It was empty, save for a few cars parked in the lots. Blake didn’t want to look too closely, afraid of what he’d find in their interiors. It was easier to pretend they were just cars left behind because their owners got a ride with someone else.
The truck slowed to a crawl, and Blake had to look over Alvarez’s wide shoulders to see why.
A menacing-looking vehicle was blocking the road. It was listing at an angle, leaning over a missing front tire. Blotches of its matte black paint were burnt off and sooty where a fire had tried to consume the beast of a truck. Blake swallowed as he took in the stenciled words on the side. It was difficult to make out through the streaks of smoke and torn metal, but it looked like the county’s armored SWAT vehicle.
There was something about seeing such a big, strong vehicle broken like that. It was an uncomfortably sober reminder that even the best of humanity’s defenses didn’t stand a chance.
No one commented on it as Tyler navigated around it. Blake tried not to look. Wanted to close his eyes andsee,but notprocesslike he used to, but he’d spent too much time with Gabriel. Had been encouraged to use this ‘thing’ as if it were a gift.
Now he could see that the front driver’s side tire wasn’t missing; it had been torn away. Bits of twisted rim still attached to the axle, rubber clinging to where it had been seated before something strong—something alien—ripped it away.
Worse, all the doors were open. Like the cops inside had tried to make a final stand. Or run.
Blake closed his eyes and didn’t open them until he felt the truck accelerate away.
On the backside of the SWAT truck was a different story. The road was pockmarked with crumbling potholes and scorch marks. Cars were scattered, most in no better condition than the truck. The damage was intense but concentrated. Whatever happened here, it happened fast. Blake didn’t see any bodies—he wished he could consider that a good sign. But he knew that didn’t mean the place wasn’t marked with death.
A block past the battle-worn streets, Blake squinted through the windshield. The gray skies had given way to a light drizzle, but Tyler hadn’t turned on the wipers. They might not even work. But Blake recognized the building.
“There,” he pointed, indicating a standalone building beside a grocery store. The sign looked a little worn, but the red cross was still clear. Blake felt a bubble of anticipation begin to grow in his stomach as Tyler jumped a curb and eased the truck under the overhang that saidAmbulance Entranceon the south side of the building.
“Uh,” Beaumont said as he leaned over Blake to look up at the building. “I think we’re a little late.”
Blake shouldered him aside to look through the window. Colors and shapes were smeared from the rain, and it took him a minute to realize what he was seeing. The glass double doors that led off the ambulance bay were shattered. Thick pieces of safety glass were scattered across the drive and foyer, catching what little light managed to bleed through the clouds.
But it was the big black burn that made Blake’s heart sink. Like a scar across the cream-colored stucco, it snaked out from the doors in a clear burn pattern where the blaze had eaten its way along the entire south wall.
Alvarez cursed. “Waste of fucking—what are you doing?”
The back door rattled as the door hit the lock. Blake’s fingers scrabbled at the lock, only to realize that it didn’t matter. The Clamshell door wouldn’t open unless Alvarez opened his.
“I’m not going to—they could still have meds in there!” his voice sounded too loud after the hours of silence.
“Place has already been ransacked,” Tyler said, his accent crisp. “There’s no point.”
Gritting his teeth, Blake kicked at the door. Mostly in frustration rather than any hope of it opening. “Look at those burns? That’s normal fire. Not Off Former incendiary.” Blake couldn’t tell if Alvarez looked or not. “Humanslooted this urgent care. And they were probably after the hard stuff. Not antibiotics or insulin.”
No one said anything, and Blake nearly screamed in frustration. Instead, he shimmied his arm between Alvarez’s seat and the door, fingertips just barely scraping the door latch. By some miracle, he hadn’t locked the door, and Blake got the handle to click open. Ignoring Alvarez’s shout of protest, he shoved the door the rest of the way so he could get his door open.
He heard boots hitting the concrete behind him, but he didn’t stop to look back. He crunched over the broken glass, ducking through what was left of the glass doors.
It was gloomy inside. The watery afternoon light barely penetrated through the broken glass doors. Blake blinked, waiting for his eyes to adjust. As he did, a gloved hand grabbed his elbow and yanked him back. Alvarez and Tyler stepped past him, crouched over their weapons as they walked further into the clinic.
The urgent care was one large space with a nurse’s station in the center, and several curtained-off zones that acted as treatment areas lining the walls. Some of the curtains had been torn down, draped over beds and furniture. Out of the corner of his eye, they looked like grotesque shapes, and, in the gloom, he could almost swear they were moving. Shifting in the deep shadows, breathing faintly enough for dust motes to be expelledinto the air. It seemed smaller than he remembered. It looked wrong.
He could still picture the last time he’d been to this Urgent Care for a call. It was out of their area, but there had been a big accident, and they had been shifted over to a wider area for coverage. They came for a heart attack. The woman had come in for persistent, sharp back pain. She was sitting up, chatting, laughing even. It was only when a suspicious doctor decided to run an EKG that he noticed the tombstones dancing across squiggly lines and called for transport.
He could still remember the laugh lines on the nurse’s face when she told him to stop slouching, and the little pink pigs on her scrubs.
Because they make me smile,she’d replied to Tommy’s teasing.
Back then, the place had been alive with monitors and lights. Staff moving around. Keyboards clicking, the quiet murmur of a TV from the waiting room. Blake had just eaten a meatball sub and had hoped his breath didn’t smell like garlic.
Minty breath had seemed so important at the time.
They were gone now. He wondered if that nurse still smiled at those little pigs.
Shaking off those thoughts, he tried to focus. Alvarez and Tyler cleared the room quickly and quietly. They tested a door that led to the waiting room but found it locked. Zoe came into the room, gun in hand. She didn’t even make a noise over the glass as she walked. She began checking cabinets, rummaging around for anything useful.
