Vickers growled low in his throat, but continued stuffing his papers into the satchel. “The chopper will be here shortly.”
“As long as it’s big enough for all of us.” Candy waved her pistol at the entire crowd.
“It is.” Vickers sneered at the woman.
“Good,” Candy replied. “Because I’d hate to have to throw your ass out over the top of the mountain to save on weight.”
“Oh, my God!” Maggie breathed.
“What?” Hatcher stepped closer to see what was wrong. “Is something…” he felt his own breath catch in his throat. “Oh, my God.”
They stood at the window and watched as dozens of zombies came walking past the center. They strode right past the doors and windows and through the parking lot. From all sides of the compound they stepped out of the woods and into the clearing of the compound and began following the road out from the station and into the park.
“What the hell is going on?” Hatcher spun on Vickers.
Vickers stepped past him to the window and smiled. “It would appear that they have their…sound…thing turned on.”
Candy turned to him and stared. “What the hell are you talking about?”
Vickers ignored her as he stepped back into the office. “It’s a device that attracts the infected. Makes them docile. Eases their pain. Or, that’s what Captain Andrews claims. Attracts them like a moth to a flame.”
“Where the hell are they going?” Hatcher asked.
“I had my men take it to a clearing at the top of a rise a few miles back into the park. Up near some hot springs,” Vickers replied. “They congregate up there in one big bunch so that when the bombs come, they’re all together.”
“You ordered the bombs, didn’t you?” Hatcher asked, already knowing the answer.
“The Pentagon ordered the bombing,” Vickers lied. “I simply saw it as an opportunity to help in—”
“Bullshit!” Hatcher yelled, advancing on the man. “You did this, didn’t you?” Hatcher grabbed the thin man and went to throw him against the wall of the office, but Vickers spun, used Hatcher’s own weight against him, and threw him to the floor, using his foot against his throat to hold him there.
“Ranger,” Vickers said softly, “you can either use this opportunity to come with me and save yourself and your people, or you can stay here and die.”
Hatcher grabbed at Vickers’ ankle and tried to twist him off him, but the man was much stronger than he appeared. Vickers leaned down and reached inside Hatcher’s shirt, removing the files. He flipped them open and thumbed through them.
“As I suspected, they’re all complete.” He scowled at Hatcher as he slipped them into the satchel.
“Let him go,” Candy said quietly. She pulled the hammer back on her pistol just before she pressed it tightly against the temple of Vickers’ skull. “I’m not going to ask twice.”
Vickers lifted his foot and Hatcher rolled away, choking and gasping. “Well played.” Vickers nodded to Deputy Olson.
“You’re still a dick.” She backed up and allowed Hatcher a chance to get to his feet.
Hatcher stood, hands rubbing his throat. “You,” he coughed. “You ordered that bombing, didn’t you?”
“Would it make a difference if I had?” Vickers asked, avoiding answering. “It can’t be stopped either way.”
“I knew you were a liar.” Hatcher stepped out of the office.
“Perhaps,” Vickers called after him. “But I’m a liar that is going to save your life.”
Candy stepped away from the office door and trotted after Hatcher. “I don’t trust him.”
“Neither do I,” Hatcher replied.
Bill drove the truck toward the park, his anxiety level increasing with every mile. He kept staring at the gas gauge and praying they made it. “We’ll have to go through the concert area and all those campgrounds again, won’t we?”
“No, there’s a boat ramp turnout up ahead. You bypass all of that,” Richard said, pointing. “It goes to a deeper part of the lake with a concrete boat ramp that’s away from where all the tourists go to swim.”
Bill raised his brows and nodded. “You mean we might actually catch a break here?”
Richard shrugged. “Maybe.”
As they reached the bottom of a hill, Bill saw the sign for the boat ramp and turned down the road. The gas gauge dipped dangerously low and Richard pointed him toward another turnoff. “That’s a short cut.”
Bill turned off on it and they quickly emerged at a parking lot with a dozen or more trucks with trailers, many with boats still on them. “That’s eerie,” Bill said softly as they drove through the line of trucks.
Not a single person could be seen. More than one vehicle had a smear of something brown along the side of it that both men knew to be blood.
“Keep your eyes open,” Richard said.
Bill pulled the truck over to the loading ramp. A truck and trailer still sat in the water, the boat to be loaded or unloaded nowhere in sight. “Well, damn, I guess that would have been too easy, huh?”
“We could check the boats in the parking lot. See if any of them have keys. Maybe hook them to this and unload them in the water.”
“We’re about out of gas.”
“You got the lawnmower gas, right?”
Bill nodded, but he just wasn’t comfortable with the idea of trying to find a boat, then manually dragging the trailer over to another truck. “What about the dock?”
Richard shrugged. “It’s on the other side of the parking area.” Bill turned the truck around and they drove across the gravel to the dock area. The truck began to sputter and died just a few yards short. “Well. If there isn’t one on the dock, I guess we’ll have to use the mower gas.”
Bill stepped out of the truck and slipped his pistol into his pants. He walked to the concrete steps and peered down to the dock. He turned to Richard and gave him a thumbs-up. “There’s two of them down there. Let’s hope one of them has keys.”
The
