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Luke scanned through the radio frequencies and was about to give up when he picked up a station that faded in and out.

“It sounds military.” Mark moved closer, taking a knee by the radio.

The room grew quiet as they listened and tried to make out the words.

Luke handed a paper and pen to Sabrina. “Log these words—depletion. Survived. Evolving. Dangerous. Longer contagious. Countryside. Variants.” The signal faded again and this time he couldn’t get it back. “Damn it. That’s it.” He looked at Sabrina. “Read the words back one at a time.”

Sabrina put the pen down. “The first word is depletion.”

“I think they’re talking about how the creatures died. The military sprayed some kind of poison and depleted the number of creatures,” Neal said.

“I agree,” Luke said. “Anyone have another idea?”

“It could mean the human race has been depleted,” Grace said.

“True,” Luke said. “Okay, next word.”

“Survived.”

“So maybe some humans like us have survived or some of the creatures survived. Aren’t the next two words ‘evolved’ and ‘dangerous?’” Damien asked and Sabrina nodded. “So, the survivors have evolved and now they’re more dangerous than ever so I think they were talking about the creatures.”

“Does everyone agree with Damien’s conclusion?” Luke asked, and the others nodded. “Okay, next word.”

Sabrina held up two fingers. “Longer contagious.”

“I’ve been thinking about that phrase ever since I heard it,” Megan said. “I think they probably said no longer contagious. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“I agree, but the next word was ‘countryside,’” Sherry said. “I think that the ones in the cities died but not in the countryside.”

“Because they only dropped the poison on the larger cities, like Denver, and it spread to the area around the cities, like us. They haven’t had time to drop it everywhere yet so the creatures in the countryside are still contagious,” Stephan said.

“We’re over a hundred miles from Denver as the crow flies,” Neil said. “It wouldn’t have spread that far.”

“We saw them die so we know the poison was here. Maybe it drifted on the wind or they began spraying too early. We have no way of knowing,” Luke said. “Next word.”

“It’s the last one,” Sabrina said. “Variants.”

“That means another version of something,” John said.

“So, all together—the military depleted, or reduced, the number of creatures by poisoning them. Some survived and they’ve evolved and are more dangerous than ever but they’re no longer contagious—.”

“Except in the countryside where they didn’t drop the poison,” Neal said. “I think they’ll complete that operation soon.”

Luke nodded. “Does anyone disagree with our conclusion?” The others shook their heads. He pointed to Neal. “Try the shortwave again.”

Neal did but couldn’t pick up anyone. “I don’t think there are any civilians left alive out there. At least none with shortwave radios.”

“That means we’re on our own.” Sherry slid to the floor with her back against the wall and her knees drawn up. “I chose to come here to the Academy, but I wasn’t planning on dying here.”

“It’s only been two weeks,” Grace said. “Your father and Dr. Matthews know we’re here, and maybe some of your parents received your text messages. Someone will come. Until they do, we’re going to continue training and surviving.

# # #

May 5, 2015

“Grace, we need you in the security room,” John said from the doorway between the storage and dining room before he hurried away.

She dropped the knife with which she was chopping vegetables and hurried after him.

The second she stepped into Security Luke pointed to the camera monitors. “Mr. Rogers showed up a few minutes ago.”

Grace leaned down and spotted him. “How can he be out there? Where are the monsters?”

Luke zoomed in on Mr. Rogers. “Maybe they are all dead. He’s walked around the building and they haven’t shown up. He tried to open the exit door and elevator then got pissed when he couldn’t open them.”

Grace took the chair John vacated and watched Bruce stomp around the corner and reappear at the front of the building. His mouth was moving, and it looked like he was cussing up a storm. He picked up a rock and threw it at one of one of the cameras then made a rude gesture.

“He knows we’re in here,” John said.

“No, he thinks we’re in here. There’s a difference,” Grace said. “The night of the attack, he told me he was going to leave the gate unlocked so the truck drivers and I could leave when we finished. I put my car in the faculty garage so unless he’s been in there he doesn’t know I’m still here. There’s no way he can know about the nine of you.”

“What about the noise we made when we rescued Stephan, Damien and Sabrina?” John asked.

“The sound of gunfire echoes all over this valley. Where ever he’s been hiding, he couldn’t have known it was us shooting,” Luke said.

“He knows you changed the codes.” Neal gave her a ‘gotcha’ look.

Grace smiled. “I change them around the middle of every month and then email them to Mr. Edgars. He sends them to Rogers. He probably figures he didn’t get the email because all hell broke loose.”

Damien leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Maybe the evolved creatures don’t come out during the day. We’ve never seen them.”

Luke shook his head as if that didn’t make sense. “We’ve never seen them at night either but that doesn’t mean they’re not out there. These cameras only show a small part of the campus, but John and I have caught movement in the trees at night. We don’t know if it’s the wind or the creatures.”

Grace glanced at the silent television, wishing once again that they hadn’t lost the signal. While they talked, Rogers stood in front of the building staring at it before he hurried away. “I wonder what he’s up to now.”

“Probably going back to his cottage.” John made the gesture of someone drinking from a bottle. “The guy is an alcoholic.”

“I have a bad feeling about him,” Luke said. “He’s up to something, and he’s not going to give up. He knows the food delivery was made, and he always ate in the cafeteria so he couldn’t have had very much food at his cottage. If the infected stayed in the dorm after they attacked the cadets they probably destroyed the food in there. So what has he been eating and how did he escape being caught by them?”

“He and Hilda Baker were the people stealing food from the kitchen so he probably had a lot stashed away,” Grace said.

“Hey, guys, look at this.” John pointed to the middle monitor where a huge pickup drove over the sidewalk then turned and drove across the grass away from the building. It stopped and Rogers stuck his head out of the window and backed toward the building until the bed of the truck lined up with the stairway. He stopped and drove forward again.

“He’s going to ram the doors,” John said.

Grace laughed. “He’s an idiot. The first floor is raised six feet from the ground and the stairs were put in front of the doors so they couldn’t be rammed.”

John pointed at the monitors. “Look.”

The pickup pulled farther forward then backed up, picking up speed as it closed in on the stairway. The truck bed slammed into the brick walls on either side of the steps and crumpled like an accordion. The truck came to a sudden halt. The cab bounced into the air then crashed down and bounced once again. The building didn’t even shake.

Grace smiled. “Hope he had his seatbelt on.”