“We want those back,” Bunny objected, but Top silenced him with a look. Just go with it for now, it said. Bunny sighed, nodding back in acquiescence.
Then they were surrounded and led into the building, then shoved into a small office and locked inside, guards posted outside. The office had a wooden desk, its surface covered by scattered stacks of paper, file folders, and manuals. Two old, faded grey metal file cabinets with three drawers occupied a corner behind it along with a table holding a laser printer and three open wire baskets marked ‘In’, ‘Out’, and ‘Pending’. The office smelled dusty and stale, like it hadn’t been used in a while, which it probably hadn’t. Top slid into a padded wooden chair facing the desk, while Bunny paced. A few moments later, the door opened and a woman brought them water bottles then left again.
“Well, they’re sure glad to see us,” Bunny said, taking a chair along one wall near the file cabinets.
Top unscrewed the cap off his water and took a long drink before responding. “We’ve dealt with cautious survivors before. You know we’d be the same.”
Bunny sighed, leaning back in the fiberglass chair against the wall. “Yeah, just anxious to get on with it.”
“Drink your water and relax, Farm Boy,” Top said with a chuckle. “We’re here. That’s the first step.”
“If these are even the right people,” Bunny muttered, then uncapped his own water and drank.
They waited in silence then until Owen finally came back for them an hour later. He’d cleaned up a bit, the dirt and grime gone from his face, his hair combed, and the shotgun had been left outside. He took a deep breath, nodding at them as he moved around the desk, and slid into the cracked leather chair behind it, leaning back and putting his feet up on the surface as he thought a moment.
“Why don’t you boys tell me who you are again and why you’re here, heavily armed, on our doorstep,” Owen said.
Top nodded and began explaining. He described generally their past work in black ops for the government, and how they’d stayed together after The Plague, fought to survive like anyone else, and then found their training and knowledge could help others and began looking for those needing help.
“Like some kind of modern A-Team or something?” Owen joked.
“Wow. A-Team. That’s old school,” Bunny said and looked at Top. “Didn’t you watch that when you were a kid?”
Top shot him an annoyed look as Owen chuckled. “You knew what it is, didn’t ya?” He turned to Owen again. “There’s just the two of us. No van either. But we do what we can. We came here because a group in Colorado heard rumors someone might need help finding permanent shelter, setting up defenses, getting supplies, etcetera.”
“And then we saw the raid,” Bunny said.
“Why didn’t you stop them?” Owen asked, his eyes accusing.
“To be honest, we weren’t sure who the good guys were or what was happening,” Top said.
“For all we knew, the kids were being rescued or something,” Bunny added.
Owen grunted and his eyes turned sad as his shoulders sunk and he leaned back in the chair behind the desk.
“Everything okay?” Top finally asked.
Owen shrugged. “As fine as it can be after one of the doctor’s raids, I suppose.”
“Who is this doctor and why are you being raided?” Bunny asked.
Owen met their eyes a moment as if weighing options then continued, “We don’t actually know. Just rumors and such from others who claim to have seen or heard things. But as they tell it, the doctor runs a lab down outside Tucson. They used to raid the survivor camps there. One of the reasons we started relocating two years ago, making our way north. Somehow they tracked a few of us up here and started raiding us once every few months. We’ve lost twenty-five people, including ten women, ten children, and five elderly. We lost six tonight.”
“And you don’t have any idea what happens to them?” Bunny asked.
“Experiments we’ve been told,” Owen said, his eyes wrinkling as he pondered it with obvious pain and regret. “Something about a vaccine for The Plague, but a few captives have supposedly escaped and they weren’t cured, they’d been turned. Some graves were discovered in a nearby park as well that people say were victims of the lab.”
They gaped at him.
“A vaccine? Holy shit,” gasped Bunny. “That could change everything!”
“How sure are you?” demanded Top. “Is this real intel or rumors?”
Owen locked eyes with him. “You hear something from so many different sources, experience the raids on your families and friends, your children, you start believing the worst. Doesn’t much matter if it’s true. People are being kidnapped. Others turned up dead. Draw your own conclusion.”
Top grunted with understanding. Echo Team had dealt with many similar rumors and situations for the DMS. “But you know where the lab is?”
Owen shook his head. “Just rumors. So far, at least, but a lot of people believe them. Yeah, we’ve talked about finding it. Getting our children and loved ones back. But the teams come heavily armed for the raids. Can you imagine what the security is like around the lab?” He shook his head. “We can’t risk it. That is, if we could even find it. A couple of people tried to rescue their families, we heard, with disastrous results.”
“This has gone on for two years?” Top looked as if he couldn’t believe it. Bunny knew that look though. Beneath it was simmering fury.
“More like four,” Owen said. “We just decided to try and get away, out of reach two years ago. Look. My people are mostly city folks, a couple farmers, but most had never touched a weapon before, let alone served. I had training from an enlistment after college, so I’ve taught them what I could, but defense is our best strategy. Organized, strategic attacks would probably just get more people lost or killed.”
“And they tracked you here…” Bunny shook his head.
“Someone who saw us could have told them, I suppose,” Owen said. “Truth is, we rarely see zombies these days, keeping to ourselves. If we weren’t constantly moving to try and avoid the raids, we could settle in. This headquarters recycles waste and water and we could stay here indefinitely, hunt the desert for food, grow our own — but that would just make us easier to find.”
“They only come every few months?” Top asked.
Owen thought a moment. “Yeah, every two or three. We haven’t really nailed down a pattern. It varies.”
“But if you stay here, you’ll be okay?” Top said.
“We might be,” Owen said. “We could make a go of it.”
Top and Bunny exchanged a look that spoke volumes. They’d worked together so long, reading each other was just part of it. They both agreed they needed to help these people, and that had to start with finding the lab and seeing what they could do to end the raids.
“Why don’t you tell us everything you know about this lab and doctor and where we might find it?” Top said.
—9—
The Soldier and the Samurai
They camped in the pen that night.
The men they killed had been poorly equipped, but there were some useful items. More ammunition, guns, a better backpack than the one Ledger had. Three freshly-killed geese, and a whole box of power bars. Plenty of water, too, as well as matches, knives, and most of a bottle of Advil. All useful.
Ledger and Tom opened a kind of vent in the wall and threw the bodies out to the dead, then blocked it up again.