Crazies

Chapter Forty-One

A/N
   This chapter is somewhat edited but please if you find any mistakes let me know. Enjoy reading!!

*~* Axel Toma’s POV *~*

“Alright, Brandon, give it another try.” The buzz of the generator kicks on again and I nervously tap my foot on the broken tile floor as I glared down at the large soundboard. Seconds later, tiny lights flicker across the surface and I release a minuscule sigh of relief. "We’re good."

"Got it," he shouts back before heading out to help Raven connect the car battery to one of the two towers behind the building.

I wait until the sound of his heavy footsteps fades before letting my shoulders sag. The massive amount of pressure I’m feeling recently is starting to become overwhelming. I don’t want my brothers seeing how crushing my responsibilities as our leader is getting for me so for just this tiny moment where I'm completely alone, I allow it to bear down on me.

You can bend all you need to, I tell myself as I push my glasses up on top of my head and rub my hands down my face, you just can’t snap. 

The crunch of gravel has me shaking the tension out of my muscles before replacing my glasses. I reach into my back pocket and find the small notebook with all the notes Corey and I have compiled regarding all this equipment. I’ve read through it multiple times but I still prop the little book up on top of the soundboard and glance at it before messing with any of the settings.

“All set,” Brandon announces once he joins me again inside the recording room. His light combines with mine, helping to illuminate more of the room and I take advantage of the added brightness to quickly finish my task. 

“Alright,” I comment once the last switch is in place, “that should do it.” Stepping back, I turn to Brandon just as he holds out one of the duffle bags we brought with us. I give him a nod of thanks as I take it and set it down on the dust-covered chair I kicked off to the side. The bag is the same one we had on the roof of the Sergeant Jasper with the SAT phone, Jammer, portable battery, and wires inside. It doesn’t take long to connect everything and once everything is set I check the time.

11:49

My irritation spikes seeing how close we are to hitting our time frame. I hate not having extra time in case we run into problems but with the situation we’re in, I just have to suck it up. 

“What now, Bossman?” Brandon inquires.

“We cross our fingers and hope all this works,” I comment as I reach over to grab my flashlight. I shine it directly down to the panel to double-check all the settings before turning the Jammer and portable battery on. 

Seconds later, the sound of static fills the small room from one of the two speakers attached to the top of the soundboard. I exhale a tiny sigh, seeing everything working as we hoped, then find the dial to switch through the different stations. I quickly slide it over to the South Carolina Academy’s station where the static abruptly switches over to the sound of a faintly familiar male voice. 

“....ght tonight as specified from the S.O.S message.” There’s a pause after, telling me we heard the tail end of the message so I turned the volume up a few notches to make sure we hear every word as the message begins again.

“This is Jasper Lucas, member of the Volkov team from Atlanta, Georgia. This message is a response to the S.O.S sent out from the Toma team within Charleston, South Carolina. The situation here is bad. The contaminant issued around Charleston, as well as four other cities, failed...”