“That’s the last entry. The next page with writing on it is near the back of the book. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, though,” Tammy said with a frown.
“Why? What is written down?” John asked.
“Just some numbers and some cryptic text.”
“Can I see that?” John reached out for the diary. He studied the page for a moment and squinted, taking a closer look at the text. “This is some kind of clue. This top part here are coordinates.” He stated confidently. “The rest... It just says ‘Tell us. We are Xavier. Brenin is Alpha.’” John shook his head in confusion before pushing the diary into the middle of the table.
“Damn! I wish the internet was still up and running,” Mike said. “At least we could figure out what location those coordinates are pointing to.”
“What are the coordinates, John?” Jack asked. He was fiddling with his phone. John snatched the diary and started reading out coordinates.
“It says 342320828944. But my guess is that this means 34.2320 degrees north by 82.8943 degrees west.”
Jack entered the numbers on his phone.
“You still got internet?” Mike asked, clearly surprised.
“No.” Jack looked up from his phone at the older soldier with an embarrassed smile. “I have this app...” He stopped speaking as he entered the last coordinates.
Everybody looked at the young man with bated breath. Jack looked around at the table with another embarrassed smile. “It’s calculating.” He looked at the phone for a second and decided to explain. “I got this compass app a while ago and downloaded the data so I could use it offline. Also, the satellites are still working.” He pointed upwards. “So, the positioning should still be valid.”
Mike frowned and was about to ask another question, but Jack’s face lit up and he held up the phone. “Got it!”
He looked closely at his screen, zooming in and out. “Battery level is getting a little low. OK, this location is in Georgia. About sixty miles northeast of Atlanta, close to the South Carolina border.” He fiddled around with his phone some more. “Darn. Wish I had downloaded landmarks. Can somebody give me a piece of paper and a pen? The battery might die on me here.”
Several folks jumped up. Michelle was already familiar with the kitchen and snatched a pen, while Tammy slid the note to Pedro across the table towards Jack.
“Use the back of that,” she instructed.
Two minutes later, Jack had created a rough sketch of the location. It appeared to sit in the middle of nowhere. The location was ten miles east from South Carolina, whose border ran straight down the middle of the Savannah River. It was on a small secondary highway, about six miles north of a small town named Elberton.
Chapter 39
November 8, 7:30 P.M., Jeffersons farmstead
The group sat in silence, each person trying to absorb all of the information they had just been given.
“Phew!” Mike commented a little later. “I am stuffed and exhausted.”
He got up from his chair just as Abi and BB walked back into the house. Abi looked somewhat embarrassed. “Sorry,” she said as she glanced over at Michelle with a small frown.
“Hey, girl. There’s nothing to be sorry about. We’re on the same side of this.” She got up from her chair and stepped towards the small woman. “It was a terrible thing, and it happened to your friends and family. And mine, too.”
Michelle hugged Abi, which looked funny to Jack. Kind of like a gnarly old grizzly bear trying to hug a cute little lemur. The moment was heartfelt, though, and the two women broke the embrace with warm smiles.
They were brought up to speed on thing. “I think I see a road trip in our near future,” John said. “But for now, let’s prep for the night.”
They quickly figured out guard duty. Jack offered to take a watch but was overruled. “Nope. We’ve got this.” John gestured to the soldiers around him. “You just rest that trigger finger of yours. You’re going to need it again tomorrow.”
The jest was meant in good spirit, but Jack really wasn’t looking forward to shooting more dead people in the head.
John suggested they all sleep in the master bedroom. “I’d prefer to keep us together. There should be plenty of room for all of us.”
Nobody seemed to disagree with that, so Mike and BB went upstairs to drag mattresses from the kids’ room into the master bedroom. There was no need for all of them to sleep on the ground.
“Let’s let the ladies of our group use those,” Mike suggested gallantly. Michelle appreciated that.
Everybody gathered outside on the covered porch to catch a breath of fresh air before turning in. The Humvees were parked less than ten yards from the house, facing outward. The rain had stopped, leaving an earthy, fresh smell in the air. It reminded Jack of the story Tammy had just told them. He imagined Maddie standing in this very spot on many nights.
Jack watched as the cloudy sky started to open up, allowing the first stars to become visible in the night sky. It had been a long couple of days for him and he felt exhausted, both physically and emotionally. He thought back to his mom, who must be worried about him, and felt a slight tug of regret at his heart. He shook the feeling off quickly. He felt that he was doing the right thing. He knew he was. Just then, the first beams of the moon broke through the low-hanging clouds above the treetops. They seemed to light up everything around him with a silver tinge.
I’ll take that as a sign. Thanks, Dad.
JOHN WAS WAITING FOR Jack at the stairs with a grin. “Ready for some rack time?”
“If that means going to sleep, then, yes, I’m ready for some
