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the open front door when Brook descended the stairs. At the first sight of her mom, Raven jumped into her arms.
    Brook sat on the porch swing comforting Raven; she held her and stroked her hair for a few minutes.
    It took a few seconds of rooting around in her bag, she finally found her phone and powered it on, it chimed several times letting her know she had missed calls and there were waiting messages.
    She sat on the porch reading the text message from Cade, her head started spinning at the thought of what was happening everywhere else in the world. The voice mail from Cade drove the severity of their situation home; the tone of his voice on the message said it all. She would surely heed his advice because when it came to times like this, she never questioned his wisdom.
    Brook thought, as soon as we get the Cadillac loaded up we better set out for Fort Bragg. 
    Standing in the kitchen, Brook stared at her dad’s lifeless form, she heard his voice in her head, “ Brooklyn, you get going now, take Raven and get to safety ” of course it was only her subconscious talking, but she took it to heart.
    Brook called her brother Carl, she tried both his cell and the hospital land line but had no luck getting ahold of him.
    Brook dialed Cade’s cell and listened to it ring.
    After the third ring he picked up.

 
     
    Chapter 9
    Day 2 Southeast Portland
     
     
    While the kids ate, Cade closed all of the blinds and double checked the windows and doors, making sure all were locked. The undead didn’t know that they were in the house and Cade wanted to keep it that way.
    Cade once again turned his attention to the local news. Two anchors were mourning their fellow reporter’s demise that had been broadcast on live television the day before. Thankfully they refrained from showing the bloody spectacle again.
    President Odero put on the full court press and declared martial law nationwide. FEMA issued recommendations that doomed millions. They urged the United States population to stay home and tend to their sick and wounded. The most disturbing information that Cade had to process was a graphic that simulated the nationwide spread of the infection. It revealed an ever expanding zone indicated in red, it radiated inland from the Eastern Seaboard and spread north from Mexico. Despite the new border crackdown the whole state of California was awash in red. The South and Southwest looked less impacted and the Northwest and Central Rockies weren’t hit as hard… yet.  The next graphic was unfathomable. A fast spreading, time lapsed representation of the contagions impact worldwide filled the screen. There were very few locations on earth not ravaged during the first two days of the global outbreak. As he watched the news, a thousand miles away his in-laws were dying.
    Cade had no immediate family in Portland. Both of his parents had died years ago. He inherited the house he grew up in. Chuck and Madeline were very close and had been married for fifty-five years when they both suddenly died of natural causes barely a month apart. Chuck passed first. He died peacefully in his sleep. Madeline was devastated and died of natural causes -probably of a broken heart- twenty-eight days later.
    They had been happily married for twenty seven years before Cade came along. He was not in their plans; but he was the best thing that had ever happened to them. Their proudest moment was when Cade joined the army at the age of twenty, Eleven Bravo; light infantry was his MOS (military occupational specialty) when he enlisted. He excelled during basic training and loved service life so much that he went through Ranger school, served with the 75th Ranger Regiment and then later, on to Special Forces training at Fort Benning, Georgia. 
    Mike Desantos recruited Cade for the Delta Force. For the next couple of years he had some top-secret missions where he found himself "down range", the soldiers term for being on the receiving end of enemy fire. Cade