Essential Beginnings (19 page)

“Hi.”

Mav looked to his left, surprised that Henley had been able to sneak up on him like that. He had just taken advantage of one of the many picnic tables scattered around the camp, plopping his ass down on the tabletop and resting his feet on the bench. It kept him up off the ground from its wet chill. He was on alert and had been keenly aware of his surroundings during his rotation, but maybe the lack of sleep was finally getting to him. Henley was holding a cup of coffee out to him and he took it, wanting to lean in and kiss her on the cheek. He didn’t make the assumption that he could do that just yet. The time had come to talk about last night, because they might not have the ability to do so later. It was best to see where they stood before all hell broke loose for the day.

“Good morning.” Mav stood and walked at a slow pace until she’d joined him on the gravel road that would lead them around to Ernie’s cabin. He noticed that she was wearing a sweatshirt with jeans and her hair was pulled back with one of those hair ties she liked so much. Her cheeks still had some color but her green eyes were cautious, giving him an indication on what turn this discussion might take. He started out slow, because he wasn’t ready for what they’d started to end. Being with her last night had given him hope in more ways than she could ever imagine. He was the type to take that and run with it, but they weren’t in their everyday lives anymore. “Were you able to catch a few hours of sleep?”

“Not really,” Henley answered with a shrug, holding her own travel mug filled with what he knew would be black coffee. She drank it just like the rest of them, which would come in handy once the ash cloud reached them. Dairy creamer wasn’t likely to last for long. She licked her lips, leaving him wanting to be the one to do that for her, but not until he was sure she didn’t have any regrets. “I keep waiting for you to tell me that we made a mistake. If you tell me that we didn’t, my morning would go a lot better.”

Henley’s words brought him to an abrupt halt. Mav had waited three years for her to be as bluntly honest with him as she was with the other guys and it had been damn well worth the wait. She was always direct with them and now was no different with him, with the exception of where she wanted this relationship to go. He threw back his head and laughed, reaching for her hand and drawing her into his embrace. It felt so good to be able to do that without questioning whether or not it was the right thing to do. He heard her sigh into his neck and he held her tight, not ready to release her quite yet.

“Now that’s a hell of a good morning,” Mav said against her ear, the weight of his worry lessening but not eradicated. What if Truman talked Henley into going to that military base? He couldn’t stand by and watch her be deceived into doing what could possibly lead to her death. “I’ve waited a long time for you, Henley.”

“Then why do you seem so tense? Besides the fact that a supervolcano a couple hundreds of miles away from this very spot is about to plummet the earth into volcanic winter for a decade,” Henley replied, her attempt at lightening the mood falling flat.

There was a lot Mav was concerned with, especially about the upcoming decision that she would have to make. He couldn’t coerce her into staying here if Kellen Truman were to talk her into believing that the town’s people would be safer on the base. It all came down to trust and even Mav wasn’t so sure what the absolute right decision was. All he knew was that his gut was telling him that Truman wasn’t who or what he claimed to be. His first instinct was to tie her to the bed in her cabin to keep her safe while he dealt with the residents today, but he could just imagine how that would go over.

“We have a busy day today, giving the residents their options and hoping like hell we’re giving the right advice.” Mav finally released her, but not before he kissed her properly. She tasted of coffee and mint and they were both breathless by the time they were through. He could get used to this greeting every morning, which only strengthened his resolve to make sure they had future mornings. “Are you still in agreement that staying here is the best choice?”

Truman was walking toward them before Henley could answer and alleviate Mav’s concerns. The man was dressed in black denim with a black jacket that appeared to be made of leather, but wasn’t quite the same fabric. It didn’t take long before Mav spotted the weapon’s bulge on the man’s left hip, indicating that he was carrying a concealed weapon of some type. If Mav had to guess he would say it was a M9 Beretta; however, if it was a Sig Sauer P226, then they could be dealing with a special operator of some sort and that spelled trouble. That wasn’t really what concerned Mav. It was the phone still attached to the man’s belt that was odd, especially considering that most satellites’ relay coverage was down and cells were basically useless with the grid dropping. Was it special technology that gave him the ability to reach the outside world?

“Ernie is ready to head on into town and I’m all packed.” Truman stopped a couple of feet away from them, his dark eyes going to where Mav’s hand was still on Henley’s lower back. “Have the two of you decided on whether you’ll be coming to the base? It’s the safest option.”

“We’ll hear what you have to say.” Mav hadn’t lied, but he felt Henley stiffen beside him. It was apparent that she didn’t understand Mav’s reluctance to admit that Kellen might be telling the truth, which also meant that she was wavering on whether or not staying here would be for the best. They’d gotten into a discussion about it during the brief period they’d switched rotations a couple of hours ago and he’d given her solid reasons why this man standing in front of them wasn’t who he said he was. Mav had reconned the man’s vehicle and found no fishing poles or tackle. He was carrying an overnight bag that in no way held one month’s worth of clothing, let alone two. He had no compunction about eavesdropping on conversations and he definitely didn’t appear surprised when Mav had shown up saying that a natural disaster was about to occur. As for being on vacation, even Mav didn’t carry his weapon unless he felt he was going into an area where he’d need protection. “We’ll follow you into town. The Village Community Center is located across the road from the inn. You can park your truck in the west lot, near the Village Garage. Did you mention you were stationed out of Fairchild?”

“No, I’m not Air Force, actually.” Kellen leveled his gaze on Mav before clarifying. His expression was blank enough that Mav would never want to play poker with the man. “I’m with a special unit out of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at Fort Bragg. The information about Fairchild AFB came from a trusted friend. Listen, the shortwave radio is saying the ash cloud has reached Illinois and it is falling at a steady rate. They also stated that regardless of the wind direction, Idaho, Oregon, and a southeastern portion of Washington have already received a fair amount of ash.”

“What are they saying about the Canadian border?” Mav wasn’t about to stand around and have a conversation when there was a chance the ash could reach this point, regardless of the odds being in their favor from where Lost Summit was positioned. Ernie had already provided Mav with the information broadcasted over the shortwave earlier, but there had to have been numerous updates since then. He didn’t want to be caught unprepared. He took ahold of Henley’s hand and led her down the gravel road to where he could see Ernie heading for his truck. “Have they ever confirmed if they are taking the U.S. citizens who can get there?”

“There’s apparently some system in place, but they aren’t manifestly opening their borders to anyone who shows up.” Truman fell into step on the other side of Henley, which Mav didn’t appreciate. He wasn’t what he would call himself the jealous type, but he did protect what was his. Henley probably wouldn’t understand that viewpoint, but he’d told her who he was yesterday and he certainly hadn’t changed overnight. “That’s not stopping people from trying to cross though.”

“Tank, we’ll follow you into town,” Mav called out, veering to where his Jeep was parked. Ernie was well aware of the plan, since Mav had yet to reach out to Fairchild over the HF radio. He hadn’t let go of Henley’s hand and brought her around to the passenger side. He lowered his voice so that Truman couldn’t hear him. “We’re not leaving quite yet. Let them get a head start and then get out of the Jeep.”

Mav closed Henley’s door and then made his way around the vehicle, ensuring that Truman saw him open the driver’s side. The man pulled out behind Ernie and the two of them drove down the lane, clouds of dust forming from the gravel into the air. Mav waited until they were out of line of sight before motioning for Henley to join him.

“Mav, what are you doing? We can’t waste time,” Henley called out behind him as she exited the Jeep. She slammed the door behind her and quickly caught up to him. “Everyone is going to be waiting for us in town.”

“We’re contacting the Public Affairs Office at Fairchild AFB to see if Truman is telling the truth.” Mav planned to quickly make their way to the bunker via the stump tunnel and up to the bunker’s highest level where a number of HF radios were set up in the radio room. An entire array of antennas and couplers were perched on top of the ridge above the old mine’s ventilation shafts. The one particular array he planned to use was one hundred and sixty feet in diameter and stood just over eight feet tall with an omni-directional broadcast strength of a thousand watts. The morning sun was beaming down on them as they made their way to the tunnel, but with a little more heat than before as he no longer felt the chill in the air. “It’s what we should have done yesterday.”

“Do you think they’ll answer us?” Henley asked, the skepticism evident in her voice.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Mav came to their concealed secondary entrance to the bunker. It appeared to be an old rotten stump when in reality it was cast from cement and concealed a hardened steel hatch, which led down into an access tunnel twenty-five feet below the surface. Mav flipped open a well-hidden cypher-lock keypad on top of the stump and entered the eight-digit pin. The hatch popped up a couple of inches and he leveraged it open to reveal the ladderwell down to the access tunnel. Once inside, Henley secured the hatch behind her and they descended to the tunnel floor and proceeded down the rock walled passageway for quite a ways, deeper into the second floor of the bunker. He made his way to where the freight elevator was located. He tripped the controls to bring the heavy car up from the third level below where he’d left it earlier this morning. The large wooden and steel car was twenty feet square and originally designed to move heavy equipment and people throughout the mining operation’s multiple levels. It allowed them to travel up the two levels they needed to get to where they needed to be, which was home to the radio room, among other things. He made sure it was on the frequency that the watch officers would be manning at the operations center. “Fairchild Ops, this is Four Tango Whiskey Sierra Niner Foxtrot, over.”

Silence greeted Mav’s first attempt, but it didn’t surprise him. Henley was standing so close to him that her lavender scent teased him and reminded him of their lovemaking last night. It wasn’t enough and he looked forward to when he could actually take his time to pleasure her. She deserved that and more.

“Mav?” Henley’s voice broke through the visions, but he didn’t give her a reason that he’d lost his train of thought. Mav tried to reach someone at the base repeating his call-out one more time, with no luck of getting a reply. “We can’t stay here all morning. Ernie and Kellen will be waiting, along with the rest of the town.”

“They’ll start without us,” Mav declared, not willing to bet others’ lives on the words of a man no one had met before or could vouch for. And if he wasn’t willing to do that with the townsfolk, he sure as hell wasn’t willing to do it with Henley’s life. “We need to find out who Truman is associated with and why he’s here.”

“Master Gunny, we’re a bit busy down here to shoot the bull today, over.”

A jolt of satisfaction hit Mav square in the chest and he smiled at Henley, who was gesturing with her hand for him to hurry up and reply back. Mav pulled a chair closer and took a seat, trying to clean up the channel a bit by adjusting the sideband carrier a little more before responding. A bit of static filled the line, but it was quite manageable. All HF communications sounded like Darth Vader in a bucket of water when they were at their best. Henley set her hand on his shoulder and solidarity made itself known. He’d only ever experienced that with his friends, but it was a more than a welcome feeling.

“Fairchild, this is Echo Five Bravo calling for Master Gunny, interrogative. We require information on your operations accepting civilian personnel for emergency shelter on Fairchild. We have a DOD rep at our location claiming that Fairchild will provide shelter to citizens who are able to make it to your facility. Please confirm, over.”

“Echo Five Bravo, that was the directive.” The static was unusually heavy on this frequency and only a few words at a time were coming through loud and clear. “Fairchild has reached capacity. We are advising all personnel to billet in place and gather stores for thirty day sustainment, over.”

Mav could sense that Henley relaxed somewhat at hearing confirmation that Truman had been feeding them facts when it came to the Air Force Base. Mav wasn’t as trusting and he spoke into the mic once more, wishing there was an easier way to obtain the information he needed. Society had come to rely on technology too much and they were somewhat in the dark without access to the Internet.

“I’ll relay your instructions to our town’s leadership,” Mav assured the man, before asking one last question. “The subject in question is Kellen Truman. Can you verify his credentials?”

“No, sir.” The two words came across after a slight pause. “We have limited access to DOD personnel alpha rosters at present and that information would likewise be restricted to authorized personnel only. We advise you to stay in place until help arrives.”

“Mav, Kellen said he wasn’t with the guys at Fairchild.” Henley squeezed his shoulder in reassurance, but it didn’t relieve Mav’s unease that something wasn’t sitting right with Truman. “We need to go into town and let them know that the base isn’t an option any longer. We need to let Kellen know that too.”