The man who had screamed was dead, his body pinned to the ground by short lengths of rebar. He reanimated and Ledger sent him on to the other side with another quick thrust. They buried him next to the girl. The man was black, the girl was Latina. There was no identification in their clothes, no names to put over their graves.
“Hey, Joe,” said Tom, looking up from a backpack through which he was rifling. As Ledger came over, Tom handed him a faded map of Arizona. “These sons of bitches knew about the cure.”
Ledger took the map and sat cross-legged beside Tom, and spread the map out on the ground. There was a circle around a spot in Oro Valley and the name Pisani scribbled in black and underlined a half dozen times. Above the name was the word ‘CURE’, and even though this wasn’t the first time Ledger had heard about this, it still made his heart flutter.
“Shit,” he said.
Tom licked his lips. “Does that mean this is real?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out.”
The story had been passed from one survivor to another, but it had been whisper-down-the-lane, becoming so distorted that Tom and Ledger had wasted weeks following bad leads. Now in the space of a week they had three separate indications that an infectious disease researcher named Al Pisani had a working lab in, or near, Oro Valley in Arizona, a few miles outside of Tucson, and that Dr Pisani had developed some kind of vaccine. The reports were not from any official source because, as far as they knew, there were no official sources left. Which made the whole thing a big fat ‘maybe’. Seeing it again on a map was not conclusive, either, because these scavengers might have heard the same unreliable stories Tom and Ledger had heard.
Or, maybe, these bastards had better intelligence.
Tom must have read his thoughts. “Maybe we should have… you know… asked them before we…”
Ledger waved it off. “Fuck it. That’s yesterday’s box score, kid. Besides, sometimes a motherfucker just needs to die and these motherfuckers were all past their sell-by date. I can’t see either of us having any kind of meaningful conversation with them.”
Tom said nothing. Instead he set about building a campfire so they could cook the geese. The zombies outside moaned, but neither man cared.
“If it’s true,” said Tom while he worked, “what’s that really going to mean? How could a vaccine be mass produced? The EMPs killed the power. Frankly, I don’t even understand how this Dr Pisani even has a working lab.”
“Portable generators and ingenuity,” suggested Ledger.
Tom grunted and concentrated on fanning the flames. Ledger sat there slowly plucking the feathers off one of the geese. He stared into the heart of the newborn flames.
“If there is a vaccine,” he said, “then we’ll find a way to mass-produce it and distribute it.”
“That would be enormously difficult, though.”
Ledger smiled at him. “Seriously, kid, do you have something better to do?”
Tom smiled back. Smiles were rare for him.
They talked and cooked and ate and talked some more as the clouds slid across the darkening sky. Neither of them spoke about the hope that was being kindled inside their chests. They were each superstitious in their own way, as soldiers and samurai, killers and hunters always are. Talking about hope was like holding a burning match up into the wind. Instead they let the fire grow slowly in their hearts.
That night they slept and dreamed of not being dead.
Rare dreams for both of them.
—10—
Top and Bunny
It took another two long nights of riding to reach Oro Valley, the general area where Owen’s people thought the lab might be located. Owen’s people had provided a few details the two soldiers used to scout the area until they found the lab itself, which took them most of a day. It was well hidden inside a rocky cliff side south between the smaller town and Tucson itself — or what was left of it.
Tucson, like most major cities, had been hit hard by the EMPs and other weapons the government deployed in an attempt to eradicate Lucifer 113. From the rise where they’d stopped and pulled out their binoculars, the city stretched off into the horizon under a grey cloud.
The lab must have been built inside the rocks well before that, as it had a well-concealed, well-guarded entrance with multiple security systems that had clearly been in use before the EMPs took them out. The cavern entrance was clearly big enough to take vehicles inside, with a thick steel, hydraulic door its only visible opening. That explained the cargo van, as far as Bunny was concerned. He wished the DMS had had the same so they could be using a vehicle themselves instead of the horses. His ass still ached from the hours of riding. He rubbed at it as he thought about it and Top chuckled.
“How long’s it take to get used to riding?” Bunny wondered, his skin.already clammy from the sun blaring down overhead.
“We’ve been doing it almost two years, so maybe forever for you,” Top said with a grin. “I feel fine.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve been riding most of your life, Old Man. Or maybe your ass is so old the nerves are shot anyway.” Bunny gave up on his ass and scratched at an itch developing on his sides. Fucking desert. He hoped it wasn’t some poisonous creature that’d somehow made it into his clothes.
Top laughed. “See any sentries?”
Top didn’t seem to be bothered by anything at all. That just annoyed Bunny more. At least if they both were itching and miserable, he’d feel better about it. Son of a bitch. Bunny shook his head as he adjusted his field binoculars again and took another look.
Top tapped Bunny’s arm and nodded to a spot on a slope leading toward the cavern. The road was mostly blocked by a wall of cars, but there was a gap across where two men were erecting a moveable boom made from heavy-grade PVC pipe.
“Looks like they’re setting up a checkpoint,” said Bunny.
“Uh huh,” agreed Top, “which means they’re getting ready for visitors.”
“Who, though?”
“My guess,” said Top, “would be ordinary people. If this doctor really has some kind of vaccine then this would be a good chokepoint to filter anyone coming to get a shot. They’d want to screen anyone going into the actual base. Can’t let just anyone stroll up. The doctor’d be too damn important, and if there’s a lab in there, then controlled access would need to be guaranteed. Especially if someone shows up from one of the camps these cats have raided.”
“Why bring them here, though? I mean, from what I can see they have a nice set-up down there. Protection, limited access, plenty of spots for elevated observation and defense. They have power and security. Why let anyone in? Why not send teams out to do field inoculations?”
“Don’t know,” said Top.
“Kind of want to find out,” said Bunny. “On one hand we have what could arguably be the greatest humanitarian project in the history of… well, history… and on the other we have some of these guys acting like bad guys from a Mad Max flick. Doesn’t compute.”
“No, it don’t.”
“So we have to get down there,” said Bunny. He scanned the landscape again. “Those cameras and sensors can’t still be working, can they?”
“I have a feeling that’s why they took their raids further out,” Top said. “Less likely to inspire visitors bent on revenge.”
“I can’t imagine many people have found this place,” Bunny said. “Even with a slim lead, it took us almost a day.”