Hatcher opened his mouth to say something when the sentry announced on the radio: “Headlights approaching!”
“That had better be them.” Hatcher stepped toward the main gates and stared down the road with binoculars. “It’s the truck. Open the outer gates.”
“Shouldn’t we be certain it’s our guys and not somebody else?” Roger asked.
Hatcher gave him a look that he couldn’t read. “It’s either our boys or somebody who can drive that knows we’re here. Either way, I doubt seriously it’s a truck load of Zulus.”
The pair stood aside as Wally pulled the pickup into the main gates and parked outside the adobe wall. The sentries shut the chain link outer gates as Hank and Wally hopped out of the truck. “I think we did good, Hatch.” Wally dropped the tailgate; the bed was filled with boxes.
“What’s this?” Roger asked as he stepped closer.
Hank hopped up onto the tailgate and smiled. “The first couple of places we hit were stripped. We were about to give up when Wally sees the CVS sign.”
Wally nodded. “They’d been pretty much cleaned out too.” He grinned at Hank. “Except for the back. There was still a delivery truck parked behind the place and there were all these boxes of supplies just stacked in the rear.”
“We grabbed it all.” Hank slapped the side of a box. “Everything from bandages to prescription meds. We weren’t sure what all Vic might need in the future so we snagged all of it.”
Hatcher felt a weight lift from his shoulders as he whistled to a couple of the yard laborers. “Grab dollies and get this stuff to Vicky.”
“I think you boys earned a few brownie points tonight.” Roger clapped Wally on the back. “But why didn’t you let us know that you were okay? You know how he worries once the sun is down.”
Hank held his radio up. “I think the battery is shit on this unit. It said fully charged when I pulled it from the charging stand but it died just a half hour later.”
Hatcher took the radio and inspected it. “I’ll see if Will can replace the battery pack in it.” He looked back up at Hank. “You should have returned and got another radio.”
“Yeah, but we were on the other side of town.” He glanced to Wally. “Besides, if we’d come back, odds are we wouldn’t have seen the CVS.”
Hatcher sighed heavily and motioned the men inside. “Go and eat. I had the lunch ladies save your supper.”
Roger tried to read the labels on the boxes as they were stacked onto dollies. “Lots of common stuff here. I hope Vic gets what she needs.”
“If not, we’ll know soon enough.” Hatcher fell into step behind the dollies. “Do me a favor and spread the word with the sentries that we had a radio die and it could be the batteries. Have them do a radio check every half hour just to make sure we keep our communications open.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Roger stepped away. “Do you really think they’ll try again so soon?”
Hatcher held the door open to the nurse’s station. “I have no idea. But when something is starving, they get desperate. I’d rather be prepared for when it does happen.”
“Copy that.”
Carol peered through the window of the concrete and brick building, her flashlight illuminating the interior. “And this room looks empty too.”
“I don’t like this,” Broussard whispered. “This is a large campus that undoubtedly had a lot of people. If they were turned and stayed here…”
“I know. They could be anywhere.” She flicked off the flashlight and bent closer, lowering her voice. “But what other options do we have? Sleep in the car?”
Broussard stared at the little car and sighed heavily. “We have no good choice here.”
“I may be wrong, but I think we would be safer barricading ourselves into one of the labs inside. If that’s not feasible, then we make use of one of the classrooms on a higher floor. We just have to find someplace where they can’t get to us if they do show.”
Broussard reached over her and tried to open the window. “Locked.” He slid back down next to her. “I really don’t like the idea of going through a doorway.”
“Especially one that is standing open.” Carol rubbed at her jaw as she thought. “I suppose we could break a window and climb through.”
Broussard shivered at the thought. “The noise would attract anything close. We’d have no way of hiding our entry or securing it.”
She stared into the inky night sky and wished there was an easy answer. “We just have to decide. Either risk sneaking through a main entry or breaking in through a window.” She studied his face in the pale moonlight. “If we break the window and hurry, we could lock the classroom door behind us and rush upstairs as quickly as we can. Seal ourselves in a room where we can effectively stop an attack.”
“And if we can’t find such a room?”
She shook her head slowly. “Have faith, Andre.”
“What then, Dr. Chaplain? We have no power. We can’t be certain that the laboratories are intact.”
“We check the labs at first light. If we find what we need, we can go into town and scavenge a generator. Put it on the roof and run an extension cord down the wall and through a window.” She smiled at him. “We can do this.”
He nodded slowly and began to pull his jacket off. “Stand clear.” He wrapped the jacket around his arm and stepped to the side. With a wide swing he beat his arm against the window.
Both were surprised when it bounced off, the glass intact.
Carol stepped closer and ran her finger along the outside of the pane. “It just looks like glass.” She turned to him. “Could it be hardened?”
He gave her a shrug and bent low, looking for a stone. Along the edge of the sidewalk was
