“Jesus, Danny,” Will said, when he saw the guy lying in the back of the Ranger.
“That wasn’t me,” Danny said. “He sort of flew off the bike.”
“How did he do that?”
“I tapped him lightly in the back with the Ranger. Lightly. It’s not my fault he couldn’t fly.”
The guy was alive and alert, though he had the look of a wounded animal, dark eyes darting left and right, from face to face, as if he expected to eat a bullet any second. Maybe he wasn’t very far off, Will thought, as they dragged the guy up from the truck bed and lifted him down to the parking lot to stand on his own two feet.
“He had a radio on him,” Danny said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t survive his flight.”
“The one on the Wallbys rooftop had one, too,” Will said. “Rifle?”
“Rest in pieces.”
“Jesus, Danny, remind me never to send you to fetch anything that I don’t want smashed to smithereens.”
“Quit yer naggin’.”
Blaine came out of the courthouse behind them. He had put on a new shirt and was still wincing with every step, but Will knew there was no way in hell he was going to be able to talk the guy out of this, so he didn’t even bother.
“Seen him before?” Will asked Blaine, turning the prisoner slightly so Blaine could see his face.
Blaine shook his head. “Maybe, I don’t know. I only saw Folger up close. The rest were a blur during the firefight.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Danny said. “This guy can’t wait to tell us everything he knows.” Danny pulled the prisoner closer to him and smiled. “Right?”
Not that it took very much to get the man talking.
They sat the prisoner, whose name was Miguel, on the lowered gate of the blue Ranger and handed him a bottle of water after they cut off the zip ties. He was in no shape to fight back, not that he had much fight left in him. Miguel had acquiesced to his situation, both in spirit and body. The man just wanted it to be over.
“Where are your friends?” Will asked.
“Hiding,” Miguel said. “Probably, I don’t know. They were supposed to help Hiller and me, but they never showed. They kept promising they would over the radio, but they never came. Then you guys killed Hiller, and I bailed.”
“How did you know we killed Hiller?”
“He didn’t answer his radio and he stopped shooting. I figured he was dead. I told Folger the same thing on the radio.”
“Folger is the boss?”
“Hardly.” Miguel took another sip of water. “He wants to be the boss, but no one respects him.”
“How many of you are there?”
“Six. Well, there used to be six. You killed Hiller. So there’s three of them now. Plus me, but I guess you don’t count me anymore.”
“I guess not. Name them.”
“There’s Folger, Del, and Manley.”
“Six minus two is four, genius,” Danny said. “Or didn’t they teach you to count in bad guy school?”
“There was four,” Miguel said. “Betts got killed last night.”
“What happened?”
“We had some prisoners, but they escaped. Tricked Betts somehow, then stabbed the shit out of him in the back of the neck with a key, if you can believe it. He was dead when we found him.”
Will looked over at Blaine, who had perked up. “The woman who was with me,” Blaine said. “You caught her.”
“Yeah,” Miguel said, but he wisely shied away from looking Blaine in the eyes. “She escaped with the others.”
“How many others?” Will asked.
“Two. Some kids we found in town when we first got here. There was a third kid, but he had turned, so we locked the basement door where he was hiding so he couldn’t get out.”
“How old are we talking about? These kids?” Danny asked.
“Teenagers,” Miguel said. “I don’t know how old. Sixteen or seventeen maybe.” He drained the bottle of water and tossed it away, watched it bounce around the parking lot for a moment. “Got any more of that?”
“Man’s going to drink us dry,” Danny said, and handed Miguel another warm bottle.
Miguel opened the bottle and drank down half of it one gulp.
“The radio,” Will said. “What frequency are they monitoring?”
Miguel told them.
Danny unclipped his radio from his vest and turned the frequency dial, then put the radio down on the open tail gate. They listened for a moment, but there was only static.
Miguel seemed to have expected that. He smirked. “Assholes. I knew they would leave me.”
“You’re saying they’re gone?” Will asked.
“I figured. Or they’d be here by now, wouldn’t they?”
“Maybe,” Will said, unconvinced.
“Not BFFs, I take it,” Danny said.
“Not in this lifetime,” Miguel said, almost spitting the words out. “I only fell in with them because there was no one else. I mean, after everything happened, strength in numbers, you know? And Folger had all these guns. Who the hell knows where he got them. He was an asshole and everything, but he seemed to know some stuff that got us through the early days.”
“How long ago did Sandra and these kids escape?” Blaine asked.
“Like I said, last night.”
“Did you find them?”
“No. They must have been hiding. There are thousands of houses in this place. It’s impossible to search every one of them. Plus you never know where those bloodsuckers could be hiding. They’re fucking everywhere.”
“What’s with the big rig?” Danny asked.
“What?” Miguel said, as if he hadn’t heard the question right.
“The big rig,” Danny repeated. “Blaine says you guys had a big rig with you. It’s gotta guzzle diesel like crazy, so why bother with one? For storing supplies?”
“That’s partially it, but mostly it’s to keep the monsters out.”
“How?” Will asked.
“What, how does it keep the monsters out?” Miguel asked. “Have you seen those semitrailers? You can’t tear into those things. They’re like a moving safe.”
Will and Danny exchanged a look. “Why didn’t we think of that?”
“We didn’t see a semitrailer when we got here,” Will said.
“Folger moved it,” Miguel said. “After last night, I guess he was afraid the kids would come back and try to steal it or something. Stupid, right? They’re not coming back. Why the fuck would they? But Folger is paranoid like that.”
“How did you know we were coming? You had that ambush set up pretty fast.”
“I was on the water tower, looking for those kids. You know, to get a better lay of the land. Sound travels nowadays. I heard you coming from the highway. Called Folger on the radio and he came up with the bright idea to set up an ambush.”
“What happened to Folger?”
“That dick. He took off with Del and Manley before you showed up, told me and Hiller they were going to circle around and attack you from behind. That was his master plan, anyway. I don’t know what happened. Every time I radioed him, he always said he was circling around, that we should keep you occupied. Then you fucking killed Hiller and I guess they chickened out and split. Who the hell knows. He wouldn’t answer the radio after I told them Hiller was probably dead.” Miguel shrugged, and his shoulders seemed to droop lower than before, if that was even possible. “So, you going to shoot me now or what?”
Miguel looked at Will, then at Danny, and finally, for the first time, at Blaine.
“I’m not going to beg for my life,” Miguel said. “Hell, I survived eight months when the rest of the world died. I think I got a pretty sweet deal.” He managed a grin. “So go ahead. Get it over with. Just make sure I’m not the last one. That’s why I’m telling you all of this, you know. So you can get Folger and Del and Manley, too, the cowardly fucks.”