The Remaining: Refugees (16 page)

"Keep going," Lee said steadily.

The kneeling
man looked at the sentry.
"
I had to kill two of them to get here,” he said
, but did not elaborate
.

As the sentry extracted the crowbar and knife, Lee stepped closer to the man. "You can stand up now. What happened?"

The man
reached out for Lee
as he drew closer and
his eyes were sharp and dark as obsidian,
chipped to some primitive arrowhead
. "Please! We don't have
time…t
hey're in the truck! They're in the back of the truck, and they're surrounded!"

"
S
low down." Lee helped the man to his feet. "
Explain.
"

The man's eyes
flashed back and forth.
"They tracked us, the crazies. We ran from our camp and we made it to this big truck and we hid in the back, but they tracked us down." The man breathed rapidly and pointed out into the dark dirt road that led away from Camp Ryder. "I was able to fight my way out and run to you guys. Please, you gotta help!"

"
Where’s the
truck?"

"It's maybe a mile from the end of this dirt road. I...I don't know." The man made a miserable noise and his hand went to his head and raked through his hair. "It's dark. I was disoriented."

The sentry leaned into Lee. "There's an overturned tractor trailer out on Highway 27, near Outpost Benson."

Lee took the man by the shoulder to get his attention. "Are you talking about infected?"

"Yes, the crazy people!"

"Not real people with guns?"

"No...the ones that try to eat you."

"How many of them were there?" Lee asked.

"I don't know. Maybe ten? I killed a few. Or maybe I just wounded them." He began to breathe
heavily
again. "Shit, I don't
know…
"

"Alright, calm down." Lee turned and saw Harper jogging towards them down the dark
Main Street
of Camp Ryder. He held his rifle in one hand and was in the process of pulling on his
parka
with the other. Lee looked over to the Humvee, parked just a few yards from them. He didn't want to just rush out into the darkness. He didn't know this guy, didn't know his family, didn't know wha
t the threat was. Was it a pack? W
as it a horde?
How many were there? Ten
? Fifty? A hundred?

Maybe there was no infected at all.

Maybe this was just a trap to draw Lee and his team out of Camp Ryder.

But a decision had to be made.

"Alright," Lee said with finality. As Harper pulled up next to him, breathing hard and rubbing sleep from his eyes, Lee pointed to the Humvee. "Get that thing ready to roll. We're headin' out as soon as the others get here."

"
Okay,” the man slapped his hands together. “But we gotta go fast!”

Lee looked at him, tight-lipped. "We'll go as fast as we can safely go."

"Uh, Lee..." Harper said quietly.

The two men made eye-contact.

Harper jerked his head over towards the Humvee.

Lee stepped to the side with Harper, already knowing what was coming.

"What the fuck is this about?"

"Look, his wife and kids are trapped in the back of a truck. Surrounded by infected. It's the guy from the road earlier."

Harper peered over Lee's shoulder at the man, as though to confirm that it was the same person that had run away frightened when
Jim
had tried to make contact with him only hours ago. "It doesn't matter. Are you thinking clearly right now?"

Lee rubbed his hands together for warmth. "Yes, I'm thinking clearly. The guy's been banging and yelling at our gate for the last five minutes. If we refuse, he's going to keep freaking out at our gate and draw infected in and we'll have to fight them anyway. At least this way, we can keep the guy quiet and maybe save his family."

Harper made a leery face. "I dunno..."

"
Me neither. But it’s happening
." Lee opened the driver's door and waved Harper in like a chauffeur.

Harper growled but complied.

CHAPTER 7:
STRANGERS

As the Humvee rumbled to life, Julia, LaRouche and Father Jim all came jogging up, rifles in hand. Lee pointed to the bearded man in the rags and waved him over. To save time and arguments, Lee wanted the man standing there when he told the group what they were doing.

Jim
stared, perplexed. “Hey…is that the guy…
?"

Lee nodded towards the bearded man. "This guy
’
s wife and two little kids are stuck in the back of a truck about a mile from here. Pack of infected around them. We're going to go bring them back."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

Julia broke it. "Is he coming with us?"

Lee nodded. "He's gotta point out where he's talking about." Lee turned and
faced
the stranger with
a hard look
. "
And I swear to God, if this turns out to be anything but what you say it is, I will put a bullet
in your brain
. You understand me?
"

The man held up his hands, but looked angry. "Jesus! Fuck! Let's go! I swear to God, it's not like that!"

Julia looked pissed. "Alright. Get in the damn truck. Let's go."

The tired crew scrambled aboard the vehicle, the bearded man sitting in Father Jim's normal spot, with Jim
crammed
in the cargo area and Julia regarding the filthy, stinking man that took his place with a scowl and a curled nose. The man didn't seem to notice. He was on the edge of his seat, poking his head between Harper and Lee
and staring anxiously out the windshield
.

The Humvee spewed gravel as it lurched out of Camp Ryder and into the darkness. They kept the headlights off because the moon gave enough illumination to see by, and all their eyes were adjusted to the dark.

"Take it out to Highway 27 and make a right." Lee turned partially to face the man. "What's your name, stranger?"

"What?"
T
he man looked at Lee
as though
he
had spoken a foreign language. It took him a moment
to under
stand the question. "Oh. Eddie…
Ramirez."

"Where are you from?"

"From Winston." The man's voice grew
heavy
. "We were headed to the coast. Heard things weren't as bad there."

"Things are bad everywhere," Harper griped.

"What did you do for a living?" Lee asked.

"Diesel mechanic."

Lee and Harper exchanged a quick glance. Any type of mechanic could have proven themselves incredibly useful, but a diesel mechanic in particular seemed to be a rare stroke of good luck. Between the tractor that trailed their tanker of diesel fuel, the diesel generators
that kept the hospital running
in Smithfield, and the Humvees, a diesel mechanic was only rivaled by a doctor in terms of
immediate
value.

The
rescue mission had just quickly gone from an act of kindness to an absolute imperative: if they failed to rescue this man's family, it was doubtful that he would help them with anything.

Everyone in the Humvee realized this without Lee having to spell it out.

They all hunkered down a little more seriously over their rifles.

They reached Highway 27 and Eddie leaned forward even further and thrust his hand
out
. "Turn here! Turn right! It's less than a mile from this turn!"

As Harper made the turn, Lee twisted and looked at his crew behind him. "Everyone, check your weapons. Make sure you're locked at loaded. We're gonna do this fast. Take out the threat, pull Eddie's wife and kids out of the truck, and then we're fucking gone, okay? Remember that they're inside the truck, so watch your backdrop. Those bullets will punch straight through that sheet metal."

Everyone nodded silently.

Eddie looked terrified.

"Hey," Lee grabbed the man by the shoulder. "Don't fucking move until I say so. You got that?
Do not. Get out. Of the car
."

"Yeah. Don't get out."

"That's it right there," Harper slowed the Humvee.

Up ahead, the bulk of an overturned tractor trailer and a pileup of cars around it gleamed like bleached bones in the moonlight. Some sort of mechanical elephant graveyard.

Harper came to a stop in the road. "I don't see
any infected
."

"Keep an eye out," Lee called. "360-degrees."

Eddie began jabbing his finger in the air. "They're right there! They're right there!"

Lee thought about smacking him, but restrained himself. "Calm down. Where are the infected?"

"I don't know!" Eddie was breathing rapidly. "You gotta go get
my family
!"

Lee leaned forward in his seat. The tractor trailer was lying parallel to the roadway, the dark windshield staring straight up the asphalt at Lee, the tires oriented towards the shoulder so that they were looking at the top of the rig. It was there, just beyond the front bumper that Lee could see something odd.

He pointed. "Hey, Harper...you see that?"

Harper squinted his eyes. "Yeah. Steam."

"
Breath
," Lee said quietly.

Just behind the cab, Lee and Harper could see the faint rising clouds of steam coming from something huffing its hot
lungfuls
into the frosty night air. They billowed out from behind the bumper with force and then drifted lazily up into the air where they dissipated into blackness.

"We should..." Lee began, but was interrupted by the sound of the door behind him opening.

"Hey!" Julia shouted.

Lee turned in his seat to find that Eddie was no longer behind him, but had bailed from the vehicle and was now running
for
the back end of the trailer. Almost in the same instant that Lee comprehended what had happened, a wiry shape lurched from around the tractor trailer, scrambling on all fours, then
coming
upright
into a full sprint
.

"Shit!" was all Lee could get out. He threw open his door and stepped out, not feeling the pain in his ankle, though he could feel the wobbling weakness in it. He ran forward about three steps and then planted his feet wide and pulled the rifle snug into his shoulder. As he sighted through the Aimpoint scope, he realized there was nothing there. He'd either forgot to turn the damn thing on, or the batteries had finally crapped out.

Lee lowered the rifle for the slimmest of seconds, and gained himself the whole panorama of what was happening, fighting against
tunnel vision
.