“And this is the man left in charge of the entire Center for Disease Control?” he quietly asked Carol.
She gave him a slow shrug. “I suppose beggars can’t be choosy?”
They continued their tour of the facility and Higgins seemed almost giddy as he pointed out each piece of equipment. “And if you’ll follow me into this antechamber, this is where we kept the test subjects.”
Broussard balked and gave the man a wide eyed look. “Do you still have infected people onsite?”
Higgins paused and gave him a confused look. “Oh, no. No, no, no…they all were…‘retired’ once their usefulness was over.”
“You killed them?” Carol asked, though it sounded more like a statement.
Higgins paused, taking a deep breath. “Well, they were really no longer useful. And besides, your cure handed us an opportunity.”
“To do what, exactly?” Broussard asked, his anger beginning to rise.
“To start with a clean slate,” Higgins stated proudly.
“Wait, so you had infected here but rather than expose them to the cure, you simply ‘retired' them?” Carol’s voice raised nearly an octave as she spoke.
“No, certainly not,” Higgins replied. “We disposed of them weeks before your cure was disseminated amongst the population.” He adjusted his glasses and gave her a false smile. “Actually, we ran out of ideas on how to treat them, and rather than let them starve, we…disposed of them.”
Broussard groaned inwardly and looked at Carol. “What exactly are we doing here?” He wiped a hand across his face and sighed heavily. He turned back to the group. “You’ve shown us all of your toys and resources. Now will you please explain why we’ve come here?” He narrowed his eyes on Higgins. “We could have simply sent you our research and data.”
Higgins cleared his throat nervously and stepped forward. “Yes, about that.” He glanced back at his team and they all seemed to grow anxious. “We needed you here. Personally.”
“As you’ve stated.” Broussard had to fight to keep his voice neutral. “But the million dollar question is, ‘why?’”
Higgins swallowed hard and gave them a curt nod. “We need your expertise.”
“For?” Broussard was growing weary of the games.
Higgins’ face flushed red and his forehead seemed to pop into a sweat. “We have a…‘problem’ that we think you can assist us with.”
Broussard felt the veins in his neck swell. “What. Is. The. PROBLEM?”
Higgins gave him another weak smile. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you.” He turned and began to march towards another section of the underground facility.
Broussard took a deep breath and turned to Carol. “If we don’t get an answer soon, I think I’m going to choke him.”
She patted his arm. “Easy now, big guy.” She fell into step behind the CDC personnel. “You’ll have to wait in line behind me.”
Simon felt the sweat run down his back as he watched the three men walk around outside. He lifted the rifle to his eye and peered through the scope. “Oh no…” he groaned as Hatcher came into focus. “I know that asshole.”
Lana paced, nervously biting at her thumbnail. “Let me guess…”
Simon lowered the rifle and sighed. “He’s the leader of the cagers.”
“Great!” she moaned. “We need to make a break for it.”
Simon slowly shook his head. “We need to buy time.” He turned and sat in the floor under the living room window. “We can lay low, lock the place down and hope they go away.”
Lana gave him that look and he winced. “Do you really think they’ll just go away? Apparently they aren’t just going house to house looking for supplies.”
“Obviously.” He beat his head softly against the barrel of the rifle. “But they didn’t bring anything with them either so maybe they’re just scoping the place.” He looked up at her and gave her an apologetic grin. “I did sort of torch their place. Maybe they’re looking for new digs?”
“And they just happened to choose this place? Where we are? Heaven?” She huffed and glared towards the window. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, we chose it for a reason. It is defendable.”
“How does this help us?” Lana groaned as she fell into the chair. “So they’re looking for a new place to call home. I doubt they’ll want to start a neighborhood watch with us.”
“So maybe I take a few pot shots at them?” He shrugged slowly. “I can make sure I miss…just get close enough to scare them off.”
Lana lowered her head as a wave of nausea hit her. “Are you sure there’s only three?”
Simon nodded. “That’s all I’ve seen.”
She looked up and swallowed down the bile rising in her throat. “Two against three isn’t terrible odds. Especially since they don’t know we’re here.”
Simon’s eyes widened. “Kill them?” He studied her face, hoping to read more of her intentions. “When they don’t return, more will come looking, I know it.”
“But it will give us plenty of time to haul ass out of here.” She felt her breath catch in her throat. “If they’re as evil as you said—”
“I didn’t actually say they were evil,” Simon interrupted. “I just said that they wanted me dead.”
“Doesn’t matter. Either way, they can’t hurt us if they’re dead first.”
He nodded slowly and came to his knees. He pulled the curtain aside and propped the rifle on the sill. “I still think we should just scare them away. Buy time.”
“We buy more time if they’re not breathing.” Lana came out of the chair and stood behind him. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I know you keep saying that you’re not that guy anymore, but…we need you to be.” She looked down at him and shook her head. “Or we’re both dead.”
31
Hatcher placed his hands atop the adobe wall and hopped, pulling himself up to look over the edge and into the river gravel yard of the property. “Oh yeah.” He dropped to the ground and smirked at Buck. “Rock garden. No mowing.”
Buck snickered. “Like anybody in our group
