Later that night Casey and Claudia Pulled into her base in Greenville, South Carolina. The people there had used shipping containers and the trailers from 18 wheelers (pulled onto their sides) to encircle a mobile home development of about 50 homes. Casey couldn't believe it. It was honestly huge. At least five acres, probably way more, and surrounded by... well Casey lost count at 49 containers (and he couldn't see all of them anyway). They were quickly surrounded by people with questions and Casey got VERY uncomfortable, it had been months since he had seen so many people. A pretty girl about Claudia's age came jogging over with a big red first aid bag.

Claudia pointed at her and simply said,"Rose."

"I'd have said it was more a burgundy, but if you say it's rose..."

"Her name you ape!" She said laughing.

Rose was very professional, telling the pair that they would be quarantined until 'Jordan' cleared them, "What about Rich and Cliff?"

Claudia just shook her head and said, "Raiders again."

"Elliot will want to talk to you, especially him." Rose said as she expertly re-bandaged Claudia's leg.

"Him's name is Casey", Casey said,"Jordan a doctor?"

"Do you mind being examined by a coroner?"

"There's a joke there, just give me a second to figure it out", Casey liked Rose immediately.

Before anything else could be said, A well built man about Casey's age came jogging up. Casey sized him up quickly. 'He knows how to handle himself, in shape, leader type'

He first turned to Claudia and asked,"Rich and Cliff?"

"Raiders, This is Casey, He saved me."

A quick nod to Casey and then back to Claudia, "The transmitters?"

"In his Truck."

"Thanks for saving Claudia" Elliot said turning to Casey.

"It was the right thing to do." It was obvious that both men were sizing the other up.

"You a Vet?" Elliot asked.

"Desert Storm, You?"

"Same."

"Want to bet, in ten minutes, they'll be trying to find out who can pee farther?", Claudia mock whispered to Rose.

Ignoring the girls,"What's up with the transmitters? Is anyone out there receiving?" Casey asked as a slim beauty with dark hair walked up.

"We're trying to get back in touch with the CDC. They never answered us, but we were receiving transmissions from them until about a month ago."

"We hope they have some sort of theory or treatment, even some information that we can use. I'm Jordan the local doctor."

"We three need to talk, privately. NOW."

Elliot called a 'town meeting' in the morning and let everyone know what had happened to the CDC.

While he was talking, Casey found Claudia,

"Claudia, can anyone here copy a hard drive that probably has all sorts of protection?"

"I could do that BEFORE my morning coffee. Why? And please don't let me hear the word porn."

"No one knows this, but I have a portable hard drive from the CDC that should have EVERYTHING Jenner had. I'm hoping it's mostly porn but he didn't seem the type."

Claudia became very animated, attracting attention,"Why didn't you say something?!"

Casey looked around and, unfortunately had the whole rooms attention.

"Damn." he whispered before addressing the group, "Doctor Jenner gave me a hard drive that may contain all the information he had on the... plague, I guess. I didn't want anyone to know until I found someone who could copy and decrypt it. Jenner... well he was exhausted and had given up, for all I know this could hold information on the dead or his fantasy football picks."

"You should've said something, this could have the cure!" Elliot squared off on Casey.

'This is what I wanted to avoid.' ran through Casey's mind, "Not according to Jenner, He didn't know if it was viral, bacterial or if Hell had no more room. I'm happy to let you copy it, but the original stays with me."

Elliot was angry and about to say something, but decided against it, "Let's see if Claudia can copy it and go from there."

Moving through the crowd Casey could feel everyone watching him. They walked toward the Infirmary, veering off toward a travel trailer off to the side. As they began to file in Elliot asked Claudia how long it would take.

"Depends how much information is on it, how it's compressed, what type it is and if I have the programs to decrypt it."

Casey asked,"And if you don't have the programs you need?"

"I may be able to convert it to something usable, so let's not buy trouble."

She quickly plugged the hard drive into her set up and began, "Copying this will be no problem, but some of the information is in a media style format that I don't have. It's in a high density codec for transmitting"

"Claudia," Casey interrupted, "We don't speak geek, except maybe a little Klingon."

"I may still be able to convert this to something we can view."

"What would you need if you can't convert it?", Elliot asked.

"Any place that sends and receives high density media files should have something I can use."

"I don't know where we could get an ELINT vehicle, maybe one of the reserve bases..." Elliot began to say.

"What about a news van?" Casey asked. "I saw one two or three days ago."

"That might have the codecs and if they don't I'll be able to adapt them. This crappy set up is about 3 years too old for the job."

Elliot nodded,"Claudia, make the copy and see what you can do here and now. Casey, we have a scavenging run to plan."

"One thing, Claudia, Make two copies. One that is not altered and one for you to play with."

XXXXX

And yes I HAD to throw the obligatory 'Dawn of the Dead' reference in. See if you can find it, It is obvious.