The Long Road (Surviving the Fall 6)

“That’s what it sounded like. I think the group was trying to get to a safe or some other valuables in the house but they couldn’t find anything.”

“What about Dave? Did they mention him?”

Dianne shook her head slowly. “Nothing. They didn’t stay at the house long, though. We were lucky to miss them when they arrived.”

“I don’t mean to speak out of turn here, Dianne.” Jason shifted back and forth on his feet as he spoke. “But I think the biggest issue right now is making sure that the house and everyone in it is kept safe from these people. Especially… well. You know.” Jason was watching Mark and Jacob carry suitcases into the house. “Once we’re certain everything here is secure then we can try to find these people.”

“Agreed. I’m not sure how these people don’t know where we are already, though. We’ve burned enough fires and gone out a few times. You’d think we would have run into them by now.” Dianne snorted. “Though I’ve run into two of them before.”

“You have?” Jason raised an eyebrow and Dianne nodded.

“Mhm. Back when all this started I went to the grocery store to get some staples. They were trying to break into the truck when I got back. I ran them off and figured that was the last I had seen of them. I guess they fell in with this group.”

“Whoever they are there’s more than just the ones we saw.” Jason scratched his head. “I wonder where they’re holing up. We went through quite a few back roads out to the east when we were driving in. That sort of makes me think they’re somewhere out between Ellisville and Blacksburg. Unless you’ve been out that far recently, that is.”

“Nope.” Dianne shook her head. “We’ve mostly kept to ourselves here. We were going to head out but the roads were blocked enough that I didn’t want to risk it.”

“What are you two going on about?” Sarah interjected herself back into the conversation. “Tina’s being held by a group of vagabonds, Dave’s missing and you two are talking about blocked roads and Blacksburg?”

“Sarah, we have to figure out what to do here.”

“Damn right you do, Jason! You need to figure out how to get Tina out and see if you can find Dave, too!”

Dianne cocked her head. “That’s… exactly what we’re doing. First we have to figure out where they’re holed up, though. They have to have a base close by if they’re driving around on what I assume is a regular basis.”

“Oh.” Sarah nodded. “Good. That’s… good. Sorry.”

Dianne smiled and chuckled. “Did you think we wouldn’t go after one of our friends?”

“Well. I mean, you were talking about securing the house and then looking for the people and I figured you were just talking about avoiding them or something.” Sarah threw her hands up in the air and gave an exasperated sigh. “Sorry. Ignore me. Carry on.”

Jason laughed and held out his arms, wrapping them around his wife and giving her a hug. “We’re not going to leave Tina—or Dave, if he’s still out there—in the hands of those people if we can help it.”

“We do need to finish securing everything here. Then I think we can go out scouting for them.” Dianne looked at Jason. “Agreed?”

He gave a definitive nod. “Agreed.”

Chapter 3

Mount Weather, Virginia

The Vice President of the United States is exhausted. He’s been up for over thirty hours straight talking to politicians, military leaders and a variety of civilians who’ve flown in from across the country.

The politicians were the first to be dismissed by the Vice President. Relegated to a lower floor in the Mount Weather complex their initial cries of unity quickly dissolve into partisan bickering. Arguments fly back and forth over which bill was responsible for the creation of Damocles, whose districts have been worst hit, how long the recovery efforts will take and what the disaster will do to their poll numbers.

The military leaders have been both less and more helpful than he expected. They have continually approached him with solutions to a variety of problems facing the country, though many of them rely on overwhelming firepower instead than finesse. The threat of Damocles is global and the military fears that foreign countries will soon target the United States with any functional weaponry as a retaliation for developing Damocles and allowing it to escape out into the wild.

The civilians, whom the Vice President initially thought would be helpful, have failed to come up with any solutions that are workable. Each of their plans has failed in the conceptual or practical phases and resulted in yet another device becoming infected or more wasted hours attacking Damocles in a way in which it can’t be affected.

With no solutions to the problem on the horizon the Vice President retreats to the Presidential Suite, located in a far corner of the bunker. He sits down on the edge of the bed and loosens his necktie, takes off his jacket and flops down on the bed.

He closes his eyes, wishing for the thousandth time since he last slept that the President would show up somewhere. If the President is, indeed, alive then there has been no communication to Mount Weather of that fact. The personnel in the complex have deferred to the Vice President for all decisions given that he is the ranking member of government. Despite the pressure from both political parties he refuses to officially assume the Presidency until another day or two passes.

“Sir! Sir, wake up!”

The Vice President opens his eyes and groans. He realizes that he fell asleep some time ago, though he doesn’t know how long he’s been out. As his eyes focus on the figures standing around the bed he realizes that they are comprised of military personnel and staff from the bunker.

“What? What’s going on?” He runs his tongue on the roof of his mouth as he tries to rid it of the awful taste inside.