Down (16 page)

She sneaked over to the second camp, hoping that would be better.

While the camp was also lit, the illumination came not from a lamp but a television monitor. Sitting in front of the screen was a man in not nearly as good shape as the other guy. Behind him a woman sat on a box. She was smaller, the wiry type. More of a problem than the man, but Reni felt a good right to the jaw would silence any fight the woman might have in her.

Individually, she could handle either of these two, but together one would raise the alarm while Reni was still taking care of the first.

She was still trying to figure out what to do when the man leaned toward the screen and said, “Do you see that?”

The woman looked over his shoulder. “What is that?”

“Trucks, I think.”

“Which way are we looking?”

“The highway north of us.”

“Is it them?”

“I don’t know.”

The man picked up a radio and communicated the information to someone on the other end. The other camp? She thought it likely, but the trees blocked the first guy from view and it was too far to hear anything from her position.

The important thing, though, was that the man had revealed vehicles were heading this way, headlights off. To Reni that meant only one thing: the Project had figured out something was wrong here and sent reinforcements. If she could get to the road and meet them before—

The woman rose to her feet and leaned over the man, momentarily blocking him from Reni’s view. When she straightened up, the two exchanged a few quiet words and then the woman walked off, leaving the man alone.

Reni carefully circled around to make sure the woman had left and not just stepped away for a moment. When she was certain, she crept closer to the camp. The man was so focused on the monitor that he was completely unaware of her approach.

She made it to within two yards of his back before he suddenly stiffened, as if listening. As he started to turn, she smacked the butt of her rifle into the side of his head.

He fell off his chair, dazed, so she hit him again. This time, his eyes closed. She checked his pulse. Not dead, but definitely out cold.

After tying him up with some of his wires, she grabbed his radio and did a quick search for a sat phone. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to have one. The radio was better than nothing, though. At least she could listen in on what the others were planning. She stuffed the device into her pocket, took a moment to get her bearings, and then headed northwest to where the highway entered the town.

__________

“A
LL RIGHT,” ASH
told Blake over the radio. “Stand by. They’ll be there soon.”

Harden had finally been able to string a portable antenna up through the shaft and into the hut so they could get a signal inside the Dream Sky control room.

Ash handed the radio back to Harden and turned to Chloe and Powell. “So?” he asked.

“Not a surprise,” Chloe said. “We knew someone would eventually show up.”

Powell nodded.

“I was really hoping we were wrong,” Ash said. He thought for a moment. “Okay, here’s what I’d like to do. Chloe, take about half your team back up the emergency tunnel and guard the entrance in case they try to come that way.”

“Okay.”

Ash looked at Powell “The rest of Chloe’s team will help you guard this entrance, and I’ll take mine out to help Blake. If things go right, our new guests will never make it this far.”

“
If
things go right,” Chloe said.

“I appreciate the optimism.”

“Just trying to keep it real.”

He smiled. Though there was still a distant look in her eyes, Chloe seemed to be coming back around.

“We should get moving,” he said.

Unexpectedly, Chloe hugged him. “I’m, uh, I’m…” She pulled away and shook her head. “Try not to get killed, okay?”

__________

A
CCORDING TO A
map of the area, the highway the vehicles were on dumped into Everton near the northwest corner. Ash assumed if the occupants suspected something was wrong here—and why would they come if they didn’t?—they were likely to stop somewhere short of town and work their way through the woods to the north so they could sneak up on the base.

Sticking to plowed streets, he and his team jogged through the predawn darkness until they reached the point where they had to leave the road and slog through the snow. Once they were under the cover of the trees, the depth of the snow reduced dramatically and they were able to pick up speed again.

When they reached the base of the hill, Ash signaled for everyone to get down and then whispered, “Sealy, you’re with me. The rest of you wait here while we scout ahead.”

After reaching the top of the hill, they looked out toward the highway, but their angle was bad so they couldn’t see the road. Ash spotted a shallow pass that ran through the hills just to the north.

“They’ll probably try to go through there. I want to check the road. While I do, get the others into position near the pass. Hopefully we can stop them there.”

“Got it.”

Ash waited until Sealy left, then he climbed over the crest and headed down the other side.

__________

T
AMARA FOLLOWED BLAKE
to the highway.

“Maybe the trucks didn’t come this far,” she said as they reached the bottom of the slope.

“I think you’re right,” he said. “I would have thought we’d at least hear them by now.”

Staying just inside the trees that ran next to the highway, they headed to the rendezvous point where they were supposed to meet up with the scouts Blake had sent ahead.

“We should check with Bobby,” she suggested.

Blake pulled out his radio and held it out to her. “Be my guest.”

She took it and pressed the
SEND
button. “Bobby, it’s Tamara. Can you give us an update on the trucks?” She waited for a response, but after a few seconds she tried again. “Bobby? Are you there?”

Nothing.

“Could the hill be blocking the signal?” she asked Blake.

“Shouldn’t. Not with that radio.”

She frowned and pressed the talk button again. “Bobby, where are you?”

No response.

She was about to try again when someone ahead whispered, “Over here.”

Brad Delgado waved to them from behind an abandoned car sitting on the road. With him was Warren Palmer.

“Where’s Jack?” Blake asked as soon as he and Tamara joined them.

“He went for a look around the bend,” Brad said, pointing ahead at where the highway curved out of sight. “Should be right back.”

“I think something might be wrong with Bobby,” Tamara said to Blake. “He should have answered.”

“Let me try.” Blake took the radio from her. “Bobby, this is Blake. Come in.”

Static.

“Bobby, do you read me?”

Still nothing.

He glanced back at the hill for a second. “Warren, I need you to go check on Bobby.”

Warren nodded and hurried off in a crouch.

Tamara hesitated for a moment before rising and saying, “I’m going with him.”

__________

S
NOW GAVE WAY
under Ash’s feet, tumbling downward in a mini avalanche. He threw his arms out to stabilize himself and then moved cautiously across the steep slope, grabbing a tree wherever he could until he reached a gentler incline. From there it was only a matter of moments before he reached the shoulder at the side of the highway.

The road was covered by over a foot of undisturbed snow. No vehicles had come this way since before the last storm, and he couldn’t hear any in the distance. So where were these trucks Bobby had seen?

Ahead, the highway dipped out of sight, so he hiked over to check if he could see anything from there. A gap between trees marked where the highway ran through the long valley below. Slowly, he moved his gaze along the road, searching for movement or anything that looked out of place.

There
.

About half a mile ahead. A line of dark shapes at the side of the road.

Trucks. And not just any kind of trucks. At least two looked like they could be snowplows. As he watched, a pinpoint of light flicked on inside one of them.

Ash clicked on his mic. “Ash for Blake.”

“Go for Blake.”

“What’s your location?”

“On the highway, just outside the city limits. Haven’t seen our visitors yet, though.”

“That’s because it looks like they stopped about a mile from your position.” He described what he’d found, then said, “My guess is, they’re planning on cutting across the hill and then coming at the entrance from the north end of the meadow. Hook up with Sealy and take everyone that way. I’ll join you in a bit.”

“Copy that,” Blake said.

Ash held his position, watching in case the vehicles started moving in his direction. It wasn’t long before more pinpricks of light flicked on then off again.

People getting out of the trucks.

His instincts had been correct. The vehicles weren’t going anywhere.

__________

R
ENI JUMPED WHEN
she heard the loud, scratchy voice come out of the radio. She frantically searched for the volume control and turned it way down. Holding the device to her ear, she listened to the conversation. When they signed off, she smiled.

Help was here. Only a mile out of town, which meant even closer to her position.

What the new arrivals didn’t know was that the invaders had spotted them and were planning on cutting them off.

She had to get to them and warn them.

Then they could take back Dream Sky.

18

RAGGED POINT, CALIFORNIA

3:26 AM PST

R
ILEY WEBER SCANNED
the hotel through her binoculars. It had been over an hour since she’d last seen any movement. She had counted nine people—six men and three women, all of them larger than she was. And then there was the matter of the weapons they seemed to always have close at hand—pistols for most, while one of the men carried a sawed-off shotgun wherever he went.

There was no question that four of them were the same people she and Craig had seen looting the grocery store in Cambria the previous afternoon. Even from this distance, she recognized the bald guy with the scraggly goatee.

She and Craig had been chased by them out of town, but had been able to lose them and return to Cambria to reunite with Noreen. To play it safe, the three friends had headed south to Morro Bay, where they broke into a motel room overlooking the water.

It had been Riley’s turn to round up dinner, so she had left the other two in the room. Finding anything decent to eat was becoming harder and harder. Any food that required refrigeration had gone bad by now, leaving only canned and dry goods.

When she got to the grocery store, she tied a scarf around her face to cut down on the odor of decaying food before going in. Animals emboldened by the sudden disappearance of man had discovered the delights of cereal and cake mix and boxed juices, leaving the aisles littered with cardboard and broken glass.

A trio of squirrels screeched at her and then ran off as she stepped into their aisle. Pre-outbreak Riley would have been freaked out by that, but to the new Riley it was just another day.

When she found several bottles of spaghetti sauce with expiration dates still a few weeks away, she decided to do something special. She located a gallon of bottled water and two large bags of elbow macaroni. Both bags had been gnawed open but were still mostly full, and she thought if she boiled the pasta she could get rid of whatever germs it might have. Now all she needed was a pot and something to cook everything on.

On their earlier drive through town, they’d passed a campground near the golf course, half full of abandoned camps. Noreen had called it creepy. Riley had grunted in agreement but she wasn’t sure anything could be called creepy anymore.

Confident she would find a camp stove and pot there, she headed out of the store with her supplies in her backpack. She had barely taken two steps through the doorway, however, when she heard the roar of motorcycles.

The engines had a deep rumble and didn’t sound like those in the bikes Noreen and Craig had been using.

She hurried over to her own motorbike, intending to move it behind the grocery store so it wouldn’t be seen if the unknown bikers rode by, but as she started to wheel it across the small lot, the noise faded and she realized the bikes were driving away.

She waited until the noise had almost disappeared, then kicked her bike to life and raced back to the motel. Morro Bay was no safer than Cambria had been. They needed to get out of there right now, maybe even go as far south as Santa Barbara.

Parking her bike next to those of her friends, she raced up the outside stairs, but as she turned toward their room, she stutter stepped in surprise. Their door was open wide, the blinds hanging crooked in the window.

Racing into the room, she called, “Noreen? Craig?”

The beds were askew, the linens a mess.

She ran over to the bathroom. “Noreen! Craig!”

There was blood on the wall, not a lot, but more than one would get from a simple cut. She looked into the room again and realized Noreen’s and Craig’s bags were gone.

Without thinking twice, she headed back to the parking lot and got on her bike.

She caught sight of the others for the first time on the road between Cayucos and Harmony. They were about a half mile ahead, three motorcycles and that damn blue pickup truck. They were the same jackasses, all right.

The motorcycles had only solo drivers, so she guessed Noreen and Craig were in the truck.

The sun was passing below the hills to the west as she topped the ridge above Harmony. Below her, the road stretched straight across a valley before climbing another slope into Cambria, the town where this nightmare had begun. The others were nearing the midpoint, their headlights on now to cut through the growing shadows.