"We're approaching the outskirts of Everett," Briggs called out, startling Walker momentarily from his thoughts. "ETA to the mall 15 minutes."
Only 15 minutes left to figure out what to tell the others at the mall, Walker thought to himself. Was she telling the truth or not? He feared he would drive himself crazy trying to understand what was going on around him. A part of him thought that maybe he should leave well enough alone, he was alive afterall, as Cook had so eloquently pointed out. And Briggs did seem like a person who could keep him that way. Another part of him was scared to death that she'd sacrifice the lot of them in a heartbeat if that's the move she felt she needed to make. He could feel the helicopter touching down on the roof of the mall, and watched as Briggs began shutting down the machine. When they climbed out of the helicopter he saw the others had landed too, and that CJ and Terry were standing watch on the mall roof. Nicole was up there as well, she never strayed far from Terry's side if she could help it, he thought. She was playing fetch with the dog that she fawned over like it was a baby.
After seeing them climbing from the helicopters, CJ, Terry and Nicole hurried over to join them. "What the hell is this? Just a little souvenir that you picked up or what?" CJ asked, curious at the sight of the new helicopter.
"CH-53 Stallion," Briggs said, continuing to walk towards the stairwell door. CJ watched her walk away from him for a moment then quickly moved to follow her. "I meant where and how did you get it," he said, trying to reconcile her behavior that day with woman he'd spent the night before with, it was almost like being with Jekyll and Hyde.
She came to a sudden stop, turning to look him full in the face before speaking. "Ft. Pastor was a complete wash. We were making a sweep over the post when Cowboy picked up some chatter over the radio, turned out to be coordinates to a city south of here. The Stallion was sitting on top of the high school roof, it's loaded with supplies, food, medical andarms. I checked it over, made sure it wasn't booby trapped with explosives or rigged with any kind of a tracking device. It looks clean and it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. If we need to we can scrap the Blackhawks and still be able to pick up more survivors," she told him.
"What made you think it would be booby trapped," he asked, curious at the thought.
"Call me paranoid, but like I said before, either Steiner or Timmons was in contact with another unit off the island while we were there. If they sent a search party out there after the communications ceased, they could have seen what we did to their little research facility and decided to hunt us down and take us out for knowing too much. In any way possible I might add. I couldn't take that kind of risk."
"But if there wasn't any kind of trap on it or spy stuff what the hell was it doing there?" CJ pressed.
"The best thing we can hope for is that either someone abandoned it there for some reason, they might have tried something heroically dumb like do a foot search for survivors and they didn't make it back."
"Or?" CJ prompted.
"Or one of my radio calls actually reached one of my old co-workers and they set it up for us. At any rate, we need the stuff and it's ours now, end of discussion."
CJ looked at Terry who had been silently standing just behind them with Nicole by his side, holding his hand as the two of them listened to everything he and Briggs had said. He heard Nicole whisper loudly, "Terry what's she talking about?"
"It'll be okay Nicole, the soldiers know what they're doing, they'll keep us safe. We just have to trust them," he told her, trying to sound more sure of that then he felt. "Excuse me, Sergeant Briggs," he called out, "how much longer do you think we'll be here for?"
"We'll move out at first light. I want to get everything we're going to need loaded up tonight. After I brief the others, we're going to have to make a run to the fuel depot one last time and then we're going to be ready to leave this town behind for good." She turned and pulled open the stairwell door, disappearing inside. The rest of the soldiers followed. CJ, Terry, and Nicole remained on the roof, finishing their guard duty shift.
"What do we need another helicopter for?" Nicole asked Terry.
"I don't know, maybe so we can try to pick up more survivors," he told her.
"Do you really think there's anyone left out there to pick up?" CJ asked.
"You don't seriously think we're the only ones left alive in the whole country do you CJ?" Terry queried in reply.
"No, I don't think we're the only ones left alive. But we just left a group of people who survived and you saw what they were like," he told them. "And I'm starting to think that anyone who did survive the initial outbreak of this thing have either been taken in by people like that, or else they're with people like our soldiers here. Either way, I don't know which is worse."
"But what about the soldiers we have here?" Nicole asked, confused. "Briggs and the others wouldn't be working against us would they?"
"Truthfully I don't know," CJ replied, a tinge of regret in his voice.
"But she likes you CJ," Nicole said naively, as if thatwas the only thingin the world that mattered.
"How do you know Nicole?" CJ countered, beginning to get irritated with the way this conversation was going. It was reminding him too much of the night when Monica had decided to psychoanalyze his love life.
"You're the only one of us that she really talks to," the girl said. "With the rest of us she gives out orders, tells us how things are going to be, but with you it's different."
"Yea, right," he said. "It couldn't be that she's playing me for a sucker could it. Making it seem like there's something more between us then there really is."
"Why would she do something like that?" Terry asked.
"Who knows. I just don't know if we can really trust her, if I can really trust her," he said quietly. "One minute it seems like we're friends, the next...I just don't know."
Walker approached them and spoke. "I don't blame you for having some doubts about Briggs," he said softly, glancing nervously over his shoulder at the other soldiers still standing by the helicopters. "I feel the same way about her."
"How so?" CJ asked, curiosity over what the young man had to say getting in the way of his better judgment.
"There are moments when you feel like you're invincible with her along. The way she puts together a strategy and then practically wills fate to make things end the way she wants them to. Then comes the moments of fear. That sheer terror when you realize without a single doubt in your mind that she'd take you out without hesitation if that's what she felt was necessary for her plans to come to fruition."
Nicole stared wide-eyed at the young soldier, such thoughts having never entered her mind before. She still tended to romanticize things, thinking of Briggs and CJ as two star-crossed lovers brought together by the tragedy around them. Reality intruded when CJ nodded his head in agreement to what Walker had said, either unwilling or incapable of voicing his agreement out loud.
"But CJ," she began to say before Terry cut her off.
"They're right Nicole," he stated softly, reaching out to wrap his arm around the girl's waist and draw her closer. "We really don't know what they're planning for us, only that whatever it is she's in charge. We're all like a bunch of puppets and she's the puppeteer pulling our strings," he finished sadly. Giving Nicole one last squeeze he walked back over to the side of the building where he'd been before the helicopters had arrived. He just stood there, staring out at the sea of zombies below that seemed to be growing right in front of his eyes. After a moment CJ followed suit, leaving Nicole and Walker standing alone together in silence.
"I really hope you guys are wrong about Briggs," Nicole said finally, breaking the silence.
Staring at the pretty redhead in front of him, Walker felt a momentary stab of jealousy that Terry had been here to meet her first. Squashing the thought almost as soon as it started,
he replied, "So do I little girl, so do I." Then he too walked away, taking a seat in the doorway of one of the Blackhawks and silently proceeding to dismantle and clean his weapon, for all intents and purposes ignoring everyone and everything around him.
Meanwhile, Briggs was entering the food court area, feeling almost amazed at the amount of work Steele and the others had accomplished in the time they'd been gone. There were plastic milk crates loaded with water bottles and non-perishable foods sitting next to stacks of blankets and clothing. She'd already passed the duffle bags loaded with the weapons and ammunition sitting just outside the stairwell door.
She came upon the others, sitting in the food court again, just like before they'd flown out towards the Fort. Steele looked up just in time to see Briggs' entrance. "Sarge!" she called out, purposely alerting the others to her presence. "How'd your search party make out with Pastor?"
Briggs walked to the counter at Hallowed Grounds, grabbing a bottle of water and taking a long pull from it before speaking. "Pastor was a bust, it's almost as thick with those things as what the parking lots outside this place are. But we did pick up some noise on the radio. Turned out to be coordinates being broadcast on a loop, directed us to a town south of here. We checked it out, kind of expected it to be another group of survivors. All we found was a helicopter loaded with supplies just sitting there waiting for us on the roof of the local high school."
"What was it doing there?" Ana asked.
"Unknown. The best case scenario is that one of my former colleagues picked up my distress calls before we flew out of the Gull Island facility and had it prepped and waiting for us."
"What's the worst case?" Michael called out, afraid he already knew the answer.
"That it's a set-up by somebody affiliated with the island, but I really don't think that's the case."
"Why's that?" Michael asked.
"Because it was clear of any booby traps, there were no tracking devices on board. None of the supplies appear to have been tampered with in any way. It all looks pretty much on the level."
"Are there any other options besides those two?" Ana called.
"There's always the remote chance that there could have been a group of survivors who landed it there. Maybe they got careless, tried to pull off a rescue or secure the rest of the building on foot and didn't make it. I don't know. It was fully loaded with food and medical supplies along with more arms, so there's no way anyone would have just abandoned it."
"So what now?" Kenneth called out, joining in the conversation.
"Right now I'm going to take a group out and get the helicopters refueled. Evans, Peter,
I'd like you to ride shot gun with Cowboy and Jones. Masters, Marshall and Steele, you'll join Cook on the second Blackhawk. Henry, Kenneth and Roger if you'd be good enough to join Walker and crew the third. Michael, I want you and CJ to join myself and Sanchez on the Stallion."
"Wait, that's over half of our people!" Fran protested, dreading the thought that Peter would be alone on a helicopter with some of the soldiers.
"I understand your concern Fran, really I do, but we need the four man teams for each of the birds on this fueling operation," Briggs told them.
"Why?" Frank asked, still uncomfortable with the idea.
"I want the pilot to remain onboard, be ready to dust off on a spit second notice. One person will be needed to man the fuel pump for each bird, the remaining two will be lookouts. We need to be prepared for any type of an attack, be it from the dead or the living. I'm counting on the rest of you to bring all the supplies you've gathered up to the roof while we're gone. There should be just enough light left when we return to get it all loaded. I want us to be ready to move out at first light tomorrow. We've probably stayed here too long as it is."
With that she started walking out of food court, heading back out the way she'd come in. After a few seconds of hesitation, the rest of them she'd named started to follow her.