Three hours later the other APC came roaring up the driveway, megablaster cannon blazing, auto guns firing and Zach and Trent opened up with their APC’s weapons as well, rocking the vehicle with the intensity of the barrage. The multiple blaster beams swept the yard and front pasture of the ranch, cutting down the remaining infected who hadn’t already shambled off.
“Stay here,” Zach ordered Melly, Tamsyn and Mike tensely. “Until the captain gives you the all clear.”
“I’ll take your place in the turret,” Melly told Trent as the two soldiers prepared to leave the APC.
“Close the damn door behind us first,” he said with a tight grin. “We might have missed a few.”
“I’ve got the door,” Tamsyn said, moving into position, her own blaster at the ready just in case.
She and the Jericho siblings watched on the vids as the team of soldiers worked together to eliminate any remaining threats, making sure the infected which had been disabled by the blaster fire were fully deceased. Tamsyn remembered they’d told her the infected would continue to try to crawl their way toward prey even if only a portion of their bodies remained, until the skull was breached. She had no desire to see the macabre scene play out in her own front yard but kept her eyes on the vids anyway in case the soldiers needed help.
Even being a man short, with Cody in restraints inside the first APC Jeff’s team moved in a coordinated fashion as if they’d done this on other planets before, many times. She was in awe at the deadly expertise on display but impatient for the captain to sound the all clear so she could see Cody for herself.
Finally, after exhaustively quartering the ground, Jeff raised his head, looked toward the APC’s and gave a thumbs up. His voice came over the com. “You three and Buddy can come out now. Stay frosty though in case any of the swarm who wandered off before we got here are drawn by the sound and the fire.”
Melly came down the turret ladder and motioned to Tamsyn. “Go ahead and open the door. We’ll send Buddy out first since he has the best instincts. If he stays happy then we’ll go out. I’ll go after the dog.”
Impatient as she was, Tamsyn followed Melly’s orders and was the last to exit the APC, to find the group gathered beside the second APC.
“I’m going to have to stun him for us to move him safely,” the captain was saying as she rushed up.
“I want to do an exam first,” Melly protested. “It might not be safe to stun him.”
“No other way to safely transport him to the bunkhouse,” Jeff said. “We don’t have an antigrav litter.”
“I have a couple of antigrav lifts in the barn,” Tamsyn said, repressing a memory of having to use them to move the bodies of her last ranch hand and her foreman. “One of them will work. I’ve done it before.”
“You’re putting him in the bunkhouse?” Melly frowned.
“I don’t want him in the main house with you and Mike.” The captain made it obvious he wasn’t going to change his mind on the point.
“Rasty, my late foreman, had his own private rooms in the bunkhouse,” Tamsyn said. “You can use it for a sickroom and lock the access to the rest of the bunkhouse if you want.”
“I appreciate your help,” Jeff said. “If you could get the antigrav lift you were talking about that would be good.”
She rushed off to the barn, where she’d stacked the lifts after their last use during her sad task of burying the final two victims of the flu at the Double Comets ranch. Rasty had turned and killed Piers and she’d had to kill the foreman to save herself. Impatiently she brushed away tears and took a deep breath before emerging from the barn with the lift in tow. It was designed to move the huge round bales of hay for the horses and cattle so the surface was more than big enough for a man.
Zach took the control for the lift with a murmured thanks. She noticed Mike and Buddy had been exiled to a safe distance on the front porch. Melly emerged from the APC, medical kit in hand. “Oh good, you got the lift,” she said.
“How does he look, doc?” Zach asked.
“Better than I would have expected this many hours after being bitten. High fever, red eyes, some black streaks on his arm but not on the rest of the body as yet. He’s coherent but obviously under strain.” She gave a weary smile. “I actually observed some signs of healing around the bite wound so I think the nanobots are making a difference but whether they can win this fight, I can’t predict. Best not to get our hopes up too high.”
Tamsyn was sure the last remark was directed to her, even though the doctor didn’t glance at her.
Jeff and Trent carried a bound Cody off the APC and laid him on the antigrav lift, which held steady. The hay bales weighed up to a ton, depending on their composition and size so the body of one man, even a cyborg, didn’t strain the motor.
Hand to her mouth, Tamsyn whispered, “Oh, Cody,” at the sight of his limp body, sweat stained uniform and the ominous black streaks going up his arm. The marks reached to his elbow, like a thicket of poisonous vines but the site of the wound was illuminated by an intense blue glow, which she guessed must be the nanobots at work.
His eyes opened, completely bloodshot and his head whipped around to her. “Tamsyn, must tell Tamsyn—” His voice was strained and hesitant. He didn’t seem to see her, even though he was looking straight at her.
Ignoring the surprised stares from the others, she came closer until Zach stopped her. She wished she could touch him and offer some comfort. “I’m right here, Cody. Tell me what?”
“Zoo. The animals…all set free…knew you’d be happy…Tamsyn.” He worked hard to get that much of a disjointed sentence out and then fell back on the lift, eyes closed again. His body jerked in a convulsion.
“It’s the fever,” Melly said. “We need to get him to a bed where I can do a proper exam and start the supportive infusions.”
“I’ll go get the room ready.” Furiously brushing tears off her cheeks, Tamsyn wheeled and broke into a run, heading for the bunkhouse. She hadn’t set foot in it since the events culminating in Rasty’s murder of Piers and her having to kill him to save herself. Going inside she was surprised to find it swept clear of the three ranch hands’ personal effects, which she assumed the soldiers must have moved. She’d given them permission to do so and then not given it any more thought. Now she was glad not to be confronted with the big room looking as if the three men—her friends as well as her employees—would return at any moment. Vaguely she took in several large containers against the wall which were piled with the items her late friends had owned.
