“Fluban. Doesn’t work on the damn Western Flu of course but since Jenny has an old fashioned stomach bug it should help her right away.” Devora set the medinject on Jenny’s upper arm as the instructions dictated and pressed the button. The dose for a child was so tiny it transmitted into her bloodstream in an instant and Devora rewrapped the use device. “It says it can be used again for the same patient in six hours if necessary.” Stowing it in her pocket, she gave Jenny a kiss and headed back to the unloading effort.
By the time everything Les had chosen to take was loaded into the bus and the truck had been closed again, Jenny was awake and commenting as Sandy read a favorite book to her. The flush in her cheeks had gone down and she happily snacked on a handful of crackers. Devora carried her to their bus seat, feeling triumphant and pleased by the sheepish glances she got from the other refugees. But, she reminded herself, the most important thing was the child was on the mend and hadn’t had the deadly new flu.
Devora paused next to Les, who was supervising the reloading of the passengers and he ruffled the toddler’s hair a bit. “Glad to see you doing better,” he said to her.
“Thanks for standing up for us,” Devora said. “It means a lot.”
He leaned close. “I’m not letting anything bad happen to you or her. Both of you mean too much to me.”
Wrapped in a warm glow, Devora climbed the steps into the bus and slid herself and Jenny into their seat. Maybe he’ll rethink his hard stance on not staying with us at Glastine. A girl can hope.
Chapter Eight
Around noon the bus passed a sign welcoming travelers to Verder’s Ford. The population statistic had been blasted away at some point but Devora knew it was about the size of Rosewater. She’d had friends in the police department here and as they drove through the outlying suburbs she wondered what had happened to them. The streets here were deserted and many of the houses had broken windows and open doors. A few were burned to the ground. Devora didn’t see any signs of the infected but as they’d learned, the predators were capable of showing up in the blink of an unwary eye.
Les let loose a string of profanity and slammed on the bus’s brakes.
Devora checked the forward vid to see what had him so upset and she gasped.
There was a line of corpses lying next to the road, hands tied behind their backs,
Les conferred with Ethan and then rose, drawing his projectile weapon. Facing the passengers he said, “Those with weapons, come with me. Be ready for anything.” To Devora, he added, “Take charge of the bus. Be ready to bust ass out of here at the first sign of trouble.”
Nodding, she slid behind the controls and watched anxiously as he and the armed refugees left the buses to investigate the slaughter. She checked to see Jenny was busy with her toys, not wanting the toddler to see the awful scene. Les deployed a few of his team as guards and then he and Ethan walked down the line of bodies. Shortly thereafter everyone was reboarding the bus and Les addressed the anxious passengers. “I’m assuming these were townspeople, a dozen of them. Shot in the head at close range, quite a while ago by the condition of the bodies. Probably left here as a warning.”
There was a gasp from the others.
“Yeah, which means we’re dealing with human predators here. The damn road goes straight through town so we’ll hope whoever did it is long gone.” He took the controls and the bus rolled forward.
Once they left the suburban area and reached the town itself signs of looting and combat were everywhere, bodies left where they fell, but no sign of whoever had wreaked the havoc on Verder’s Ford. The road took them into the central town square, which Devora remembered as a pleasant place with a pocket park. Now it was a disaster area, blackened and burned. Thank goodness we found the truck out there on the highway, she thought. There won’t be anything to scavenge here, much less what Jenny needed.
Les parked the bus on the far side of the square.
“All right, fifteen minute rest stop,” he announced. “Do your business and get back to the bus. Don’t go off on a treasure hunt and keep your wits about you. I’m not doing a sweep of the whole damn town for the infected so stick close.”
As usual the armed refugees went out first and established a perimeter around the two buses and then the others could get out and stretch their legs and tend to other needs. Devora and Jenny walked a little way down the sidewalk, avoiding rubble and broken glass. She preferred a bit more privacy for herself and the child when possible. They ducked into the mouth of an alley and quickly took care of the essentials, using actual bathroom tissue scavenged from the truck, which was a small luxury. Once Devora had Jenny fully dressed again, she was ready to return to the bus, but a flicker of movement at the other end of the alley caught her eye.
Someone had been watching them. And it wasn’t an infected, because the undead simply attacked anyone they came across.
“We’re going to be quiet now,” she said to Jenny, picking her up and walking down the alley, determined to give whoever it was a piece of her mind. But when she peeked around the corner, a man she’d never seen before, in a bright red jacket, was running down the alley behind the row of stores.
Devora turned and hastened in the other direction, back to the square, anxious to talk to Les. But when she rounded the corner, he was at the buses deep in a discussion with Ethan. She hesitated and then saw Sandy sitting on the curb enjoying a soft drink she must have gotten from one of the ravaged stores. She hurried over and set Jenny next to the woman. “Can you watch her for a few minutes? I have something I need to check out.”
Without waiting for Sandy to agree or disagree Devora ran back to the entrance to the alley and took a look. The man was no longer in sight so she hurried down the alley, which was easily two blocks long and cautiously peered around the corner. Red jacket guy and two other men were standing beside a battered truck, talking and laughing. She caught a few words and realized the trio was discussing the buses and how easy they’d be to disable, leaving the refugees as helpless victims.
These must be part of the group that killed all those people at the edge of town. Shivers running down her spine, Devora took one step backward, preparing to flee, only to feel the hard, cold barrel of a blaster digging into her ribs. A brawny arm encircled her waist and she was pulled against a man’s body while he chuckled and whispered in her ear, “Not so fast, girlie. This is your unlucky day.”
She tried to scream but her voice was thin and weak as he dragged her toward his friends. They greeted her captor with raucous guffaws of approval and obscene suggestions for what he could do with his prize. Devora tried to remember her training but sheer terror scattered her thoughts. Her struggles were to no avail as one man ripped a strip from his tee shirt to gag her and another bound her wrists with his belt. She was thrust into the truck’s cab, with two of the men on either side and the others in the back.
“We’re going to have fun with you when we get to camp,” the driver said with a leer, running his hands up her leg and brushing her crotch. “Been a while since we had fresh pussy.”
The man on the other side looped his hand over her shoulders and toyed with her breast, tweaking her nipple through her shirt. “Boss man might want to do her first,” he said as the driver initiated the engine and the truck began to roll. “But then it’ll be our turn. Ruger’s a fair man.”
Devora had to fight not to faint. She prayed to the Lords of Space for help but no one knew where she was and Les wouldn’t miss her until it was time to load the buses. She was well and truly in a mess from which she saw no escape. Making a vow to resist with all her strength once they got to the camp, she vowed if she could get her hands on a weapon, she’d take as many of the thugs with her as she could.
* * *
Les wanted to talk to Devora and see if she believed it would be worth taking a few minutes to investigate the police headquarters, which was right there on the square. He wasn’t sure what he was hoping to find or to learn but it seemed a pity not to check the place out. He didn’t expect there’d be any weapons left but there was always a chance, forgotten in the evidence locker maybe. He hadn’t seen her since everyone got off the bus and surveyed the square with a frown. She’d better not have wandered off on her own. The town wasn’t cleared and infected could be anywhere.
