“You’re taking too long.”
Hatcher nearly jumped out of his skin. He spun, rifle ready, to face Buck. “What the hell are you doing following me out here?”
Buck ginned as he walked past him. “You need help.”
“Do not.” Hatcher stepped out from behind the safety of the wall and trotted to catch up to the young man. “You shouldn’t be out here.”
“And neither should you.” Buck paused and bent low, his fingers tracing a blood splatter. “He’s bleeding out.”
“How can you tell that?” Hatcher squatted next to the trail and tried to see what looked different.
“The blood is thinner. See how it splatters more like water? His body is desperate to keep his heart pumping and it’s drawing water from his internals.” Buck sighed as he slowly came to his feet. “If he doesn’t hydrate and stench that wound, he’ll be dead before he gets wherever he’s going.”
Hatcher couldn’t hold back the smile. “Serves the fucker right.” He looked to Buck and his face twisted. “How do you know who I’m tracking?”
Buck snorted as he began walking again. “Simon is the only infected that you’d go out of your way to track down.” He paused and looked at another line of droplets. “He changed directions here.”
“You’re sure?”
Buck nodded as he took off at a trot again. “One of the guards said that Big Mike spotted Simon leading this attack.” He gave Hatcher a sorrowful stare. “I’m sorry I didn’t sink a bullet in his head that night. I really thought he was dead.”
“He’s a cockroach, kid.” Hatcher grabbed his shoulder to slow his approach. “Let’s not rush into this though. I appreciate the company, but I really don’t need help tracking him.”
Buck gave him a condescending look. “Of course you do.” He turned and pointed to the grocery store across the block. “They’re in there.”
“How do you know?”
Buck pointed to the front doors. “You might need binoculars.” He crossed his arms and waited while Hatcher focused.
“What am I looking for?”
“See that brown smear across the door glass? That’s where he went.”
“How the hell did you see that without these?”
Buck tapped the side of his temple. “Good eyes.” He trotted to the corner opposite the parking lot and squinted in the midday sun. “He’s not alone.”
“Now how can you possibly know that?”
“The trash in the front. Too much for one man.”
Hatcher grunted as he stepped into the shadows. “That could be from looters.”
Buck shook his head. “Look around. All of the trash from looting has been blown into roadways, nooks, crannies…or carried off by birds. That’s fresh.” He glanced back at the store then shrugged. “Fresh-ish.”
“So.” Hatcher wiped the sweat from his brow then peered through the limbs of the bush shadowing them. “He’s learned to eat something other than living flesh.”
“It would appear so. Which is why the Zulus we faced last night were able to keep the fight going so long. They’ve learned, too.”
Hatcher groaned as he pushed away from the bush. “We need a look inside.”
Buck nodded. “It is daylight out.”
Hatcher shook his head. “That’s not their limiting factor any longer.” He caught the surprised look on Buck’s face then told him the story of the woman that he and Roger met. “When she flipped out, she flipped out in a major way.”
“Great.” Buck sighed as he stared at the grocery store. “The only other option is an approach from the rear. Try to make our way closer to the front. Listen for movement or…something.”
Hatcher stepped away from the bush and towards an alley. “Looks like we’re taking the long way around.” He paused and pointed a finger at him. “I still don’t like you being out here.”
“Better to have backup and not need it.” Buck patted his shoulder and gave him a patronizing smile. “Besides, I’m younger and faster. If they chase us, I don’t have to outrun them. Only you.”
Carol withdrew the needle from Kelly’s arm and pressed a cotton ball to the puncture. “I really appreciate your letting me take some blood.”
Kelly shrugged. “It seemed the least I could do. After all, you’re feeding me; I’m clean and dressed for the first time in…I don’t know how long.”
“I would have done that anyway,” Carol replied absently as she placed a few drops onto a slide then injected the rest into a test tube. “I just want to get a look at this before I start separating the viral load and sequencing the proteins.”
“Right.” Kelly gave her a confused look. “You don’t have to explain everything you know. I wasn’t a science geek.”
“But you were going to school here, right?”
Kelly nodded, not realizing that Carol’s attention was elsewhere. “I thought I wanted to be a Poli-Sci major, but after my first government class, I knew that wasn’t gonna pan out.” She huffed as she sat on the stool opposite her. “When the world went to hell, I was just a Liberal Arts major.”
“Not everybody knows what they want to be when they grow up.” Carol finished staining the sample and dropped a cover plate over the slide. She glanced up at Kelly and grinned. “I thought I wanted to teach.” She rolled her eyes.
“Instead you became a doctor and saved the whole world.”
Carol shook her head. “Actually, I just assisted the man who did it.” She adjusted the microscope and peered through the ocular. “He was a geneticist from France. Flown here just to…” She trailed off, her face going pale. “This doesn’t look right.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
Carol shook her head. “No, you didn’t do anything.” She sat back and rubbed at her neck. “I think I must have done something wrong.”
“What is it? What are you seeing?”
Carol jotted a quick note in her lab book then turned for the blood sample. “It’s not what I’m seeing, it’s what I’m not seeing.” She quickly removed part of the sample with a pipette and turned to her equipment. “I need to separate the blood from the serum then
