THE ARK
Chapter 43

Amy was finishing her spaghetti and Italian sausage, and RJ was thinking of the young boy they found.

“Tomorrow, why don’t you head back to where you found them and start searching for anything that might give us an idea as to where they were going. We’ll see if he can help. Maybe an offer for a helicopter ride will make him more cooperative,” RJ said.

“Sounds good. I’m almost finished here. Wanna stop back over and see how they’re all doing?”

Before RJ could answer, the intercom sounded. “Miss Anderson, please report to the Command Center,” Abby said, sounding excited.

“Wonder what that’s all about,” RJ thought aloud.

“She sure seems worked up about something,” Amy agreed.

“Let’s go see what the crisis is all about.”

Amy quickly dropped off her tray and they headed to the command center. As they walked, they caught up with Brad Warren coming out of the Health Center. “What’s got Abby all excited?” he asked.

“Don’t know yet,” RJ answered.

“Good evening Miss Anderson,” The computer said as RJ placed her hand on the wall pad.

The doors slid open and RJ immediately saw the two technicians. They were on their feet; Nick was anxiously waving the group over.

“What’s going on?” RJ asked.

“We got a message! Someone answered the radio transmission!” Nick shouted.

“What did they say?” Brad quickly asked.

“Sounded like an older guy, says his name is David. He’s the leader of a local town. He says he’s been waiting for us. He even asked for you by name.”

“He asked for me? That doesn’t make any sense. Is he still there?” RJ asked.

“Should be, I asked him to stand by while we locate you.”

RJ made her way to one of the consoles and sat down. She was surprised at how nervous she felt at this moment.

“David, this is RJ Anderson. Are you still there?”

“Miss Anderson, I’m so glad to hear your voice. We’ve been listening for your message every week for the last year. We anxiously want to meet with you.”

“We are looking forward to meeting with you too. I can send someone to meet with you tomorrow. Will that work?”

“Excellent. We’re excited to begin working with your people.”

“I understand that when you contacted us you asked for me by name. My name isn’t mentioned in the broadcast that we transmitted. How do you know me?”

“That’s a long story, but I’ll give you all the details when we meet. I suspect there is lots of information that we can share,” David explained.

RJ was not too pleased with the lack of an answer but decided to wait, and not push the point.

“What can you tell me about your group?” RJ asked.

“There are about forty of us, we’re trying to attract more people all the time. People are scattered in small groups all over the country. We want to bring them all here close to your mountain so we can begin rebuilding.”

RJ stared at Brad and Amy. She could tell that they were all thinking the same thing. How could this old guy know about the mountain? That information was supposed to remain secret.

“We can definitely help with that. It sounds like your goals are exactly in line with our mission. I need to know one thing, are you missing a small group of people from your community? We found two women and a boy in the desert about thirty miles north of our location. The women are in bad shape, one may well die. They were being beaten by a couple of guys on motorcycles when we found them.”

“No Miss Anderson, we aren’t missing anyone. I suspect that they were on their way to join up with us. Where you found them is close to our location. We have a problem with the Raiders on their motorcycles often attacking people who can’t defend themselves. The Old Man explained.

“I suspect that we can help with that too,” RJ answered.

“What became of the Raiders that attacked this group?”

“They escaped into the desert.”

“That’s unfortunate. I’ll look forward to meeting with your people tomorrow.”

“Good night David.”

“Good night.”

RJ looked at Brad, “That doesn’t make sense. How can they know so much about us?”

“I guess we’ll replace out in the morning,” was Brad’s only answer