Part 2 (1/2)
In Jerry's opinion, Smithfield was necessary, because it was a hospital. OP Benson kept the roads between Camp Ryder and Smithfield clear, so that anyone that needed serious medical attention could go to Smithfield and see Doc Hamilton. But OP Lillington was just a waste. Another drain on their resources. It only existed so that Captain Harden could expand his area of influence, and use Lillington as a jump-off point for his operations.
So Jerry sent Greg, Arnie, and the new guy, Kyle, to scout it out. The fourth pa.s.senger, crammed in tight with the others, was Professor White, the leader of the group from Fuquay-Varina. He'd been curious about Lillington, and had been pressuring Jerry into letting him take a group to go check it out. Greg supposed that he held some sort of attachment to Lillington, or perhaps to Old Man Hughes and his group, since they had shared Lillington for a short time.
Who knew what Professor White was thinking?
But he'd been very insistent. To the point of accusing Jerry of covering things up. Suggesting that OP Lillington had contacted Camp Ryder, but that Jerry just refused to render any help to them. And there were other issues souring their relations.h.i.+p. Professor White felt that he'd been promised that as soon as Captain Harden and Bus were overthrown and the supplies accessed, they would all immediately make a run for the mountains. A ma.s.s exodus to escape.
Obviously Jerry was in no hurry to do this, and each day it became more evident that it wasn't going to happen. Which left White feeling betrayed. And Professor White had never been shy in his attempt to sway the court of ”public opinion,” if you could call a few dozen survivors living in shanties the ”public.”
White's presence in the already-cramped car was a result of him b.u.t.ting heads with Jerry for the umpteenth time in the past 48 hours. White wanted to know what had happened to Lillington, and Jerry a.s.sured him that he would send a group out to investigate. At which point White insisted that he be a part of it. And if he didn't get what he wanted he was going to make a stink.
So he got what he wanted.
They turned onto S. Main Street and hit the bridge over the Cape Fear River. Arnie slowed them down, but didn't stop. They continued rolling until they were across the river. They trundled over a set of train tracks and Greg leaned forward in his seat, motioning Arnie to a stop. He pulled out a pair of binoculars and gla.s.sed the downtown area of Lillington. The little square of buildings where the outpost had been set up.
”Why are we stopping here?” White asked, s.h.i.+fting abruptly in the backseat and setting the vehicle to rocking.
A look of mild irritation pa.s.sed over Greg's face. He pulled the binoculars away from his eyes and waited for White to quit fidgeting so the car would be still, and then he put the binoculars back up and continued to scan, slowly, carefully.
”We're checking the area, Professor,” he responded, his voice less than enthusiastic.
”So you do think that someone is there,” White p.r.o.nounced, triumphantly.
Greg sighed and dropped the binoculars in his lap. ”I think that if I blundered into unknown situations without checking them out from a distance, then I'd be dead by now. I can't see any movement in or around the buildings.” He glanced back at White. ”Hostile or otherwise.”
”So...”
Greg turned fully in his seat and looked at White. The professor regarded him with that usual pinched expression that sat amid all of that snow-white hair. His head slightly inclined, looking down through his thick gla.s.ses at Greg. Like he resented being forced to converse with such a low-brow specimen.
Greg adjusted his Yankees ball cap. ”Let me explain something to you, Professor. You might be able to manipulate Jerry and get what you want out of him by threatening to trash him publicly, but I don't like you. I am not beholden to you. I don't give a f.u.c.k what you think or say. I only allowed you to come along with us today as a favor to Jerry. And given the fact that I generally regard you as an idiot, whose survival so far defies logic and probability, I'm going to need you sit back there and shut the f.u.c.k up. Okay?”
Professor White stared back at Greg, looking somewhat shocked.
But silent, at least.
Kyle sat beside Professor White and looked tense and awkward. Which wasn't difficult for him. He was one of those guys whose awkward stage somehow lasted well into their twenties. A thin, gawky neck. Just a thin smattering of unsightly facial hair that clumped at his cheeks and his chin, leaving the other areas bare.
Arnie grinned, chuckled. His loose folds of empty skin quivered under his chin like a wattle.
Greg turned back around. ”Go ahead and take us in, Arnie. Slow and easy.”
”You got it, Boss.”
They rolled on, Greg and Kyle readying themselves for whatever they might find, while Professor White sulked. They rolled their windows down and laid their rifles on the doors, barrels protruding out, though it was tight to maneuver a rifle in such a small vehicle.
They stopped at the intersection of S. Main Street and Front Street, caddy-corner to OP Lillington. The ring of red brick buildings had been partially secured-most of the windows and doors were boarded or covered with some sort of barricade. A few were still open, giving it the look of an abandoned project.
Greg leaned forward again, looked up to the roof of the building and watched it for a minute.
”No watchman?” Kyle asked.
Greg just shook his head. ”Go ahead and take us around back.”
Arnie took them into the entrance, a narrow alley wide enough for a single vehicle. The end of the alley was usually barricaded by a car, which the guards at OP Lillington would roll out of the way for incoming friendlies, like you might open a gate.
The barricade car was rolled away. No one around it.
They crept pa.s.sed, then stopped in the middle of the open s.p.a.ce, surrounded completely by all those buildings. The other barricades still stood intact-the dumpsters and tires and other abandoned cars still stacked up and crowned with loops of barbed wire. It was only the entrance that had been left open. Like an abandoned house with the front door hanging off its hinges.
Greg opened his door, stepped out. He took a moment to survey his surroundings while behind him the others squirmed their way out of the tiny hatchback car. It was very still there in the center of OP Lillington. Greg would still check the interiors of the buildings, just to say that he had, but he already knew that the place was abandoned. He could tell just from the immense silence of it.
”h.e.l.looooo?” Professor White yelled. ”Anybody here?”
Greg spun on the man. The professor had his hands cupped around his mouth like a megaphone and took another deep breath to continue his shouting. Greg slapped the hands away from his mouth, then stood there, glaring.
”What the f.u.c.k are you doing?”
White looked concerned. ”I was trying to call out...”
”Didn't I tell you to shut the f.u.c.k up?”
”But what if there are people around?”
”And what if they're the wrong people?” Greg shook his head. ”Jesus, it really is astounding that you've lived this long.” He turned away from the professor, stood without moving for a moment, feeling out the ensuing silence, listening for sounds of anything that might be coming for them.
Nothing.
Greg started walking for the buildings. ”Kyle, you're with me. Arnie, stay with the professor, please. Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid.”
”You got it.”
The professor sounded indignant. ”I don't need a babysitter, Greg!”
”Oh, I think you do,” Greg said without turning around.
They cleared the buildings and found n.o.body, just as Greg had suspected. Nor did they find any sign of anybody. Or any clue as to where they had gone. Like OP Lillington had never existed.
In the quiet darkness of one of the buildings, Kyle spoke up. ”You think the infected got them?”
Greg considered it, but shook his head. ”No. There'd be bodies. Blood.”
”You think...” he lowered his voice. ”...maybe the hunters got them?”
Greg just made a face of consternation. ”The who?”
Kyle glanced around, uncomfortably. ”Some of Harden's guys were talking about these new infected they were calling hunters. Said they were big and fast. Said they hunted like animals. Ran in a small pack. Grabbed people and carried them away, instead of tearing 'em apart right there like the normal infected. Maybe that's what happened here. Maybe the hunters got them all. Carried them away.”