.
He didn’t have to wait for long.
