“Perfectly.”
“And your boss?”
“No longer an issue,” Fletcher said.
“Edison took it in the shorts, too. Well, the neck actually, but you know what I mean,” Dice said.
A thin smile grew on Craven’s lips. “Sounds like we’ve cleared the deck—precisely how you wanted it. Should be smooth sailing going forward.”
“As long as your prices don’t skyrocket,” Dice said.
“I think we can work something out. Just need to know when and where and I’ll take care of my end.”
“As will we,” Dice said, turning his gaze to Fletcher.
Fletcher continued. “Like I said before, as soon as our source comes through, we’ll let you know the details. After that, we’ll need a much bigger army in a day or two for Phase Two.”
“Deal,” Craven said, shaking Fletcher’s hand again. “Though there is one thing.”
“What?”
“My most prized breeder.”
“What happened?” Fletcher asked.
“She escaped. You wouldn’t have happened to have seen her, would you? She’s this little blonde with crazy hair and a skanky body full of whip marks. Can’t miss her.”
“No. Not that I recall,” Fletcher said before looking at Dice.
Dice shrugged. “Haven’t seen her.”
“Are you sure?”
Fletcher nodded. “Positive. I think we’d remember something like that.”
“How’d she escape?” Dice asked.
“Don’t know, but she’s not the first one.”
Fletcher shook his head and threw out his hands. “You’ve lost others?”
“Yep.”
“How many?”
“Seven.”
“Will that change things?”
“No. Got plenty more in the pipeline. Like I said, just a little setback.”
“What do you need from us?”
“If you find her, bring her back to me.”
“Alive, I take it.”
Craven nodded. “But you can have some fun with her first, if you’d like. A little reward for your help. Ain’t much to her but she’s a fertile little thing and that ass of hers is world class.”
“For a flesh-eater and all,” Dice said. “Assuming you can get past the whole missing nose thing.”
“That has its uses, too,” Craven said with a confident tone in his voice.
“We’ll keep an eye out,” Fletcher said.
CHAPTER 19
“Slow down. There’s a sharp curve coming up,” Krista said to Wicks as the man turned the steering wheel a few degrees to the right.
“Sorry, boss,” Wicks said, pulling his foot off the gas. “Adjusting speed.”
“Keep the center line through the next section and watch that damn crater on the left. I don’t want to lose another tire like last time.”
“Roger that,” Wicks said, angling the truck around the bend. He worked the wheel back and forth to dodge a parade of abandoned cars on the road, keeping an even distance from each one. The thick volcanic ash after The Event rendered them useless after suffocating their engines, leaving nothing but relics behind.
The old horse track was to the right, its roof caved in near the middle. Its parking lot was also full of combustion engine junk, like the roadway. A few of them were old semis, the climate taking a toll on their proud stenciling. All that remained of the lettering on one of trailers was a star icon and the word “mart” after it.
“We stop for nothing until we’re back at the base,” Krista said. “Is that clear? I want to beat sundown this time.”
“Crystal. Stopping for nothing, boss,” he said after swinging wide to miss the crater she warned him about. He pressed on the accelerator to resume at a speed somewhat less than before.
The transport had made good time thus far, thanks to the weather cooperating, even though the sky had filled with ominous-looking clouds the last hour and the wind had resumed its wail.
The last thing you want when hauling a couple of prisoners through an uncontrolled sector is to get stuck in the mud or slide off the road due to excessive speed or some other negligence. More so with the light fading, leaving more shadows than normal to cover with a light fire team, and a nightly freeze sure to wreak havoc.
Horton and his pet had behaved themselves thus far, both of them blindfolded and restrained in the back. Her overwatch team had them covered.
Krista planned to personally oversee the unloading of the prisoners and their delivery to the brig this time. They’d been fortunate to capture the Scab Girl once. She didn’t want to tempt fate with another search and detain of the same target.
Something in her gut nagged at her that the capture had gone a little too smoothly, though Horton did struggle to talk the girl down from the bus. Krista knew it was possible she was simply paranoid about the whole thing, but she knew better than to make assumptions about anything that happened in the field.
Regardless, there was something off about the entire encounter. Yet Krista couldn’t pinpoint what it was. It felt like the answer was just out of reach in her mind, hiding in one of the dark spaces, tucked behind a mountain of doubt and suspicion.
At least the prisoners were secure and the return to the silo was well underway. Her only problem at the moment was her bladder. It was full and building pressure with each roll of the tires.
It felt like a volcano ready to blow—a whole string of them—supervolcano like. It was all she could do to sit upright in the passenger seat without crossing her legs.
Another thirty minutes went by before she couldn’t stand it anymore. Just ahead was an overpass, its four-lane blacktop caved in on the left side. Rebar hung from the interior support structure, with chunks of cement attached to some of their ends.
Krista craned her neck and checked the sky. The clouds were still building and getting darker. She pointed to the right side of the structure coming up fast. “Stop under there. It’s time to find a bush somewhere before the sky opens up.”
“What about the others?” Wicks said. “Been a long ride for everyone.”
“You, too?”
“And then some, boss.”
“All right. Everyone can take five. But we do so in pairs. Stay sharp, Wicks. We don’t want a repeat of what we just went through.”
Wicks pulled to the side of the roadway and slid the truck under what remained of the elevated roadway.
Once the transmission was in park, Krista slid out of the truck and walked to the tailgate, grimacing to keep her bladder in check.
The guard who’d covered their six during the capture of the Scab Girl stuck his head out from under the tarp first. “Problem, ma’am?”
“Gotta take a leak. Wicks and I are going first. You three, cover the prisoners.”
“Ten-four.”
“Do not take your eyes off them for a second. Understood?”
“Eyes-on, boss. Got it.”
“If they give you any trouble, shoot them.”
“Gladly, ma’am.”
“If anyone else needs to use the head, they can go next.”
The man nodded, but didn’t respond.
“We’ll be back in two shakes,” Krista said, swinging around to the driver’s side of the vehicle where Wicks was standing, scanning the countryside through the optics on his rifle.
She waited until he finished his sweep. “Anything?”
“All clear.”
Krista ran a visual check of the area beyond the overpass, looking for possible squat and drop locations.
A flat area with scores of trees was on the left—dead trees, remnants of what she assumed was an orange tree orchard. It was about twenty yards below grade with a gentle slope leading from the highway to the first row of trees.
The other side of the highway featured a dilapidated wooden structure about the size of convenience store, with train tracks running in front of it.