Chapter One Tears began to well up in Marcus’ eyes. He rubbed them and looked again. “Kim… Kim…? Is that you?” Marcus leaned closer to the screen. “Mar… Mar… Marcus?” Kim immediately began to cry. “I’ve been hoping and praying that you were still alive. I told David that if we were immune that you would be too.” “David is alive too?” Marcus was in total confusion. “He was alive the last time I saw him” Kim said with a worried glance. “But we were told that you both had died. I was there when Mom and Dad got the call” he said. “That’s what they wanted you to think. The government wanted to cover up what was going on. It’s a really long story so I’ll explain later. Right now, we really need your help. We are trapped and can’t go anywhere. Lauren has badly twisted her ankle badly. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is broken. We considered making a run for it but with Lauren hurt and all the children we have it would be way too dangerous. Besides, our vehicles are in no shape for travel. We were attacked by two allosaurs and they pretty much destroyed the vehicles. I guess we are lucky that they were able to get us this far. Seeing you is so shocking to me. David and I set up a code a couple of years ago to help us contact one another if we were ever separated. I never dreamed that when I actually made contact with someone and they answered it that it would be my little brother on the other end. I’m so happy it was you but still disappointed that I still haven’t made any contact with David. Is there any way you can help us?” she pleaded. “Of course and you know you don’t have to ask. Just let me know where you are at. Do you have the coordinates or an address?” he asked. “We are in the large annex at Clingman’s Dome in the Smoky Mountains National Park. As many times as we visited here, I know you still remember it. This place was renovated about a year before the virus hit and as luck would have it, everything is still functional. I’m back in the main communication room. We have enough food for at least a few more days but after that we will be forced to leave to hunt for food. We are too far away from either Gatlinburg or Cherokee to try and make it there. There is still plenty of wildlife to hunt here but you know what that means… There are plenty of predators too. There’s no way we can make it off the mountain with no transportation, several children, and Lauren’s hurt ankle,” she said. “You just sit tight. I will be there in a couple of days or sooner and I’ll bring y’all home with me,” said Marcus. “You just don’t know how thrilled I am about this….,” Marcus couldn’t finish for fighting back the tears. Finally he spoke again, “Have you got a little time to talk some more?” “Sure, I’ve got a little while. What would you like to talk about?” she asked. “How did you ever get to Clingman’s Dome? Start from the beginning,” said Marcus.
Chapter Two “Okay. I guess I’ll start in Canada where David and I were at the time. Well, there were about fifty of us that came down from Montreal. We came down through Boston and then we went to New York. We were armed well enough that even though Canada was crawling with dinosaurs, we were able to travel without very many problems. Flame throwers are really handy when dealing with wildlife even when they are gigantic prehistoric monsters. We had the flame throwers mounted along with all of our guns. Beginning at the time we left, the first time we were hit really hard was at New York and it wasn’t the dinosaurs. It was a band of monsters that called themselves ‘Jackals.’ Sometimes I think humans are more dangerous than the dinosaurs…,” she said. Marcus spoke up when she mentioned the Jackals, “I’ve met a few of them before. The first one I talked to had a little attitude.