The room fell silent. All eyes fell on Mercy. She looked at the map. “Yeah, well, I reckon we need to know what’s going on in the world. It’s a no brainer. When can we go—?”
“We’ll get the horses saddled up,” Brody said, looking at his watch, “it’s still early, we could set out in a couple of hours. On horseback we could be there in three hours—”
“Let’s do it. Me, Rose and Tawny… and Annalise will go into the airport. Barnes you’ll need to come to work any comms we find. Brody will you or Sledge guide us?”
Brody smiled, “Wouldn’t miss it for the world. Sledge is out trapping at the moment, sometimes he’s gone for days… so you’re stuck with me.”
Mercy looked around the room, “Where’s Annalise? I’ll need to run this by her, she might not want to do this—”
Dimitri coughed, “Hey, you didn’t mention me. I can come to check out any aircraft. You never know when you may need to make a quick exit—”
Always keep your eye on the exit—
“Sold Dimitri, you’re in… if you feel up to the journey—” Mercy said.
Dimitri raised a hand, “I’m good, I’m healing up. I wouldn’t miss any trip to an airport, flying’s in my blood—”
Brody nodded at Mercy, “Annalise was watching over Shay last night, in the infirmary. Stomach ache, something he ate, poor kid, he’ll be fine. Some of the tinned food we find is bad, we’ll be running out of options in the months ahead, that’s why we’re concentrating on growing our own food up here and rearing the longhorn cattle—”
“Makes sense,” Mercy said. “I’ll go find her, I suggest the rest of you get yourselves ready for the trip—”
Mercy made for the door.
“Wait up. I’ll come with you. I know Shay, he’s a good kid—” Rose said, stepping in behind Mercy.
They went outside and walked across the campground. The morning was damp and chilly, the ground soggy underfoot.
“What do you think, Mercy? California? I thought we’d end up in DC or maybe someday back in New York… but California? Do you think they could remove the shit the NSA put into our bodies?” Rose said, her voice quiet.
Mercy stopped in her tracks and held Rose’s arms, “This NSA parasite inside me has to come out, if it’s the last thing I do. They’ve violated my body, your body… all of us. It’s part of the violence and degradation they deal in. No, we’re going to find a way to get this done, otherwise I don’t think I can move on with the rest of my life—”
Rose sighed, “I figured you’d say something like that.”
“You want the same… you’ve told me before, so why the long face Rose?” Mercy asked.
Rose kicked the ground, “Bloody horses, I was crippled for three days after our last trip on those things—”
“Oh, and the chafing, yes, the chafing, it was brutal—” Mercy laughed and put her arm around Rose’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s go find Annalise—”
Chapter 39
Word
Mercy checked her watch; 1:49 pm. They had been riding for three and a half hours, Brody leading the way. She glanced back at Annalise.
I’m glad Annalise came, there’s something she’s holding back. We all have our ghosts. This biotech is affecting us all differently. Rose can see better at night… and she almost seems to attract alphas, Flynn is superfast when it’s needed, Tawny seems able to smell the undead better than any of us. I heal up quick, my pain tolerance is high, and my memory seems to be shit hot for maps and information. Annalise has never spoken about her time under the NSA in Richmond… she’s keeping quiet about something… or maybe not. Maybe I’m just overthinking everything—
They crossed over Middle River and continued along Weyers Cave Road. Brody stopped his horse a few minutes later and dismounted. They followed his example and led their horses off the road to a nearby stand of trees.
Brody tied his horse to one of the trees and stepped through the sun-dappled undergrowth. Mercy, Flynn and Barnes followed him, they emerged from the trees to find a rusting chain link fence.
“That’s the airport over there,” Brody pointed across a wide expanse of long grass and weeds. An airport terminal building was visible six hundred yards away. “I think we should keep the horses back here, we’re downwind so their scent won’t carry to any tropes that might be in there. I’ll look after the horses, we’ve got the radios so we can keep in touch. I suggest you biotech people go in there and do what you’ve gotta do. You’ve got plenty of daylight left… it’s only 2:15. See what you can find, if you think it’s safe we can spend the night in there with the horses, if not, that farm back before the river looked OK—”
Mercy nodded, “Sounds like a plan, we’ll cut the fence here and go straight across—”
Ten minutes later they were past the fence and pushing their way through the long grass and weeds. They reached the runway and held back, inspecting the airport terminal with binoculars.
“What do you think?” Mercy said to Barnes.
“Yeah, ideally we’d stake it out for a couple of hours but right now it looks deserted. There’s no control tower, so we’ll have to search the terminal building for the control room. There’s no sign of recent activity. You want to go in?” Barnes said, taking his binoculars away from his eyes.
Mercy turned to Tawny, “How are you reading this Tawny?”
Tawny nodded, “Yeah, no, it feels dead… good dead not bad dead. I’d say we’re OK to go in—”
Mercy smiled.
It’s like she’s just given
