The Infected Dead (Book 3): Die For Now by Bob Howard Page B

behind the military lines.”
    “You’re assuming they were able to establish lines of defense that were effective,” I said. “Remember those broadcasts I watched from the shelter? They weren’t able to strike back after they set up their lines of defense. Eventually they were overrun or ran out of supplies. At the very least, they weren’t able to coordinate with other military groups or bases.”
    Tom said, “I guess that explains why they didn’t make it to here, but do you think any of the government made it to safety?”
    “Certainly,” said Bus. “The President is undoubtedly in a secure location. I wouldn’t be surprised if they moved him from one safe place to another by now.”
    “Which brings up an interesting point,” I said. “If this was one of their primary shelters, is the military going to show up here? Better yet, why haven’t they shown up yet?”
    The four of us just exchanged looks as the realization dawned on us. This thing had not only crippled our land forces, it had cut deeply into our ability to respond from the sea and the air. Our assets couldn’t keep supply lines open long enough to be able to mount any kind of resistance.  
    “If it was up to me,” said Kathy, “I wouldn’t even consider moving the President to a ship. After what we saw on the Atlantic Spirit and on the Russian corvette, I don’t think a ship is a safe place to be.”
    Kathy said, “I think it’s time for us to stop worrying about why the military couldn’t stop this thing. We still have a goal, and even though it won’t stop the infected dead from running the whole world, it will keep us alive a while longer, and who knows? It may even give us a chance to find out if the Chief survived that crash.”
    “So, what’s the plan?” I asked.  
    Kathy said, “It’s really simple, Eddie. We pop out of the hidden doors and take out a few of them as quietly as we can. We don’t do any head injury. Then we get back into hiding and hope they start biting people before sunrise. If it’s dark enough out there, those guys will be so spooked they’ll be shooting anybody who smiles enough to show teeth.”
    That got a laugh out of us, and we could feel the tension dropping as we laid out our plan. We decided to go out in pairs because there were two hidden doors that were also clearly out of the immediate view from the people above. We had also spent a few minutes in front of the video monitors to see if we could tell if the morons were posting watches. We saw that there were only two places we would see people always hanging around, and the only time there were two people at either spot was straight up on the hour. Somebody had a working clock, and those were most likely to be our guards.  
    The doors to those hidden exits could be reached from escape hatches that went up through steep tunnels. Each tunnel had three ladders down the curved walls, and was about the size of an elevator shaft. When we found the rooms where the tunnels began, we could see that they were intended to get dignitaries in and out quickly. The three ladders would allow for protective forces to be with the VIPs at all times. There was also the same type of harness that was used on rescue helicopters and a line that went up the shaft. If we needed to move fast, that would come in handy. A flashlight up the tunnel revealed that we were about three stories below the surface, and we could see a platform at the top of the ladders. A quick climb to the top was all we needed to see that the doors were nearly vertical, so we could open them and step through instead of having to climb up through them.  
    The rooms were far enough from each other that we had to synchronize our watches. I had stopped wearing one, but both Tom and Bus found it harder to break the habit. We decided to go out at 9:15 PM. Sunset would be just after 8:30 PM, and the guard would change at 9:00. The guard going off duty seldom hung around more than a couple of minutes,