After the group left the church, they piled into Rob's car and started driving. Block after block and no sign of anyone for miles. They made a right turn to cut through a small business district outside of downtown when suddenly the car ran headlong into something causing all three of them to be thrown against their seat belts and all the loose items on the seats went flying in every direction. When they got out to survey the damage there wasn't a dent or a mark on the car anywhere. When Lucas tried to walk around the front end, he walked headlong into an invisible barrier. He stood rubbing his forehead staring at something that wasn't there.
"What's going on?" Rob asked, walking towards Lucas with his hand outstretched so he wouldnt run into something he couldn’t see.
"Look! Jilly said suddenly, pointing into the distance.
Looking more closely, they could see dozens of people casually walking around the streets, talking to each other, eating at an outdoor cafe. Going about their business like nothing was out of the ordinary. A couple of the people saw them and waved happily. One beckoned for them to come in.
That was all it took for the tall three to scramble back into the car, back up and, tires screeching, get out of there as quickly as possible. It was quite a while until they felt safe enough to pull over and let their breathing and heart rate slow down.
"What the hell is going on?" Lucas asked. "That was the creepiest thing I have ever seen."
"Everybody looked really friendly," Jilly pointed out.
"Not friendly like I want to go have dinner with them" Rob said.
After they gathered their wits, they started driving again, very slowly this time, every so often turning down a street that led towards the city only to be met with the same invisible wall. It took a few hours but they were able to figure out that the wall was over 20 miles wide and wrapped all the way around downtown. And inside were all the other people, happily living their lives.
They noticed small flying crafts, definitely not from earth coming and going throughout the day. They would appear high up above the clouds, swoop down, and land somewhere too far away to see, then later they would take off and fly straight up until they disappeared.
"I wonder if there is no top on this thing or if the ships can somehow move through it?" Rob wondered out loud.
"I'm not sure I want to know" Lucas answered
They finally turned away from the city center and headed back to the suburbs where they felt safer trying to figure out what to do.
They saw handfuls of people still on the outside like them but when they tried to flag them down or talk to them they all hid or ran away. Most stores had been thoroughly looted of food and supplies so they were having to get creative looking for basic needs.
Rob's car had run out of gas and over the next ten days they had found two others who had keys left in the ignition but each of those had also run out of fuel and they were currently traveling on foot.
They had come upon a gas station that surprisingly still had some water bottles behind the counter water bottles as well as a few boxes of bagged chips. While they were loading them into their backpacks Lucas saw a woman in the back parking lot dressed in black leather pants and matching jacket trying to start a motorcycle. She was fussing and swearing as she hopped up and down on the pedal. They had gotten into the habit of hiding from anyone out in the open but with the way she was dancing around and yelling she didn't look particularly threatening.
When she finally noticed them staring at her, she stopped, stared back, and asked “Can I help you?”
“I think maybe the question is, can we help you?” Lucas said, walking towards her.
“Do I look like I need help?”
“Well actually now that you mention it...”
“Of course not, you look like you can do anything” Jilly cut in, scooting past her brother.
“Thank you,” Carolyn said.
“Out of gas?” Lucas asked.
“No. My gauge shows half a tank. It started sputtering on the highway and then it just stalled as I pulled in.” Lucas came up to the bike, hunkered down, and started moving wires around. “Looks like a rock must have flown up and cracked the distributor cap. Nothing's gonna fix that.”
“Well shit.” She got off the bike, yanked the helmet off her head, and tossed it on the ground running her hands in frustration through her short dark hair.
“That's been my mantra for the past few weeks,” Rob said.
“Yeah, mine too. Repeatedly,” she said. “I'm Carolyn by the way. I'm guessing since you haven't pulled a gun on me or tried to steal what I don't have by this point, you're not going to.”
“Yeah we're cool,” Jilly said.
“Well some of us try to be but aren't successful,” Rob said.
Jilly giggled. “You are very cool, Rob”
“Well it's nice I can fool some of the people some of the time. As she said, I'm Rob and the wannabe mechanic is Lucas and the deluded one is his sister Jilly.” he extended his hand and Carolyn shook it.
"It's good to meet you. Are there any more in your group?”
“Nope, just us,” Lucas said, standing up and brushing off his pants then offered his hand in greeting. “We've been pretty selective about who we talk to.”
“Should I be flattered then?” Carolyn asked, raising an eyebrow as she shook his hand.
“Probably,” Lucas laughed. “But seriously, where are you headed?”
“Trying to see if I can get back to my air base. I'm a pilot out of Ludlow, and I was away on leave when this all happened. I figured I would see if the military is still up and running.”
“My best friend is over at Ludlow. He's a computer programmer for their security systems.” Rob said
"Not sure what I'm going to find but I'm completely at a loss of what I should be doing. At least it's something to do. Where are you all headed?”
“We're just trying to survive. And figure out what in the hell is going on. We've got zippo answers to a million questions.”
“Yeah, I hear ya.”
“Do you want to go together?” Jilly piped in. She was fast becoming the group human resource director.
Carolyn looked from Rob to Lucas. They both nodded. "You are welcome to join us."
“Well the more the merrier I guess. So what are we driving?” she asked
Lucas looked a little embarrassed. “Currently nothing, but we're looking and hopeful.”
Carolyn looked around. “Have you checked all the cars in the parking lot?”
“I've looked in all the windows and can't find any with keys that are obvious,” Jilly said.
“Well, there's always hot wiring something.” Carolyn winked at Jilly.
“Can you do that?” Jilly asked, obviously impressed “We can't do that!”
“Well it's not exactly legal” Lucas interrupted “It's not something you learn in school.”
“Don't feel bad,” Carolyn said. “I had 3 older brothers who weren't always on the straight and narrow when they were young so you end up picking up stuff like that, whether you want to or not. So let's take a look and see what we got going on in the parking lot.”
“I'll show you, come on” Jilly headed out behind the gas station where at least half a dozen cars were parked by a strip mall.
Carolyn walked around checking each one out. As she tried each door to see if any of them opened she remembered growing up and tagging along with her oldest brother Steve who made a living repossessing cars for the local used car lot not too far from where they lived. He would scope out the house where the person lived and figure out their schedule. He would wait until they got home after work and had a few beers, maybe fell asleep in front of the TV before he'd get to work. He brought Carolyn along to be a lookout (after all who would think twice about an 8-year-old girl hanging out on the sidewalk) and while she was watching to make sure no in the house noticed, he'd use a slimjim to unlock the door and perform his magic under the dash and be gone long before the owner even knew the car was missing. She smiled at the memories because not only did she feel useful but it gave her a rush of adrenaline that probably fueled her desire to become a pilot. Finally one of the car doors opened. An older 4 door sedan. Perfect.
“Let's see what I can do with this one.” She leaned down and sort of crawled under the dash, pulling at the plastic panels then sorting through the wires. There was some mumbling and fussing, more pulling and yanking, a brief spat of swearing and suddenly the car started to turn over. Once twice, then it roared to life.
“WOW,” Jilly exclaimed. “WOW WOW, you are SO cool!”
“Well, there goes my cool status” Rob sighed.
“That's fantastic,” Lucas said. “We are so lucky to have found you.”
“Of course you are,” Carolyn laughed. “Now let's get rolling.”
They gathered their backpacks, the water they had found and filled the trunk with chips, and, letting Carolyn drive since she was the one that got the car running, they headed towards the airbase in hopes of getting some answers.
And that was almost a month ago. The airbase was abandoned and locked up tight. So they moved on from there and even though they had learned quite a bit since then there were still so many unanswered questions. They had seen several flyers tacked up here and there saying that there was a group of other "immune" people gathering outside the city. There was a large red arrow pointing west and the group of four had been looking for and following as many of the signs as they could find, hoping they would eventually meet up with them. “Strength in Numbers” Jilly kept reminding the crew.
They had reluctantly armed themselves with guns after getting ambushed by two men with rifles who tried to steal their supplies. They only got away because Rob tripped over a log while he was backing up with his hands in the air, which knocked over the table they were eating on, which in turn knocked over the grill they were cooking on which made such a loud noise that a flock of birds in the overhead trees took off, momentarily startling the robbers long enough for Carolyn to scoop hot coals off the ground with a bucket and toss it at them. They used the distraction to escape to the car and high-tail it out of there before either of the gun-toting lunatics could get off a shot.
After a fair amount of searching they had found some basic rifles in the storeroom of a sporting goods store. Everything was pretty much gone from the display area but there were several useful items still hidden in the back. They found a small stash of ammo too. Even though they weren't sure any of them could actually shoot anybody if it came right down to it.
Carolyn was the only one who knew how to load and operate the guns because of her military training. So she gave each one of them a crash course and hoped what she was teaching them would never be necessary.
And now here they were, traipsing to who knew where, car-less once again and each wondering what would become of them.
The group veered off into a neighborhood to select a house to spend the night in. They chose one a few blocks in so if anyone was heading down the main highway they wouldn't see the lights on. It was a larger two-story halfway down the block that had the back door unlocked. Everyone trudged in, threw their backpacks on the sofa, stashed their guns safely within reach in case they needed them later, and raided the kitchen. It looked like the pantry had been gone through at least once before and there wasn't a lot to pick from. Carolyn volunteered to check out next door and went out the back and over the low hedge separating the houses.
This neighborhood still had lights and running water which meant someone somewhere was looking after the utilities. And it also meant everyone could take a shower. Lucas grumpily pointed out though that there was no shampoo or toilet paper. Rob came to the rescue by pulling the partially smashed toilet paper out of his backpack. Lucas did a small happy dance as he hurried back to the bathroom. Jilly rummaged around the kitchen and came across some dish detergent and noted that if you didn't get it into your eyes it would work as hair and body wash. Rob wasn't so sure he wanted to smell like lemons but figured it might be better than nothing.
Carolyn returned through the back door carrying several bags. “Looks like no one went through the neighbors' house very well,” she said. "We've got boxes of unopened crackers and cereal, a dozen or so canned goods, and a box of cookies.
“Dibs on the cookies” Jilly called out. Carolyn dug in the bag and tossed some Oreos to her. “Good luck on them not being stale.”
“Here's to hoping.”
Carolyn handed out the crackers, lined up the cereal boxes and the cans on the counter and brought out a can opener. “Dinner is served.”
They shared ravioli, chicken soup, tuna, Cocoa Krispies, and Cheerios. Jilly shared the cookies for the dessert. Then everyone took a shower, stretched out in a different bed or on the couch, and slept until first light.
In the morning Jilly and Rob finished up the dry cereal and Carolyn and Lucas had leftover crackers and washed it all down with bottled water. As they gathered up their belongings they talked about which direction would be the most likely to find the group of Immunes they had been following. West towards more open space seemed like the best bet so they headed out and started looking for a car. None of the cars parked on the street were candidates for hot-wiring because they were too new and they had theft prevention mechanisms that killed the starter if someone tried to turn the ignition without the key. And it was hard to figure out which houses might have a car parked in the garage with accompanying keys in the house. They had spent the better part of a day earlier in the week going through a neighborhood trying to find something and came up empty which was why they were currently walking. They wound their way through the empty neighborhood streets until they found an old blue pickup truck from the early '70s parked in a driveway. With a requisite amount of fussing under the dash, Carolyn got it running and they were on their way in style once again. With the added perk that it had a full tank of gas.
Back on the highway with the city disappearing behind them, they each scanned the side of the roads for any sign or indication that the Immunes had come this way. They drove west for miles passing empty parking lots in front of businesses until they became fewer and farther between and all there were were fields with overgrown unharvested crops. They were just starting to wonder if perhaps they should turn around and retrace their route when they came across a wooden hand-painted sign nailed to a tree with a large red arrow in the style they had been following, pointing down a narrow dirt road. They came to a stop and stared at it before Lucas finally asked “Should we follow it?”
“We've come this far and at this point what do we have to lose?” Carolyn said.
“I vote we go” Jilly called out from the back of the truck.
Rob wasn't so sure but knew he was outnumbered so he nodded his head reluctantly and said “Might as well.”
Carolyn turned the wheel and slowly began making her way down the deeply rutted and overgrown road. The sun filtered through the trees and you could see dust hovering in the air. It reminded her of running barefoot with brothers out behind their house down to the creek where they would fish for crawdads and she would search for polliwogs that she brought home in a glass jar. Her mother made her keep them out on the back porch in an old aquarium where she would watch them slowly turn into tiny little frogs that would crawl out onto the rocks as they got their legs and then hop to the top of their glass enclosure and hop away. She wished for the simplicity of those days again.
In the back of the truck, Jilly and Rob ducked and scooted back and forth to avoid being hit by passing branches. “This can't be right,” Rob called out.
Just as Carolyn was slowing down and looking for a place to turn around, two large armed men stepped out from behind some bushes in front of them and pointed their guns into the cab of the truck. Carolyn slammed on the brakes and both Jilly and Rob did somersaults in the back of the cab.
Carolyn and Lucas put their hands up while the two in the back worked on righting themselves.
“What can we do for you?” The biggest man asked. He was bald with light brown skin, very tall, and was wearing military fatigues under a bulletproof vest.
Jilly managed to stand up and start talking before anyone could think of anything to say. “I'm Jilly, this is Rob” Rob smiled painfully as he continued to try to extricate himself from under all the backpacks and sleeping bags that had landed on top of him “And upfront that's Carolyn and my brother Lucas. We've been following your signs.”
The man raised an eyebrow at her, “Is that so?"
"It's exactly so," she said back, looking him straight in the eye.
"Do you have weapons?” the man asked.
“Yes,” said Carolyn rolling down the window. “It would be foolish not to.” She got out of the truck and the man moved the gun to point directly at her. “I'd stay put for the moment, little lady”.
Carolyn stopped and put her hands back up in the air. “I'm good. We're all good. The guns are in the truck. We're just looking for others like us who didn't get affected by the gas.”
The man walked towards the truck and looked into the cab, then into the bed all the while keeping his gun pointed at Carolyn. “If you want to continue further, you'll have to leave any weapons outside until Franklin meets you. No exceptions.”
"Who's Franklin?" Jilly asked
"That's the person in charge. The one who decides who can stay."
The group looked at each other. “What do you think?” Lucas asked, leaning over from inside the cab. Carolyn looked at each of the men with guns. “I'm not sure. I don't think it's a smart idea for all of us to go in. We shouldn't be completely helpless. We have no idea what's in there.”
Rob finally got himself upright and just sat there wondering if this was the end of the line. For all they knew these people were the same sort of bad guys they had been trying to avoid.
Lucas and Carolyn continued whispering. Finally, Carolyn looked up and asked “Is it OK if only two of us go in? You understand we don't want to be totally stripped of our protection.”
The one big guy looked at the other big guy who nodded once. He turned back to Carolyn “Yes that will be fine, but the two who don't go in need to stay here. They can't leave.”
“Alright, sounds fair,” Carolyn said. “Rob, you come with me, Lucas and Jilly, you both stay here and watch our stuff and call me if there's anything that doesn't seem right.” She grabbed the walkie-talkies they had found weeks ago at the sporting goods store and tossed one to Lucas, stuffed one in her backpack, and headed down the path.
Rob sat rooted in place. “Wait, Me? Why me? Are you sure you don't want Lucas to go? Or Jilly? She is a great talker. Really friendly. Everyone loves her. Wait. Carolyn!”
The big man with the gun motioned for the other man with the gun to stay put and started off down the path with Carolyn hurrying along behind him. She raised her hand above her head and waved it forward. “Come on Rob. Let's get moving, don't get lost.”
Rob reluctantly hopped out of the truck bed and hurried after her. “Carolyn, Carrie... Wait. I'm not sure I'm the best one for this. Oh lord.”
Carolyn had already rounded the bend and disappeared out of sight so he had no choice but to keep moving and try to keep up.
After what seemed to be at least half a mile, a small complex of buildings came into sight. It was surrounded by a high chain-link fence with barbed wire on top. There were two more guards with guns stationed at the front gate who greeted them with a nod and let them through.
“What are you guarding, Fort Knox?” Carolyn joked.
The man glanced back at her but didn't say anything.
“I like the big silent type,” she said fake whispered to Rob who had caught up with them and was trotting alongside her huffing and puffing with the effort.
“If I had known my future life was going to require so much exercise I would have gone to the gym more,” he managed to say through gasping breaths.
“You're doing a great job. Just keep your eyes open and be ready to run if we have to.” Carolyn said in a real whisper this time.
“If we have to run, I suggest you go for it and save yourself. I'll create a distraction by falling down so they can trip on me as they try to go after you. Tell Lucas and Jilly I said goodbye and it was nice to know them.”
“Oh, hush. You'll be fine. Adrenaline will kick in and you'll probably outrun me.”
“I think you don't know what you're talking about.”
The group reached the front door where the man with the gun stopped and punched in a code on a keypad. The door clicked open and they went inside to a small room with another code entry door. He punched in another code and the next door clicked open.
The three walked inside where it was pleasantly cool and they could hear people talking down the hallway. Carolyn could tell that this was an old military base, probably decommissioned only a few years ago because it still looked in generally good shape. When they got to the last door, the big guy stopped and motioned for Carolyn and Rob to go inside.
The office was basic, a large window, some filing cabinets with a happy looking spider plant hanging off one side, an older wooden desk with papers scattered all over the top, and a middle-aged lady sitting behind it writing something on a yellow legal pad. She looked up, smiled, stood up, and thrust her hand forward. She had graying hair, pulled back in a bun, and was wearing a military uniform.
“Hello, Hello, and welcome! I'm Franklin Owens. Yes I know I don't look like a Franklin but I always joke that my dad wanted a boy. Everyone calls me Frankie. It's always such a pleasure to have new people here. There's strength in numbers you know.”
“I'm Carolyn and this is Rob and we have another member of our group who says the same thing all the time.”
“Ah, a kindred soul. I like it, I like it” She shooed the big guy out of the room “ I hope George didn't scare you too much. I just need big muscle to keep the people out of here who only want to steal or cause trouble. He's really a giant pussycat. Wouldn't hurt a soul. So tell me about yourselves” She sat back down and motioned to the chairs across the desk from her.
They both sat.“I'm Major Carolyn Beckett, Air Force pilot. I was on leave when this all happened. I met up with my group a few weeks back and we're just trying to get some answers and figure out where to go from there.”
“I knew you looked military from the moment I saw you. The way you carried yourself. Wonderful to meet you. I'm a retired Colonel, US Army.”
“Wonderful to make your acquaintance, Ma'am,” Carolyn said.
“Likewise,” Rob said. “I'm Rob... I'm just a computer programmer, nothing as fancy as Carolyn. And we've got two more in our group. Brother and sister. Lucas and Jilly. Both students. They're waiting out with the truck.”
“Computer programmer, Oh wonderful wonderful. We're trying to get some of these old computers up and running and no one around here seems to know what's what so maybe you can give us a hand.”
“Oh, of course, anything I can do. So what are you all doing here?”
“Well,” Frankie said, “we're trying to understand what exactly is happening in the world. Who are in the ships, what they did to everyone, why some of us weren't affected by the gas, what the people who were affected are doing in the city, why there is a force field (for lack of a better word) around the city and what it means for our future.”
“Well that about covers all of our questions,” Carolyn said. “Have you learned anything useful yet?”
“We know very little about whoever or whatever was in the ships. The gas that they pumped from the ship seems to be some sort of neurotoxin that caused everyone to go into a catatonic state then had an added effect of making everyone compelled to migrate to a central location which appears to be the entire downtown area which has been cut off from the rest of the city by something we have yet to understand. And even though electricity and water are still running, all cell networks and landlines are down. But we have been able to get in contact with other places like us via radio and it appears it is the same all over the world. We don't know why the gas didn't affect a small percentage of the population but the best guess at this point is some sort of genetic component because we are seeing a high number of family members among the unaffected.”
“We've been calling them the Immune” Carolyn told her.
“Yes that would be a correct description, it would seem like we are all immune to whatever it was. And as to the "why" behind this whole thing, we don't have a clue. We're trying to coordinate findings with other groups around the world but most of them are as stymied as we are.”
“What are your plans moving forward?” Carolyn asked.
“Well, we are trying to send people to the city to see if they can get any answers but we've sent 5 groups so far and as of yet there's been no luck penetrating the field. Currently, we've run out of people willing to go.”
“We volunteer to give it a try. We've got a smart group and I know none of us want to sit around waiting for the sky to open up again and drop something on us that we are not immune to.”
“Wait, what?" Rob couldn't get the words out fast enough. "Who doesn't want to sit around? I'm not sure that's exactly accurate. Shouldn't we check with Lucas and Jilly first before volunteering them?”
“Well we certainly aren't asking anyone to do anything when there is no guarantee of safety, but if your group thinks it might be able to do what no one else has, we can give you some supplies and all the info that we have so far. We can use all the help we can get.”
“Fantastic!” Carolyn exclaimed. “I want answers and I can't sit around and wait.”
“We'll bring the rest of your group in and you can rest up for the night and then head out first thing in the morning. And then in the meantime, Rob, maybe you can look at our computer systems to see if you can get them working better.”
“Sure,” Rob said dejectedly. “Why not. I'll be as helpful as possible while I'm still alive.”
“Great to hear, really proud of you son. I'll have George show you to our computer room” Frankie stood up, rounded the desk, and opened the door. George was still standing there like an obedient puppy. “George, take the little lady out to her friends, let them all come in, and on your way drop Rob here off at the computer room so he can get a look at what we've got going on.”
Carolyn hopped up and headed out the door. She punched George in the arm. “Look at you, you've got a name and everything.” George scowled at her and turned and headed down the hallway.
“Follow me” he grunted.
“Come on Rob” she called, disappearing around the corner.
Reluctantly Rob pulled himself out of the chair. He smiled halfheartedly at Frankie as he left the room. “Thank you, ma'am. I hope I can help.”'
“I know you can son. I can see it in your eyes. You're going to be an asset to us all.”
Rob hurried down the hall trying to catch up to George and Carolyn. He felt like he spent the better part of his day hurrying after other people. They wound through the complex until they got to a room with glass walls that was filled with computers and a handful of people sitting around staring at screens and typing away. George motioned to the room.
“In here for computers.” And he kept walking without looking back.
Rob stopped at the door and watched the group, none of whom looked happy. “Um, hello. Um, Frankie sent me to help” he said as he entered the room.
Every person in the room practically jumped out of their seats. “Oh sorry, sorry, didn't mean to scare you." he stammered "I'm Rob. Computer programmer by trade. Frankie thought maybe I could help out in here.”
A small balding man with glasses stood up from the closest computer extending his hand “I'm Ethan. And thank goodness someone who knows something. Frankie sent us here because we work with computers but none of us actually know how to do more than type and use whatever program our jobs required. We are all totally out of our depth. Maybe now we can get something done. And by way of introduction, this is my brother Kyle and those two over there are Sylvia and Pat.”
Kyle stood up and hurried forward offering his hand and tripping on the edge of a rolling desk chair sending it skating across the room.
"Oops" He laughed "Good to meet you, Rob." He was small and wore glasses like Ethan but had a full head of bright red hair. Rob shook his hand. "Likewise," he said.
Sylvia was in her mid-thirties, about 5 inches shorter than Rob with dark skin and striking green eyes. She had her hair pulled into 2 puffy ponytails on the side of her head. Rob couldn't help noticing what a beautiful smile she had as she came up and shook his hand. Her hand was soft and warm and Rob felt his insides go a little woozy. He had to pull his gaze away when Pat came up and slapped him on the shoulder. "Hey there buddy!" Pat was tall, almost as tall as Rob and of indeterminate gender. The name didn't help either. Rob staggered a bit from the friendly gesture and offered his hand. "Nope, don't do handshakes," Pat said laughing. "Not my thing" and thrust a fist at Rob who stared at it for a moment before he figured out that he was supposed to put his fist up as well and touch them together. "That's my boy" Pat exclaimed, drawing the fist back after the bump while simultaneously waggling fingers in the air then headed back to his or her seat.
Rob took a deep breath. Maybe he could actually accomplish something useful here. “So what are we trying to do?” he asked, sitting down at the closest computer. Ethan pulled up a chair next to him. “We've been talking to other people over ham radios but it would be so much easier to communicate and send information to them over the internet which still seems to be up and running in a limited fashion. But none of us know how to connect to other people that are outside the city. So until we can do that we are going through all the old government files that we can access from here to see if there is any information that might give us a clue to what's happening. But most of the files are password protected and none of us know how to get around that either. Maybe you can help us.”
“Well alrighty then,” Rob said, adjusting his keyboard. “If I can access my office computer, assuming it's still running, then I can probably figure out how to find the other people as well as breaking into protected files.” The others gathered around and watched in awe as Rob began typing away. Rob smiled to himself feeling more relaxed and in his element than he had in quite a while.
George strode quickly down the hall with Carolyn trying to keep up behind him. “My legs have to take twice as many steps as yours to keep up with you, ya know.”
“Yep”
“You could slow down a bit”
“Yep”
“But I'm guessing you're not going to”
“Yep”
“Lovely”
They looped all the way around the inside of the building until they were back to where they started. George opened the back door and waved towards the gate where Lucas and Jilly were still waiting, sitting on the hood of the truck. The other guard was leaning against the trees and waved back, stood up, and motioned at Lucas and Jilly to follow him.
“I guess you talked them into letting us stay?” Jilly asked when they got to the building.
“Well yes but even better than that” Carolyn said, “I'll tell you all about it inside”
They all followed George the opposite way down the hall until they got to a large open area with couches, TVs, and tables. “This is the rec area and down the hall are bedrooms on each side and a bathroom further down from there. There are food rations in the kitchen area. Make yourself at home. Frankie will be out shortly. The other residents are all in the conference room.” He turned and left too fast for anyone to ask any questions.
“That was more words all at one time then he said the whole afternoon,” Carolyn noted.
“So what's up? What are they doing here?” Lucas asked.
“The lady who runs the place is former military. She's trying to organize fact-finding missions to add more info to the limited amount we all have. I volunteered us to head towards the city and see if we could get behind the invisible wall. It's better to try to get ahead of the game instead of hanging around doing nothing and possibly becoming sitting ducks.”
“OH, excellent!” Jilly exclaimed, “When are we leaving.”
Lucas sighed. “What is it with the girls in this group? Do you each have a death wish? Where's Rob and how's he taking the idea? Does he even know?”
“Oh, he knows. Frankie sent him to the computer room to help out there since that's his line of expertise and I think he'd rather dance down the middle of the road naked than head to the city on purpose but he'll deal with it. He's braver than he thinks he is. Frankie is going to give us supplies so we can be as well prepared as possible.”
“Cool,” Lucas said. “I'm game for whatever we need to do. Now let's raid the kitchen.”
They each grabbed a snack and settled onto the sofa waiting for Frankie to come in and brief them. “What do you think we're going to find?” Jilly asked. “Will the people still be zombies? And how are we going to get inside? Do you think Rob can figure it out? He's so good at computer stuff.”
“I don't know," said Carolyn. “We don't know what's making it so we can't get inside that barrier. It might not be computer stuff at all. And if it is, it might not be any kind of computer that Rob knows how to figure out.”
“Oh, I bet he'll know,” Jilly said, “He can figure out everything.”
“Well, I'll let him know that you have complete confidence in him. And tell him if he doesn't figure it out we're all going to be very disappointed.”
“That might not help,” Lucas laughed.
“True” Carolyn sighed. “But we'll figure it out as we go along.”
As they sat on the sofas, lost in thought about what might lay ahead of them, Frankie bustled into the room.
“Hello Hello,” she said, hurrying up to the seating area and falling onto one of the couches. “Oh, these are so much softer than that damn chair in my office. I gotta have George drag one of these down there. I'm sure he won't but it's a thought. Anyway, as I said Hello Hello, I'm Frankie and you must be the brother and sister I heard about.”
Jilly opened her mouth to talk but Lucas beat her to it “I'm Lucas and this is my sister Jilly.” Jilly frowned at Lucas but he kept going. “It's so good to meet you. We were just talking about how we're going to help. We've been traveling for several weeks now and it will be a good change to have a direction and purpose beyond just trying to stay alive.”
“Excellent, wonderful. We've got some really great people who have shown up here. They've been spending time compiling all the intel they have gathered before they arrived and also putting together the intel other people have brought and also what the scouts have brought back. We still have several groups out and about hoping to find something or someone who may be able to shed some light on what's happening. As I told Carolyn earlier, we still have no idea about the reasons behind what's going on. Or even who the perpetrators are. We haven't had any luck getting beyond the force field. No one has seen anyone go through and there doesn't appear to be a doorway anywhere. I'm sure you've seen the small ships taking off and landing. Either there is no top to this barrier or else they have the technology to go through. We can only learn more if we can get in there and see it for ourselves. Not everyone wants to leave the safety of this facility once they get here. And I'm totally OK with that but it's a real plus when we meet people who want to go out and see what's there.”
Jilly jumped right in before Lucas could respond. “Well, that's us for sure! We're willing and able to do whatever we can. I always wanted to be an alien hunter but didn't think I'd ever get a real chance to do it. I was going to go to college next year for astronomy so this is kinda like that right?”
Frankie laughed. “We need more people with your enthusiasm Jilly! So let's see what we can get your group that will help your expedition. We've got a number of large military trucks outback. Complete with keys. We can supply better guns and ammo and we've got more M.R.E.'s than you can shake a stick at.”
“M.R.E.'s?” Lucas asked
“It's a military thing. Stands for Meals, Ready to Eat. Freeze-dried, foil sealed. It's got to be foil, plastic is not an oxygen barrier. It includes entree, cracker pack, cheese spread, mixed fruit, beverage powder, spoon, coffee, cream substitute, candy, matches, toilet tissue. Shelf life of 10 years. I'll send enough for a couple of weeks. You won't have to scavenge while you're out there.”
“Wow, freeze-dried food. I can't wait.” Lucas grimaced.
“No they aren't that bad,” Carolyn said “I've eaten them dozens of times when we were away from the base. You get used to them.” She turned towards Frankie, “Anything at all will be so helpful. Thank you.”
“Oh, it's me who thanks you. If you can help us then you are worth everything we give you. I'll have George gas up a truck for you and load the guns, food, and supplies. It'll be ready in the morning. Rob is down in the computer lab helping out the people down there. When they're done they'll all come back here and you all can get some sleep before heading out. The rest of the group that's here should be heading in from the conference room in about an hour or so.”
They all thanked her profusely as she hurried off to some other duties she had to look into. All three of them went back to relaxing in a way they hadn't done in many weeks. Not needing to worry about whether or not someone was going to try to break into where they were staying, or worrying if someone was following them to try to take their stuff. It was a wonderful respite. Just as all three were nodding off there was a commotion down the hallway and at least half a dozen people bustled through the door. They were all talking and gesturing enthusiastically until they saw the three of them stretched out on the sofas. They all hurried over and introduced themselves. Over the next hour, everyone exchanged stories and gave their own thoughts about what was happening. As the chatting was winding down, Rob and the others from the computer lab showed up and the process started all over again.
Ethan and Kyle walked right up to Carolyn and introduced themselves. Smiling and falling all over themselves as they listened to her tell them about herself. Pat came in, introduced him or herself and immediately noticed Jilly and called out "Yo girlfriend" and held up a fist to which Jilly immediately without thinking lifted her fist and they bumped them together and plopped down in the corner of one of the sofas and started getting to know each other.
Carolyn noted that Rob was listening to Sylvia talk, not taking his pale blue eyes off of her, and hanging on her every word.
"Well, would you look at that" Carolyn muttered under her breath to Lucas who was standing next to her discussing how much he missed video games since this all started with another young man his age.
"What?" Lucas asked, breaking away from conversation for a moment.
"I think Rob has a crush" She laughed and Rob looked over and caught her looking at him and blushed from the roots of his light blonde hair all the way down to his toes.
"Leave the guy alone," Lucas said and went back to discussing his favorite console with the other young man.
Carolyn turned back to the two brothers who she suddenly noticed were looking at her a little like Rob was looking at Sylvia.
As everyone was getting too tired to talk anymore they started to slowly trickle towards the bedrooms. Rob, Lucas, Carolyn, and Jilly picked out two rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys and after a warm shower they each fell into bed and slept better than they had in quite some time. Though each was certain after today, things probably wouldn't be nearly as comfortable and safe as they felt right now.
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