Les pointed to Ethan. “Take a team and go check it out.”
“Sure thing, boss.” His friend gave him a loose salute and motioned to his two armed passengers. The trio moved off at a run in the direction of the springs, as indicated by a series of signs and arrows.
Les thanked the Lords of Space yet again he’d been able to grab Ethan at the compound and get him to drive the second bus. Having a second in command he could trust was invaluable in the current situation. He supervised unloading the stasis containers of ingredients Devora wanted for her kitchen, aided by a team of people who volunteered to help. Even Jenny carried a small can of peaches in one hand and her favorite among the stuffed animals he’d picked up for her at the rest stop in the other hand.
Les circulated constantly as the evening progressed, checking on who was in which cabin, taking in the hot springs set up with an eye to security, visiting the kitchen and grabbing a fast meal, complimenting Devora with amazement at what a tasty dish she’d been able to make from the odds and ends scrounged from the restaurant. She had plenty of helpers and Jenny played contentedly in a corner of the big, industrial type kitchen, pretending to cook and serve her stuffed animal a meal.
As he returned his plate to Devora, Les watched the child play. “She said anything about her parents?”
Devora shook her head. “She asked me if her mom would be waiting for her wherever we’re going and I said we’d have to see. I mean, I know there’s no chance her parents survived the compound if they aren’t on our buses but I’m not ready to crush her hopes yet.” She tucked an errant strand of blond hair into her braids. “I wish we knew who she was.”
“Planetary DNA database would tell us in five minutes, if this was normal times,” Les agreed. “Now we may never know.”
“She’s not from Rosewater,” Devora said. “I’d recognize her. So she probably came into the compound with her mother, taken by Jonny at the barricade.”
Thinking about the late warlord, Les shook his head. In his opinion nothing in Rosewater would have been defensible if a big enough swarm of the infected arrived but certainly a lot more could have been done at the compound to at least buy time for people to escape. “I gotta go. I need to check up on my sentries for shift change and then Ethan and I wanted to do some work on the buses.”
Eyes wide, Devora stared at him. Lowering her voice so none of the others in the kitchen could hear, she asked, “Is something wrong with them?”
“They weren’t super well maintained, as far as I can tell but Rosewater was a pretty small place, probably didn’t get much wear and tear either. Not meant to be long distance haulers. We want to make a few adjustments, tune the engines up a bit. No big deal.”
“Okay.” Devora let out big breath. “That’s a relief. Listen, later you want to go to the hot springs with me?”
Surprised, Les blinked and tried to ignore the twitch his cock gave at the idea.
“I need a bath and I want to wash my hair.” She put a hand to her elaborately braided hair. “I found a little bit of soap in the pantry here, not ideal for hair but better than nothing.”
The idea of her naked with all that glorious hair down around her shoulders made the problem in his pants worse.
“But I’m afraid to go there by myself, especially at night. I think everyone else has probably been there and left by now. I’ve been stuck in the kitchen. I’m not complaining. I did volunteer.”
“Sure,” he managed to say, clearing his throat before he could continue. “Let me finish my to do list and we can go over there for a swim. What about Jenny? Is she coming too?”
“Sandy said she’d keep an eye on Jenny for me. We’re sleeping in the conference room tonight so we can get an early start on breakfast before it’s time to pull out.”
“You sure you don’t want a cabin? We did check them all.”
She shook her head. “I’m happier right here. For one thing it’s closer to the buses than any of the cabins.”
“Okay, give me an hour and I’ll swing back for you.”
“No problem. It’ll take us at least that long to clean up from dinner.” She turned away. “See you then.”
* * *
If Devora hadn’t hated being so sweaty and grimy, she never would have been bold enough to ask Les to escort her to the hot springs. He was an intriguing guy, good looking and low key, but he’d taken command of their motley group pretty easily. His self confidence was appealing to her and she definitely felt safe with him in charge and personally, one on one. He wasn’t at all like Jonny Fafield, who’d been a bully and who had required constant placating and praising.
As they walked along the path from the central area to the springs, she was tense despite Les’s presence. She felt like her head was a swivel as she kept checking the shadows and startling at every small sound. Luckily the power was still on at the campground, so the path was well lit.
“We did a thorough sweep,” he said after the fourth or fifth time she’d bumped into him as she reacted to a new noise. “There were no current signs of the infected, aside from the ones trapped in those two cabins.”
“I know,” she said, giving his arm a squeeze and then self-consciously moving a few steps away. “It’s just they’re so scary and they can come on you before you even know they’re around.”
“You get cornered in Rosewater?”
“No, actually I was in an incident at the New Damarkal zoo, early in the outbreak. A janitor saved me and himself by hiding us in a small storage closet. Other people in the area weren’t so lucky.” She swallowed hard, remembering the poor young couple who had been a few feet ahead of her. Their gruesome deaths had saved her life, giving her time to run. Guilt swept over her again. She’d never even been able to learn their names, despite her resources as a police dispatcher. “The authorities hushed it up immediately.”
“Yeah, I’m not surprised,” Les said. “I don’t think the powers that be wanted to believe the nature and scope of the problem we were facing until it was way too late.” He showed her his projectile gun. “I’d rather it was a blaster but at least we have a weapon.”
