They decided not to waste any more time and immediately loaded up. In Royal Blue (as Shaw called it) was Shaw, Priest, Lia and Allison, along with gear and supplies. Black Plague (as Doc called it) had Doc, Webb, Neville, Izzy along with Dr. Caulfield all cozy and laid out in the back.
The team took off down Route 81 heading to Wytheville before they would get on Route 27 heading south to get on Route 421. During the journey, the teams practiced contingency tactics if they became overwhelmed or the shit hit the fan in some other way. This comprised stopping and a shift in personnel.
Shaw and Doc
were both excellent drivers, so keeping them behind the wheel was the best plan. Trying to keep them out of a fight was the principal objective. If the fight went south, then Allison switched with Shaw and Izzy switched with Doc. This freed up their guns to join the assault. It felt like when you were teenagers and you stopped in the middle of the street, yelled “fire drill” and everyone changed seats.
CHAPTER 33
The team made it to Boone, NC at about 1:00 in the afternoon. Boone was a quiet town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It was also the home of Appalachian State College, which was almost as big as the entire town.
They weren’t here to sightsee, so “Black Plague” took the lead since Dr. Caulfield was the only one who knew how to get to the CDC facility on Snake Mountain. They traveled up the access road leading to the CDC facility and as they approached, they noticed the outer security fence had the gate blown off its hinges.
“Shit,” Webb breathed out. “Is this fucking place overrun as well?”
“It definitely looks like a battle has happened here,” Doc added. They moved in closer, but at a more cautious pace.
Webb keyed Priest, “What do you think?”
“Hmm, there has been a battle here, but the way it looks and the damage I am seeing, I don’t feel the infected attacked here.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not sure about anything anymore, but it’s a gut feeling I have.” They stopped their vehicles and got out slowly, with weapons at the ready. They could see the bullet impact marks on the front metal door.
As they advanced closer to the door, a voice came over a speaker, “What do you want? You need to vacate the premises or I will release our security force if needed.”
“Hello, Sir. I am Captain Marcus Webb and this is Master Sargent Alec Priest from the United States Army. We have Dr. Caulfield and another scientist, Dr. Costa. We fled from a CDC facility in Dearborn, Michigan, and were ordered to bring them here.”
“Oh, really. Please wait for one moment and we will open up.” Seconds later, the front steer door opened, and a short, disheveled scientist type poked his head out. He had crazy red hair, tons of freckles, and a brown house robe on. He was quite the picture and reminded Webb of Hawkeye Pierce from MASH. The scientist looked around nervously.
Webb walked up to him, “Hello Sir. Is everything okay here?”
“Huh, what? No-no, things are terrible.”
“Have you been attacked by the infected?”
“What, infected? No, this is from some crazy mountain people trying to take this facility over.”
“Really? A bunch of rednecks trying to play warlords?” Priest asked. He had made his way up to Webb’s side.
“No-No, they are much more than that. They are organized and have sufficient numbers.”
Webb tried to give the man a reassuring look, “Ok, we will deal with them. Don’t worry.” “How many of you are left?”
“Just four of us are left. That’s it.”
“Ok, we can get everyone up to speed later. Let’s get everyone inside and set up a perimeter in case the rednecks show back up,” Webb directed. They hurried to get all their gear stowed and got Caulfield settled in one of the dorm rooms. He wanted to go straight to the lab, but they convinced him to get some rest. Once he was taken care of, the team gathered in the front section of the facility.
Webb had the Team form up on him, “Ok, we need to set up a perimeter and install some deterrents. Priest, get that taken care of.”
“Got it. Let’s move people. I don’t want to get caught outside by these guys and lose our element of surprise. We should be able to take a bunch of the guys out before they know what hit them. That’s IF they still don’t know we are here” The team acknowledged and went to work.
Neville moved the Jeeps to the backside of the facility. Shaw rigged up Claymores just like at the other facility, but set up three stages. He came back and he and Priest welded hinges back on the perimeter gate and reinforced it with some rebar that was lying around from a maintenance building. They set up a couple more Claymores at the fence, constructed some surveillance points, and a couple sniper supported positions on top of the facility entrance. Neville and Lia will start there. If things got too hot, they have a way on the backside to get down, and the team would provide suppressive fire to allow them to get into the facility. Priest and Shaw will start on the opposite sides of the facility entrance, with the same contingency.
As they finished their preparations, Doc spoke up, “You know, it’s bad enough out here having to fight all the infected, but to have to deal with regular people acting this way is bullshit.”
Priest nodded, “Yeah, but remember that in most places we have been overseas, it’s the same thing. Over in Somalia, Congo, Botswana, they all have civil war, ethnic cleansing and border skirmishes. You had these warlords trying to take advantage of the situation by hording food, natural resources, etc. Just so the people will bow down to them.”