“I told Kathy about the arrangement we'd made with James the day he died. I told her she could still have a place as a sleeper. She declined, as I knew she would. She'd never leave her son, even if he had a place in a shelter,” the General added.

“Good. I'm pleased.” She responded.

They walked in silence for a little longer. Approaching the central tunnel, Amy and Matt got into the waiting Humvee and rode it for the quarter mile to the mountain's exit.

They stepped out of the vehicle and paused briefly. “Where are you going to be when it gets here?” Amy asked.

“I'll probably be at the Pentagon with General Draper or possibly the White House Situation Room. We'll be in radio contact with you, for as long as possible.”

“Be careful, Matt.”

“You too.”

They hugged for several moments, before Fitch turned and walked to the helicopter.

Amy leaned against the Humvee until the helicopter was out of sight before she started back.

After she'd parked the Humvee, she set out for the elevator which would take her to the main level. She wanted to check on the status of all the sleep chambers from the remote terminals in the command center, then she would get her quarters in order. As she walked past the pit, someone else was walking toward her from the opposite tunnel entrance. As they both approached the corridor to the elevators, he smiled. Amy could tell the guy was checking her out. A situation she was absolutely not in the mood for.

“Hey babe, can you show me to the command center?” he said.

Travers decided to just ignore him, but he followed her and got into the elevator with her.

“My name is Carter, Dale Carter. What's yours?”

Amy heaved out a sigh. “Dale Carter. I've heard a lot about you.”

“Good stuff, I bet.

The elevator doors opened. “Actually, not one word of it was good,” Amy responded and walked away.

Chapter Thirty-One

DAY 3

Gary Bison stood in the entrance tunnel, watching as the third bus of the evening approached.

Gary had been selected a year ago to be the leader of Shelter Eighty-Seven. Even after all the training and preparation, he still wasn't entirely sure exactly how many shelters there were. He did know the shelter here in the old gypsum mines in Grand Rapids Michigan was considered a Level Three shelter, a large shelter which could hold between one thousand and twelve hundred people for the twenty-year duration.

Level One shelters could accommodate over two thousand five hundred people, and to the best of Gary's knowledge, there were only three or four of them in the country.