Austin cursed, and then jerked at his arm so that he screamed and his eyes went even wider. “Does he have Savannah?” he asked, his voice tight as he forced the words out.

  Wendell looked from Ennis back to Austin. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. He never said anything to me.”

  “You’ve been talking to him?” Ennis questioned, the hurt and betrayal evident in his voice.

  “He has to die,” Austin said firmly.

  Ennis reached up and put a hand on Austin’s shoulder. “You can’t kill him.”

  “Why not? He’s no good to us. I never want to see his face again!”

  “You can’t kill him because you would never be able to live with yourself for killing such a pitiful man,” Ennis said.

  Austin froze, and then stared at the man in front of him, hating everything he saw. The beady eyes, the pointed nose, and the man’s disgusting personality in general. He was a weasel.

  “You can’t kill me. I know what Zander’s plan is,” Wendell blurted out.

  Austin scoffed. “We all know what his plan is. He’s going to go after Amanda and stop her before she can launch those missiles.”

  Wendell was shaking his head. “But I can help. I can pretend to feed him information. He trusts me!”

  “Is that why he shot you?” Austin asked dryly.

  That seemed to make the man pause. “I was in the way. I shouldn’t have been in the way.”

  “You seem to be in the way everywhere you go,” Austin snapped.

  “This isn’t helping,” Harlen said, finally getting over his shock and stepping in.

  “He’s right,” Ennis agreed. “We can use Wendell to feed Zander misinformation.”

  Austin only looked at his brother, wondering if he’d been hit in the head. “He’s playing you—us. He’ll say anything to stay alive. He’ll tell Zander what we’re doing and betray us, again. You can’t trust him, Ennis. He’s a rat, a stinking rat that needs to be put down.”

  “Wendell, you know Austin will kill you, and slowly, right?” Ennis demanded, looking at the man cringing before them.

  Wendell nodded. “I swear, I won’t betray you again. I was afraid he’d kill me. He found me in the woods and threatened to kill all of you if I didn’t tell him what we were doing,” he squeaked out.

  Austin knew he was lying. “I don’t believe you.”

  “It’s all we have, Austin. Do you want to get Sarah back? Do you want to do what we set out to do?” Ennis asked him.

  “I know where the bunker is,” Wendell blurted out. “It’s not at the restaurant.”

  That got Austin’s attention. “Where is it?”

  Wendell seemed bolstered by Austin’s interest in his information. “I’ll show you. That means you need me alive.”

  “I could just beat you until you told me,” Austin replied easily.

  “Austin,” Ennis warned.

  “Guys, we need to get out of here in case they come after us,” Harlen said.

  Austin looked down the road in the direction they’d last seen the soldiers. “They don’t want us. They got Sarah and they think they got everything they needed,” he sneered, looking back at Wendell. “They didn’t, Wendell. They didn’t get it all.”

  Austin fought the urge to touch the USB in his front pocket, carefully wrapped inside a sealed bag and stuffed inside the remaining protein bar he’d been carrying for over a week. Sarah had been suspicious early on, afraid something like this could happen. Thinking of it, he brushed against the messenger tucked in his other pocket. Over and over, he’d been tempted to turn it on to message Amanda, but he knew she wouldn’t get any messages until she turned hers on. They needed a plan to stop Zander before he got to Amanda.

  Wendell was not to be trusted, though. He and Sarah had talked about that fact several times. He had to believe Sarah had given Wendell false codes.

  “Harlen, watch him; keep your gun on him. If he moves or blinks, shoot him,” Ennis ordered before grabbing Austin’s arm and pulling him away.

  They crossed the street, moving into the tall grass. Austin kept his eyes on Wendell the whole time, not trusting him to not try to run or overpower Harlen. Harlen was a big guy, but he was also inherently kind and would struggle to shoot a man at point blank range.

  “Austin, you can’t kill him. I know you want to—and trust me, I want to, as well—I can’t believe he did this to us, but we aren’t like that. We don’t kill people unless we have to. It will weigh on you for the rest of your days,” Ennis said.

  “He betrayed us. He sold us out. He sold out Amanda. Zander probably has a contingent of men already after her. They’ll kill her, Ennis,” Austin growled, feeling his fists clenching involuntarily at the thought of it.

  “Give her some credit. She’s proven herself to be a worthy opponent. She isn’t going to go down without a fight, and we all know how important this mission is,” Ennis said, forcing him to look into his eyes.

  Austin faced his older brother with the weight of everything that had happened making him rethink everything. “Is it worth it?” he demanded suddenly. “Is the mission really worth all of us dying? I should have gone after Savannah. I left my daughter with the idea I was going to save the world. I was arrogant, and now it might all be for nothing. I might die. You might die. All of us will probably die by Zander’s hand and our mission will have been a waste of time and life. We could have found somewhere to lie low. We could have found that island you talked about. We could have run away and left all of this to someone else to fix. Isn’t that what our military and our government are supposed to do? Why are we doing this? We both know we don’t have a shot at actually succeeding,” he said, his words falling heavy on his heart.

  Ennis grinned darkly at him, and then shook his head. “Austin, you are arrogant. You always have been, but that’s what makes you who you are. You have never given up. You have never listened to people when they told you it was too dangerous, or you shouldn’t go into a war zone to get a story. You did it because you were compelled to and that’s what you are doing now. You don’t quit. This mission is absolutely a Hail Mary, yeah, but there’s the slightest chance we can pull it off. You’ve convinced me of that, and you can’t give up on this now. You can’t. If you do, you will never be able to live with yourself,” Ennis stated simply. “We’ve got a chance to make all of this worth the fight. We need to take it.”

  Austin let the words sink in. He knew his brother was right. If he was forced to retreat to some hideaway and live out the rest of his days, he’d never be able to rest easy. He would always think back to the moment he’d quit. He couldn’t walk away—not yet, at least. It wasn’t in his DNA.

  “What do we do?” he asked his big brother. “We both know Wendell disappeared while we were running, and then he was with us again. What if he was talking to Zander or his men during that time? What if he’s still working with them, on something new?”

  “It doesn’t matter, Austin. Our plan is the same, and we’re not going to let Wendell bring it down. We get to that computer center and give Amanda the best shot at success of shooting down those satellites,” he said, a small smile playing on his lips.

  “You make it sound so easy,” Austin muttered.

  “I said you couldn’t kill Wendell, but I didn’t say you couldn’t knock him around a bit until he gives you the location of the bunker the NWO is hiding out in,” he said with a wink.

  Austin nodded, staring at Wendell across the road. He loathed the man, but suspected he did know more than he’d already told them, regardless of when he’d learned it. Just looking at him turned his stomach. “I think we should check the restaurant first. Wendell could be trying to throw us off.”

  “I agree. Let’s go. I don’t want Sarah in his hands for long. We saw what his men did to Nash.”

  Austin felt a pang of guilt, followed by grief at the reminder of Nash’s death. He’d dragged Sarah into this mess kicking and screaming, and he was going to do whatever he needed to get her out of it.

  30

  It was early the morning after Amanda and her crew had delivered the antibiotics to Robin. She estimated they were about a day behind schedule, which worried her. They’d been too exhausted to travel anymore last night. She felt too exhausted to travel now, but they had to move. They had to make up for lost time. The thought of running part of the way did not appeal to her. In fact, she realized it could be dangerous to do so in the high heat. She was only grateful the humidity was relatively nonexistent—that at least offered some small consolation to her tired body.

  They had crashed out in one of the empty houses in the small town. Hank had been kind enough to offer to stay up with the sick people all night while Robin had gotten a few hours of sleep. Now, Amanda got up and quietly walked out of the house. The fresh morning air helped to waken her senses. She couldn’t believe the difference between the small town and the city when it came to cleanliness. A little care went a long way. There were too many people in the city, and too many of them didn’t care about what they were doing. It wouldn’t be long before disease ran rampant through all cities.

  She took care of personal business before going back into the house to rouse her people. Her wake-up calls weren’t met with excitement, but nobody begged for more sleep. All of them knew how important their journey was, so it only took ten minutes before everyone was up and ready to move.

  “We’ve got to move fast, guys,” Amanda said as they all waved goodbye to Hank and Robin on their way out of town.

  “How fast?” Tonya mumbled.

  “I think we might need to actually jog intermittently. We’re behind schedule.”

  She set the pace, her arms swinging as she moved over the highway, envisioning herself eating up the miles. The group kept up with her, though there was a lot of heavy breathing as they walked.

  “Truck!” Ezra shouted, moving off the roadway.

  Amanda followed him, her eyes moving as she looked up and down the highway in search of what he’d seen. “Where?” she hissed.

  Everyone else already lay stretched out on the ground. “Up ahead. It’s sitting off to the side of the road a little.”

  Amanda popped her head back up, identifying the truck that looked like so many of the other vehicles they’d passed along the way. “What about it? Did you see someone?”

  “No, but it’s off the road, like it was going around the stalled cars. That means it came after the other vehicles stalled,” he explained.

  She thought back to the Hummer she and Austin had happened upon, and wondered if it was the same situation. There could be more soldiers lying in wait.

  “I’ll go check it out,” Ezra volunteered.

  He started walking towards the truck, his rifle aimed outward, ready to shoot the first thing that moved. Amanda watched from behind a small passenger car, waiting to see if he’d be attacked. When Ezra reached the truck, though, he looked in the windows and turned to wave his hand, indicating it was all clear.

  She jogged over, inspecting the empty vehicle. “What do you think happened?” she asked.

  Ezra opened the driver’s side door and jumped inside, turning the key in the ignition. When the truck started, he and Amanda stared at each other, both slack-jawed.

  “Did that truck just start?” Mike asked, rushing towards them with the others hot on his heels.

  “It’s running,” Amanda gasped. “Everyone, get in. I don’t know who was driving this thing, but we’re taking it. Go!” she hollered.

  Ezra got behind the wheel, sliding the rifle between the two front seats. Gretchen and Tonya got into the back seat of the quad cab while Amanda took shotgun. The others climbed into the bed of the truck.

  “Do you remember how to drive?” Gretchen teased as Ezra seemed to struggle for a few seconds before putting the truck into drive.

  “Not a bit,” he joked, and then he hit the gas, bumping along the edge of the highway before finding a hole between stalled cars and getting into the left lane.

  Amanda sat back, the window down and the wind blowing through her hair. It felt good to be in a moving vehicle. She closed her eyes and let herself relax for a moment as Ezra drove as fast as he could down the highway, slowing down to pass the occasional vehicle in the road. They traveled for an hour before Ezra cursed under his breath.

  “What is it?” she asked, her eyes immediately scanning the area for trouble.

  “Gas. We’re going to run out of gas,” he muttered.

  She groaned. “Figures. Did anyone see that last sign? How close are we?”

  “The sign I saw said eighteen miles to Cheyenne. That couldn’t have been more than a few miles back,” Tonya answered.

  The truck began to sputter, making it clear they’d been running on fumes. “Come on, come on,” Ezra quietly begged.

  The truck jerked a few times before the engine cut out. Ezra coasted to a stop before putting the transmission in park. They all sat quietly for a few seconds before Amanda opened the truck door. “Let’s go. That saved us a lot of time, but we still have a good five to six hours of walking. We’ll make camp outside the base and go in first thing tomorrow,” she said.

  Everyone piled out of the truck before setting off. Amanda looked back at the truck as they moved. It didn’t look like it had belonged to the now, but there was no way to know for sure. She hated the idea of stealing someone’s vehicle, but it had been for the greater good. They had to get to Cheyenne if there was even a remote chance of returning the world to normal.

  The limited water they had was almost gone, though Amanda thought they’d escaped getting sick. They’d each taken another round of the antibiotics to stave off any chance of developing typhoid, which gave Amanda hope they would all be okay, but they needed more water and they needed food. She could only hope they’d find sustenance in Cheyenne, as well as survival. It was early evening when the massive base came into view, its large hangars standing out on the horizon. The surrounding land was barren, showing no signs of life. Part of her had been hopeful they’d arrive to the base and find American forces not just in command, but gathered in force.

  “That’s it?” Gretchen asked as they stood on a small hill overlooking the area.

  “That’s it,” Amanda said with a nod.

  “And we’re supposed to walk in there and push buttons to launch missiles, like it’s no big deal?” Ezra asked skeptically.

  “That’s the working plan,” Amanda replied.

  “Tonight?” Mike asked.

  Amanda pulled the messenger out of her pocket. She’d resisted the urge to turn it on time and time again. Sarah had warned her and Austin both about the potential for the battery not holding power, and she really just had to trust there’d be enough juice for her to get the signal from Austin. Without it, they’d be shooting blind and could make things far worse. Resolve firming her spine, she put it back.

  “I think we need to do a little surveillance. If our Air Force is in there, we aren’t going to get far,” she replied.

  “If they are in there, why don’t we have them take care of it?” Ezra asked.

  “If they believe us, you mean. But first we need to know if anyone is in there. This base could be overrun already. We need to see if the NWO has taken over,” she said, hoping that wasn’t the case.

  “I think I see water over there,” Gretchen said pointing off to the side of the land they’d come upon.

  Everyone looked in the general direction, pleased to see a small lake. “Let’s go. We’ll get a small fire going and get our water needs taken care of,” Amanda said.

  They turned off the road, walking through the tall grass towards the lake. There were a few houses scattered about, but all were set back far enough from the road that Amanda felt confident no one would see them as they made their way down to the water.

  “I can’t resist. I have to get in,” Mike said apologetically.

  Amanda looked at the water tinged green. It did look very inviting after a long, hot day on the road. “I’ll stand watch. Go ahead,” she encouraged.

  Part of her wanted them to have a little fun on what could very well be their last day on earth. She had no idea what the base held in store for them, but the very idea of walking in there, finding the silos, and entering the launch codes without any problems was a pipe dream. Their only advantage was that the NWO didn’t know their plan. They would still be chasing Austin west. She sat down on the bank and watched the men strip down to their underwear and wade into the water. Gretchen and Tonya settled for rolling up their pants legs and wading at the edges.

  The men had fun, diving under the water and splashing one another. She watched them, smiling at seeing them act so normally. This was why they were doing what they were doing. This was why they had pushed their bodies beyond endurance. There had to be more good times like this in the future, when they could relax by a lake and frolic in the water. Savannah and future generations deserved to know what it was like to feel safe and have fun. Amanda let herself relax, feeling relatively safe for the moment.

  But, as always with good moments in this world, the moment was short-lived. The first sign of trouble floated across the peaceful lake. Men’s voices. Amanda clapped her hands once, grabbing the attention of the men in the water. Gretchen and Tonya were already out of the lake, hurriedly putting on their socks and shoes.

  “Company,” Amanda hissed.

  The men rushed back to the bank, trying to get out of the water as fast as possible.

  “Stop right there!” a male voice rang out.

  They stopped on command, their half-naked bodies dripping water as they stared up the slight incline. Amanda turned to look behind her and saw four men, all wearing black and carrying semi-automatic rifles.

  “We weren’t doing anything,” she said, infusing fear into her voice.

  “Who are you?” one of the men asked.

  “I’m Jessica and these are my friends. We’ve been crashing in that house over yonder and just thought we’d come out for a swim,” she said, trying her best to sound ignorant and innocent at the same time.

 

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