Roger emerged on the other side and turned toward the main street. He couldn’t hope to find an Indian dealership, but he would search and find another motorcycle, turn the son of a bitch west and not stop until he was staring at ocean. The days of fantasizing about breaking away were over.
Today was the first day of the rest of his life.
Chapter 16
The aircraft was silent save for the deafening chop of the blades and whir of the engines. Each person aboard seemed lost in their own thoughts as each coped with the loss of Captain Hollis.
Hatcher nearly jumped when the pilot came across his headphones. “Mister Hatcher, command states we’re to drop you off at your desired location prior to returning to the fleet.”
Hatcher smiled to himself. He assumed his message to Colonel Vickers was received. “Captain Hollis wanted me to personally return the sample to the labs.”
“That’s understood, sir, but unless you want to make the fleet your new home, my orders are to drop you off first. They said something about wasting fuel, sir.”
Hatcher had to admit it made little sense to backtrack that far just so he could hand-deliver the case. “Understood. You have the coordinates for my compound?”
“Affirmative, sir. We’ve charted the quickest route. We can have you home in a few hours.”
“Thank you.” Hatcher leaned back, his hand brushing the aluminum case. He lifted it to his lap and turned to LaRue who was watching him like a hawk. “I guess this is yours now.” He handed the case over and she behaved as though it were the Holy Grail.
“Thank you, Mr. Hatcher.” Her smile slowly spread as she ran her hands along the surface. “This will definitely go a long way towards a cure.”
Hatcher eyed her cautiously. “Just don’t forget where we are. Once you have that cure, my people would like to get inoculated.”
She glanced up at him, her smile fading. “Oh, we have an inoculation.” She shrugged slightly, “I mean, it hasn’t been vetted yet. Not completely, but it looks promising.”
“From Bren?”
Dr. LaRue cocked her head to the side while she tried to piece together his meaning. Suddenly her eyes widened. “Oh! You mean the girl? No.” She returned her attention to the case and gingerly set it between her feet.
“So Bren wasn’t actually immune or was her blood not good to use—”
“No, we were able to extract what was needed from her blood, but it wasn’t to create a vaccine. We used it in a makeshift treatment for those already infected.”
Hatcher’s eyes grew wide. “So, you already have a treatment for the Zulus?”
She shook her head. “If we could capture each one and place them in an isolation ward and spend hundreds of man hours for one on one treatment plans, then yes. But we have to find a treatment that can be blanketed across a wide area. We need a one and done approach that can cure the most people with the least amount of risk.”
“You need a silver bullet.” Hatcher’s voice was deadpan and nearly hopeless.
She considered his words and nodded slightly. “That’s one way of putting it.” She scooted forward on her seat, her eyes probing his. “We need a vector, whether biological or environmental that can affect the biggest portion of the infected. We’re looking at reverse engineering the virus itself and changing its DNA so that it will basically undo what the original virus did.” She gave him a soft smile. “While that sounds doable, it really isn’t. That’s why we are experimenting with other delivery systems. We’re considering airborne, but even that is less likely to reach all of the infected. Perhaps water…” She seemed to lose herself in thought as other possibilities entered her mind.
Hatcher sighed heavily and leaned back in the seat. He turned to Buck. “Doesn’t sound promising, does it?”
Buck shrugged, his eyes staring out the window. “I suppose it beats no hope at all.”
Savage pulled his boots on while Stella watched him. “Are you sure it was them?”
He looked up at her as he tugged at the leather laces. “Who else could it have been?” He hooked his chin toward the window. “If it had been ragers, they would have left nothing but a few bones.”
She sat back and stared into space. “I thought they were supposed to be the good guys?” She turned red-rimmed eyes at him. “Remember the whole settle down thing?”
He nodded, his mouth drawn into a tight line as he finished lacing the boots. “I know what I said.” He stood suddenly and took a deep breath. “I just can’t believe I was fool enough to have believed that bullshit Roger spewed.”
“Who’s Roger?”
Savage waved her off as he reached for the black t-shirt and pulled it over his head. “I fell for it all, hook, line, and sinker.”
She stood and reached for his hand. He paused, his eyes scanning her still nude form. “What if it wasn’t them?” She pointed out the window. “This is a pretty big town. There could be other survivors camped out here.”
He sighed heavily and pulled her to him. “I’d like to think it was. But he told me about a grocery store that hadn’t been plucked clean yet. If there were other survivors in this area, they’d have hit it.”
She shook her head and pulled from him. “Not if they’re in a different neighborhood.” She searched his eyes, praying that her chance to settle down hadn’t been taken away before it ever started. “We can’t know who is where or…or…”
He pulled her close again and hugged her. “Alright. I’ll wait to flatten them all until I know for sure.” He looked down at the top of her head. “Better?”
She nodded sadly and pulled him down for a kiss. “Better.”
As much as it pained him to leave her, he stepped around her
