After walking the same path along the shoreline as her friend had taken, she came out of the brush to find a group of about ten soldiers waiting for her. There were a few trucks in a small gravel parking lot, but no military vehicles.
Her eyes went to Meechum. She’d been relieved of her weapons but didn’t seem upset about it. Her rifle, pistol, shotgun, and a couple of knives were on the ground beside her. The woman waved her to come forward, which she did.
In seconds, men had taken her two rifles, the bag, and pistol. One of them checked out her wound while another man came over to talk to her.
“I’m Colonel Avery, United States Army. You’re safe, but we have to get away from the enemy operation at the powerplant. We’re going to take you for a short ride.”
Without her weapons, there was no point in arguing. She and Meechum hopped in the bed of a pickup truck with two of the soldiers. They rode into the dawn, giving her a sense of hope they would make better time toward Uncle Ted. However, after about twenty minutes, the driver slowed and went down a dirt path into dense tree cover.
“Last stop,” the driver said quietly out his window.
She and the Marine hopped out.
Avery was back. He spoke mostly to Kyla. “As I said, I’m Colonel Avery. These men I’m with are Task Force Yankee, a recon team probing behind the lines of the Blackout forces. We asked your friend here what you two were up to, but she wasn’t very forthcoming, even under threat of court martial. Would you care to tell me what you two were doing by the powerplant?”
She respected Meechum for doing her best to hide their mission, but if these men were with an allied force, they would be best suited to stop the attack on her uncle.
She turned to Meechum before saying a word to the men. “I need to tell them why we were going after my uncle, okay?”
Meechum shrugged. “I can’t divulge my mission, but you have every right to tell them about your uncle.” She emphasized the word uncle, giving her a clue what she wanted.
Kyla returned her attention to Avery. “My uncle was part of our group. We attacked a base in North Dakota. We hacked their computers. Turned off the nuclear briefcase for the US missile arsenal. Now, he’s headed to NORAD to attack the Blackout headquarters and finish the job.” She had a thought. “Is that really what you call them? Blackouts?”
“They always seem to wear black. It’s what everyone on the outside has been calling them.”
“Oh, okay. Anyway, separate from all that, I contacted Rammstein Airbase in Germany using the tablet you confiscated from me. Don’t put the battery back in, by the way. I took it from the enemy. They’ll track it.” She paused to let her words sink in. “A general there said they were going to nuke the base at NORAD and put an end to the Blackout’s HQ. That’s all fine and great, but now my uncle is heading right for the bullseye and he doesn’t know what’s coming. Me and my friend Meechum were on our way to warn him. Of course, if you had a phone we could use…”
The colonel frowned. “I’m afraid I can’t help you there. We’re on total radio silence until we clear enemy territory. Based on what you’re telling me, we won’t be going out anytime soon.”
She was devastated. “Then let us go. I have to find him.”
“No can do. I believe you two are Americans, but we can’t let you out of our sights. Command is going to want to know about survivors. So far, you two are the only friendlies we’ve located.”
It was terrible news. “We’re the only two you’ve seen? That can’t be right. There must be others.”
“I can’t tell you where we’ve been but suffice to say, we’ve crossed many states. No one was out there, except for the Blackouts. Even they’re hard to find, given the size of the country they’re trying to take over.”
Meechum cleared her throat. “Dammit, you boys just refuse to help a woman in distress. How disappointing. Unfortunately for you, sir, you’ll want to change your mind.”
“Why is that, Marine?”
Meechum glanced over to Kyla as if she was about to do a bad thing. When she looked back to Colonel Avery, she stood at attention. “Because her uncle is traveling with the President of the United States, sir.”
Eastern Colorado
As the sun rose over the plains, and Ted drove them far from the scene of the attack, he thought they were in the clear. As with almost every other place they’d visited on the way south from Montana, there was nothing around them but grasslands and the occasional farm. If there was one bit of difference, it was the introduction of gentle, rolling hills. They couldn’t quite see from one horizon to the next. It was ideal for Ted, as the uneven terrain shielded them from being seen from afar.
“A storm’s brewing,” Emily remarked, seemingly bored after the excitement of the drive out of Fort Collins. Far to the east, probably over Kansas, a towering thunderstorm shuffled across the sky. As a pilot, he’d seen many similar storms from the air and was glad it was so far away.
“It won’t come here. It’s moving east.”
“Still, it’s pretty windy,” she allowed.
The wind was becoming a factor. The SUV presented a solid wall for the wind to strike, and it constantly pushed them toward the opposite lane of traffic, though there were no vehicles coming at them. He kept his speed between eighty and one hundred, which helped them cross the featureless tracts of prairie as fast as possible. Soon enough, they reached the interstate.
“This is I-70,” he said, not slowing at all. “I saw this numerous times while flying cross-country. If we turned right, we’d go directly to Denver. Since Colorado Springs is about an hour south of
