Maybe not cops, but more scared people. There’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t have any vaccine and I can’t help them. They just need to stay the fuck out of my way so I can get to Katie.” I said.
Either the tone in my voice or Rachel realizing we were only miles from finding my wife killed any further conversation. That was fine with me. I wasn’t in the mood to talk. I had one thing on my mind. Rescuing Katie, and that was all I was able to concentrate on at the moment.
I get like that. So focused on the task at hand that all else is ignored. That’s one thing that made me so good at being a soldier. It also drove Katie to distraction. She was the queen of multi-tasking and had a hard time dealing with my single-mindedness when I had to accomplish something.
We drove in silence for some time as I kept pushing us north. Frequently I had to sidetrack to avoid abandoned vehicles blocking the road. Occasionally we saw other survivors moving around, some driving and some on foot. All too often we came across groups of infected. All of the infected were headed south towards Tinker.
Now that I knew the infected were being controlled, or more accurately they were being “directed”, the previously mysterious herding behavior wasn’t quite as frightening. Well, as long as I knew the location they were being called to and could be somewhere else when they arrived. I wondered what was being done to identify the Russian satellite or satellites that were broadcasting the signal that attracted the infected. Hopefully something, because the defenses at Tinker weren’t great and there were a lot of people that would die if a large herd showed up.
“Fifty four miles to go,” Martinez suddenly spoke from the back seat.
I had been so absorbed in my driving and musings that I’d almost forgotten they were back there. I looked into the rearview mirror, getting a good view of both of them as we were driving through an area that still had power and was well lit by modern streetlights. I nodded my thanks to Martinez and cut my eyes to Rachel.
She was looking back at me and I could tell she had been crying. Her eyes were red rimmed and watery, the end of her nose shiny from being rubbed. At that moment my heart went out to her. I wanted to pull over, open the back door and fold her into my arms. But I didn’t. That wouldn’t help anyone. It would send her the wrong message and would waste time that I didn’t have to get to Katie before something truly bad happened to her.
36
Master Gunnery Sergeant Matt Zemeck stood at the back of the Osprey as it descended for a landing at Tinker Air Force Base. Colonel Pointere stood at his side, both men with rifles in their hands, ready to charge down the ramp the moment the aircraft was on the ground. They had successfully defended the precious oil refinery, wiping out the majority of the herd of infected with repeated fuel-air bomb attacks. The few thousand surviving infected had been handled by the Osprey’s as well as ground troops.
While Zemeck had overseen the battle, Pointere had been closeted in conversations with Admiral Packard and Colonel Crawford. Always a hard case, his resolve to stand against President Clark had been cemented when he learned about the shoot down of the planeload of SEALs in Alaska. He quickly assured the other two officers that he and his Marines would stand with them.
During their conversation the Admiral excused himself, finally coming back on the line after several minutes. When he rejoined them it was with news that General Carrey at Fort Wainwright had called him to say that he too was in support of the Admiral’s opposition to the President. The President was currently being detained by the same MPs who had been assigned to protect her and was in a secure area without any outside communication.
Both the General and Admiral Packard had called General Triplett at Tinker but he refused to come around to their side, remaining steadfast in his support of the President. As a result the three officers had discussed how best to deal with him. All were in agreement that Tinker Air Force Base was a vitally strategic asset for the severely diminished American military, but they were also hesitant to initiate open hostilities.