First 12 Chapters - How I Became A Crazy Cat Lady To Survive A Zombpocalyse

5 (redo as new part)

Chapter 5

Two weeks earlier...

Two sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier stared over at the massive bulk of the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier. The giant aircraft carrier had preplaced the Reagan after it sank in the North China Sea. Sitting off the shore of California, the two strike groups were supposed to be doing joint maneuvers but, instead, they just floated together.

"Damn, that thing is huge," Leo Thorpe muttered to Lionel Thorpe.

"Yep, and in a few years, the new Lincoln will be the same size," Lionel revealed, then asked, "How do you feel about shore leave getting cancelled?"

"I could care less one way or the other; Aries is still on the fish, and I won't get to see him for at least a month," Leo complained.

"Lieutenant Thorpe." The ExO called out to them, and they both turned around.

Juanna Cortez blinked and then shook her head with an annoyed expression. She hated having siblings on the same boat. "Captain Lansing wants to see Lieutenant Lionel immediately. Something about your grandmother? I guess you better go too, Leo."

Both men saluted then bolted up the stairs.

"Do you think... She's dead?" Lionel muttered over his shoulder to his fraternal twin.

"God, I hope it's that... She was sure... that city they found last year... was the one... with the plague," Leo panted out as they arrived at the captain's office.

The Lincoln's chief medical officer blinked at them, "Catch your breath." He looked over the Thorpes then asked, "What do you know about the captain's order that we take on no supplies containing a food preservative called Pharaoh's Yeast."

Lionel, who was a marathoner, had his breath first and gasped out, "It's dangerous. It was discovered after World War One and killed almost everyone who ingested it after a few weeks. It seems safe, but it isn't. Last summer, the food industry paid billions to get it approved for use to make up for the fact they couldn't get the animal safety testing done because animals are smart enough to starve rather than eat it. Why?"

"You sound like one of those conspiracy theory nuts," the Ford's chief medical officer announced as he entered the room. They all saluted when Admira Lansing stepped out with his son Captain Lansing.

"He's not wrong, Don. Lionel and Leo Thorpe are the direct descendants of Lord Carnarvon through his granddaughter who was one of three survivors of the initial discovery of this pathogen. My grandfather barely survived... And we have not had a single case of this new pathogen causing Pandemic Five fungal pneumonia. There are over two hundred ships with it in the Navy, but no one in our fleet has shown symptoms," the admiral insisted, and his son nodded.

"You can't be certain it is this organic food preservative," the doctor refuted him.

Looking past him, Captain Lansing looked at Leo, "Lieutenant Leo, all your grandmother, then join us. Lieutenant Lionel, why don't you come in and tell the good doctors your great-grandmother's story while we wait for the call to connect."

The brothers glanced at each other. They had always dreaded the day when their great-grandmother's worry became a reality. The story she told them both as young boys about why people should always keep cats sounded fanciful, but the pictures were so old they could not have been faked, then joining the Navy, Lionel met first Captain Lansing then Admiral Lansing. He knew immediately who they were and asked if they knew the story. The Admiral's grandfather was Sargeant Major Lansing.

^-,-^

The eight-year-old twins stood on their great-grandmother's steps looking down the street at Patterson Park. Their mother's boyfriend told them to get out, then drove off with her without even letting her out of the car.