The Remaining: Refugees (52 page)

Lee pursed his lips. “
The two men sent to kill me
knew which building we were going to use in Sanfo
rd, and set a trap for us there. A
nd then they clearly knew what route we were going to take
to get to the bunker
—which
no one
should know
.” He took a long, deep breath. “I personally believe that whoever is controlling them is someone with intimate knowledge of the operation. And that’s where Brian Tomlin comes in.”

Harper looked confused. “The guy we captured?”

Lee nodded.

“Why would he…” Harper trailed off, and Lee could see the dots connecting
in his head and revealing an unpleasant picture
. The older man’s eyes fell down to the floor and his face tensed. “Sonofabitch. That’s how you know him.”

Bus stuck his head out and opened his arms. “Am I missing something here?”

“Brian Tomlin,” Lee said quietly. “Is
Captain
Brian Tomlin. The coordinator for South Carolina.”

Bus stood frozen in place for a moment, his eyelids blinking rapidly as though he were struggling to process the information he was receiving. Gradually, his arms retreated back to his sides and his blinking slowed again.

“Well, shit,” he muttered.

Lee shifted, turning around and slowly stripping his vest from his shoulder
s and draped it
over the back of the chair where his rifle leaned and turned back to the other two men, his eyes on Harper. “That’s why I tre
ated him like I did.”

“Yeah.” Harper touched his forehead. “I see.”

“He claims to be on my side, but right now, he’s suspect number one.” Lee sat down. “And that’s my bit of news
.”

“Jesus.” Bus looked briefly overwhelmed. “I’m afraid to ask, Harper…but do you have something for me as well?”

Harper suddenly looked troubled as he was forced to switch gears from one worry to the next. “Uh…yes. It’s about Professor White and Lillington.” He
paused
. “It sounds like a group of his students went missing—well, actually, they were kidnapped.”

“Kidnapped?” Bus looked startled.

“Yeah,” Harper continued. “Five of them were out scavenging along the edges of the town and apparently a group of guys in an old panel van pulled up and ordered them all on the ground, kidnapped four of them, but one of them fought and got away. They beat the fuck out of him, though.”

Bus’s expression turned from surprise to suspicion. “Why didn’t they call this in to us?”

Harper shook his head. “White said some bullshit about not wanting to make it public. He was afraid it was going to start a rash of vigilantism.”

Bus rolled his eyes
. “That guy is unbelievable.”

“Yeah, well
…all of that to say, White’s requesting guns now.”

It was Lee’s turn to look surprised. “Guns?”

“Yeah.” Harper shoved his hands in his jacket pocket. “I thought it was weird, but then again, I guess he’s just worried about safety.
And apparently, he doesn’t want you or any of our people to get involved with trying to track down the bad guys and get the kids back. He says he’ll handle it on his own, if we give him the tools.
”

Lee supposed this would have been much more ironic in the old world, but he supposed now it was just a sad circumstance. If White and his students hadn’t been idiots and rejected the firearms he tried to give them initially to protect themselves, they would not be in this situation, and those four others would be safe inside the walls with an unpleasant war story to tell around the fire.

Lee leaned his elbows onto his knees. “
Alright
.
I guess we can give him some guns.”

Harper
crossed his arms
. “I guess that brings us to the topic of the mission.”

“Yes,” Bus said. “When are you planning on leaving?”

“T
omorrow, if possible. The day after at the latest.” Lee looked at Harper as he said this. “I plan to meet with my entire team—the volunteers as well, and make sure everyone
has everything
in order before we go. If we can leave before noon tomorrow, we’ll do it. If not, we’ll wait until the following morning. But we need to get a move on. Who knows how close those things are to crossing into North Carolina, or if they’re already here.”

Bus nodded. “Just let me know, Captain. If you need the extra day to relax…”

Lee grimaced. “That would be great, but I don’t think we have the time to relax. Every day we have to wait drives me nuts. I keep wondering how many of them are migrating south into the state, crossing that river, every day.
”

“It might not be any,” Bus pointed out. “
Jacob said he didn’t expect them to cross in the state until late this month.”

“Even if that’s the earliest they’ll make their way down here, we’re still behind the eight ball.” Lee looked up at the map on the wall. “It’s going to take time to blow those bridges and set up in Eden. And that’s all assuming tha
t Jacob’s estimation is correct
. They could be knocking on our doorstep next week, or they might all die before they even reach the
r
iver. We just don’t know.”

“I agree,” Harper looked stern. “We can’t play the odds on this o
ne. We need to assume the worst
.”

Lee stood up, favoring his ankle slightly. “I need you to gather everyone u
p after dinner. We’ll meet here
.” He looked around the room. “It’ll be tight, but it’s better than standing outside in the cold.”

“Alright. Where are you going to be?”

Lee took up his rifle. “I’m going to have a talk with Captain Tomlin.”

CHAPTER 24:
OLD FRIENDS…

It had been a decent day of scavenging for Gregg and Arnie.
They’d left in the morning when the sun was positively over the horizon and they knew the packs would be bedded down. Now as the afternoon waned into evening, they hit the road, aiming to be back at Camp Ryder before dusk.

For the last week t
hey had been working the Cedar Cove subdivision off of Highway 210. It was a few streets of approximately
eighty middle-income houses sitting on half-acre plots of land. It didn’t look like anything special, but the houses were still
curiously
full. The only
things obviously
missing were some clothes, cash, and a few family photos
, absent
from conspicuous blank spots on the walls.

Several of the houses at the front of the neighborhood had suffered from looters, back in the days when people were still grabbing big-screen TVs and video game consoles. One of them was fire-gutted, with a
collapsed roof. But the houses
nestled back into the neighborhood’s cul-de-sacs were surprisingly untouched.

Today they’d been able to clear ten of those houses, Arnie pulling guard in the front while Gregg worked each house over meticulously, dragging along an old military-surplus duffel that grew heavier with each house until it weighed so much that Gregg could hardly lift it into the hatchback of Arnie’s Geo.

When he’d first started scavenging, he would take nearly everything from a house.
But experience came with a little more discretion, and he chose to take only the items that were in high demand, and simply make mental notes of where everything else was, in case someone specifically requested those items later.

The Big Three, as he called them, were food, water, and clothing.

A close fourth was what he considered
“drug store items,” which included everything from medicines to toiletries. As a rule, to prevent him from taking up real-estate in his duffel with items that were low on the totem pole, he only took with him whatever drug store items he could fit in the pockets of his coat. Usually a couple bars of soap and some medications.

The medications were a growing priority
for
Gregg, but not the kind that Jenny and Doc Hamilton could use.
M
ore and more people were trading up pretty valuable items to get their hands on anti-depressants, pain medications, and any other mood-altering drug to make their lives in this savage landscape feel less horrible.

Gregg allocated his deepest coat pocket to those little orange bottles.

So Gregg had a methodology for scavenging these houses.

First, you had to sweep it for threats—make sure nothing was hiding in the dark closets or under beds, ready to take a chunk out of you when you had your
back turned. Then it was straight to the kitchen and pantry. Take everything that hasn’t been expired for more than a year. Off to the closets and dressers
. T
ake all the socks, and all the underwear.
Hooded sweatshirts and
micro fleece
pullovers
,
if they were size large or above.
Any pants of sufficiently sturdy construction—never touch the designer brands. Check if there are any solidly-made boots. Finish up with a trip to the bathroom for medications, first-aid supplies, and bars of soap. Before leaving, check under the bed, between the mattresses, in the nightstand, and in the closets for guns or ammunition.
If there’s a garage, take note of what’s inside so you can maybe come back through for it later. If there are cars, siphon the tanks.

So with the back of the Geo laden with a good haul of food, clothing, and even a few gallons of gasoline, they piled in with maybe an hour and a half to go before dusk and one more errand to run before returning to Camp Ryder.

Arnie drove, while Gregg stood up in the backseat with his Remington 870.

“I don’t get why Jerry gives a shit about these fuckers,” Arnie griped.

Gregg could just barely hear him over the sound of the wind rushing by his ears, but he shrugged and hollered back, “
You know how he is. Fostering goodwill and shit like that.”

“Whatever.”

That concluded the conversation.

Gregg kept an eye on the time, and the distance from the sun to the western horizon.

They arrived at Leslie-Campbell University with about 45 minutes to spare.

Gregg hopped down out of the Geo and opened the duffel up, retrieving from it several food items, along with a couple of thick blankets. He used the blankets to wrap up the canned goods and a sleeve of sandwich cookies—a little care-package for the kids in the dormitory.

Gregg resented having to give away what he’d scavenged, especially to the brats from Fuquay-Varina, but he had already told Jerry he would do it. Besides, he supposed the kids had earned a little food and some warm blankets, going through all of this bullshit on Jerry’s request. Who knew how long they would have to stay holed up in the dormitory?

They had their own motivations, of course.

Namely, complete hatred of Captain Harden.

He supposed that got them through some of the cold nights.

“You want me to come with you?” Arnie asked, still sitting in the driver’s seat.

Gregg shook his head and hauled the satchel of goods up over his shoulder. “
Nah
. Sit here and guard our shit.”

One arm holding the satchel, the other his shotgun, Gregg made for the four-story dorms to his right. The four kids from White’s group that had pretended to be kidnapped would be up on the top floor, where the infected wouldn’t wander and other scavengers or raiders generally wouldn’t venture—there just wasn’t a lot of useable loot in a college dorm.