A metal sliding door was all the way down at the counter and the door to enter the back area of the pharmacy was locked.
Derrick held up the battering ram as he smiled at Chris. “This is exactly why I wanted to bring this.”
Chris grinned back.
After a couple of swift slams into the door with the battering ram, the door swung inward. Derrick set the battering ram on the counter, then went inside, leading with his gun and flashlight.
The beam of light lit up full shelves.
Shocked that the pharmacy was still so well-stocked, it suddenly occurred to him that there could be people in the building that were protecting the hospital—including the pharmacy. But if there were, where were they? Somewhere else in the hospital, or maybe they’d moved on and we’re no longer there.
Not wanting to be there if someone came back, Derrick began searching for the items Sarah had requested. Completely unfamiliar with how pharmacies were organized, it was a labor intensive process. Especially since he had to do it by flashlight. He would have asked Chris to help, but he needed him on watch.
“How’s it going in there?” Chris asked as he stepped into the room where Derrick was scanning the bottles on the shelf, on the hunt for amoxicillin.
“It’s going slowly, unfortunately.” Derrick didn’t look up when he answered.
“Maybe we should just take it all.”
Derrick glanced at Chris. “Not sure if we could carry it all.” He shifted his gaze back to the shelves as he seriously considered the idea. It would certainly be faster to take it all and let Sarah sort it out. “Screw it,” he muttered, then he grabbed a box filled with papers, dumped it out on the floor, and began sweeping bottles into it.
Chris chuckled and left the room.
As it turned out, he and Chris really couldn’t carry everything, but Derrick hoped they’d at least snagged many of the items on Sarah’s list. As they both carried large boxes filled with medication down the stairs and toward the lobby, Derrick felt a small twinge of guilt that they’d hardly left anything for anyone else.
Shoving aside that concern—how many people were left alive anyway? —he entered the lobby, his head on a swivel. Still empty. Good.
He walked briskly toward the shattered doors and stepped through, then hustled toward the Charger where he and Chris set the boxes in the trunk and closed the lid.
“Don’t move,” a male voice commanded from right behind them.
Chapter 24
Derrick
Derrick froze. Who was this? The person guarding the hospital? Had he been watching them the entire time?
“Hands on your heads,” the man demanded.
Annoyed, but not wanting to get shot, Derrick laced his fingers behind his neck. Then he turned his head to size up the man who was behind him and Chris. Turned out there were two men. Derrick immediately recognized their uniforms—they were State Security Officers like the ones at the DMV. And both were pointing their guns at Derrick and Chris’s heads.
Wonderful.
“Face front,” the same one said.
Holding back an audible sigh, Derrick did as he was told.
While one of the men held his gun on Derrick and Chris, the other patted them down, taking both of their guns as well as their knives.
“Now, face down on the ground.”
Derrick glanced over his shoulder. “What for?”
The man stepped close to Derrick and jammed his gun against Derrick’s head. “Do it.”
Derrick’s blood began to boil, but he didn’t want to get shot, so he lay on the pavement. Chris did the same.
While the man who seemed to be in charge—Boss Man—kept his gun pointed at them, the other man went into the Charger and began searching. Fury made Derrick’s head pound, but he stayed silent.
When the man was done searching the inside of the Charger, he walked over to his companion carrying two more guns as well as Derrick and Chris’s extra ammo.
Awesome. Now they had no weapons.
The man who had done the searching popped the trunk. “What do we have here?” he asked.
From the ground, Derrick couldn’t see what the security man was doing, but he imagined he was digging through the medications they’d pilfered from the pharmacy.
“This will be a nice addition to our supplies,” the man said as he lifted the boxes of meds out of the trunk and set them on the ground.
Boss Man chuckled. “Indeed.” Then he turned his attention back to Derrick and Chris. “On your feet. Slowly.”
Wanting nothing more than to kill these guys, Derrick slowly got to his feet and faced the two men. Chris stood as well.
Boss Man was about Derrick’s height and fit-looking. Not only that, but his gun was pointed at Derrick while the other man was aiming his gun at Chris. Wouldn’t exactly be a fair fight.
“What do you people want?” Derrick asked with barely contained fury.
Boss Man’s lips compressed. “Just doing our job.”
Narrowing his eyes, Derrick asked, “And what is that?”
Boss Man smirked. “Stop and search.”
“On what grounds?”
“No grounds needed.”
Derrick’s eyebrows jerked together. “Since when?”
“Since the governor decreed it.”
“Decreed it?” Disgusted at the idea, he nearly spit the question out. “He’s the governor, not the freaking king.”
Boss Man laughed. “Tell him that.”
Derrick would love to have the chance. Right before he shot him in the head.
As they stood there, Derrick had to work to keep eye contact with Boss Man rather than try to hide his face. Were these guys familiar with that Wanted flyer? The one with his picture plastered on it?
Though it would have been immensely satisfying to take these security officers out, Derrick was realistic enough to know that he was at a huge disadvantage. The better option was to get away from them. “Can we go?”
Boss Man stared at Derrick. “You should know that the governor has instituted a dusk to dawn curfew.”
“Why?” Chris asked.
Boss Man shifted his gaze to Chris, but Derrick noticed the other security officer staring at him, studying Derrick’s face with narrowed eyes.
That couldn’t be good.
“Apparently there was some trouble north of here. At the DMV.” Boss Man frowned.
Derrick tried not to chuckle at that, schooling his expression under the scrutiny of Boss Man’s sidekick.
“What kind of trouble?” Chris asked with a straight face that impressed Derrick.
Boss Man’s frown deepened. “The kind that involves killing innocent people.”
Derrick couldn’t stop his eyebrows from shooting up. “Innocent people? Like who?” Because the only people he and Chris had killed had been people just like Boss Man and his sidekick.
“They shot a citizen who was minding his own business before turning the guns on the security officers.”
Wanting to shout That’s a lie!, Derrick clamped his mouth shut.
“That’s despicable,” Chris said. Then he glanced at the guns the men had taken off of him and Derrick. “We need to get going. Can we have our guns? I mean, we need to protect ourselves against those kinds of people.”
Boss Man shook his head. “No one’s allowed to have guns but trained security officers.” He paused. “We’ll keep the people safe.”
Derrick couldn’t believe Boss Man said that with a straight face.
“How many security officers are there?” Derrick asked the question as if he thought the State Security Officers really could protect the citizenry. In reality, he needed to know how many to watch out for.
“Not sure,” Boss Man said. He glanced at their car. “You can go. Stay out of trouble.”
Derrick was about to protest that the security officers had taken their medicine when Sidekick said, “Wait.”
Boss Man looked at the man. “What?”
“What’s up?” Boss Man asked Sidekick.
Derrick stayed where he was. He didn’t want to turn his back on these men.
“He’s one of ‘em,” Sidekick said. “From the Wanted poster.”
Boss Man’s gaze jerked to Derrick, his eyes narrowing as he looked him over. “That true? You wanted?”
Feeling like he was in an old western, Derrick shook his head. “No, sir.”
Boss Man glanced at Sidekick, then faced Derrick again. “Turn around.” Evidently he believed his buddy over Derrick.
His mind whirling with what to do, Derrick slowly began to turn.
The sound of a gunshot shattered the air as a bullet pinged the ground at Derrick’s feet.
What the hell?
Had Boss Man been ordered to shoot him on sight?
Not waiting to see, Derrick dove for the pavement, scrambling to get around the Charger and out of Boss Man’s line of fire. That’s when he heard another gunshot and then a grunt.
Glancing over his shoulder to see if Chris was hit, Derrick was confused when he saw Sidekick lying on the ground with a pool of blood spreading out around him. Derrick’s gaze went to Boss Man. He was aiming his gun at the hospital while pulling the trigger. Chris was right behind Derrick, unharmed.
Half a second later understanding dawned. Whoever had been guarding the hospital was shooting at them. Had actually hit Sidekick.
Derrick met Chris’s eyes, then he gestured with his head to Go! Chris nodded and the two of them stayed low as they moved away from the Charger, away from the gunfight.
There weren’t a lot of cars in the parking lot, but they managed to not get shot as they put distance between themselves and the gun battle. When they were a relatively safe distance away, Derrick hunkered down beside a car and looked back toward Boss Man. He’d taken cover behind the Charger and was still shooting toward a broken window from which gunshots occasionally came.
“What about the meds?” Chris asked from beside Derrick.
Derrick shook his head. “We can come back for them later.” Assuming whoever was in the hospital didn’t take them back.
Chapter 25
Derrick
Keeping an eye on the action, Derrick, with Chris by his side, worked his way away from the hospital. They’d gone a hundred yards when the gunfire abruptly ceased. Derrick stopped and looked at Chris, then spun all the way around and looked toward Boss Man. Boss Man was too far away for Derrick to see clearly, but it looked like he was lying on the ground beside the Charger rather than crouching. Was he dead?
Derrick lifted his gaze to the window of the hospital where the shots had been coming from. No one was visible, but again, it was quite a distance away. Too bad his binocs were in his pack, which was in the car.
“What do you think?” Chris asked. “Get the car and the meds?”
That would be nice, considering that was the whole point of coming to the hospital. The likelihood of finding another well-stocked pharmacy seemed pretty slim. Still, Derrick didn’t want to get shot. But always up for a challenge, he smiled at Chris. “Yeah.”
Chris grinned before they started making their way back to the Charger, careful to stay behind cover where possible.
When they were about thirty feet from the Charger, they paused. Derrick’s eyes went to Boss Man. Yep. Looked dead. Derrick raised his gaze to the broken hospital window. Still no movement. Did someone have Derrick and Chris in their sites right that second? Maybe from another window?
Scanning all the windows, Derrick watched for movement. Nothing.
Slightly nervous but determined to complete the mission they’d set out on, Derrick looked at Chris and nodded. Going from car to car, they worked their way back to the Charger. When they reached it, Derrick immediately saw a problem. The Charger had been shot up pretty good and two of the tires were flat.
They wouldn’t be taking it anywhere.
Derrick checked Boss Man while Chris checked Sidekick. Both were dead. Derrick grabbed the gun that the men had taken from him and dropped the magazine. Empty. He and Chris checked all the guns. All empty. Looked like Boss Man had used up every bullet they had with them. Even used the spare clips.
Shaking his head in annoyance, when no one shot at them, Derrick began to hope whoever was inside was either dead or out of ammo.
“Now what?” Chris asked as he crouched beside the Charger.
Squatting next to him, Derrick frowned. “Where’s the car these idiots drove?”
Chris rose a bit as he glanced around. “No idea.”
Carefully peering over the Charger, Derrick scanned the area but didn’t see any cars that screamed government. Keeping an eye on the hospital—maybe whoever had killed the security officers was getting more ammo—Derrick went to Boss Man and dug through his pockets. No keys. He checked Sidekick as well. Nothing.
“Must’ve left them in their car,” he muttered as he went back to Chris. Debating whether to search for the men’s car, which would put them in range of the sniper in the hospital, or figure something else out, Derrick sighed. “You wearing comfortable shoes?”
Chris chuckled. “Always.”
With a nod, Derrick opened the rear passenger door of the Charger, then grabbed his pack as well as Chris’s from the back seat. He handed Chris his pack, then shrugged on his own. Next, he put the boxes of meds back in the trunk for safekeeping before turning to Chris. “Ready?”
“Yep.”
Keeping low, Derrick and Chris moved as quickly as they could away from the hospital. Once Derrick thought they were out of range of the sniper, who had yet to shoot at them, he began to relax. “How far to the farm, do you think?”
Chris pursed his lips. “Maybe ten miles?”
That wasn’t too bad. If they moved quickly, they could be back to the farm in a couple of hours.
Derrick nodded. “Okay. Let’s hit it.”
They started walking at a brisk pace. The hospital was nestled in a community, so as they walked, they passed through neighborhoods. As they came to one house, they saw a man working in a front yard garden, kneeling in the dirt pulling weeds. It was the same man they’d passed when they’d driven to the hospital earlier. The man didn’t seem to notice their approach.
Wanting to let the man know they were there and that they weren’t a threat, Derrick called out, “Hello.”
The man’s head jerked up and his hand went to the gun on his hip.
Derrick threw his hands up to show he was unarmed. Chris lifted his hands as well.
The man slowly moved his hand away from his gun. “Howdy.”
Deciding to take a moment to see if the man had any useful information to share, Derrick slowed. “Nice garden.”
Smiling, the man stood. “Thanks. It’s a lot of work.”
Chuckling, Derrick nodded. “Tell me about it.”
The man tilted his head. “You a gardener?”
“I’m new to it, but yeah.”
A wry smile tilted the man’s lips. “Kind of a necessary skill nowadays.”
Derrick laughed. “That’s for sure.” After pausing a beat, Derrick said, “You run into any government types lately?”
A deep frown tugged the man’s mouth downward. “Yeah.”
Clearly, this man hadn’t had a great interaction with the government. “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”
The man walked closer to Derrick and Chris, although he stopped about eight feet away from them. “I was minding my own business, working in my yard, when these two guys pulled up in a car. I thought, okay, who are these guys? What do they want? Are they here to cause trouble? But they acted all friendly. At first.”
Caught up in the man’s story, Derrick listened intently.
“Then they started asking all kinds of questions. How many people lived in my house? Did we have food? What about guns?”
Derrick nodded. Sounde
d just like what had happened at the farm.
“I told him it was none of his damn business.” The man’s eyebrows rose. “Guess he didn’t like that answer. One of the guys reached toward his gun, but his partner shook his head, so the guy stopped.” The man glanced at his garden. “Good thing I don’t need help from the government. If I did I would be in trouble, because from what I’ve heard they won’t help unless I do something first. Like give up my guns.” He shook his head as he grimaced. “That’s something I’ll never do. Not willingly.”
Derrick liked this guy and was glad he’d stopped to chat with him. It was reassuring to know there were other people who felt the same way he did.
The man shook his head. “These government guys have let their power go to their head. No one to stop them now.”
“No one but us,” Derrick murmured.
The man nodded. “Exactly.” He paused. “I’ve heard rumors that some guys killed a few government security people.”
Derrick’s heart lurched. Circulating rumors weren’t what he’d been after when he’d taken out the security men. Still, he wanted to counteract the incorrect information with the truth. “We heard that an innocent citizen was running with some food and got shot in the back by the State guys.”
The man looked at them in surprise—and horror. “Really?”
Derrick nodded. “Yeah.”
The man shook his head.
Time to move on. “Good luck with your garden,” Derrick said, then he glanced at Chris, who evidently got the message that it was time to go, because he nodded.
“Good luck to you,” the man said, but he didn’t turn his back on Derrick and Chris as they walked away.
When they’d gone far enough that the man couldn’t overhear them, Derrick said, “How many other people feel like we do? About the government taking our guns?”
“Most people, probably.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me if the people we saw at the DMV were only there because they were desperate.”
Chris nodded. “Yeah. Although some people probably like the idea of the government taking care of them.”
Pandemic (Book 4): Insurrection Page 9
