“Seeing Sarge like that has started a rage in me I have never felt before. I want these sum bitches dead. As far as all those here, Bethany and I are getting along great and I want to protect that.” Webb nodded again.
“What about you, Cap? Where are you at?” Shaw asked.
Webb looked around the room at his team, “I’m not going to lie. Izzy and I have a good thing going, and I don’t want to jeopardize that. I will protect that and everyone here with everything in me. I’m also with you guys in hunting these pieces of shit down. What we need to consider is whether we have a larger obligation to reconnect with the rest of the world. If there is a world left, that is. Do we have a more important obligation to find out if any more of these CDC facilities are functional? Are there any remnants of government left? Are there any remaining military bases still operating? That is something we need to take into consideration.” The room fell silent as they pondered Webb’s words.
Neville spoke up, “I think we eventually need to investigate the possibility of other entities existing in the country. I think we need to get our house in order and take care of our backyard, as my momma used to say.”
Webb took a deep breath, “Okay, so it looks like we are all in agreement. This is my proposal; 1I) We fortify this facility with more deterrent measures. Maybe get some cameras strategically installed. Give us some eyes around the town and on the highway entrances into the town. We could use the cable tv grid to transport the signal over long distances. We’ll just have to remove the additional splitters so no one can just turn on their TV and see the camera feeds. 2) We need to conduct surveillance a couple times a week during the day to make sure we don’t get surprised by any infected. We will also run a few night recons to see if we can locate those fucks who jacked up Priest. 3) Once Priest recovers and is back in commission, we will see about mapping out locations to evaluate viable locations of survivors. This will also include locating facilities for gear, food, medicine, etc. 4) We will build or expand our ability to communicate. See if we can connect with others at great distances. Oh, one other thing we need to address. I don’t know how long the electrical grid is going to stay up. I know we have the solar farm and generators. We need to do some calculations on power consumption versus power generated.”
“Wow, that was a mouthful,” Doc joked.
CHAPTER 45
Priest was in an induced coma for a few more days, before Izzy removed the medication from his IV. Lia asked her when he would wake up, but Izzy said it was unpredictable.
“It could be hours. It could be da
ys.” She patted Lia on the shoulder and started to leave the room.
Izzy turned back and looked at Lia, “We need to get you up on those crutches and work that leg. You could really use a break right now. Come on and we’ll get some coffee. Get you started on those crutches.”
Lia nodded and looked down at Priest. The swelling in his face had gone down, and she could see that his eyes were closed. It had been days since she could actually see he had eyes. The swelling had been so bad, she knew it would have been extremely uncomfortable if he was awake. She had been talking to him for the past couple of days, hoping he could hear her. She would talk some, read to him and had the guys come in to have conversations around him.
She sighed and grabbed the crutches off of the wall. She followed Izzy out the door.
Sometime later, Lia came back into Priest’s room. It had felt good to move around some after sitting by his bedside for so long. Hobbling over to the side of his bed, she turned to set the crutches back against the wall.
“Damn, your ass looks good even on crutches,” Priest croaked out in a dry, raspy whisper. She snapped her head around to look at Priest. His eyes were open, and he had a slight smile on his face.
“Alec! You’re awake, you’re awake!” She spun around and grabbed him in a hug.
“Ow,” he said.
“Oh, shit, sorry. Sorry.” Her eyes welled up with tears. “It’s so good to hear your voice.”
“Waking up and seeing your face was what I hoped for,” he breathed.
She stood over him and put her hands on the sides of his face, “We thought we were going to lose you. I love you, Alec Priest. I sat here thinking about how I don’t know if I could go on without you.”
“You won’t have to. They could take the grizzly down, but they couldn’t take him out.” She kissed him on his forehead. “For the record, I love you too, Lia.”
He took a deep breath and winced in pain. “Could use some water.”
“Yes… yes, babe. I have some right here.” She grabbed a cup with a straw and put it to his mouth. She cringed as he pursed his lips to drink. His lips were crusted over and still swollen.
“Do they hurt?” Lia asked.
Priest let out a slight chuckle, “Everything hurts.”
She leaned down and kissed him gently on the lips.
He smiled, “How long was I out?”
“Well, Izzy, put you in a coma to recover. It’s been about four days.”
“Four days! Holy shit. What about the infected? Is everyone ok? Why are you on crutches?” He croaked.
“Slow down, slow down. Yes, we killed all the infected, destroyed the compound of the men who took you, and a stick impaled my leg. When you are better, we can fill you in on more of the details.”