Chapter 26


"Green?" Miller said trying to wake Danny.

"He's out cold. Just keep his leg elevated." his Mom told him, as Miller was keeping Danny's leg elevated above his heart which was in accordance with some romance novel his mom claimed she read about it working in. He wanted to tell that fiction wasn't really the best resource for first aid tips but then they didn't have a medic on the plane and even if Danny was unconscious. He was still alive and had a steady pulse. Unlike Miller's whose was racing a million miles an hour with adrenaline.

"Mom, are you ok?" Miller asked her, she sat back on her feet and gave him a smile.

"I'm fine, though that was a little exciting." she commented, he could tell she was lying but left it alone as he knew his mother was a proud woman and wouldn't want to be seen as weak.

"I'd say so, that was bad ass Mrs M." Cruz said as they'd all calmed down from the craziness of getting out of the hostile zone and treating the injured. Luckily they hadn't lost anyone but then Wolf, Alisha and Burk were still out in Milwaukee. Those on the plane only had minor injuries which was a relief.

"Ah, Mom. This is Petty Officer Javier Cruz." Miller said making the introductions.

"Everyone calls Cruz." Cruz said holding out his hand.

"Well, Javier. It's Ms M not Mrs. I never married." Mom said correcting him and also using his first name as she shook hands with him. He smiled and gave a nod.

"Ms M, your boy here is one of the finest sailors I've ever trained and served with. So it's an honour to meet you." Cruz said, Miller couldn't help but go beet red at the compliment as none of the guys really complimented his skills they usually pointed out where he went wrong and called him a 'doofus' or other names. But he watched as his Mom beamed at the charm of Cruz.

"It's always nice to meet a friend of my son's-" his Mom was about to continue when the Captain came over to them.

"How is he?" Tom asked gesturing to Danny.

"I believe it's a through and through. But he needs a hospital." His Mom told the Captain.

"We're headed for St Louis. Should be there in under an hour." Tom informed them.


"Damnit, where are they coming from?" Alisha said an hour later as they had lost the truck but gained two more cars these ones were smaller and speedier. It seemed like they weren't chasing them. They could have easily overtaken them and cut them off but instead they were pushing them into a certain direction. It made no sense.

"They aren't even firing at us." Wolf said as he'd tried to shoot out their tires but Alisha's driving impeded his efforts so he gave up.

"Holy-" Alisha didn't get to finish the sentence as the SUV hit road spikes the tyres popped and car swerved viciously off the road and smashed into electrical pole. Glass exploded into the car and metal crumpled and groaned from the impact. The sheer force knocked them all unconscious.


Tom watched as Lt Green was rushed to the ambulance waiting on the tarmac in St Louis. The rest of the team he'd given orders to be seen by a doctor and to report back in an hour as they needed to find Wolf, Alisha and Burk. He couldn't leave them out there. He also couldn't help but worry about Rachel. This unknown group made him uneasy given they'd just let them fly off. It made no sense.

"What happened?" Mike asked as he met Tom on his way into the hangar following the others towards the armoury to hand over their weapons.

"Someone didn't like us, blew up the Milwaukee party and the supplies. It felt like a trap but not for us." Tom told him in a low voice. He'd not said over the radio what happened instead just in case their comms were being monitored. They had a leak but he wasn't sure if it was on their end or on Milwaukee safe zone's end.

"That doesn't make sense." Mike said as his whole day seemed to have a theme of confusion to it. He didn't want to think what happened to Wolf's sister was connected to it but his gut was telling him that something was going on.

"I think it was to send a message as much to us as it was to the Milwaukee Regent. I want to speak with Senator Pierce and what?" Tom asked Mike as he noticed his friend's expression.

"Taylor with you?" Mike asked as he couldn't resist asking. He hadn't seen the man walk off the plane.

"Got separated, they are still out there. I want to head back out but we need to get into contact with them first." Tom said, he could only assumed that Wolf, Burk and Alisha had headed South. St Louis was closer than Norfolk but he had a feeling they'd head towards a fortified base than a city filled with civilians. Even if it took them longer to get there. It meant more time to evade their enemy.

"His sister was assaulted. I thought I'd give you the heads up that she's in the hospital here masquerading as Lt Granderson." Mike told Tom, just in case someone else told him and he was caught off guard.

"Do I want to know why she's using Granderson's Identity?" Tom asked, wondering why Mike would allow Wolf's sister to lie about her identity even if she was mugged. The public hospital should've provided her the medical care she needed.

"Something off about this place," Mike said cryptically, Tom stopped in his tracks and turned to Mike.

"Is this one of your gut things?" Tom asked him, over the years Tom had learned to trust his friend's instincts especially when it came to people and situations with an undercurrent of dishonesty. His time as a detective made him more adept at it than Tom. Mike gave him a wry smile.

"It's too perfect, then the sibling of one of our people gets attacked. Apparently the police weren't interested in investigating the crime tried to fob her off to the public hospital. They wanted nothing to do with her either. According to Lt Foster they refused to treat Taylor's sister because she's 'sport'." Mike told him.

"Sport?" Tom said as he was trying to make sense of that and why the public health system wouldn't help as they were supposed to accept all walks of life and treat their injuries.

"I want to look into a bit more." Mike said though he wasn't going to flash around Larrin's name. For some reason the idea of a young woman being called 'sport' gave him an uneasy feeling especially given it wasn't being used as a term of endearment.

"Ok. Let me know what you find out." Tom said.


Wolf groaned in pain as he slowly came to. He opened his eyes and his sluggish brain barely processed what was going on around him. He was hanging in his seat belt, broken glass scattered across his clothing, he lifted his head and saw Burk and Alisha in the front of car. Both handing in their belts unconscious. Smoke and a hissing noise filtered through as he took in the damage to the car as the front of it had wrapped around a large electrical pole.

He winced as he heard the sound of tires screeching and gunfire. He turned his head to the left and regretted as stars and speckles washed over his vision threatening to black him out. He frowned as he saw men in military uniforms move in formation firing their weapons. Another couple men raced over to their car, Wolf reached for his weapon but his brain swam and he lost grip on reality and passed out.


"So this is where you live?" Barbara asked her son as he pulled up the borrowed vehicle to a grand looking house. She'd never lived anywhere but the bookshop. This house looked like it deserved to be on front cover of a House and Garden magazine.

"Yeah, with other people." he told her.

"Yes, I remember Wolf telling me so. Is his name really Wolf?" Barbara asked him, her son smiled and nodded.

"He has a sister Larrin. Apparently their Mom liked unique names." he told her, he frowned and Barbara followed his gaze to see two police cars parked on the other side of the road and a couple of uniformed officers at the front door of their house.

"Is everything alright?" She asked him.

"Yeah, just weird to see police out here. Must be a social call." Miller said putting on a smile to comfort his Mom. He didn't want her worrying about the safety of the neighbourhood. He got out of the car and walked around the other side, opening the door for his mom. It wasn't like she needed the help but he liked being a gentleman.

He and his Mom headed up the front path; leaving their bags for later as Miller was worried about what was going on in the house.

"Hello, can I see some identification?" one of the officers asked. Miller pulled out his wallet and took his Military ID out showing it to the officer.

"Seaman Eric Miller. You're not listed as a resident of this house." The officer said looking to Miller.

"I'm staying as a guest of Tex Nolan. This is my mother Barbara Miller." Miller said, he couldn't help but feel his back go rigid at the formality. "Is everything alright?" he asked.

"We're searching the premises for a suspect in a murder investigation. They listed this place as their residence." The officer told them, Miller heard something smash and moved to go into the house only to be stopped.

"Do you have a warrant?" Barbara asked them, the officer didn't get the chance to answer the question when two officers came out of the house.

"She's not here-" one of them started to say but stopped as he saw Miller and his Mom.

"Who is the suspect you're looking for?" Miller asked, the officer pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it. It was a black and white photocopy of Larrin's passport.

"You know her?" The officer asked.

"She looks familiar but then a lot of women have been coming to me for the cure." Miller said as he wasn't sure why but he felt to be obtuse about Larrin was better than saying he knew her. The officer gave him a look annoyance before he showed the photocopy of the passport to his Mother.

"Asking me is a waste of time. I've been in Iowa until an hour ago." She informed them.


"We'll get you home, you can rest-" Kara stopped mid sentence as she accidentally missed the turn off for their street but in her mistake she'd seen the cops outside of their place. She didn't know why but she had a bad feeling about it. The cops hadn't cared about Larrin past getting her off their plate and now they were parked outside their house.

"What is it?" Larrin asked.

"The police are at the house." Kara said.

"So?" Larrin asked confused and a little out of sorts thanks to her concussion and injuries.

"I don't know, it's just off." Kara said as she continued to drive on. She threw Larrin a comforting smile. "It's fine, we'll just make a pit stop somewhere else until they move on." Kara added, she tried to think of where they could go. The military base was out of question. She didn't know the address of anyone else on the ship except for one person.


The next time Wolf opened his eyes, he was blinded by bright fluorescent lighting. He raised a hand over his eyes to create a shadow and saw an IV cannula in the back of his hand. He had to admit he felt a lot better than he had when he was back in the car. It all then snapped back to him, the car chase. Alisha ploughing into pole and the firefight. He pushed up in the bed and muffled a groan as pain radiated through his body. He clutched a hand to his chest and leaned forward as the pain subsided into an unpleasant throbbing sensation. He was still dressed in his own clothes which was in a way a blessing.

He looked around seeing that he was in what looked like a hospital emergency room as there were several gurney beds with machines and medical supplies stacked on trolleys dotted around the room. His eyes landed on a woman in the bed to his left. For a moment he could have sworn it was Larrin, but it wasn't her. Sure she had the same skin tone, hair colour but her features were slightly different. at least what he could see as half her face was covered in a bandage.

He looked around at the other people in the room. All of them suffering from injuries of varying degrees, it made him wonder where Alisha and Burk were. He looked down at the monitors attached to him, he turned to the machine and switched it off before he pulled the electrodes off his skin and was about to pull out his IV when a woman snapped at him.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. Wolf looked at her, she was a fit looking 5ft 7 tall woman wearing a Navy BDU pants and a T-shirt with a lab coat over the outfit. The sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She had dark blue eyes, long wild wavy auburn hair that was pulled back into a braid but strands had escaped style framing her delicate featured face.

"Where am I?" Wolf asked her, her eyes went wide at his voice.

"Jesus, aren't you a lucky one. Bet your Zone got a long reprieve for handing you over to the Scavengers." She said as she unceremoniously shoved him back onto the gurney bed. He growled in pain as her touch hurt. "Yeah, big guy you're tough, blah blah but you can't be moving around. You have fractured ribs, a possible concussion and one hell of a bruise from the seat belt. So lie back like a good boy and maybe I'll answer all your questions." She informed him in a brusque manner.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"People just call me 'Doc' given funnily enough I'm the Doctor, look into the pen light." She told him as she pulled out a pen light and flashed it in his eyes without warning him.

"Ah." Wolf said making a face as he really wanted another doctor. This was more about getting through the work than showing care and a decent bedside manner. It made him feel a little like a meat puzzle.

"Pupils look good, want to tell me what day it is? the name of the last president and your name?" she asked him as she kept examining him.

"I don't know either of the first two. My name is Senior Chief Petty Officer Wolf Taylor of the Australian Royal Navy." Taylor told her, he watched as she stepped away to the end of the bed and lifted a chart from the end. She then pulled a pen from her pocket and jotted the name down on his chart.

"Got the Australian part with that accent. Looks like you're not lacking in any area." She said as she added notes to chart before placing it back in it's home at the end of the bed and looking to Taylor. "You're going to need the IV until the bag is empty. So rest, Lt Commander Burk will drop by soon to speak with you."

"Lt Commander Burk." Wolf said.

"Yeah, Oh-" she paused for a moment as if trying to remember something before she shrugged. "Did I not give you the welcome to Safe Harbour speech?" she asked him.

"No. You also didn't tell me about my friends either." Wolf said trying not to be rude but wanting answers.

"They are in the same shape as you. Lucky, given I heard you wrapped your car around a pole." She said with a humourless chuckle.

"Are they here?" He asked.

"Yeah, just unconscious in the other room. They haven't woken up but I'll let you know when they do. For now lay back, be calm and welcome to Safe Harbour." She told him, she went to walk away but Wolf called out to her.

"Wait up, what is this place?" Wolf asked her.

"You're Navy, you should know what Safe Harbour means." She told him.

"Explain it to me like I'm missing a few I.Q. Points." He told her, her eyebrows rose in amusement and she gave a smile that could lit up a whole room as she walked back to the end of his bed.

"Safe Harbour is the place where those who became sport can stop running, it's for those who shun the new world order and for those who want to redeem their humanity. You can pick which category you fit into but we all work together and live as harmoniously as we can." She explained to him.