Elliott had his head down in his hands, and he didn’t want to lift it. He didn’t want to face the world.
“What do you mean, ‘they took her’? Who? And why?” he asked despondently. He felt so helpless and it seemed that every time he and his friends made progress something dragged them back.
All heads at the table turned from Elliott to McNabb. The noise of the mess hall was keeping their conversation private but their voices were low regardless. Even Junie had torn herself away from the coffee machine at last. McNabb sighed heavily when they turned to him. Elliott almost felt sorry for him. Both of the dogs were curled at Junie’s feet, Spot casually gnawing at an itch on his leg.
“It’s classified,” he said. Spot rose from the floor and growled low in his throat, his teeth exposed and his eyes glistening fierce. Elliott was on the dog’s good side but he still shied away from that glare. McNabb put his hands in the air, sitting up straighter. “By which I mean they didn’t tell me where they took her.”
“So this is your base, but you don’t know where they took a prisoner?” Elliott demanded. “That doesn’t sound like good command strategy, General.” Roger blinked at him in surprise, and Fipps hid a smile. Even Elliott was shocked at his own moxie.
The general did not seem pleased or surprised to be spoken to in such a way. “Young man, I do not appreciate your tone. I am the base commander, but there others who outrank me. When I receive orders from them, I follow them. Despite what you might have seen in the movies, people do not get promoted to general by being disobedient.” He took a deep breath and deflated: he’d puffed up his chest. “What I can tell you is the name of the man who has your friend is Dr. Irons. She was put in his care to treat her trauma. He’s been at the forefront of viral research for some time and when this thing broke out he got called in by my higher ups.” He shifted in his seat. “Though I don’t think the CDC knows about that. Director Carter doesn’t care much for Irons.”
Elliott furrowed his brow. Viral research? They thought this thing was viral? And how did Shavian fit in?
Roger leaned towards McNabb. “Is Irons here on base right now?”
The general nodded. “Yes, he is. And we got word in earlier that he was flying some of his people in from Colorado. Apparently his lab there was overrun.”
“In Colorado? I didn’t realize it had gotten that far,” Fipps pointed out. His eyes rolled upwards and he appeared to be consulting an internal map. “At best that’s two states away from where it started.”
“It moves fast,” McNabb said. “It’s already here, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
Fipps gave him a dirty look. “And what about Nevada? Utah? Arkansas? Have there been any reports of zombies there?”
McNabb frowned and opened his mouth to reply when a young woman in fatigues ran up to their table, snapping a sharp salute at the general.
“Sir, sorry for the delay. The contingent from Colorado just arrived. I had a hard time tracking you down.” Her eyes flicked to the rest of the group gathered around the table, and there was a wariness there though they softened a bit when she saw Spot, who had relaxed into simple happy dog mode, his tongue lolling out and his tail wagging. Elliott had the disconcerting feeling that it was all a very deliberate act.
McNabb gave her an easy smile and she relaxed a bit. “Where are they now?”
“They’ve been on the ground for a few minutes but they haven’t deplaned yet. They were waiting for your okay, sir, per your command.”
“Thank you for the update, Lieutenant,” McNabb said. “I’ll be right there to oversee it in just a moment.”
The lieutenant saluted once more and ran off.
Once she was out of earshot, McNabb turned to Higgins. The two older men assessed one another quietly and without outward aggression. It was the stare down of two men who knew exactly what they themselves, and the other man, were capable of. The only question was what they would actually do in that moment in time.
McNabb spoke first.
“I’m unsure of some of the cargo Dr. Irons had brought here. I think I might need to assign a guard to keep an eye on things.”
Higgins gave a very slight smile and then stood and saluted the general. “Sir,” was all he said to acknowledge their agreement.