The Death Trilogy (Book 1): The Death: Quarantine by John W. Vance Page B

looked away and buckled his seat belt.
    The Osprey lifted up quickly and banked away from the direction of the Scraps. The Marine manning the machine gun was still engaging as they lifted.
    Once they were high enough, Chance unbuckled and made his way to a window and looked out. He then motioned for Lori to come.
    She didn’t hesitate. Unbuckling quickly, she marched towards him, again ready to chew his ass.
    “I know you don’t agree with leaving her, but she’s lost to us now. Look down there; see them?”
    She looked and saw a dozen men around Maggie, who was kneeling with her hands in the air.
    “How could you leave her there to die?” Lori asked.
    “They won’t kill her,” Chance said. He pointed into the distance.
    She looked where he was pointing and saw hundreds of people pouring out of the tree line and heading towards Camp Sierra.
    “What’s going on? Who are these Scraps?”
    “They’re a hateful group of people who are trying to do whatever they can to stop us. They don’t want things to progress.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    As the Osprey banked hard again to the left, she saw what must have been dozens of armored vehicles coming out of Camp Sierra.
    “What will happen?” she asked.
    “The Marines we have guarding Camp Sierra will clean them up. They don’t stand a chance against their firepower.”
    “I don’t understand. Who are these people? Why are they fighting against us?” Lori asked, her questions all jumbled together reflecting her thoughts.
    “Lori, please go sit down, rest. I’ll explain everything later.”
    She looked at him, nodded, and returned to her seat.
    Chance followed behind her and took his seat and buckled himself in for the ride back to the DIA.
    The shock of the event was beginning to take hold of her emotions, but she fought it back. Closing her eyes, she thought only of David and Eric. She prayed they were safe, and allowed her mind to drift to happier times with her family, before all of this, before Pandora and before The Death.
     
    Lovington, Illinois
    Devin could feel the fatigue weigh down his eyelids. He looked at his watch and needed to stay awake and on guard for another ten minutes, but those ten would feel like the last hour. Knowing the prone position wouldn’t help him remain awake, he stood and began to do squats, with hopes the movement would get his blood flowing and keep the sleep away.
    “What the hell are you doing?” Tess chuckled.
    Startled by her comment, he jumped and turned around, his face flush with embarrassment. “Oh, um, squats. You know, keeping the blood flow going to stay awake.”
    “Were those squats or monkey fuckers?” she asked.
    “Monkey fuckers?”
    “Never mind, it’s a Marine thing,” she said, standing and stretching.
    “Do you think your fiancé is alive?” he asked.
    “I’m not even going to answer that. I mean, who asks that kind of question. I’ll be right back,” she said as she walked deeper into the cornfield.
    “Where you going?”
    “To take a pee, I’ll be right back.”
    While she was gone, he cleared a spot for him to nap. He was so tired, and the thought of sleep was pure pleasure.
    She reemerged into their clearing and began digging through her pack when she lifted her head suddenly.
    Simultaneously, Brando jumped up and craned his head.
    “You hear that, boy?” Tess asked Brando.
    “I really have to get my hearing checked,” Devin said.
    “Sshh.”
    Both were quiet, listening for the sound Tess and Brando had heard.
    A few seconds went by, and there it was, the rumble of vehicles coming down Highway 32, which was to the northeast of them.
    “No way, is that them?” Devin asked.
    “I don’t know. I’m willing to bet there’s dozens of groups cruising around the country,” Tess answered.
    They both approached the edge and watched as vehicles came into view and proceeded into Lovington from the west.
    “They aren’t our guys; they look like US military,” Devin exclaimed and