“I don’t think we can, so here’s what I would do. All the werewolves go underground, along with everything that points to our existence. We need to clear out your office first, that place would be a treasure trove of intelligence if they took this house.” I nodded.
“The humans stay above ground in case there is a raid, they can go out and pass the test, even offer to let them search the house.”
“And if they attack anyway?”
“Then the humans have to be the sacrifice so the rest of us can live. I can rig up explosives to bring the house down on top of us if we need to. They will be using drones or cameras, they will know how many people are up top, and they will keep looking until they find all their bodies.” I looked down, it sucked but he was right- we couldn’t let them keep looking until they found the safe room.
“I think we should leave some false info for them,” John said. “We leave a computer in the office, on the hard drive we put false info on pack locations. Select random government employees and military, put them on a list of contacts friendly to us. Maybe have an old-fashioned Rolodex in the desk with those names.”
“I like that,” Craig said. “Until we get the contacts and find out if they work, that’s our priority. I want everything and everybody who is going to the safe room down there by this afternoon. I think it makes sense to have Tom and Shelley return to their house and prepare it, and Olivia and Mark should take a house as well. Tom, I need to get papers filed showing that the titles to your houses have been transferred to you and Mark from our shell company. Everyone else will be in our big safe room.”
“What about the twins?” Olivia looked at us, pleading in her eyes.
“They’ve bonded to you already, Olivia, and since they are human it makes sense for them to stay with you two. If you’re all right with that.” I could see the attachment they already had, they clung to it like their favorite blanket.
She squeezed Mark’s hand and smiled. “We would like that.”
Craig smiled at them. “No hurry, but if you decide later you want to adopt them, we would all support that. Tom and Shelley, that goes for you too. They deserve a family again.”
We all do, I thought. The meeting broke up and we all got to work, the radios and TV coverage a constant companion.
We worked hard through the morning, and I was exhausted by the time we ate lunch. The boys were really hungry and active today, and it was a good thing Natalie was helping me with them. I honestly don’t know how single moms do it; even with help they are a handful.
There wasn’t much new on the news, but the attack on the Brainerd pack was still coming up. Reports from the field stated they had thirty-two confirmed dead, and that there were no werewolves that survived. I looked over at Tony and Tina as they ate their grilled cheese sandwiches, with Olivia making them eat their steamed vegetables. They were right; no werewolves from that pack survived the attack. Just humans.
I was finishing up my tomato soup when I got a ding on my phone for an incoming message. Few people had my number, and I gasped when I saw who it was from.
Renee.
The message was short and cryptic. “911 motorcycle crash medic help me obi-wan.”
Craig looked over at the text as I started to cry, then a few others gathered behind me. “What does it mean, Ella?”
I looked at it a few times. “911 is an emergency, obviously. Motorcycle crash? When they attacked me on the road outside the Johnson Pack land, it was a simulated crash. Medic means they have injured.”
“And help me Obi-Wan?”
“It means I’m their only hope.” Tears were flowing down my face, at least I knew ONE of my family had survived. “I have to go.” I texted back with the word “Midnight.”
“Wait,” said Craig. “It’s still dangerous out there. Take a few moments and think this over.” He pulled me into his lap. “No werewolves can go with, it’s too dangerous for all of you. So we’re down to Tom, Shelley, Mark, Olivia and the twins.”
I shook my head. “No, Olivia and the twins need to stay here, they just got out of danger. I can’t bring you or the boys, so Mark? Tom?”
I looked at them across the table, they looked at each other and slowly nodded. “We’ll keep you safe, Ella.”
Shelley elbowed her husband. “I’m going too.” He started to shake his head no, but she poked him in the chest. “They are my friends too, and they are going to need medical attention. I’m not much, but I remember a few things. Besides, we can pass off as a family that way, it won’t raise as much suspicion. We can say we’re taking the kids down to Arizona for college.”
“I’ll start getting the RV ready.” I got up to walk out.
“Why aren’t you taking your truck?” Jason looked over at me.
“My recreational vehicle has some special modifications that may come in handy,” I said. “Jason, Melanie, Nadine- I need you to go to the Green’s house.” I wrote down the code to the safe room on a piece of paper. “In their safe room they have weapons and ammo. I’m pretty sure they will be useful since they are still in a fight. Grab everything you can and bring it to the RV. I’m going to get ready.”
“What about the boys?” Mabel looked up, she was holding Darryl who was sleeping.
“Take care of them for me. There’s some expressed milk in the freezer, when that is gone you’ll have to use formula, we have some down in the safe room in the food storage.” I ran up and changed, then put some extra clothes in a duffel bag. I didn’t know if any of the Johnson pack would be in wolf form, so I went to our spare cabinet and filled another bag with shorts, shirts, underwear and sweats in various sizes.
We were on the road by two in the afternoon. Tom and Mark decided to split the driving, with one taking a nap once we hit the freeway. Shelley and I went through the boxes of medical supplies we had brought, making sure we knew where everything was. The guns and ammo were all hidden away in the fake tank under the floor. We had only kept a couple AR-15’s in the closet, handguns and knives in the cab, and each of us was carrying at least one weapon. If we were stopped, hell, we were free humans and we had to protect ourselves from those evil werewolves while we were on the road, right?
Once we had everything organized, I went back to my bedroom to take a nap. I was woken up by Shelley a few hours later. “Checkpoint.”
The checkpoint was between two exits on I-94, and was set up so you couldn’t see it until you were past the last exit to avoid it. They were moving people through quickly, but the basic setup was the same as the one I had seen in Minnesota. When we got to the front, a State Patrol officer got on board and checked everyone’s eyes with the black light and checked the obvious hiding places before getting off again.