“Yeah, it sucks—” Rose said.
The door opened and Flynn stepped into the room, “Hey guys… you might want to see this. Something’s cropped up—”
Mercy looked up, “What?”
Flynn stared at her, “Dimitri came over to the bunkhouse… he was looking for you. He told me to come and get you. They’re all over at the workshop… it’s Jethro. He’s got the radio working—”
“Yeah, we know,” Tawny said. “We’ve tried that shit before and it’s always the same… a big fat nothing. Barnes needs a satellite phone to reach Constantine and we ain’t got no satellite phone—”
Flynn pulled a face, “Dimitri said they’ve picked up a signal, it’s weak but it’s definitely there—”
Mercy sat up and looked at the others, “A signal? What signal?”
Flynn looked exasperated, he shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know, he said something about shortwave… whatever that is. Come on, let’s go—”
They left the lodge and crossed the overgrown carpark to the workshop on the edge of the campground. A stove pipe and a makeshift radio aerial protruded from the workshop roof. They entered the small shack and squeezed in around Barnes, Brody and Dimitri. A shaggy, bearded youth wearing headphones was sitting in front of a modern military radio set.
Dimitri glanced at Mercy, “It’s Jethro, he’s been up all night. He’s found a shortwave transmission. It’s fading in and out, something to do with atmospheric conditions. He’s just trying to find it again, he’s going to try and boost the signal—”
Mercy looked at Rose. Mercy’s heart quickened.
No, it can’t be, that was… so long ago—
Jethro took off his headphones, “Here, I’ve found it. Have a listen guys, see what you think—” Jethro removed the headphone jack from the radio and loud static filled the room from two speakers on the floor. Three electronic beeps punctured the static and were followed by a woman’s voice:
“THIS IS A RECORDED MESSAGE FROM THE FREE STATE OF CALIFORNIA. I AM SPEAKING TO YOU FROM NAVAL BASE VENTURA COUNTY, POINT MUGU, 34.1127° NORTH, 119.1055° WEST. WE ARE BROADCASTING ON 12,579 KHZ DAYTIME ONLY. THIS MESSAGE IS FOR SURVIVORS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. WE ARE HERE FOR YOU. WE NEED YOU. WE ARE A COMMUNITY OF TWENTY THOUSAND SURVIVORS. WE HAVE FOOD, CLEAN WATER, AGRICULTURE AND POWER. WE HAVE SCHOOLS AND MEDICAL FACILITIES. WE HAVE PROTECTION FROM THE INFECTED. COME, FIND US, AND JOIN US. WE WILL WELCOME YOU. THIS MESSAGE WILL REPEAT AFTER A FIVE MINUTE INTERVAL—”
Three beeps signalled the end of the broadcast. A stunned silence filled the room. Then everyone began talking at once.
“Free State of California? I thought they went by Republic of California back in the day—” Dimitri said.
“Yes, you’re right… it was in 1846, the self-declared Republic only lasted for twenty five days. It covered an area north of San Francisco—” Brody replied.
“How do you know that stuff?” Tawny asked.
“I used to teach history in high school,” Brody answered.
“Twenty thousand survivors? Did you hear that?” Rose said, tugging at Mercy’s arm.
Mercy nodded, “They’re on a naval base… and they’ve got medical facilities—”
“Do you think they could—?” Tawny said, her face animated.
“Remove our biotech?” Mercy finished for her. “Who knows? But if there’s a chance—”
Mercy reached between Barnes and Brody and tugged Jethro’s arm, “Hey, Jethro, can you speak to them using that thing? We need more information—”
Jethro shook his head, “This is a recorded message, it’s all one way traffic as far as I can make out. A lot of those automated messages packed up a year or so after the Fall when the survivors died. I don’t know… I can try but it’ll take some time—”
They could all be dead. It could be a ghost transmission. But then again… they could be alive—
“What about Constantine? Can you hail her on that thing?” Mercy asked Barnes.
Barnes shrugged, “Sure, I can try but my in was via the sat phone. This… this is old school, but yeah me and Jethro can give it a go—”
Brody shook his head, “Wait. Is there a chance the Charlottesville militia could track our signals, triangulate our position?”
Barnes shrugged, “Very unlikely but not impossible, they’d have to be really on the ball and extremely motivated to find us—”
Mercy held up her hand, “Wait, I don’t want to endanger Brody and his people. Not after what we’ve all been through. If we’re to do all this communication we need to do it off site, away from here.”
Tawny looked up, “What about back at the silo? There was a radio mast there—”
Rose pulled a face, “No way am I going back there, no fucking way—”
Mercy shook her head, “I agree with Rose. Yes, there was a radio mast, but there were also tropes and that place is too hooked up to the NSA’s AI in the cloud. I think we did well to get out of there in one piece—”
Flynn tapped the map on the wall, “What about here? Or… here? Harrisonburg? Or Staunton? To the west of the mountains. They look about a day or two’s hike from here, well away from Charlottesville. We could do a scavenging trip, we need more medicine. I know we’re low on antibiotics and painkillers. These two towns look big enough to have radios… maybe even an airfield. We could try from there—”
“I can do you one better than that,” Brody said, he jabbed his finger at the map. “Here… Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport, it’s just off exit 235 on I-81 in Weyers Cave. It’s closer than Staunton or Harrisonburg, it’s only about sixteen or seventeen miles from here if we use Browns Gap Road. We’ve been meaning to do a scavenging raid on Weyers Cave, there’s a medical facility there and we should be able to get some food. We’ve been keeping away from the larger towns because of the trope infestation but with your biotech you could get in there easy—”
“What about NSA or their militia? Are they operating west of the mountains?” Barnes asked.
Brody scratched his chin, “Not that I’m
