Chapter 18: Road to Cornwall, Connecticut - February 2015

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They were still ten minutes south of their objective, the small town in Connecticut where Danny and Caroline Green grew up, when shots rang out. Teylor spun the SUV sideways, blocking the road and giving them some cover, as he, Danny, Tex, and their passengers piled out of the vehicle.

"Turn around and go back the way you came!" The order was punctuated by a few additional shots that landed nowhere near the SUV. Either the person shooting had terrible aim or, more likely, their intention was not to actually hit anything. This wasn't the first time the team ran into resistance in their efforts to spread the cure and any other day Teylor would have been perfectly happy to wait it out.

But not today. Not when they were so damn close to Caro.

Danny swore under his breath before moving to crouch near the tire, popping his head out to talk to whoever was out there. "This is Lieutenant Daniel Green with the U.S. Navy. We are headed north to Cornwall. We have the cure to the Red Flu. Happy to share it with all of you."

"We've heard that before," a man's voice replied. "We aren't interested in your help or your cure."

Teylor clenched his jaw. As if the Immunes and their habit of claiming to have a "cure", only to instead infect everyone around them, weren't enough to content with, from the moment they reached Baltimore, the Nathan James had dealt with one local militia after another, most established in the height of the chaos following the collapse of the pre-virus government. Well-intentioned or otherwise, the groups were typically disorganized and lacking true leadership, often leaving the very people that they claimed to protect distrustful of anyone who claimed to be part of the government.

In his ear, Teylor could hear Carlton advising command of the situation. Minutes later he and Wolf appeared, running up from the second vehicle, which had remained half a mile back per protocol. With Danny occupied by the idiot thinking that he could drive them off with a rifle, Carlton took charge. "Taylor and Cruz, see if you can figure out where those shots are coming from and circle around behind them."

"Yes, sir."

But before Teylor could move, Danny's voice caught his attention. "You ready to talk to me yet, Caro?"

"I'm thinking about it."

Teylor froze, his mind blank. That voice. A voice he would have known anywhere. One that he knew as well as his own.

Caro was alive.

Despite the odds, she managed to survive.

When, in a rare moment of optimism, Teylor envisioned this moment, he imagined himself overjoyed. The knowledge that Caro had survived akin to winning a dozen lotteries. But instead, he felt numb. Frozen. Convinced that it was all a trick.

"Still pissed at me, I take it?" Danny was saying, his typical half-flippant manner of dealing with his sister enough to drag Teylor back to the present. Teylor fought the urge to snap at Green to shut up, to leave the past in the past and focus on the present, on the miracle that they were experiencing.

"If you want to talk, Danny, you can come on over," Caro replied, sounding tired. "But no guns. And tell anyone else with you to head back down the road."

"Absolutely not," Carlton responded, instantly rejecting the suggestion. "We have no idea what is going on and this whole situation feels weird."

Tex leaned forward. "I'm with Burk. This isn't just scared civilians. There's something wrong here. You sure that's your sister?"

"Oh, that's Caroline all right," Teylor jumped in. Not knowing Caro, Carlton couldn't possibly understand the dynamic between the Green siblings. "She's clearly got a bee in her bonnet about something. No convincing her of it, though. She's the most stubborn woman on the planet."

"Let me talk to her," Danny argued. "She won't shoot me."

"It's not your sister that I'm worried about," Carlton replied, reminding all of them that they were facing an unknown number of hostiles.

"Caro won't let them shoot me," Danny argued. "Right, Teylor?"

Thrown into the middle of the dispute, Teylor hesitated. Carlton was playing this by the book...but there was no book when it came to the apocalypse. It was the hint of desperation in Danny's eyes, a look that reminding Teylor of how he felt in Louisiana, that swayed him. Caro might be Teylor's ... something, but she was also Danny's sister. His family. "I say he goes, but takes the gun."

Carlton obviously wasn't happy, but finally nodded. "Fine. But don't step out until Wolf and Cruz are in position."

"No can do, Caro," Danny called over the SUV. Then he added, "Cruz here says that you are the most stubborn woman on the planet."

"Teylor?"

Following Wolf into the thick brush, moving as quietly as possible through the soft snow, Teylor could have sworn that he heard her whisper his name. He opened his mouth to respond, momentarily forgetting the need for silence, but before he could give himself away, Caro's voice sounded again. And there was nothing soft about her voice now.

"You think that's going to work on me?" Caro's voice was scornful. "Do you really expect me to believe that you and Teylor both survived? And that you have a cure for the Red Flu? Forget it buster. I've been down that road before. The military and all of their help."

"You see anything, Wolf?" Carlton's voice sounded in their mics.

"Looks like civilians," Wolf responded. "Four of them. Older man, two guys in their early twenties, and the woman – Green's sister, I take it. She has a pistol but the rest of them have hunting rifles."

Moving to the tree next to Wolf, Teylor raised his scope, barely able to hear over the pounding of his chest. He ignored the men he was supposed to be watching and focused on the petite brunette, hair tied in a messy bun on top of her head, wearing only a pair of jeans and a green jacket despite the frigid temperature.

A very familiar green jacket.

Seeing her standing there - shockingly alive - watching her stare at the SUV where Danny remained hidden, it all felt surreal. She looked skinnier than he remembered, dirtier, the pistol strapped to her thigh jarringly out-of-place. Teylor hadn't even know that Caro could shoot.

"Burk, go south, check on Miller and make sure we aren't getting blocked in. I don't want to get surprised," Danny ordered. "Wolf and Cruz, keep an eye on them. I'm heading out."

"She's moving closer to your location," Wolf whispered as Caro took a limping step forward, her right foot dragging, obviously injured. "The others are going with her. We'll circle behind."

A quick scan revealing nobody else hiding in the woods. Wolf and Teylor fell in behind the group, slowly advancing as they moved onto the road. Wolf stepped out first, causing Caro to jump and spin in their direction. Teylor could hear Danny talking - lecturing really, the way he would a junior officer - but the words flowed past without meaning as he stepped out of the shadows of the trees.

Walking up to Caro, giving her no opportunity to speak, he wrapped a hand around the back of her neck, tipping her face upwards and using his other arm to pull her against him as he captured her lips.