“That’s enough, my son.” The older man’s voice was low and gentle. “Stand now and be received into the Lord’s army.”
20
Hatcher enjoyed the cool wind in his hair as the truck pushed its way south toward home. With the music a little too loud, Rich leaned against the passenger door and watched the abandoned cars zip by.
“Is it much further?”
Hatcher turned and gave him a questioning look. He quickly turned down the music. “Say again?”
“How much further?”
Hatcher glanced at the clock. “It will be close to dark before we get there.”
Rich groaned as he leaned back in the seat. “Can we listen to something other than Boston?”
Hatcher laughed as he turned the stereo off. “Sorry, Rich. Boston is my go-to for road music.”
“Mine was Van Halen.” He sat up and turned to Hatcher. “So, Dan. Tell me about your camp.”
“Well, it’s not really a camp. We took over a subdivision and—”
“Wait a second. You’re inside the city limits?” Rich asked incredulously.
Hatcher nodded. “Oh, yeah. We’re close to everything—but still on the edge.”
“Why?” He stared at him, wide-eyed.
“What do you mean, why?” Hatcher was genuinely confused.
“What about the infected?”
He broke into a grin and nodded. “Ah. Most, if not all, are cured now. Besides, where we are, we can defend ourselves.” He turned his eyes back to the road. “We started out in a big warehouse. Tall fences kept us safe…until it didn’t. Then we moved to a retirement home with thick adobe walls surrounding it.”
“I thought you said you were in a subdivision.”
Hatcher nodded. “We are. We were in the middle of moving to it when I decided to go look for my friend.”
“So you’ve moved three times in the last…what? Six months?”
“Something like that.” Hatcher sighed and leaned back in his seat. “We were attacked by the biker group that I told you about at the warehouse. While searching for supplies, we ran across the old folks’ home.” He shook his head as he glanced at Rich. “It was secure enough and nice enough, but people needed to stretch their legs a bit. They needed more room. So, once the cure was in the air, we started looking for a place where we could all be close, safe and secure, but still have our own space, ya know?”
Rich shook his head slowly. “So you must be in a pretty small town.”
Hatcher chuckled. “Not really. I’d say Rio Rancho had over a hundred thousand souls before this all started. We’re just north of Albuquerque.”
“Christ,” Rich swore under his breath. “And you aren’t being overrun?”
Hatcher shrugged. “I think a lot of them starved out. After the first few months, the survivors were definitely outnumbered, probably a thousand to one. But the infected just started dwindling down in numbers.” His voice took on a sad note as he continued. “The cure was just…too little, too late.”
“No offense, man, but I can’t figure out if you’re brave or stupid.”
Hatcher smiled. “Probably a bit of both.”
Rich sat back and stared at nothing. “Right after people started changing…we couldn’t find a safe place. I watched a lot of friends die trying to defend their homes.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “There were just too many of them.” He sat up and turned to Hatcher. “They’d swarm, man. Like a pack of wild hyenas on a wounded rabbit. It was obscene the way they’d…” He swallowed hard and turned away.
“I take it you got a firsthand look.”
Rich nodded slowly. “I lived across the street from this guy. Somehow they figured out that there was somebody home.”
“Your friend couldn’t get away?”
Rich shook his head. “Once they thought somebody was there, they dove head first through the windows, smashed in the door.” He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I watched him jump from a second floor window and they swarmed him before he even stopped rolling in the grass.” His voice grew low and quiet. “It took everything I had not to open fire on them…there was just too many.”
“I’m sorry.”
Rich shook his head. “They would have found us if I’d tried anything.” He sighed heavily and tried to shake the images out of his head. “Anyway, the next morning we humped out what we could carry and headed for the woods. Left everything else behind.”
“And that’s where you ran into Willie and his group?”
Rich smiled and shook his head. “Actually, no. We set up a tent with a couple of other folks. We all shared what little we had. We figured we could sneak around and get more, so it wasn’t a big issue.” He broke into a genuine grin. “One day while scavenging the woods, we ran into the campground and figured that wooden walls were better than a tent. We set up camp, and people just started wandering in over the next few months. Willie and his friends were some of the last to show.”
“He said you were his right-hand guy.”
Rich nodded. “Yeah, Willie is definitely the leader of the pack. He’s just got the smarts for it. We became friends right away.”
“And Larry?”
“Good guy. Real smart.” Rich gave him a lopsided grin. “Book smarts, not much common sense.”
“I know the type.” Hatcher slowed the truck and drove over the median to avoid a pile up. “What about since the cure was released?”
“We didn’t know it was a cure.” Rick sighed and leaned his head back on the seat. “We just thought a bug shot through the camp.”
“You haven’t seen any of the infected since then?”
He slowly shook his head. “Nope. We’ve been lucky. We’re a good distance from the city so…” His voice trailed off. He turned to Hatcher and cleared his throat. “So, you’re sure this is a cure going around?”
Hatcher nodded. “Seen it myself. Couple of times.”
“I’ll be damned.” Rich smiled softly and stared out the window again. “I wonder if we’ll ever get back to the way things were?”
Daniel gave him a
