ah, no shit.” Priest spit as he shot his blade out and took out the man’s other eye. The man screamed at the top of his lungs.
Priest kicked him in his face. He then turned and walked back to the truck.
“No, no. Where are you going?” The man screamed, “You are to kill me, you will do it now!”
Priest yelled over his shoulder, “You’re blind and there is nothing out here that can kill you, yet. The infected ‘ll find you and they’ll eat you alive or you will slowly die of starvation. One way or another, you will die a slow, painful death. So, have a delightful day and go fuck yourself.”
Lia spit in his face as she walked by to the truck. “You fucking whore. How dare you spit on me, you fucking Jewish pig!” The truck drove off with him screaming and cursing. As the engine drowned out the curses, Priest leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes and a smile crept over his face. An equally enormous smile crept on Lia’s face as she leaned back in her seat.
CHAPTER 26
Webb spoke into his helmet’s microphone to Doug and Allison. “Have you been able to raise anyone at the CDC compound?”
“Negative,” Allison responded. “How do we even know this place is still viable?”
“We don’t, but we still may be out of range.”
Doug added, “We are still 60 miles out.”
“Ok, keep trying.” “Doctor, what do you think you’ll find there?”
“I am hoping they have samples or maybe even an infected cadaver. If we can reverse engineer the virus, then hopefully that will allow us to produce an antidote. If Priest’s team can acquire the sample of the original viral strain, that would make it much easier and quicker.”
“Got it.”
“Captain,” Allison’s voice reached Webb through his helmet, “We have contacted the CDC compound and they are expecting the doctor and preparing to receive us.”
“Copy that.” Webb relayed that to the rest of the team as the compound’s helipad came into view. The rest of the compound was underground, so they could not see it. Doug circled and set down when Allison started talking to someone.
She came back on internal comms. “Priest just checked in, they have the virus and a prisoner for interrogation. They are in an SUV making their way down Rt. 95 and just passed Wilmington DE. He said if you want the virus quicker, then you must come get it.”
“Tell him to keep driving and we will head out as soon as we deliver the doctor.”
“Copy.” A few minutes later the Pave Hawk had landed as was winding down. There were a couple CDC scientists along with four armed guards from the US Army. The one scientist was a tall, lanky man with light brown hair, graying on the sides. He had squinty eyes and wore rimless glasses. A short Asian woman with shoulder length black hair, round face and rosy cheeks accompanied him. She was a little overweight and walked with a slight waddle. They met Dr. Costa with enthusiasm.
“Hello, hello. I am Dr. Caulfield and this is my colleague, Dr. Choi.”
She spoke up excitedly, “We are happy to be working with you, Dr. Costa.” She talked as if there wasn’t an apocalypse going on.
“I am happy to meet you both and I am excited work with you and see what progress you have made.”
Dr. Caulfield responded, “Excellent. We will show you to your quarters and then head to the main lab.”
“Sounds great.” They walked off, but Izzy turned and looked at Webb.
“We’ll be back with the virus samples.”
She had a concerned look on her face, but nodded and continued into the underground compound.
Webb ran back to the chopper. “Ok, Doug. Let’s go get our boys.” “Copy that, Captain.”
Priest had dozed off and woke up with a jostling. He shot up, drawing his pistol.
“Yo, take it easy, Sarge.” Shaw’s voice said.
Priest looked over at Shaw, “Shit, sorry. What’s going on?”
“No problem. We all go 0 to 60 from time to time, it’s an issue, though. We’re coming up on the bridge to make it across the Susquehanna and from what we can see through the binos, ain’t nobody getting through there. They have it blocked.”