Ch. 9 - Trust

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"Did he say where he was?" Slattery demanded upon entering the command center, Danny on his heels. Carlton looked up from the map that he and Ravit were examining. One that Ravit found years ago at a gas station in the foothills to the Appalachians, the kind of place that catered to hikers without GPS apparently, because just inside the entrance was a rack of maps for the surrounding states. Those maps had been a god-send since the last working satellite went dark last spring, leaving them dependent on old-school methods of getting around.

"South of Interstate 40, by the river," Carlton replied, pointing to the small blue triangle, indicating the presence of a friendly. "He didn't give much information, Captain. The connection was pretty patchy."

Danny didn't need to look at the map to realize how serious the situation was. Everything south of I-40 was Immune territory, which is why Captain Chandler had gone alone, not wanting to endanger anyone else. There was no way that the Immunes had tracked the Captain back - if he even suspected he had been seen or was being followed, he would have deliberately led the Immunes elsewhere - which meant one of two things. Either the Immunes were expanding their territory yet again, planning another push north, or they had somehow located the compound and this was a targeted attack. But no matter what the Immunes were doing, one thing was obvious.

They needed to get the hell out of here.

"Suggest setting up watch at four points along the southern border, sir, as well as two on each of the other approaches." Danny picked up several blue triangles, depositing them at the indicated locations. The eastern approach was almost impassable, but they couldn't discount the possibility that the Immunes would try it anyway in an attempt to encircle the camp.

"Agreed." Slattery reviewed the map while Carlton made the call, directing Wolf to set up an outer perimeter. Once that was done, Slattery picked up a bright pink triangle, setting it on an area roughly ten miles north-west. "I'm going to have everyone prep for evacuation. This will be our primary rally point."

Ravit viewed the map, before selecting a turquoise triangle and setting it on a spot due west. "Suggest putting the secondary rally point here, Captain. If we go north first, then circle back south-west, we should be able to slip behind the Immunes. Make it harder for them to track us."

Slattery considered the option before nodding. "Unexpected. I like it. We'll make a final call on the routes once the sentries report back. Green, make sure that all of the team leaders are briefed."

"Yes, sir." Danny could only hope that the team leaders were up for the task. While this wasn't the first time the order to prepare for evacuation had been given, it was the first time in over a year and moving over a thousand people, more than half of whom were civilians, was no easy task. Even with monthly drills, panic and hysteria were a real risk. They needed to be prepared for all of this to go to hell. Quickly. "Is the ultimate destination still Sheridan?"

Located in rural Illinois, Sheridan was another closed military base that Captain Chandler found six months ago during a search for survivors. The trip to Sheridan had taken Chandler and the small team he was travelling with just under a week but, given the size group that they would be moving now, locating enough trucks and gasoline to move everyone at once seemed unlikely. Instead, they would establish a temporary camp at a secondary location and then make several round trips. The entire process could take months.

Months of living on the run and hiding from the Ramseys - again.

"Yes," Slattery replied. "Send Cruz and his team to scope out the road and make sure that the base is still unoccupied."

Danny nodded. That left only one loose end. "What about the group outside the gate?"

Slattery grew thoughtful. "You said a couple of them are former military?"

"Yes. They seem organized." That was true of most groups that survived this long. In the years since the Red Flu first hit, people tended to break into small family units, as fear won out over friendship. The few larger groups that they stumbled across these days often had a military backgrounds, people bound not by blood shared but by blood shed, having enough training to survive in the wild, avoiding populated areas as much as possible. "They made it from Massachusetts. Should be able to find the rally point without getting lost."

Carlton was the one to give voice to the obvious concern, given the timing. "It's possible that they tipped off the Immunes."

Danny opened his mouth to respond, intending to defend his friend, but Slattery spoke first. "Seems unlikely. They were headed south when I ran into them, and we know they were coming from New England. Not Immune territory. Besides, they were all infected. If they did tip the bastards off, not sure what they got out of the deal."

"But do we trust them enough to give them the location of the rally point?" Carlton persisted. They all knew the stakes. Leave anyone behind and they were likely to be slaughtered. Trust them with the rally point, and the entire evacuation might be compromised. Putting every person in this camp at risk.

Putting Frankie and Kara at risk.

As if running around the Appalachians with a small child, trying to outrun a cult set on their destruction wasn't dangerous enough.

"Send Louie with them," Slattery said finally. "They should be able to take care of themselves. All Louie will need to do is tell them where to go."

It was an unusual, but clever solution. While young, not quite eighteen, Louie was immune and ran no risk of being infected. He was also completely loyal to Slattery, the man who found the teenager eighteen months ago. Living alone in a hospital, Louie had been strung out on something he found in the near-empty shelves, certain that he was the last person in the world. While their initial meeting hadn't gone well - Slattery almost shot the kid after he flung an empty beer bottle at him - once sober, Louie clung to the first healthy people he had seen in nearly six months. Over the past year Slattery occasionally allowed Louie to join the supply runs, and the kid had proven himself to be shrewd and quick on his feet. Louie would have no problem giving someone the slip if he suspected a problem.

"I'll prep him," Danny answered. Nobody mentioned the final complication - how to deal with Eddie. It would be up to the group whether they carried the man or left him behind. Danny pushed away the guilt. He had gotten the group a guide to the rally point. There was nothing else that he could do.

Danny was preparing to leave when he was stopped by Slattery's voice. "Green!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Stop by Doctor Scott's lab and get your shot first. Burk and Bivas, both of you as well." Slattery's voice was steely, his eyes firm, and he held up his hand to forestall any interruption, this speech directed at the entire command center. "I'm giving the same order to everyone in evacuation groups one and two. We'll be outside the gate, which increases the risk of being infected significantly. We cannot take the chance of Doctors Scott and Tophet being left unprotected or you being slowed down by people getting sick. No matter what, we need to make certain that they - and the cure they have developed - make it to a secure location."

Silence filled the room. Evacuation group one, which contained Doctor Scott, was Danny and Kara's group. Evacuation group two, with Doctor Tophet, was Carlton and Ravit's group.

Which meant that both Kara and Frankie would receive the vaccine.

Staggering relief warred with gut-wrenching guilt as Danny's gaze traveled through the command center, taking in the faces of those who weren't in either evacuation group, those who hadn't made the critical persons list. Those who were facing the real possibility of death, once again. Except that this time was worse, because this time there was the possibility of a cure dangling just out of reach. And, for the first time, Danny understood the burden that Slattery had carried all of this time.

The soul-crushing guilt of imagining everyone around him dead.

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Less than two hours later, having briefed the team leaders, Danny was exiting the compound with Louie, a process that went far more quickly without the need to don a hazmat suit. Taking a deep breath, Danny opened the final gate, stepping outside without protective gear for the first time since he originally entered these doors. The freedom was both liberating and terrifying, despite Doctor Scott's assurances both that these people were no longer contagious, and that the vaccine was immediately effective since it also functioned as a cure.

A claim that was backed up by the eighteen - nineteen if you included Eddie - people standing before him. The first people to survive the Red Flu.

Ever.

Only days earlier Danny had convinced these people to gamble on an untested vaccine created by a doctor who none of them knew. Now it was his turn. His turn to exit the camp. To risk exposure. To wait while Doctor Scott did the blood draw, knowing that if it came out the wrong way, he would never see Kara or Frankie again.

A chance to prove to himself that every word out of his mouth for the past two years hadn't been a lie.

For a moment, as he walked towards the group, no hazmat suit in sight, he could see their excitement - their joy - obviously expecting him to finally allow them into the compound that they saw as a safe haven. It took every ounce of Danny's self-control to keep his voice steady as he explained the evacuation plan. Told them that this was all a precaution. Reminded them that it could all be a false alarm. But unlike the last time Danny delivered bad news, this time there was nothing he could say to soften the blow. With each word he watched the excitement on their faces fade, to be replaced by stoic acceptance. These people had survived too many close calls, had seen too many friends die, had been disappointed too many times to believe that this time would be different.

As Danny finished speaking, a silence fell over the group, the difference from the happy chatter of only minutes before stark. Rob Abbott, the de-facto leader with Eddie out of service, was the first to speak. He looked to Louie. "How old are you?"

"Sixty," Louis retorted. "Why? How old are you?"

At that, Rob smirked, suggesting the man had a sense of humor, but his focus didn't waver. "And you're immune?"

Danny stepped closer to Louie. People who had experienced the Ramsey brothers' form of hospitality, which usually involved deliberately infecting those they stumbled across, often painted all immunes with the same brush. Danny answered for the teenager. "He is. And so are you."

A simple nod was Rob's only acknowledgment of Danny's statement, although his words drew a wave of murmurs from the remainder of the survivors as the words sunk in. "Commander Green. I would have thought that putting immune people at the edges of your territory would reduce the risk of anyone in the camp being infected."

Danny didn't answer. Of course Rob was right, and he would see through any pat excuse that Danny offered.

Rob continued after a short silence. "But since Louie is here, I'm going to guess he's underage. How old is he, really? Sixteen?"

Danny mulled his options, deciding that there was little harm in the truth. "Seventeen. Louie's done a number of supply runs. He's young but he knows the area and he's familiar with the rally points. He won't lead you wrong."

Rob tipped his head to the side. "You said that the entire compound is preparing to evacuate."

"That's correct," Danny answered warily.

"That's what? About twelve-hundred people?" Rob asked, his tone too confident, his number a little too accurate to be an actual guess. Danny narrowed his eyes, a slight tell that Rob immediately noticed. "Doctor Scott mentioned how much this place had grown. She's pretty proud of what you built here. The idea of leaving must be devastating."

Fighting to keep his expression neutral despite his irritation, Danny folded his arms. "Do you have a point, Mr. Abbott?"

Rob's jaw tightened, the jab at a man Danny knew to be a Gunnery Sergeant not going unnoticed. "I have no doubt that you have exhaustive evacuation plans for this place, plans that you aren't going to tell me. That's fair. But it's not much of a leap to say that we're better off traveling with you than by ourselves." A glance around the group showed several people nodding, an indication of the trauma that they had gone through over the past few years. "So I'm offering you a trade, Commander. Me, Ted, Devon, and Simon, we're Marines. We could head out, join the front line. And like you said, we're immune now so that's got to count for something."

Danny watched as the three other men stepped forward to stand next to Rob, signalling their agreement to the proposal. Rob was right about one thing, they were short-staffed, especially with Cruz and his team scouting out the road. And even a single lookout could be the difference between a successful evacuation and a bloodbath, a lesson that Danny had learned the hard way.

"And in exchange?" Danny asked, expecting Rob to demand the location of the rally points.

"You let everyone else inside - including Eddie - and you take them with you when you leave."

A simple request, but one that forced the very issue that Slattery had sought to avoid. Could they trust these people? "You were Eddie's sergeant back in the day?"

"Yup. Scout snipers, part of the First Second out of Lejeune. Done tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. All four of us." Rob held Danny's gaze.

Snipers. With Kara and now Ravit off the front lines, they could use a few marksmen. "Give me a minute to talk to the Captain."

Taking a few steps away, Danny relayed the offer to Slattery, listening as Burk and Slattery battered the idea back and forth.

As expected, Burk was cautious. "Are you sure we can trust them? Could be an excuse to get someone on the inside."

"Nah," Slattery replied. "If they wanted inside, getting sick wasn't the way to do it."

"Have to agree with the Captain," Danny added. "Besides, no point getting inside when we're leaving."

"You know them best, Green. What's your take? They legit?"

Danny found his eyes straying to Eddie, the promise he made rolling around and around in his head.

And you'll take care of them?

Yeah.

Promise me.

I promise.

Eddie trusted Danny to take care of his wife and son. Now it was Danny's turn to trust Eddie. "Yes, sir, I think they're legit."

A moment of silence followed before Slattery spoke, his voice firm, his decision final. "Do it. Take them through decontamination and have them wait in Doctor Scott's lab, just in case. Oh, and let Wolf know he's getting reinforcements."

"What about Ward?" Danny asked. "He's still sick. Doctor Scott said he shouldn't be contagious but..."

Surprisingly, Burk was the one to answer. "Put him in a suit. If it can keep the virus out, it can keep it in, too."

"Done." Turning off his mic, Danny turned back to Rob, holding out his hand. "We have a deal."

For the briefest of moments, Rob's mask faltered, his eyes flaring with relief, before he took the offered hand. "Everyone get your stuff! Looks like we're moving out!"

As the group began moving, Danny tightened his hold on Rob's hand, dropping his voice to a whisper. "I just went out on a limb for you. But if you double cross us, I swear that the last thing you will see before you die is me slitting your throat."

Rob stared back, eyes not wavering, before speaking. "I won't double-cross you. I owe you."

And there it was. The gratitude, the thanks, the appreciation. None of it earned or deserved or warranted. Danny ground his teeth together. "That was all Doctor Scott. She was the one to find the cure. I was just the delivery boy."

"I can never thank Doctor Scott enough for what she did, but that's not what I meant." Rob's voice dropped, keeping the conversation between the two men. "You were the one who decided who got the real shot and who didn't. You picked me. I have a wife. Two little girls. You gave me a chance to see them grow up. So, like I said, I owe you."

His eyes drifting to the cot where Eddie still lay, Danny felt his throat grow tight. "And like I said, I'm just the messenger."