Chapter 21
Chapter 21
We Meet In Texas
"Well, that's it." said George as he looked at the computer screen. "We just lost internet."
"Really?" asked Renee.
"Yeah. I don't know what to do."
"Stay off the internet. Spend more time with your wife who is pregnant with your child?"
"Nah. I think I'll read some." said George as Renee slapped him on the arm. "You're lucky I'm not a crazy woman."
"Well, we still have power, which is a miracle in and of itself. And, my cellphone still works."
"Great, but who we gonna call?" asked Renee.
"Zombie-Busters." said George, dancing in a horrible parody of country line dancing.
All of a sudden, Renee became serious. She looked at George who sat down on the couch, and said, "We have to know. What's going on? I've checked the TV. Half the channels are out. ABC is just running newscasts telling people to stay inside, and follow instructions from local, state, and federal officials. I don't even know what's gonna happen. And, well, it's been a month. Eight more will pass by quicker than we know. What happens when I'm close? What if there's a complication?"
"Shhh, sh," said George, holding her in his arms as she started to cry. Most of the stress that they'd been going through started to finally come out. Not as humor, not as anger, or rage, but as tears. "Everything will be just fine."
All of a sudden, on the CB radio in the kitchen, George heard the sound of radio chatter. They'd kept the thing on, and left it to a perpetual scan mode, hoping maybe to get some news by way of it. Now, it chattered with voices. George ran over to it, and set the channel in, and began to listen.
"Mayday, mayday, mayday. This is a military transport we are running low on fuel and need a place to land. We cannot make it to a base or airport, and need verification of a safe location."
George pressed the transmit button, and said, "This is George Lincoln, what's your location?"
"Who are you?" asked the voice on the other end.
"George Lincoln. I have some property, outside of Mexia, Texas. Give me your location."
"We're in Limestone County right now. Heading due south."
"How many of you are there?"
"It's just one Blackhawk helicopter," said the voice, "We have six on board."
"Alright."
George began to look over the map he had, and dialed in GPS coordinates, and gave them to the pilot. "Honey, it looks like we're gonna have visitors."
The Congressman Doctor
The old man was jogging. Jogging briskly. It was 8:00am. A little later than he normally did this part of his daily routine. At 76, he was in much better shape than many people half his age. That's what being a lifelong marathon runner did for you. His tall, lanky frame lumbered along, not quite as graceful as when he had won those long distance runs in High School, and college.
When he had went into hiding, he'd had to change alot of things about his life. But his morning jog was something he would never change. The main difference was of course that now, he had a Kel-Tec 9mm pistol clipped to the inside of his sweats. Not so much because of the zombies, but because he still suspected someone might know what he found out, and try to take him out.
He had changed alot after his "heart seizure". He'd lived in either Brazoria County, Texas, or off the Beltway in Washington, D.C. for most of his adult life, and now, in his twilight years, he lived in East Texas. He figured nobody would suspect him to still be in his home state. He'd driven SUVs, and large American sedans for most of his life. Now, he drove a 7 year old Honda. Being a Doctor, he'd always had a nice house, and a nice income. While he still had alot of money, he was living on Social Security under the alias of Steven Carter, a former bank manager with the Bank of Texas. Even if most of his wealth was in Switzerland now, and he was still getting money orders mailed to him, he lived like a middle class retiree. In a two bedroom house on 20 acres outside of Groesbeck, Texas. In Limestone County. Not in the 7 bedroom, four bath house overlooking a river on 300 acres that had rightfully been his.
His wife of 56 years, Kathy had made changes too. Having even their children and grandchildren believe that he was dead had been the hardest on her. But, now with the world devolving, Carl Heinrich had a plan. He'd worried about many things since this all began, and now that he knew what he had to do, he wasn't happy about it, but he knew he'd have to come out of hiding. He'd have to expose what happened to the world. Even if it really did end up costing him his life.