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prepared for the possibility that the nightmare disease they witnessed in Afghanistan would begin to spread around the world. They’d spent substantial time and money building a huge castle-like home surrounded by a massive earthen berm. They successfully defended the fortress against thousands of infected, but eventually decided to relocate to the river-banks of Fort Wayne where they had more space to grow and better transportation options. They only knew of one other group of survivors in the region—that settlement was spread across a few islands in Lake Erie—though Jack and his followers were hopeful that other settlements were out there still undetected by Barnes and his phony government forces. The forbidding north woods of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota almost certainly held many other survivors, but their numbers would be small, and until hunger drove them south they were on their own.
    The virus had arrived on U.S. shores in late May, and within a few weeks spread throughout North America. Millions of acres of corn, beans, and wheat had already been planted by the time the nation was overrun, and one of the first questions the Utah leaders had for Jack after radio contact was established in late August was if the Indiana settlement needed help with the harvest. The reality was that nobody in Indiana had given the harvest much thought, seeing as how they only had a few hundred survivors in their group and packs of hunters were still roaming the countryside at will. But after hearing the Mormons’ suggestion of opening the old Union Pacific rail route to Chicago if Jack’s people could clear the CSX line into the Windy City, everyone was determined to make it happen.
    In spite of some desperate fighting and heavy casualties, the railroad-link had been established. Soon after, grain and military advisors be gan flowing west while medical supplies, fighters, and beef came east. Now, a limited harvest was taking place in northern Indiana fields protected by Mormon troops while combines were operated by surviving farmers. The alliance had been cemented in blood, and Jack knew that with western help, America had a chance of surviving the deadliest virus in history.
    In his heart, Jack believed that eventually the humans would win their war against the infected and resettle the best locations on the continent, but hoping to utilize existing infrastructure after they did so was a pipe-dream. Every major American metropolitan area had likely burned shortly after succumbing to the virus due to unmitigated natural gas explosions, electrical fires, and whatever else causes falling cities to incinerate. Roads and bridges still stood for the most part, but Jack knew that nature would quickly reclaim them without the constant maintenance a nation of hundreds of millions had once provided.
    The history professor knew that in many ways the collapse of society had tossed the su rvivors back to the 19 th Century, at least as far as transportation was concerned. The rivers and Great Lakes would be critical to the success of the war and subsequent rebuilding efforts. The hunters were afraid of deep water, and the country was full of boats of every shape and size imaginable. From canoes to great barges, the rivers could be used to safely move people and goods throughout the eastern and middle parts of the nation. On the Great Lakes, tens of thousands of watercraft ranging from fishing boats to ocean-going freighters were sitting in ports just waiting for people to use them again. Jack was willing to save the bridges that could be kept without endangering his people, but with few exceptions, he would destroy the spans if they were of any potential use to the enemy. He would fight to keep the railroad bridges along the Union Pacific line, but beyond those he considered the structures expendable.
    Jack felt the chopper land a split second before Todd barked, “Go, go, go! ”
    The night was dark and unseasonably cold, with a