“I sure as hell hope so. If they’re not, we won’t know until we’re too low to do anything about it.”
Pax had given the flight crew the exact GPS coordinates for the end of the runway at the Ranch. With the storm, it was likely to have a fresh layer of snow, but it wouldn’t be the first time the Combi had landed in similar conditions on this trip.
“Getting low on fuel again, too,” Lourdes said. “You sure there’s enough there to get us up in the air again?”
“More than enough.” Pax hoped he was right. While the Ranch did normally maintain a large supply of aircraft fuel, there was no telling how many flights had been moving in and out in the wake of the outbreak.
Right before they began their descent, the pilot flipped on the intercom and said, “Buckle up. We’re heading down.”
“I should radio in now,” Pax said. “We don’t want to surprise anyone.”
The copilot, Frank Kendrick, flicked a couple of switches and said, “Go for it.”
“Bravo Four, this is Pax,” he said. “Bravo Four, this is Pax. Come in.”
Static.
“Bravo Four, come in. This is Pax.”
Nothing.
“Bravo Four, we are approaching your runway. Do you read?” He looked over at Kendrick. “You sure you have me dialed in right?”
Kendrick read off the frequency. It was the same one Pax had given him.
“Bravo Four, please come in.”
“They’re not going to shoot at us if we try to land, will they?” Lourdes asked.
“We’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it,” Pax said. The truth was, he had no idea what the hell was going on. The Ranch should have answered by now.
“You’re sure the runway is where you said it is?” the pilot asked. The only things they could see were clouds.
“Exactly where I said it is.”
Lourdes nodded once, not looking reassured.
“Bravo Four, this is Pax. We are about to land. Please respond.”
Dead air.
As Pax started to try again, they dropped out of the clouds into a swirl of snow. Pax craned his neck to get a better look out the window. They were at the Ranch all right. He recognized the valley.
“You’re dead on,” he said. “Runway’s just ahead.”
“I don’t see it,” Kendrick said.
“It’s there. Trust me.”
“Don’t have much of a choice now,” Lourdes said.
“Five hundred feet,” Kendrick announced, reading off the altimeter. “Four seventy-five. Four fifty.”
The countdown continued as they neared the runway.
“Bravo Four, Bravo Four, this is Pax. We are coming in now. Bravo Four, do you read?”
“Two seventy-five. Two fifty. Two twenty-five.”
“Bravo Four! Bravo Four! Why aren’t you answering?”
“One fifty. One twenty-five. One hundred.”
There was no distinction between the runway and the meadows surrounding it. As long as Lourdes stuck to the coordinates, Pax knew they’d be all right, but the knowledge didn’t keep him from clenching up as the wheels sliced through the snowdrift and hammered onto the ground. The plane shook with the impact, but stayed moving in a straight line as the momentum slowed and finally died.
“Told you it was there,” Pax said, smiling.
He instructed Lourdes to bring the plane around and taxi to a spot to the side about halfway back. There, tucked behind a stand of trees, was the fuel supply. It was also where the road to the Lodge began.
He couldn’t understand why no one was waiting for them. Even if the Ranch had somehow not heard his radio calls, a team should have been there to see who was on the plane.
When the plane stopped, he told the others to remain on board and climbed down the retractable staircase. He pushed his way through the snow away from the aircraft, raised his arms, and waved them back and forth over his head.
“It’s Pax!” he yelled. “Rich Paxton! You can come out!”
The only movement he saw was snow falling.
“Hello? Can you hear me? Tell Matt that Pax is back!”
Silence.
He tried a few more times before returning to the plane.
“I guess we’re going to have to hike in,” he said. He looked over at his men. “Tom, you’re with me. The rest of you help get the plane fueled up.”
Decked out in the same winter gear they had used up in northern Canada, Pax and Tom Grady set off for the Lodge.
The road, usually plowed in the winter, was now buried under two feet of snow, more in some places.
“I don’t like this,” Tom said.
Pax made no reply.
The Lodge was a bit over a mile away, about a ten-minute hike on a nice summer day at a strong and steady pace. Under current conditions, it took them twice as long before they could see the trees thinning ahead, signaling the meadow where the Lodge was located.
Knowing they were close, Pax couldn’t help but pick up his pace. He was anxious to see his friends again, to find out what had been going on. But as he stepped out from the trees, he stopped.
The Lodge was gone. It should have been right there, but in its place was a pile of snow-covered, charred timbers.
He looked toward the dorm building off to the side. Not there. Only another pile of debris.
“Oh, my God!” Tom said, stepping out behind him. “What happened?”
The answer to that was clear. The Lodge and the dorm had been destroyed. How and why, Pax had no idea.
“This way,” Pax said. He cut across the meadow toward the woods on the other side.
Had anyone been in the buildings when they went down? Were his friends—
Stop it! he told himself. Those were questions that would only drive him crazy. What he needed was more information.
By the time they reached the woods again, both men were panting but they kept going, weaving through the trees and slogging up the hill to the Bunker’s emergency entrance. It took Pax a few minutes before he found the configuration of trees he was looking for, but there was no need to pace off the correct distance to find the hatch. It was unburied and wide open.
Keeping his fear in check, he knelt next to it and looked inside. Snow had piled up directly below the opening, but otherwise the tunnel was dark.
He reached into the opening and felt along the wall near the ladder. When his fingers knocked against the switch, he flipped it up. Lights located along the top of the tunnel instantly drove the darkness away. At least the power was still working. That had to mean something, didn’t it?
“I’ll go down first,” he said. “If it looks okay, you follow.”
“Got it,” Tom said.
Pax descended the ladder, letting himself drop the final few feet to the ground. The tunnel stretched away for a while before bending out of sight. The part he could see was empty.
“Clear,” he yelled up at Tom.
As soon as Tom joined him, they set off for the Bunker proper.
Any hope Pax had that everything was still all right vanished when they reached the partially open blast door. The area beyond was too quiet. If nothing else, they should have heard the soft hum of the ventilators feeding fresh air into the underground space, but there was no noise at all.
Emergency lights, triggered by motion sensors, flickered to life as the two men stepped into the main part of the Bunker.
“They’re gone,” Tom whispered.
Or dead, Pax thought but kept to himself, saying instead, “Let’s take a look around.”
Behind every door they opened and every corner they turned, Pax expected to find bodies, thinking that somehow the latest strain of Sage Flu had turned out to be resistant to the vaccine he and his friends had been given, but the dorms and the common areas were blessedly empty. They checked the storage rooms at the back of the kitchen. When Pax had looked in them last, they’d all been full. Now they were empty.