Free Land of the Dead (Book 1): Infected by Cian Campbell Page A

boats on the Nile. Some were used as hotels, some provided cruises up or down river, but most were used as floating restaurants.
    “No. I’m not. I took a river cruise from Cairo to Alexandria last summer. Some of the larger river boats can hold over a hundred people, and they can make the trip in a day. The Alexandria airport is next to the river. If we can’t get a second flight to meet us there, we can always try to find something that is seaworthy enough to get us to Cyprus or Crete.”
    “I still think you’re crazy.”
    “Hey, it’s all we have to work with. You don’t seem to have any better ideas.”
    “I didn’t say it wasn’t an option. I like crazy.”
    “Good. I’ll have to work out some details and borrow your binoculars to scout out the river.”
    “I’ll come up with a plan to divert the infected to other areas. Maybe we can come up with some homemade smoke grenades or noise makers to keep them off of your route. It’s only three blocks. In the meantime, Rick, you rework that list and I’ll figure out how to get those vehicles from the USAID compound.”
    “Gotcha.”
     
     
    Dillon did not like the crew that he was forced to assemble. The good news is that they all had driver’s licenses. The good news ended there. Only three of the eight had any experience with firearms, and that included him. Of the other two, one had served in the Army as a chaplain’s assistant and the other had hunted a few times. Dillon wanted people like Talbot, but instead was getting people like Lauren James.
    Lauren James was thirty years old, and this was her second overseas tour with the State Department. She was a Public Affairs Officer, and typically arranged small public relations events for the Ambassador and Deputy Chief of Mission. She was pretty, had a Bachelor’s in Political Science and a Master’s in International Relations from Georgetown. She had worked as an intern for one year on Capitol Hill before joining the State Department, and had served two years in Greece. She had attended two State Department language schools, each for thirty six weeks. The first had been for Greek, the second for Arabic. She considered herself an up-and-coming professional on the front line of U.S. diplomacy. In short, she was a privileged academic with no real experience in life-or-death situations. Though highly intelligent and educated, Lauren lacked common sense and street smarts. She abhorred violence, and thought that there was a peaceful way to resolve everything. She thought that people who were trained to do violent things were obviously less intelligent than she was, and generally looked down on law enforcement and military personnel as if they were members of a lower caste.
    Dillon tried not to stereotype people. He tried not to underestimate them. Looking out at the group that was coming with him to drive four vans and three Suburbans he saw two partial sheep and five total sheep. He was not impressed. Had he not worried about looters, possibly ex-police and ex-military looters, he would have taken Rick and Talbot with him. He would have Nina Sobowski with him. But then, who would be left at the compound to protect everyone else? So, Dillon spent a few minutes showing Marty Crenshaw, the ex-chaplain’s assistant turned Economic Policy Officer, and Donnie Anders, the southern boy who had become a Consular Officer, how to use MP-5s. Dillon spent another ten minutes going over the plan, with Lauren James second guessing him at least three times. Finally, Dillon asked her if she wanted to plan the operation herself. That shut her up enough for him to finish, but probably didn’t win her loyalty. Dillon considered his snappy comment to have been a leadership failure, and made sure to apologize to Lauren before they left. She nodded and mumbled, which wasn’t a good sign.
    As it grew dark, there was a one or two hour rush of activity. It seemed like every survivor had waited until dark and was now starting to