by Harley Tate
“Was it super aggressive? Did it try to attack you?”
“No. It was confused. It snarled at the snow.”
Brianna pressed a palm against her forehead. “I knew we needed vaccines.”
Tracy swallowed. “Why don’t you have any?”
“They’re hard to acquire. I was hoping to get some from UC Davis as I advanced in the vet program, but I was only in the intro classes. I didn’t get access to the lab until senior year.”
Tracy chewed on her lip. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. “What do we do? Wait to see if Madison shows any symptoms?”
Brianna stared at the fox for a moment before shaking her head. “Once she shows symptoms, it’s too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“Rabies is incurable once it presents itself.”
“Then what’s the point of the vaccine?”
“Rabies is a virus that’s only manageable if caught before it reaches the nerves. With a bite like Madison’s, it will take a while for the virus to get into her bloodstream and reach her central nervous system. It’s that in-between time when the vaccine does its job.”
“So if it’s caught early, it’s curable?”
“Yes. The symptoms we think of as rabies are end-stage manifestations, when the virus has reached the brain. That’s why animals and people act aggressive and crazy. Their brain is being attacked by the virus.”
“Before then?”
“Generally asymptomatic.”
“So the fox…”
“Could be infected even without presenting symptoms.”
Tracy swallowed. “How long do we have?”
“I don’t know. A few days, maybe.”
“Is there a test for rabies?”
Brianna exhaled. “Yes, but we don’t have one.”
Another bit of Tracy’s hope crumbled. If they couldn’t test the fox, then they would have to assume the worst: it was infected. “We’ll have to find a vaccine. Where are they kept?”
“Hospitals, mostly. Some vet offices.”
Tracy closed her eyes. They were miles from the nearest hospital and the chances that it had any medicines at all was slim to none. “What if Madison doesn’t get the vaccine?”
“She could be fine.”
“But there’s no way to know for sure?”
“Not unless we test the fox and it’s negative.” Brianna glanced back at the cabin. “I’ll get a jar and we can scoop some of the spit into it.”
“But you don’t have a test.”
“Any vet office will.”
“Say the fox is infected. How long do we have?”
“The rabies virus can spread very slowly. People can not present symptoms for months.”
“But once they do—”
“It’s too late.”
Tracy nodded. “Then I don’t have a choice. I have to find a vaccine.”
“It won’t be easy.”
Tracy managed a tight smile. “Nothing worth doing ever is.”
Chapter Nine
COLT
Warehouse District
Truckee, CA
7:00 p.m.
The screech of rusted metal-on-metal set Colt’s teeth on edge. So much for the element of surprise. They were exposed. He fell back against the icy brick beside Larkin and Dani as the door swung open.
Half expecting shots or a grenade, he held his breath and counted to twenty. Nothing. Where were the bastards? Whoever took Walter wouldn’t just let them waltz in and rescue him. They must be hiding.
Had he been spotted hours ago with Lottie? Were they made before Colt even saw the steam? He thought they’d been careful: no cars, no loud voices, no obvious recon. As soon as Lottie picked up the scent, Larkin trundled her back to the Jeep and they’d gone in quiet and close to the buildings.
It wasn’t active-duty Navy SEAL-level of stealth, but they weren’t bumbling around without a clue, either. That left one of two options: the operation inside the warehouse was sophisticated and organized, or so badly run no one heard the door.
Colt’s finger quivered on the trigger of the Sig as he motioned with his free hand. Larkin nodded in the moonlight. It was now or never.
With a quick jerk, Colt ducked around the door, squinting as his eyes struggled to focus. Thanks to the lack of windows and thick concrete walls, he couldn’t see jack. He eased back and cursed beneath his breath. “It’s a black hole.”
Larkin fished out a flashlight. “I’ll light it up. You scope it out.”
“Are you sure?” Dani voiced her concern with a puff of breath. “We’ll be sitting ducks.”
Colt gritted out a response. “We already are.” Whoever was inside either already had them dead to rights or didn’t know they were there. There wasn’t an in-between. “We need to see what we’re up against.”
Larkin eased closer to Colt and held the flashlight high. On the count of three, Larkin clicked it on and Colt leaned forward enough to see. Disappointment dragged his shoulders low and he holstered his weapon. “It’s all right. They’re gone.”
Dani and Larkin hurried in and shut the door before filling up the space with more light. Folding tables in organized rows occupied the rear of the space, all empty apart from a handful of empty Styrofoam cups and wadded-up paper towels. Empty cardboard boxes big enough to stand in butted up against each other in the middle. The front of the warehouse held a row of cots, neat without bedding beneath the papered-over windows.
“What is this place?” Larkin spun around in a circle, shining his flashlight at everything in turn.
“It’s a staging area.”
“For what?”
Dani chewed on her lip as she walked through the tables. “I’ve seen this kind of setup before.”
Colt turned toward her. “When?”
“One of my mom’s dealers made his own meth in a place just like this.”
Colt’s eye twitched. “You think this is a drug lab?”
“It probably used to be.” Dani scratched behind her ear. “But I can’t imagine they have enough supplies these days.”
Larkin held up an empty ramen noodle wrapper. “Looks like they’ve changed from dealing drugs to dealing food. I bet there’s a fair number of people who would do anything for a cup of soup about now.”
“Why would they take Walter? It doesn’t make any sense.” Colt walked up and down the aisles, shining his own flashlight beneath the tables and inside the empty boxes. “He didn’t have any food on him.”
“We don’t even know if they took him. Lottie could have been wrong.” Larkin kicked at a cot near the windows.
“I don’t think so.” Colt approached the far wall where a radiator stretched ten feet across the concrete. He ripped off his glove and held his hand above the metal. “The radiator’s hot.” He spun around. “The EMP hit in March. There’s no way this thing has been running since then. Someone got it working.”
“Propane?”
“Or the natural gas line. This building is a hundred years old.” Colt peered at the ancient tubes flecked with rust. “It might not be hooked up to electricity at all.”
He pulled off his other glove and warmed his hands. “Either way, a person turned it on.”
Larkin hustled up beside him and bent to check the knob jutting out from the wall. “And turned it off.”
“But it’s still warm in here.” Dani’s flashlight beam bounced as she shook her head. “No way they’ve been gone more than an hour.”
Larkin agreed. “Whoever was here cleared out in a hurry. We must have been spotted.”
Damn it. Colt hated to admit it, but they were right. If Walter was in that warehouse and they missed him because of their inefficiency, Tracy would never forgive him. Hell, Colt would never forgive himself. “That means we’re not far behind. If we can pick up the trail—”
“We don’t even know if Walter was in here.”
“I think we do.” Dani stood in a doorway tucked into the front corner of the building. Her
flashlight beam bounced around the interior walls of the room. “Come check this out.”
Before Colt could say a word, she ducked inside and disappeared. He hurried to catch up. As Colt rushed into the room, he almost tripped on a short set of stairs. They led down to a dirt subfloor and a room noticeably colder than the rest of the warehouse.
Dani held up a white rag stained in blood. “See?”
Colt hesitated. “That could be anyone’s.”
“Or it could be Walter’s.”
“What is this place?” Larkin eased down the steps and shivered.
“It’s got to be a cellar. This whole area boomed at the turn of the century. Grain and cotton mills, mostly. They used the Truckee River to power grists and spinning wheels.”
“So what’s with the cellar?”
“Good place to store cotton and grain and prevent spoiling. It’s cold now, but you remember the summer. A room like this would stay comfortable through all the hot months.”
“And you think whoever was here turned it into a prison?”
“Or a holding cell.” Dani showed Larkin the bloodied rag. “We can take this back to Lottie. See if she recognizes it.”
“If they drove off, we’ll never find them.”
Colt crouched in the dirt, looking for any sign of Walter’s presence. Tracking the flashlight beam up and down in uniform rows, he stopped at the corner closest to the door. “Come look at this.”
He hurried to the corner, holding his arm out so Dani didn’t walk over the words.
WJS Alive.
“It was Walter all right. And he’s still breathing.” Colt stood up and pressed his fingers to his lips. The man had saved him and Dani when everyone else was either dead or about to be. He’d argued for their right to stay with the Cliftons and even taught Dani a thing or two about ham radios.
Walter had become more than a savior in an uncertain time; he’d become a friend. Colt couldn’t let a gang of strangers hurt him. There had to be a way to track him.
“What could someone want with Walter?”
“Nothing good.” Larkin came over to read the words in the dirt. “But whoever they are, they aren’t keeping a close watch.”
“And they haven’t tortured him.”
“How can you tell?”
Colt glanced at Dani. “He was able to write. That means his arms aren’t broken and he still has his hands.”
The girl shuddered. “If they are anything like the men in Eugene, as soon as they tire of him, they’ll kill him.”
“Agreed.” Colt headed toward the stairs. “Let’s search the rest of this place for clues. Maybe we can find some evidence of where they’ve gone.”
An hour later, Colt slumped against the wall. The cold night air seeped through the concrete and he shivered. “We’re never going to find him.”
“We could bring Lottie and see if she can pick up the scent.”
“She’ll never be able to track a car.”
Dani eased down to sit beside Colt and propped her rifle on her knees. “If these guys are anything like the dealers I used to know, they won’t give up this space. It’s close to town, has working heat, and they’ve gone to a lot of trouble to set it up.”
“Then why clear out so fast?”
“What if we didn’t spook them? What if they were merely done for the day?”
Colt eased off the wall. Dani might be young, but she made up for her age with street-life experience. “Then sooner or later someone will be back.”
“Exactly.” She turned to face him, the flashlight beam highlighting the excitement in her eyes. “As soon as they need to make another run, they’ll be back and we can be ready for them.”
“It could be days, weeks, even.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
Nothing came to Colt’s mind, but the idea of sitting around and waiting twisted his insides. Walter could die while they twiddled their thumbs. He tried to get in the head of a band of thieves or marauders. If they were organized, with a substantial base camp some miles away, then maintaining a processing facility in town made sense.
He panned his flashlight across the space. Was that really what this was? He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I guess waiting can’t hurt us. Let’s get the Jeep and move it closer. Lottie can’t stay out there all night.”
“And we need the sleeping bags.” Larkin headed toward the door. “I hope these chumps don’t come back until the morning.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because even I need my beauty sleep.”
Day 281
Chapter Ten
COLT
Abandoned Warehouse
Truckee, CA
5:00 a.m.
Colt snapped awake and groaned. In the Navy, he always joked about his pregnant-woman bladder when he had to relieve himself every hour. At least now it had a purpose: no alarm clock required when he needed to piss before dawn.
Easing out of his sleeping bag, he passed an unconscious Dani and Lottie, both slumbering the morning away. He sneaked past with quiet, hesitant steps; they needed every minute of sleep.
Dani had grown so much since coming to stay at the Cliftons’ place in the woods. She’d even given up a bit of her ingrained distrust. Colt knew she missed the intensity of surviving in the city, but he was thankful for the rest. Thirty-something bodies didn’t heal like they used to. He couldn’t keep running forever.
He pushed the door open and winced. Colder than a witch’s tit and not a light in sight. As quick as he could, Colt hustled back inside, shivering and rubbing his arms.
“That warm, huh?”
“Like a beach vacation.”
He eased down beside Larkin and held his hands out to the portable stove. “How long have you been awake?”
“Since Dani poked me with a stick around two.”
Colt counted up the hours. “If she can sleep until six, we’ll have managed four hours a piece. Not too shabby.”
Larkin pulled a pot from the stove and turned it off. The little blue flame flickered out and the heat fled along with it. “Coffee?”
“You have to ask?”
After pouring two mugs, Larkin handed one over. “How long are we planning to camp out?”
“Until these bastards come back or we figure out where they went.”
“That could take a while.”
“We aren’t giving up. Walter saved our lives.”
“Never said we should, but the longer it takes…” Larkin sipped his coffee.
“The worse the odds, I know.” Colt rubbed a hand over his face. He’d grown so used to the short beard and scraggly hair he now sported that years of a clean-shaven face and military haircut seemed like a lifetime ago. “You ever think about Jarvis and how things are going in Eugene?”
“I try not to.”
“How many other places are like that, you think?”
“Taken over by jerks on a power trip?” Larkin tucked his surfer-length hair behind his ear. Take him out of the wool sweater and tactical pants and he could have been right at home in Southern California. Not that there were any surfers left.
“Eugene can’t be the only place.”
“Walter described Sacramento like a war zone. Bigger cities had to fare worse. I can’t imagine anything’s left but burned-out buildings and dead bodies.”
“Truckee’s mostly intact.”
“That’s because everyone left alive froze to death come November.” Larkin leaned back on his hands. “Face it. Most of America is dead or dying.”
Colt shook his head. “I refuse to believe that.”
“Want to take a road trip to find out?”
He snorted. “I’d rather keep some hope alive, thanks.”
Larkin grinned. “Never knew you to be an optimist.”
“It’s more denial at this point. I’ve always been better at that one.”
“Like when you insisted that knee injury wasn’t career-ending?”
Colt though
t back to their shared time in Walter Reed. Him with a blown-out knee and Larkin with a broken back. “What’s the thing you miss most?”
“About before?”
Colt nodded.
“Comedy Central.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.” Larkin gulped some coffee. “When’s the last time you laughed at something so stupid it was funny?”
Colt thought about the time he forgot to wipe the rims of Anne’s canned tomatoes and the entire batch spoiled. “Does tragi-comedy count?”
“Nope. I don’t mean laugh-so-you-don’t-cry funny. I mean real, honest-to-God, funny.”
“About nine months, I guess.”
“Bingo.”
Colt rubbed his face. “When everything thaws, we should rig up a battery and a TV and go on a raid for DVDs.”
“I’d give my left nut for a copy of The Big Lebowski.”
“The dude abides.” Colt snorted and drained the rest of his mug. “If you could go back, would you?”
“You mean before all this happened?” Larkin’s brow shot up. “Of course. Wouldn’t you?”
Colt glanced over at Dani and Lottie still sleeping on the other side of the warehouse. Before he saved the teenager, his life had been full of one-night stands and empty beer bottles. Now it had purpose. He had someone to look out for and keep alive.
“No, man. I wouldn’t.”
“Not even for that hot blonde in the rehab wing?”
Colt grinned. “Candie.”
“That’s the one.” Larkin shook his head. “She had it bad for you.”
“She had it bad for anyone without a wedding ring and working parts.” After another swig of coffee, Colt sobered. “What do you think DC is like now?”
Larkin whistled. “If there’s any government left, it’s there.”
“You think we’ll ever be back?”
“The United States? I don’t know.”
“Me neither.” Colt lapsed into silence as he thought about all that transpired since the EMP. The fabric of society wasn’t its morals or shared traditions anymore. It was the current running between the poles.
