“Well I am in the mood.” He put his arm around her waist and pulled her into him.
“Nothing has changed, girl.” He whispered to the trembling Rosa. His eyes shooting daggers. “I rescued you from that junk yard.” He drew her closer still. “You need to show me some appreciation. Besides, I’ve got a headache and sex usually fixes that.”
Rosa lowered her face and nodded demurely. “Ok Patrick. Whatever you want.”
Patrick lowered his hand to Rosa’s ass and gave it a hard squeeze.
“That’s right. Whatever I want.”
Chapter Forty-one
“Let us know if you get a hit.” Rachel left, her kids in tow. “We’ll be in the cafeteria.”
The media room had emptied out over the course of the evening, with some people heading to the cafeteria while others retired to bed. Sticking around the radio room had quickly become boring to the uninitiated.
Only Jack, Joe and Emily were left hovering around the radio, while John and Craig were speaking in hushed tones in the far corner. The radio operators had given up on using their greeting and resorted to using pulses, which involved switching the transmitter off and on a few times. It created audible pulses to anybody that might be listening.
Joe had been moving up and down the frequencies, pausing at each one to send a few pulses. If there was no response he would move to the next frequency. It was a tedious task.
Then he got a hit.
“Is anybody there?”
Joe frowned at the female voice.
“Jack. Go tell the folks in the cafeteria.” Jack shot out of his seat.
“This is Romeo Echo November. Do you read me? Over”
“Hello! Yes! I read you! Is this the army? Oh my god, it’s good to hear somebody! ... Oh, um. Over.”
“Calm down. My name is Joe. We’re not the army. Who am I speaking with? Over”
Jack had already returned. Others started filing into the media room a few seconds later. They were excited and had to be shushed by Joe.
“My name is Michelle Van Der Laar! I’m here with four other people. We’re in Willemtown. Over.” Willemtown was a small town, about an hour west of the city.
“Hi Michelle. We’re located” –he hesitated for the slightest moment before continuing– “in the city. How are you guys holding up? Over.”
Jack and Emily frowned at Joe, wondering why he didn’t just tell Michelle where they were. In the background they heard somebody else grumble about it.
“Why is he being so paranoid?” Somebody said but was quickly shushed as the radio squawked again.
“We’re in trouble. We holed up in a ranch house near the edge of town. Billy McAdam’s place. Billy is... Well, Billy is gone. But we all knew he was one of those ‘preppers’, so we headed over here. When we were driving here, we saw Billy on the side of the road. He was one of them... Anyway, we holed up in here, but there’s about a dozen of those things out there. We’re hiding in the basement, hoping they go away soon. We don’t have food or water, although I think there is some upstairs. Anyway, we will need assistance to get out of here! We have an elderly couple with us, and one child – “
Joe and the rest could hear some noise in the background as the ‘child’ protested. They could clearly hear Michelle tell the kid that ‘A fourteen-year-old is still a child!’ and ‘That’s enough! Now shush, I’m on the radio with these folks!’ before she continued.
“What was I saying? Oh yeah, we have an elderly couple, a child, and two women. We’re stuck in here. We left the guns in the truck. Damnit! All we got is one sidearm with four bullets. If those things get in... Well, I’m not sure how we’ll be able to defend ourselves!” There was radio silence for a couple of seconds, then: “Over. Sorry.”
“Michelle, you guys should definitely stay as quiet as possible and avoid moving around. Those things are attracted to movement and sound.”
Joe released the mike key and turned to Emily, shaking his head. “What do I do?”
“Ask them for their actual address.” She replied.
“Michelle, can you give us your address? Over.”
“We’re on County Line, I know that. Um, not sure what the address is though. Hold on. We’ll see if we can find something with the address on it.”
There was radio silence for a minute. “Sorry, Joe. Billy used a post office box for his mail. I know the directions from the city though. If you come down I20, and then take 61 north, county line is about five miles up the road. Head east and Billy’s place is just outside of town. If you see the town sign, then you have to backtrack about a mile. It’s a red building. A rancher. The house has a full basement, and that’s where we are. Over.”
“Got it.” Craig had pulled out his notepad and written down the directions. More people had returned to the media room, so he walked over to catch them up.
Joe shushed the group again before returning to the mic in front of him.
“Ok Michelle, we got it. If we manage to contact the military, we will send them to you. Over.”
“Ok. ... And, please, if you can help us? We really need it! I don’t know how long we are going to be able to stay hidden!” Michelle was clearly upset.
“The best advice I can give you is to avoid detection. If they do get in, you’ve got to remember that the only way to stop them is to destroy the brain. Think about what weapons you may have lying around that can help you accomplish this. Be proactive. Be brave. Over.”
Jack looked over and saw John roll his eyes. Jack agreed. Joe acted all cool and collected on this side of a radio, but he had not shown himself to be proactive, or brave, at
