The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) (22 page)

Jack didn’t understand the technology, but didn’t want to
appear stupid either. “So basically it’s like a little eight track tape in
there?” He knew it wasn’t a tape player, but the technology was too foreign to
have any idea how the music was stored on his PDP.

Emmet chuckled, his eyebrows bouncing in sync to his laugh. “Something
like that Jack. The music’s converted to ones and zeros with some complicated
math, stored on this little computer, then transferred to the sound system in
the flyer here and the ones and zeros are converted back to music using the
same kind of math.” Emmet was still talking over his head, but he didn’t really
mind. There was a lot he didn’t understand in this world. He nodded at Emmet,
feigning understanding, and settled back into his seat to enjoy the music.

Opening the diary revealed an old looking piece of paper. He
carefully removed it from the book and read what was typed on the paper.

My Dear Jack,

If you are reading this letter, then by some
miracle this hair-brained idea the military came up with has worked and you are
once again alive. I found your diary and gave it, along with this letter, to
Phil to lock away with your body.

I wanted to leave you with something, after all
you did for me in the past year. I am ever so happy that you called that
morning to ask for my help, even if you didn’t think that was why you called. Reconnecting
with you has made me feel like a whole person again. I have lost a lot over the
years, and just figured it was the price one paid for remaining alive. You
taught me to see things different, both through your pain as well as through
your will to live.

In case nobody can tell you, you died on a lovely
June morning. The funeral was very nice, and all your friends were there to pay
respects. We buried a casket next to Jennifer and Allissa’s grave, and never
told anyone that your body was elsewhere. It was nice that your friends could
honor you properly. Phil drove your race car in the procession, just as you had
asked, and the Army gave a terrific performance with the military honors. Doctor
Chambers drove out from Minnesota to attend, which I thought was very nice of
him. He was such a kind man through the whole thing, and I was happy you two
formed such a tight bond.

I never thanked you for leaving me your estate,
and I wanted you to know that I gave half of the money after the sale of your
house to the Mayo cancer research facility. I followed your wishes and paid off
my farm debt with the rest, and even had some left to get that new tractor you
told me I should get. The thing I needed to thank you for the most was for
coming back into my life. When everything else is gone, the only thing left is
the people you have touched.

One more thing. I followed your last wish, and
set a date with John Parkerson. Thank you for opening my eyes to see that there
was more to life than what we had already lost, and that sometimes what you
needed most in life was right before your eyes the whole time.

Thank You, Jack, and good luck in your new life

Love and Sincerity,

Mabel

Jack had to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye. He wasn’t
the type to show emotions, but he couldn’t help but feel touched by the letter.
He read the letter three more times, then carefully put it back in the back
flap of the diary. The letter brought up more questions than it answered, but
he was very happy she had left it and also that she had stuck around through
the whole ordeal. He sincerely hoped that she had the chance to finish her life
to the fullest.

* * *

The first few entries in the diary only confirmed what he
already knew: he indeed had cancer and it was going to kill him. If it hadn’t
been for Mabel’s urging he knew he would never have taken a treatment option,
and instead would have decided to live out his last months trying to make the
most of whatever time he had left. He wanted to read more, but they seemed to
be slowing down and descending, so he put the book away in his pack and waited
to break through the clouds so he could get a look at the area.

As if sensing that someone was interested, Chuck announced,
“We’re about ten minutes from the landing zone. I will circle the area once to
make sure it’s all clear, then put her down.” Emmet was dozing up front and the
sudden announcement woke him up.

The aircraft cleared the clouds and Jack took in the
scenery. Below them, the hills and gullies looked like giant wrinkled scars
that rent the pale flesh of the earth. The winter snow cover was gone, leaving
only the dry dusty ground dotted with brown clumps of brush. To the west, the
overcast sky left the rocky landscape a dull, washed out gray canvas stained
here and there with dark clumps of evergreens.

Within minutes, they had descended to about a thousand feet
above the ground, and Jack started picking out the details, like trees and
grass. He had flown over this area when surveying the land around the future
cryogenic complex, and had been amazed at the patchwork patterns that the farms
had painted on the land surrounding the city. Now there wasn’t even the
slightest hint of the farms that used to occupy this area. They crossed the
Missouri river and Chuck turned a little to the north. Jack could make out the
faint lines that marked where the railroad tracks and interstate used to be,
but as they got closer he could see that the railroad bed and an occasional
railroad tie were all that was left. He could see the path left by the
interstate but there was no pavement left, just brown patches of overgrown
brush.

 He started looking for familiar landmarks as they flew over
the former city of Great Falls. His heart sank as he observed what was left of
the ruins of the city. In the residential areas, there was not much besides a
few foundations and some remnants of rusted out cars. Ahead were shells of old
buildings, some standing, and some collapsed to a pile of concrete and rusted
metal. Other than that there was little evidence this area had once been home
to nearly fifty thousand people. Chuck banked to the east, and a few miles
ahead Jack noticed what looked like a pattern of long ridges crisscrossing the
ground in front of them. As they got closer to the former site of the Air Force
base, he realized they were edges of craters from what must have been some very
large bombs. The craters had long been filled in with dirt from the constant
wind that blew out here, and only the gently curved ridge from the massive
craters was visible now. He couldn’t even make out the outlines of the old
foundations. “Any idea what happened here during the war?” He doubted that
either of the men knew what fate the city had suffered, but it didn’t hurt to
ask.

“The information in our computers is pretty sparse for this
area. They didn’t get nuked, we know that for sure. I read some of the history
of the war, just to see how it progressed. There is not much to read from after
the bombs dropped, probably because there wasn’t anyone with the free time to
record news and events. Most of what we have came from military databases that
were recovered over the years. The Chinese landed ground troops in Alaska and
Canada. They made a huge sweep along the U.S. Border, and most of the cities up
in that region became strategic points, with the front lines cutting jagged
edges back and forth across the border from Seattle to Lake Superior. Best we
can tell, the Air Force base here was a key point for air attacks, and at some
point, the Chinese threw everything they had at it, which, as you can see,
wiped it off the face of the earth.” Chuck stopped talking as he banked to the
right, dropping to a few hundred feet above the ground. They circled around
about a twenty square mile area, and seeing no signs of life, Chuck spiraled
toward their landing zone: a coulee about twelve miles south of the former
city.

A huge cloud of dust was kicked up as the aircraft came to rest.
Before it cleared, Chuck worked some controls and the electric whir of
hydraulic pumps could be heard. Emmet opened his door, and cool air rushed into
the cabin. He hopped out and turned to Jack. “Hand me my pack, wouldja?”

Jack handed him the pack, then grabbed his own and climbed
out. Emmet already had his rifle out and was making his way to the north bank
of the coulee. Jack pulled his rifle out then shouldered his pack. He went
around to the back side of the flyer where Chuck was pulling something out of
the rear storage compartment. The ramp that extended from the large compartment
to the ground was what Jack had heard opening when they landed. “Need a hand?”

“No, I got it” he said as he pulled out what looked like a
dune buggy that had gone through a car crusher. It rolled down the ramp and
Chuck hit a lever on the side of it and some motors started whirring. Before
Jack’s eyes, the vehicle started first extending the wheels out in each
direction, then the sides of the vehicle unfolded to become the body. When it
finally finished, it resembled a large wagon with a roll cage around the top
half, four large knobby tires, and four seats. It was about nine feet long and
four feet wide, and aside from a stick that looked like it belonged in an
airplane, there were no controls visible. On the top of the roll cage was a box
about three feet wide, two feet long, and six inches deep. Chuck climbed in,
securing his rifle to a clip on the side of the roll cage.

Jack was wondering where the motor was when Chuck motioned
for him to get in the back seat. He climbed in and before he was all the way
settled the vehicle shot forward, all four tires kicking up dirt and dust. The
vehicle made almost no sound, and the noise of the tires on the rough ground
was all he heard. “Electric motors again?”

Chuck nodded. “The battery is below the chassis, about the
size of a brief case, and will last about a year under light use before it
needs to be charged. Technically the range is about four thousand miles, but I
wouldn’t want to have to travel more than twenty or thirty in this thing.” Right
then they hit a rock with the front tire and the roll cage shot up to clock
Jack on the side of the head. He rubbed his head where he had been struck,
feeling a knot already starting to form.

“I see what you mean” he said as he pulled the seat
restraint over his shoulder and waist and fastened it. The vehicle bounced its
way toward where Emmet had already started making his way up the side of the
hill. Chuck expertly guided the vehicle up an imaginary path that zig-zagged up
the side of the coulee By the time they reached the top, Emmet was already
scouting the area using his helmet’s built in binoculars.

“Well,” he said, still scanning the area all around them,
“if that cloud of dust you kicked up was noticed by anyone, they either aren’t
bothering to check it out, or they are hiding somewhere waiting for us.” He
pushed a button on the side of his helmet and turned to the vehicle. Jack could
see a grin on his face as he climbed in the seat next to Chuck. Rather than
stow his weapon, he kept it on his lap.

“Have you ever run into anyone up here?” Jack had been under
the impression that there was nobody living anywhere near this area. He would
have been at ease except for Emmet’s reluctance to put his gun away. Chuck had
put his helmet on, and Jack decided it was a good idea, especially after
experiencing the joy of bouncing around in this vehicle.

“Nope, but you never can tell. Damn Mutes show up at the
most inconvenient times.” His eyebrows shot up and he turned to Chuck. “Hey,
remember that time up in Colorado when we were trying to load that supply
crate?”

Chuck nodded passively as if he had heard the story retold a
hundred times and just wanted to focus on driving. Emmet turned to Jack, eyes
filled with excitement. “So we had been scavenging some small factory in
Colorado, and had three big crates full of supplies and machinery. The first
two fit just fine on the transport, but the third was just a little too large,
and we were trying to figure out how to squeeze it through the door and still
be able to get it back out when we got home. The area was pretty badly
overgrown with trees and brush so the only place to land was in a clearing down
a hill from the factory. It wasn’t the best tactical location, so we sent this
guy, Jonas-” he interrupted himself and turned to Chuck, “You remember Jonas,
that guy was as ugly as he was dumb!” he laughed, then picked up where he left
off, “So we sent him up to the top of a hill to the south of us to keep an eye
out. Just as we were trying to shoehorn the crate onto the loading ramp, we
hear a shout.” Emmet’s eyebrows were hard a work as he narrated his story.

“Here comes Jonas, stumbling down the hill, barely keeping
his feet under him, shouting ‘Go! Go! We gotta go! Mutes! Mutes are right
behind me! GO!’” Emmet was laughing as he told the story, trying to put a
frightened look on his face to imitate what Jonas would have looked like. He
was telling the story with such enthusiasm that Jack couldn’t help but laugh
along. Even Chuck seemed to be smiling and paying attention to the story,
although it was hard to tell with his helmet on. “So me and Chuck look at each
other like ‘Oh shit!’, we had this huge crate halfway loaded and the transport ain’t
goin nowhere!”

“So we just grab our rifles and get ready for a fight, when
over the ridge rolls this huge cloud of dust and dried leaves. Jonas reaches
the bottom of the hill and is running so hard he finally loses control, tumbles
to the ground, rolls a couple times, and bounces back up like he planned it! Then
he rushes to the transport and without missing a beat, dives over the crate to
the inside of the transport and starts trying to push it off the ramp, all the
while yelling and screaming “Go, Go, GO!”

Jack was riveted. “So by now the ground is rumbling, trees at
the top of the hill are shaking, scaring flocks of birds from their nests, and this
cloud of dust and debris is rolling over the top of the hill! I don’t know
about Chuck, but I was about to shit myself. You know that moment of sudden
calm when shit is about to get real? When it is like everything pauses for just
a second and then explodes into chaos?” Jack knew exactly what he was talking
about. “Well that was exactly what happened. It was like everything stopped for
just a fraction of a second and BOOM, out of this cloud of dirt explodes this
huge herd of deer! There must have been over fifty of them! As they burst into
our clearing they scattered every which way, and in seconds the clearing is
filled with utter chaos. Then as if that weren’t enough, two mountain lions crest
the hill and come charging down into the clearing after them!