Vindicta, p.10
Vindicta, page 10
“Are you smelling me?” he asked, nonplussed.
“No,” she said, cringing inwardly.
He set her down for a moment at the bottom of the stairs.
“Do you want to ride in the RV or the Humvee? We’ll probably have the men laid out here, but we can make room for you if need be.”
“I’ll ride in the Humvee. I need to make sure Red doesn’t get himself killed,” she said.
Storm raised an eyebrow. “You realize that is the exact opposite of what really goes on, correct?”
“It’s not my fault that everywhere you guys go, things go wrong,” she said.
“You’re so stubborn, just like—” He shut his mouth abruptly.
He swooped her up, more traditionally this time, and carried her over to the Humvees. He set her in the seat and gave her strict orders to stay put. It was a testament to how much her leg hurt that she obeyed without protest—aloud anyway.
She wondered who Storm had been comparing her to, and why she was a smidge bit jealous of the fact. She didn’t even like him.
“Hey, Trouble. Here,” Red said. “Take these.”
“Speak for yourself. I never had so many problems until I met up with your unit.” It wasn’t technically the truth. Trouble had started the first day in the coffee shop, but she wasn’t going to remind him of that.
He passed her a bottle of pills and she looked at it. It was an anti-inflammatory. She took one, reserving the rest for people who needed it more.
“Thanks. When are we heading out?” she asked.
“Now.”
The soldiers carried the wounded into the RVs on litters made of old quilts and strung-together OCP tops on long poles. There were still nine men suffering from radiation sickness. Jen hovered over the process, looking like a zombie. She felt bad for her.
“Are they any better?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
Red gathered up the remaining gear and put it in the back. “Charlie team brought back what fuel they could find. We shouldn’t have to stop for a while. I think we can make it to our secondary rally point.”
“That’s back at Caruthersville, right? That place on the river?”
He smiled. “That place with all the fertilizer.”
She grinned. “Maybe we can take some this time.”
“If it’s still there,” he said. “Been long enough, people may be looting it.”
Harley came to the truck and got in. He had a bruising on the side of his face and his hand was bandaged. She didn’t need to ask what happened.
Storm leaned in and turned the radio on. “Radio check.”
“Lima Charlie,” Young replied, from the Humvee behind.
“Lima Charlie,” came the Charlie team leader.
Surprisingly, Bravo team and Charlie team received the transmission loud and clear. The interference before must have been atmospheric.
“What about Delta teams Humvees? she asked.
“Alpha One to Delta, how copy?”
Nothing.
“They must have received more damage. Makes sense,” Red said.
Storm left and walked back to the Delta team Humvees. The ones that had been through the hot zone.
“Is it safe for them to drive those? Isn’t there radiation all over them?”
“They wiped them down,” Red said with a shrug. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Storm came back and got in. “Move out.”
Chapter Nine
Secondary Rally Point
Kate- Past
Caruthersville and its outskirts looked the same as before.
The same cars were abandoned on the bridge, and the same trucks rested along the warehouse loading bays. When they pulled to a stop in the parking lot along the river, she felt the same uneasiness that she felt the first time they passed through.
This was the secondary rally point.
“Top, I think we should commandeer one of those trucks and as much of that fertilizer as we can carry. I can drive it,” Red offered.
“All right. Take a few men and get to it. Bravo team will pull security.”
“How long will we stay here?” she asked Storm, with furtive wary glances at the industrial lot and its multiple buildings.
“We’ll stay one full day if we can. That will give Echo team a chance to catch up.”
“I hope they don’t show up at the campground,” she worried.
“They won’t. That was only the rally point for the first forty-eight. This is the next. Then, the armory. Besides, Charlie team left a note where they can’t miss it.”
She didn’t think Echo team existed anymore, but she wasn’t going to be the first one to say it. It would be a blow to their morale to voice that particular opinion.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked.
“Coordinate with Jen. Make sure food and water are distributed and that the wounded are receiving care. I’ll be clearing the immediate area with Charlie team.”
He almost turned to leave, and his gaze flickered over to Harley who was striding away from the Humvee.
“I’m…sorry…for what happened last night I mean.” He was studying the deceptively placid-looking river.
“What? None of that was your fault!” she exclaimed.
He gave her a hard look. “I sent you looking for the lieutenant. I thought he was on the bus. You were attacked because I sent you to find him. The camp was attacked because of it.”
She grabbed his forearm and felt his muscles jump. “If it were anyone’s fault it would be mine. I shouldn’t have left the perimeter. I think it was just one of those things that was going to happen, no matter what choices we made. The LT would have come back to camp anyway, and maybe even more people would have died.”
“I could have moved us out of there sooner,” he said.
“Then we would have missed Delta team’s arrival. They would have died,” she reasoned.
He nodded and looked at his feet. “They still might.”
“We’ll do everything we can to help them, and if we can’t, then we will make them comfortable.”
She slid her hand down his arm and grabbed his fingers. He tightened them a moment around hers, studying her face intently, before releasing them and spinning around to leave.
When had she become his support, his confessor?
“Get to work, Carson,” he said harshly as if regretting allowing the small intimacy.
She smiled sadly and wondered how she could have ever thought he was a complete asshole.
He was twenty percent not an asshole, at the very least.
◆◆◆
“I think two and a half tons is enough, don’t you?” Kate said, looking at the stacks of fertilizer Red and his guys had loaded into an empty truck.
“Not nearly enough, but I’m kind of tired. Plus, we need to finish securing the area before dark,” Red said, hopping down from the back. He pulled the overhead door down but left it cracked at the bottom.
She hobbled along, keeping as much weight as she could from her calf muscle. The medication she had taken earlier in the day had worn off, and the pain was escalating. They had moved closer to the river, and the walk back from the warehouse was pretty far. She’d be damned if she was going to complain about it out loud.
Red sighed loudly and stopped. “Hop on,” he said, turning his back to her.
“Ew, no. You’re all sweaty,” she said.
“Come on. Let’s see how jealous a certain someone can get before he makes a move,” he said with a grin.
“That is a terrible idea. Even if he is jealous, which he isn’t, then he certainly wouldn’t make any kind of moves. He’s much too preoccupied. Anyway, I don’t even like him.”
“Suuuure you don’t,” Red said, and patted his shoulder.
“Fine,” she huffed. She used her good leg to push off and hopped on his back.
He took off at a slow trot across the blacktop.
“You need to eat more. My ruck weighs more than you,” he complained. “My boots weigh more than you.”
“You’re bitching because I’m not heavy enough?” she asked.
“Yes. As I said, I prefer women with more substance. I need to feed you some twinkies or something.”
“It’s never going to happen,” she said.
“Yeah, I know. You’re too much of a smartass anyway.”
Storm waved them over when he spotted them. He didn’t look jealous, but she had a hard time reading him under the best of circumstances.
“What’s up, Top?”
“We have a problem. Scott is experiencing symptoms of radiation poisoning,” Storm said.
Kate frowned. Scott had been with them since before the blast. They had traveled through the probable fallout zone, but nobody else had gotten sick…not yet anyway. She looked around their makeshift camp. The civilians, tired and dispirited, milled around in the background, resting or completing tasks.
Kate saw Jen through the RV windows. She was still caring for the sick. She needed to rest.
“Who’s Scott?” Red asked.
Kate elbowed him and shook her head in disgust. “Scott! The guy in the car wreck. You were there when he told us his name!”
“A lot of shit has happened since then!” he said.
“We need to get a handle on this. We need to find out how he was exposed. Until we do, we’re all in danger.”
So, they were battling an invisible enemy as well as freakish mutants.
Great.
◆◆◆
“Did Scott eat anything at all, or drink anything that could have been contaminated?” Storm asked.
Jen sat on the edge of the RV step as Storm questioned her. She looked pale and worn out. Her eyes were rimmed with red.
“No. He’s been getting the same food and water as the others. It’s all prepackaged, and the water is from the cans you filled at the campground,” she answered.
“That water was fine. It wouldn’t have had a chance to become contaminated yet, and radiation doesn’t go through packaging, right?” Kate asked.
“That’s what they say,” Red answered.
“What else? Has he come into contact with anything else that could have caused it?” Storm pressed.
“Nothing that I know of,” she said helplessly.
Red crossed his arms and looked at her with concern.
“Jen. Go lay down and try to sleep. I’ll take over here. You can’t keep going on like this,” Kate said.
Jen nodded, and Red led her away. Storm sighed and rubbed his mouth.
“I just don’t understand what it could be,” he said.
“Could it have drifted from somewhere else? I didn’t think we were close to any cities, but maybe they hit something near here?” she asked.
He pulled a map from the Humvee and spread it over the hood of the vehicle to show her.
“Memphis could have been hit. It’s south though, and the wind wouldn’t carry the radiation to us here.” He moved his finger to the northwest. “Springfield also could have been targeted, but still…I don’t think it would drift here, not that fast.”
“What about military targets?” she asked.
“If they were trying to stem the flow of the freaks from the cities, they wouldn’t hit military targets—and there aren’t any large bases nearby anyway,” Storm said, considering.
A horrible thought occurred to her. “But what if they did. What if they weren’t trying to stop the freaks at all?”
His face went hard, and he nodded. “An attack.”
“Eaker Air Force Base. Here.” He pointed at the town. “But it was decommissioned in the Clinton Era. It used to be a SAC weapons storage area during the Cold War.”
“But it’s all shut down now, right? Why would they target that area?”
He shrugged and studied the map again. “I don’t know if they did. We need to consider all possible angles.”
“Top!” someone shouted.
They turned and saw Red running toward them. “It’s Jen! She’s throwing up.”
Kate looked at Storm, incredulous.
What was going on?!
“Come on,” Red said, gesturing.
He led them to a small grassy place where they had set up some temporary shelters. It wasn’t much, just some ponchos and blankets held up with rope to block the sun. Jen was lying under one of these. She was on her side, heaving into the grass.
“Jen!” Kate said and dashed to the woman. She stifled a gasp of pain as her foot struck the pavement and a flash of agony knifed through her leg.
“Kate! No!” Storm said, lunging and grabbing her around the waist.
He lifted her clean off her feet and hauled her back against his chest. She pushed away and twisted awkwardly to glare at him. “What is your problem?”
“She’s contaminated. They all are. Scott, Jen, Delta team, and anyone that had contact with them,” Storm said. He didn’t release her. “The fact that more people are getting sick means that we either didn’t thoroughly decontaminate them the first time, or there is another source of exposure.” He gave her a significant look and she knew he was talking about their conversation several minutes before.
“So, we just let them lay there and not help?” Red yelled. “No fucking way.”
“Stop and listen! We need to take precautions. Make sure you don’t touch bare skin, hair, or clothing. Each person needs to be decontaminated again. We’ve got to get this under control.”
Storm’s arm was like a steel band around her stomach. It’s like he thought she would lunge for Jen anyway.
She might have, she didn’t know.
“Storm, I was around them too. I’m not sick,” she explained.
“Scott and Jen were either exposed between the time that we helped them until now, or we just didn’t receive a large enough dose to make us ill. We could be receiving that dose right now. We have to figure this out before we act because this could take us all out.”
“Scott was in the RV with them. He was too injured to travel upright. Jen was also in the RV.”
“Something in the RV?” Kate asked.
Storm brow furrowed and his jaw ticked as he considered it.
“We’ve got to ditch the RV. Probably nothing wrong with it, but we can’t clean it. The particles are probably still in there. Kate, keep an eye on them. Get them water if they need it, but don’t touch them too much and not with your bare skin.”
He let her go and went to the Humvee. “Red, let’s go find another vehicle. We need to leave as soon as possible. This area might be hot.”
They left, jogging toward the Humvee closest to the road. The other teams patrolled the area. She saw Feckley nearby and suddenly didn’t feel as secure here as she had a moment ago.
Jen groaned and held her stomach. Kate wanted to pat her on the back or soothe her somehow, but she didn’t know what she could do that didn’t involve physical contact.
“Can I get you anything? Water?” she said in a low voice.
“No. I just want to rest,” Jen said.
Kate left a cup of water nearby for her and went to check on the others. They were doing no better. A few had developed fevers, and she gingerly put cool cloths on their heads. There wasn’t much else she could do besides make sure they had water.
The nine soldiers—plus Scott and Jen— made eleven cases of radiation sickness. There was the one bad case— the soldier that had died— and she suspected that he must have gotten a severe dose somehow or been affected by it more than the others.
She wracked her brain to find an answer but came up with nothing.
A croak from one of the men had her scrambling over. He struggled to sit up.
“Please rest,” she urged. “Do you need some water?”
He nodded and she looked around. His water was nearby, but she needed to help him sit up, and to do that, she needed something to cover her skin.
She shoved to her feet and limped over to her bag. She hadn’t packed many things. Most of her stuff from her house was left behind at the armory, but she did have one long-sleeve button-down. She pulled it on and buttoned it up.
The heat was sweltering, but the blanket overhead provided some shade from the sun’s direct rays. She pulled her hands into the sleeves and slid an arm behind the man’s back. He drank sips of water and then looked at her.
“The dose is cumulative,” he murmured tiredly.
“Yes, I remember reading that,” she said.
“Prentiss worked a long time down at the Pantex plant in Texas.” He gritted his teeth and winced.
“What’s that?” She sat back and frowned.
“That’s where they dismantle nuclear weapons.”
“Prentiss was the one who died?” she asked gently.
He nodded.
“Maybe that’s why he had it worse than you guys,” she said, thinking.
“I think so.”
Years of radiation exposure, even low levels, might have caused enough damage that he couldn’t recover from the sudden higher exposure. She would tell Storm.
“I’m tired,” he said several moments later.
“Go to sleep. I’ll be right here,” she said.
She checked on the others and made sure Jen was as comfortable as she could be under the circumstances. The soldier’s information solved one part of the puzzle, but the bigger mystery remained.
What was causing the new cases?
Chapter Ten
Intelligence
Kate- Past
Kate snapped awake when she heard a large diesel engine roaring toward the camp.
The sick soldiers who were well enough raised their heads toward the noise, and some even attempted to reach for their weapons.
She snagged the rifle that laid near her leg and lurched unsteadily toward the corner of a Humvee. She used it for cover as the sound drew nearer. Her leg was stiff and aching from sitting so long.
