Dominic and his two companions came out of the jungle at the east end, about a hundred and fifty feet from the boat. It was smaller than he expected, probably no larger than a standard rowboat. In fact, it probably was a rowboat. It rolled side to side as the wave crashed unevenly into it, pushing it farther up the short beach.
“I don’t see anyone,” Luis said.
“Yeah, it looks empty,” Mark agreed.
Dominic noticed movement in the vegetation at the far end of the beach. He was just starting to think someone had made it to shore when Robert and three others stepped out onto the sand.
“Robert, you see us?” Dominic said into his radio while waving his free hand above his head.
“Gotcha,” Robert replied. “Any footprints over there of someone who might have run by?”
Dominic and the others looked around. “Nothing.”
“Clean over here, too.”
“Tell your guys to hang out there while you meet me at the boat,” Dominic said.
“Got it,” Robert told him.
Dominic told Mark and Luis to wait, and then set out across the beach.
The boat was fifty feet closer to his position than Robert’s so he reached it first. It wasn’t quite what he’d first thought. Though the size was right, it was a little more robust than any rowboat he’d been in. A personal fishing vessel would be his guess.
He looked at the surrounding beach. No footprints anywhere. Maybe someone just forgot to tie it up and it drifted out on the current.
He walked over to the side and peered in. There was a pile of rope in the front, and an old fishing net. One oar was lying against the hull, but there was no sign of a second. In the back was a jumbled tarp. He reached over and pulled up one end.
With a start, he dropped the canvas and jumped back.
“What is it?” Robert asked. He was about twenty feet away now.
“Stop!” Dominic yelled.
Robert halted. “What?”
“Go back! Don’t let anyone near here.”
“Dominic, what is it?”
“The boat’s not empty.”
Dominic had looked long enough to know the body under the tarp belonged to a woman, but how old she had been, he couldn’t have said. There was no mistaking what had killed her, though. They had all seen similar bodies on TV over the last few days.
The Sage Flu had come to Isabella Island.
21
The records Chloe and Josie found at Malmstrom Air Force Base said that Brandon had been flown into Peterson Air Force Base, which shared space with Colorado Springs Airport. Unfortunately, there was no mention of where he had been taken after that.
The Resistance’s jet landed at the airfield shortly after seven thirty p.m. Chloe went up into the cockpit as they taxied toward the central part of the facility, and scanned the buildings that lined the tarmac to see if there was any indication of which one they should start with.
Five nearly identical buildings straddled either side of the control tower structure. A few additional buildings were located at both the south and north ends. Nothing, though, stood out as the place where she and the others could pick up Brandon’s trail.
“We might as well start at the control tower,” she told Harlan.
The pilot guided the plane across the airfield, and stopped just short of the sign on the ground that said WELCOME TO PETERSON AFB.
“I’m not sure how long we’ll be,” Chloe said.
“Could you use some extra hands?” Harlan asked as he and Barry powered the plane down. “We’d like to help.”
She put a hand on Harlan’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Definitely.”
They divided into two groups: the two pilots in one, and Chloe, Josie, and Miller in the other. The idea was that each group would take a building and do a quick check before moving on to the next. If they weren’t able to dig anything up that way, they’d go back and do a room-by-room examination.
Chloe and her group started with the control tower complex. Most of the lights inside were off, so they were constantly flicking switches. No one had chosen to die in the building, but that was about the extent of their success, as they could find nothing that pointed to Brandon’s whereabouts.
The next building was a combination of hangar and offices. In one of the offices, Chloe found a TV on, the screen displaying only digital noise. She was going to turn it off, but, curious, she flipped through the channels. A majority displayed the same static. Several of the larger cable networks, including all the news stations, displayed a “Technical Difficulties” screen. The only station still broadcasting content was a music video network that must have been fully automated.
She punched the Off button, turned around, and jerked in surprise. Josie was standing in the doorway, her eyes fixed on the TV screen.
“They’re all dead, aren’t they?” the girl asked.
Chloe wasn’t sure how Ash would want her to answer, so she went with the truth. “No. Most are probably still sick.”
“But they will die.”
Chloe nodded. “Probably.”
“What’s going to happen then?”
“I…” Chloe paused for several seconds. “I don’t know.”
By eleven p.m. they still had nothing.
Chloe could see they were all bone tired. “Let’s get some rest,” she said.
“But…but Brandon,” Josie protested. “We can’t stop.”
“Just a few hours. Right now we’re all so exhausted we might miss something.”
Josie tried to argue the point, but finally admitted Chloe was right.
Instead of sleeping on the plane, they bunked out in the lobby of the control tower. Josie was the first to fall asleep, and soon after Miller and the two pilots followed suit.
Chloe took longer, Josie’s question from earlier repeating in her mind.
What’s going to happen then?
What, indeed.
“This is interesting,” Claudia said, staring at her computer screen.
“What is it?” Perez asked.
“One of our operatives in Denver has been tracking down a rumor concerning kids being taken to a secluded location in the Rockies to keep them safe. It’s been a little tough getting anything definitive because of today’s escalated death rate, but he was finally able to confirm it.”
Perez perked up. Children were something the Project could use. They wouldn’t be tainted by adult prejudices, and could be worked more easily into the Project’s plans.
“Where, exactly?” he asked.
“Outside Colorado Springs. A place called Camp Kiley.” A pause. “It’s only six hundred miles from us.”
“Do we have a squad available?”
She consulted her computer again. “There’s a team that could fly into Colorado Springs first thing in the morning, then drive up. Should be able to wrap it up and be out of there before noon.”
Perez thought for a moment. While the Project would soon be activating its plan to identify and deal with survivors, there was no sense in wasting an opportunity.
“Set it up,” he said. “If the kids are truly uninfected, have them vaccinated and taken to our nearest facility.” He didn’t have to add the same wouldn’t apply to any adults who might be found.
“Yes, sir.”
December 27th