I remembered Simon mentioning he had heard of me when he was a captive in California, but had Todd spoken to Thorton about me? Why would he in that situation? It didn’t make sense.
“What was Thorton saying about me.?” I had to know, this was incredible.
“Thorton was announcing to the airwaves that you were a traitor to the country and you were not to be trusted. In fact, he came out and said that anyone who helped you would be punished by death. He said your mission to stop him was illegal and you were trying to take over the country for yourself.” Nate nearly spat out that last.
This just got more and more incredible. “How did Thorton find out what we were doing? Who could have told him?” I asked out loud, more to myself than anyone else.
Duncan spoke up. “You don’t think he found our home and forced the information out of our families, do you?”
At first my blood went to ice thinking Thorton might have tortured my friends and family to get information from them. But as quickly as my rage surged, it dissipated just as fast. “No,” I said. “He’s the type to gloat if such were true. My guess is he found out about us from someone who had been with us, knew what we were doing, and got caught out away from safety. I wonder who the poor bastard was?”
“What do we do about it?” Tommy asked. “This guy seems to have the upper hand, information-wise.”
I shrugged, not really sure myself. “We see if he makes another broadcast. If he does, maybe we stand a chance of talking to him.”
“What do you think you’ll say?” Duncan asked
“No idea,” I said, meaning it.
We rode for a ways down the road, avoiding towns and contact with anyone, just looking for a quiet place to spend the night. It was interesting that we managed to keep moving east, always east.
Nate finally pulled up into a state park area, just outside of Dayton. He parked it close to a small pond, giving us access to water and providing a little security. If we got overwhelmed, we could always retreat through the water. When we came to a stop, Tommy climbed up on the roof with his rifle and binoculars and spent a good half an hour watching the surrounding area, looking for any ghouls that might be inclined to come over for a look. Nothing made your day look gloomy than a zombie clawing at your window first thing in the morning.
After he came back down, the four of us sat around the kitchen table, munching on a little dinner and discussing the events of the day. The zombies managing to turn doorknobs was a hot topic and in the end, we decided to see if it happened again. If not, it could just have been a freakish incident. The ambush had us more worried, because that was not something that could be dismissed as easily. That was group behavior focusing on a common goal and not a good thing. Again, we had a lot of questions and not enough answers. Would only large groups of zombies work together that way? Or would smaller groups hunt in such a fashion? We’d have to be more careful than we’d been before to find out.
When our conversation turned to Thorton, the mood got considerably darker. We believed nothing had happened to our loved ones yet, but there was that nagging doubt. How had Thorton heard about me? I had no clue. I was feeling pretty glum when Tommy reminded me of a simple fact.
“Charlie’s not a fool and he knows about Thorton and his men. If they came calling, they’d pay a heavy price before they got past him. I doubt anyone would want any more after that particular kind of hell,” he said.
I thought about it for a minute, then had to agree that Tommy was right. Charlie would be on alert and would shoot first. I freely admitted the man was a ghost in the woods, despite his size. Anyone trying to tackle him on his home turf would be dead before he knew what hit him. We’d lived long enough in the park to know every rock, canyon, tree and gully.
Reassured, I suggested we hit the sack. We had more long days ahead of us and we had to start thinking about our plan of attack when we reached the capital.
In the morning, after a restless night because my mind kept wandering back to my wife and son, I climbed up onto the roof to take a look around. The small lake at our back was as still as glass, with morning steam rising off the water’s surface. The woods were alive with sound, making it pretty clear there were no dead wandering around unwanted. I listened carefully to the sounds around me, turning an ear to the wind and closing my eyes, sorting out the sounds that drifted my way, identifying them, placing them as normal or not normal. Charlie had taught me that particular method of listening, using it as a means of hunting. Find the sounds that fit and the ones that don’t. After a while you’ll know whether or not you’re alone, or if you have company you need to take care of. It worked well in the dark..
Not finding anything out of the ordinary, I went back down to find Duncan had awakened and Nate as well. Eating a granola bar for breakfast, I spread out a map of Ohio and looked around for passage around Dayton. I saw a bunch of lines and circles on the map that weren’t there yesterday and I looked up to see Nate looking at me from across the table.
“Sorry about that. I had a notion last night and spent some time sorting it out,” he said.
“What kind of notion?” I asked, looking at a heavily circled area outside the town of Fayetteville.
“Thorton’s broadcast had to have come from somewhere nearby. Those government stations were set up all over, with overlapping ranges so nothing could get by on any frequency. But listening is different from broadcasting and if the government wanted to keep these things quiet, they had two options. Hide them far away from prying eyes or hide them in plain sight. In this area, they had to be away from sight. Given the range of most radios and equipment I’m familiar with, I’d say Thorton has to be somewhere within a hundred miles of us, give or take twenty.
“Before you get any notions,” Nate cautioned, “Thorton has you outmanned and outgunned. Chasing him down would get you killed”
I shook my head. Nate knew me pretty well. “Why did you circle Fayetteville?” I wanted to know.
“Best guess as to where he might be. I imagine he found one of these stations and was able to determine where others might be located. He’s probably jumping from one to the next, sending out his message, impacting as many people as he can.” Nate said.
I thought about that one. We had to find a way to shut him up before he managed to demoralize half the country.
“You don’t think there might be a way to link those stations, be able to send out a broadcast over a wider area?” I asked, thinking about a general message.
Nate pondered that for a bit. “Might be possible if you had someone at each station, but we don’t have enough men for that. Not sure about the power of those stations, either. I’d know more if we were able to take a look into one.”
“Fair enough,” I said, looking down at the map. “We need to think about a route around this town. It’s too big for a run through.”
“No problem. Have fun with that. I’m going to stretch my legs a bit and look around.” Nate pulled on his gear and stepped outside. Tommy watched him go, then took out his rifle and climbed onto the roof. I’ll bet Tommy didn’t even think about what he was doing. We were so used to backing each other up it was second nature.
Duncan strolled out of the back, yawning and stretching his arms. He popped his neck, then dropped down to do about forty push-ups. His morning routine was pretty close to mine, although I tried to do pull ups on the roof access ladder for variety.
Duncan thumped me on the back as he passed by, settling into the driver’s seat and staring idly out the front window. I buried myself in the maps, pausing every now and then to think about Jake and Sarah, wondering if I was doing the right thing.
My reflections were interrupted by a strange voice coming from the front. It wasn’t Duncan, so I looked up. He had opened the compartment with the CB in it and turned it on. He had been flipping through the channels when a voice came through loud and clear.
“Good Morning, Americans! At least what’s left of you. This will be my last broadcast from this area as promised, until I can reach everyone at the same time. I have some system linking to finalize, then I will be able to speak to everyone. Right now, anyone who has heard me in the past can hear me now.”
I looked over at Duncan. So there was a way. Interesting.
The voice continued. If it was actually Thorton, I expected a more threatening presence on the airwaves. His
