Ch. 16 - Ice Cream
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They arrived before sunrise, even though their message told people noon, leaving them plenty of time to scope out the area. But for the moment at least, the overgrown football field on the south end of a rinky-dink town called Gatlinburg didn't contain anything more dangerous than the occasional bunny. While Slattery's team was monitoring the treeline and Wolf's team was watching the incoming road, Danny was stuck in a small concession stand filled with ripped and faded posters extolling the virtues of the Gatlinburg Highlanders and their mascot, a black bulldog named Smokey, along with Tex Nolan, Rob Abbott, and Valerie Raymond.
Bringing Valerie was Danny's idea, of course, thinking that she was less likely to cross them if she was going to be in the line of fire. But after listening to her bitch for the last seven hours, from the moment they left the bunker, a clash with the Immunes didn't sound so bad. First Valerie balked at riding on a motorcycle, calling them deathtraps. Then she was cold, despite commandeering a jacket and two blankets. Then her hair was a mess, her complaints growing even louder when Danny pointed out that she never bothered brushing it anyway. By the time they arrived at the stand, even Tex had reached his limit, fashioning earplugs out of dusty four-year-old napkins.
By the time 0010 rolled around, Danny was roasting. To maintain the illusion that the stand was empty, the team had drilled small holes through the stand's metal shutters rather than rolling them up. With the doors and windows closed, the small space heated quickly. Danny stared longing at the freezers plastered with pictures of dancing ice cream sandwiches. Who knew that it could be so blasted hot in Tennessee in November?
"I told you this was a waste of time," Valerie whined, as though she hadn't already made the point a dozen times prior. "Nobody is coming."
"If nobody is coming, then your message didn't work, did it?" Danny retorted. "So why are we keeping you around again?"
Valerie huffed. "Obviously I meant that the Ramseys aren't coming. People will be here. We've still got hours."
"You better hope so." Danny flipped a coin, watching as it sparkled in the dim light. "And be quiet. Next time you open your mouth, I might just shoot you."
"Anything would be better than sitting here sweating to death," Valerie muttered, clearly not cowed by the threat. Probably because he'd already used it more than once, Danny conceded. Or because he probably wouldn't do it.
Probably.
"You two need a room," Tex teased, the corners of his mouth twitching.
Valerie recoiled. "Gross."
Danny rolled his eyes. After their joint supply run, Danny conceded that Tex had good instincts and was an excellent shot. But his sense of humor left a lot to be desired. "You know I can transfer you to latrine duty, right?"
Tex seemed about as worried as Valerie did to the earlier threat. "Touche."
"I have movement down by the school," Rob spoke, abruptly ending any levity.
Standing, Danny peeked through the shutters. And sure enough, there did appear to be a car pulling up, but not towards the field. Instead it was moving to the back of the school building, partially hidden by the trees. Instantly a dozen possibilities ran through Danny's head.
A red herring sent by the Immunes to keep them occupied while they came through the woods behind them? Someone here for the cure who misjudged the distance? A family on the road stopping at what looked like a safe spot, just at the right place at the right time?
Raising his radio, Danny hailed Slattery. "Vulture, you see that?"
The answer was immediate. "Yep. Tiger?"
"We've got it," Wolf replied.
"Keep your eyes on the road," Slattery directed. "We've got the woods. Might not be a one-off."
"Yes, sir."
Eyes fixed on the old woodchuck station wagon, the kind that was popular back when he was a kid, Danny watched as two men emerged.
"Not military," Rob commented after a moment. Danny agreed. The two were armed, of course, these days everyone was. And they were being careful, sticking to the tree line and the shadows. But the way they moved said hunter, not soldier.
"SITREP?" Slattery asked over the radio, his position in the woods not allowing a clear view of the approaching duo.
"Looks like civilians, sir," Danny replied, watching as one of the men doubled over, hacking into a handkerchief. "One of them might be sick."
Tex was the first to realize the two strangers' designation. "Shit. They're coming here."
"Might just be looking for somewhere to wait," Rob suggested.
"Or they're looking for a spot to pick people off as they arrive," Danny replied, picking up the radio again. This spot at the top of the bleachers did have an excellent view of both the field and the road. "Looks like we're about to get company here."
Slattery's response was quick and decisive. "Everyone stay frosty."
"Raymond, get behind the counter," Danny ordered. "And this time actually shut up. Tex, you stay with her. Rob, cover me."
With everyone in position, Danny placed himself directly in front of the door, arms crossed, gun on his back. No reason to terrorize the men if they were actually civilians. As the two drew closer, Danny began to catch snip-its of conversation.
"Looks like we're first in line, Jack." The voice was full of forced optimism, the kind that people used when they knew that they were screwed.
"Assuming anyone is even coming," replied a second voice, one that sounded older and far weaker. Most likely the man who was coughing.
"I have a good feeling about this one."
"This isn't the first time you had a good feeling, and the last people..." The rest of the sentence was drowned out by a bout of coughing. Definitely not faked.
"Just hold on a little while, Jack. We'll find something to trade for the medicine. Maybe the car. Not like we'll need it if we're dead."
Danny shook his head. Everyone on the team had heard stories of the snake-oil salespeople who shook people down for their last few possessions in exchange for a fake cure. Danny might have told a lie or two, but at least he never stole anything.
"Doubt they're even come near us. Not unless it's to put a bullet in our heads."
"Always the negative..." the man was still talking as he pushed the door open, looking backwards at his friend as he stepped inside. At the sight of Danny his hands shot up, and he stepped quickly in front of the second man, no attempt to raise his weapon. "Hey man, we don't want any trouble. We were just looking for a place to stay warm. We can take off. Forget we ever saw you."
Danny considered the man. Probably mid-thirties. He looked older, but the Red Flu did that to people. Aged them prematurely. The second man was more grizzled, well into his sixties, Danny estimated. And the first guy referred to him by his first name, so not father and son but definitely close friends.
If this was an Immune trick, it was damn well done.
"You're sick?"
"No, no, we're fine." There was a flash of panic in the man's eyes, and he stepped back towards the door. "Saw this place and thought we'd look for food. Just trying to survive. That's all."
"So you aren't here for this?" Danny asked, picking up the bright yellow container. Despite the color, Doctor Scott insisted the vaccines be transported in CDC coolers, worried that anything else wouldn't keep the doses at the proper temperature. After a dozen failed attempts to paint them a less noticeable color, Slattery finally wrapped them in dark blankets before strapping them to the bikes.
The man stopped his retreat, although he continued to regard them cautiously. His eyes remained fixed on the case. Desperation warring with fear. "How much do you want for it?"
"Nothing. It's free."
If anything, that seemed to make the man more suspicious. "You military?"
"Navy."
"With the government?"
Valerie, unable to follow even the simplest of directions, snorted. "What government? Have you seen one lately?"
Having made her presence known and apparently unilaterally deciding that the situation was harmless, Valerie resumed her position balancing on the counter. Resisting the desire to literally tape her mouth closed, Danny focused his attention on the man before her. "I made an oath to this country. I'm just doing my duty."
The man nodded, the movement appearing to be directed more at himself than Danny. But before he could speak, Jack moved forward. "I'll go first. Try it out."
The other man immediately protest. "No, let me..."
"Nah. You got other things to worry about," Jack replied, the unspoken communication more meaningful than what was said. Danny wondered who was waiting in that car for these men. Wife? Child? Both? Because nobody hid a car that carefully unless they had something precious to protect.
Even if, without the cure, they were all dead anyway.
"Roll up your sleeve." Retrieving a dose from the cooler, Danny swabbed Jack's arm, injecting the needle in exactly the way Doctor Scott directed. Once complete, he recapped the syringe, placing it back in the container. Pre-virus Danny would have been horrified by the thought of reusing a needle. Post-virus Danny knew that every one discarded meant more supply runs, searching through hospitals and medical centers for their unused stash and hoping that the junkies didn't get there first. He gestured for the man to sit. "You want some water?"
"It's sealed, in case you're worried," Valerie added, swinging her legs as she skimmed a four-year-old hunting magazine.
Taking the water bottle, Jack stared at them intently. "None of you care that I'm sick."
The first man - Danny really needed to ask him his name - gasped. "Jack!"
"That's because we're immune," Danny explained, almost amused. "That shot there? We already got it."
"You sure this thing works then?" Jack asked.
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't," Rob replied. When the two men glanced at him curiously, he continued. "My whole family, we were exposed. Couple guys with us died. That shot you just got, it saved my life. Saved my whole family. Brought my buddy back from the brink of death. Never seen anything like it."
It was the reverence in Rob's voice that struck Danny. The amazement. Would he still feel that way if he knew about the failed trials? Would he be saying the same thing if Eddie had died? If the cure came too late for his wife, his children?
Moving towards the shutters, Danny let Rob field their questions. For the first time in four years, he stood back and let someone else extol on Doctor Scott's miracle vaccine.
And this time, the words weren't a lie.
Sixteen minutes passed before Jack turned to his friend, who by now was identified as Bobby. "Besides a sore arm, I can't say I feel much of anything."
"Oh my god! Haven't you people gotten a vaccine before?" Valerie snapped, rolling her eyes.
"Have you?" Tex asked. "Kind of took you for an anti-vax nutjob."
Valerie tossed her hair. "Vaccine injury is real, I will have you know. But regardless, everybody knows that they don't work immediately."
Bobby chuckled, Valerie's drama somehow convincing him that they were the real deal. "Guess it's my turn."
Moving to the case, Danny retrieved a second syringe. Bobby smiled nervously as he approached, obviously not entirely comfortable with Danny despite his rapport with Rob and Tex. "Rob said you were on a destroyer when everything went south? Jack's son was Navy. We were best friends growing up, that's how I know Jack. Anyway, Drew was in Hawaii when this thing broke. Jack's also got a daughter who was stationed in Alaska. You hear anything from the other bases?"
Danny scowled at Rob. While the information about the Nathan James location wasn't a secret, exactly, the less revealed about Doctor Scott and her mission the better. Still, despite his annoyance, his eyes were drawn to Jack, noting the sorrow etched on his face at the mention of his children.
This could be Smith's father. Berchem's mother. The parent any of the dozen of men who Danny lost over the years.
Danny dropped his gaze, already knowing what he would see in Jack's eyes. Resignation. Sadness.
And a spark of hope.
Because even when people knew the score, they could never stop dreaming of a miracle.
The way Danny would if he lost Frankie.
Pushing the thought of Frankie away, Danny swabbed Bobby's arm. From the news that trickled in, Hawaii had been one of the first hot spots, but Alaska closed the borders early. They were remote. They might be okay - assuming Russia didn't nuke them. "We were in the Arctic. By the time we got back, things were pretty disorganized. But there were survivors."
An answer that wasn't an answer. A lie by omission.
Now instead of lying to people about the cure, he was lying to them about their kids.
How was that different from someone peddling false cures?
Bobby's eyes lingered on him as Danny replaced the needle in the cooler. He had been around the block enough to know that the man was deciding whether he could pocket a couple without anyone noticing. Having apparently decided that the answer was no, Bobby spoke hesitantly. "Those doses...think we could borrow a couple?"
"So you can vaccinate the people in that station-wagon?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow. "Probably better to bring them here. Besides, borrow suggests that you plan to return something, and I don't think you have any intention of coming back."
To Bobby's credit he flushed, but before the man completely crumbled, Tex stepped in. "Don't mind the Commander. He might sound like a hard ass but he's got a family of his own. And believe you me, he made sure they were at the top of the list when it came time to give out those shots."
Danny glared at Tex. Was he seriously suggesting that Danny pulled strings to make sure that Kara and Frankie were vaccinated first? Except, wasn't that exactly what happened? Kara might have been on the list anyway, due to her position as civilian liaison. But Frankie was vaccinated by virtue of being in Group One, a group that she was included in only because he was her father.
The very definition of nepotism.
"Hey, don't give me that look," Tex threw up his hands. "I made sure my little girl was on the list too."
The difference being, of course, that Kat was vaccinated because she worked with Doctor Scott. Not simply because she was traveling with her. With a final scowl, Danny turned to Jack and Bobby. "How about we compromise? We'll go with you to the car. Maybe we can help your kids."
Bobby jumped. "How did you know?"
Danny wondered if people were always this clueless. "The walkie-talkie in your pocket kind of gave it away."
"Oh." Bobby blinked. "The girls, they're sick. Really sick."
And at that, Danny's heart sank. He had been hoping that Jack was the only one with symptoms. Sure Eddie made it, but that was with IVs and medical attention 24-7. How would Bobby feel if the cure that saved his life was unable to save his children? Would he ever forgive Danny for sentencing him to a life without them? "Let's go see. How are you doing on food? Water?"
"Low," Bobby admitted. Tex moved to gather some of the supplies that the team brought to pass out, suspecting that the people here would have little, while Danny collected a few doses and the med kit. "We saw a sign for a safe zone over in Oak Ridge. But when they got there, they wouldn't let us in."
"Safe zone?" Danny queried. There was no official safe zone within fifty miles of this field. It was actually one of the reasons that Captain Chandler chose this place, the remote nature of the school. He tipped his head to Tex, receiving an understanding nod in return. They needed to know more about that safe zone - and Tex was the perfect person to find that out.
After a quick call to Slattery to explain the plan, Danny turned to Rob. "You're in charge. Try not to let Raymond get in any more trouble."
Valerie flipped Danny off. "Love you too, sweetheart."
Laughing as the exited the small stand, Jack glanced at Tex. "Why is she with you anyway? She doesn't seem like military."
"She's not," Danny replied curtly. "She designed the phone message. She's here to make sure it worked."
Another lie, but this one he didn't bother him in the least. Crazy nutjob was lucky to be alive.
"You two from around here?" Tex asked, and if he didn't know otherwise, Danny never would have guessed that the question was nothing more than casual conversation.
"From Nashville," Bobby replied, no suspicious in his voice. "We were in a safe zone there for the first year or so. After the food supplies stopped, it was every man for himself and we've wandered a little since then. We went West, thinking it might be safer there, but ran out of gas and hunkered down in an abandoned cabin. After a while the gangs started getting bad so we came back east. Ended up right back where we started."
"Why Gatlinburg?"
"I used to come over here hunting," Jack explained. "Figured we could crash in one of the cabins."
"When we saw the sign about the safe zone over at Oak Ridge, it seemed like a god send," Bobby elaborated. "But they weren't letting new people in. So we found a cabin, settled in for the winter."
"They say why they closed the doors? Running out of supplies?"
Oh Tex was good. Very, very good.
"I don't think so. They were passing out blankets and juice boxes. I didn't even know there were still juice boxes around. The girls were so excited." The smile on Bobby's face quickly faded. "Better for them that they turned us away. Three days later the girls started getting sick."
Tex glanced at Danny, both instantly understanding the significance. The boxes. The damn juice boxes. The Immunes were using the safe zone as a front to pass out infected supplies.
To children.
Sick bastards.
"Once you're all feeling better, think you'll stick around these parts?" Tex continued.
"Haven't thought that far." Bobby replied quickly, glancing at Jack.
The older man sighed. "Someone should warn you boys. There's a rough gang operating out of these woods, led by a man named Chandler, killing anyone who crosses them. They're claiming to be military. Huge groups of people have disappeared without a trace."
Damn.
Danny knew that the Immunes were spreading stories about them, making the Navy out to be the bad guys in order to keep them isolated and pinned down. But he never considered how their operations would appear to those outside the camp.
What it might look like to have groups of people walk into a forest, and never walk out.
"Huh. We'll, ugh, watch out for that." Danny hoped he didn't sound too dismissive.
Apparently he failed miserably. Jack narrowed his eyes. "Arrogance has been the downfall of more than one young man, son."
"What makes you think this gang is real?" Tex jumped in, far more credibly than Danny.
"Our neighbor up at the cabins," Bobby explained. "Ayita got separated from her family, spent weeks tracking them through the forest. The trail just disappeared. She's been on her own since."
"Ayita, that's an unusual name," Danny commented, searching his memory for why it sounded so familiar. And then it struck him. The memorial. Russell Safley, who arrived over a year ago with three children after their safe zone was infected and who now taught at the high school, talking about a wife named Ayita.
"Cherokee," Jack explained. "Damn strong woman too. Survived here by herself for more than a year. Won't leave, she says, not without her family."
"We would be interested in meeting this woman, hearing her story for ourselves," Danny said, aiming for casual and hoping that it didn't come off as dismissive this time.
Jack made a face. "Doubt she'll be coming. She figured this was just another scam."
They were almost to the car now, and Danny took a fortifying breath, knowing that it was going to be bad. Given that Jack was currently hacking up blood and the kids got sick before him, their condition wasn't going to be pretty. To think that the Ramseys were doing this on purpose...infecting children. He should have brought Valerie with them. Make her see firsthand the consequences of her poor judgment.
"Here we are." Bobby lifted the hatch to the station wagon.
Bad didn't even begin to describe it.
The girls were six, maybe seven. Twins by the look of it, lying next to each other, their hands intertwined. Blood dripped from one girl's nose, her face ashen against the blue blanket that she was wrapped in, shivering despite the warmth of the car. The other cuddled a small pink bunny, her hands limp and breathing ragged.
"Hey darlings," Bobby whispered, bending down to kiss one forehead and then the other. "Daddy got you help. I just need you to hold on a little longer, okay? You're going to feel better soon. I promise."
Pulling out the syringes, Danny fought the urge to punch a tree as he carefully injected one thin arm and then the other, puncturing skin so fragile that the bruises began forming instantly. Even as he recapped the needles, he knew that receiving the cure wasn't enough. These girls were sick. Really sick. They needed fluids and a hospital and a whole hell-of-a-lot-of-other-stuff that didn't come in a med kit.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
He wasn't supposed to go through this again.
What was the point of having a cure if children were still going to die?
Tex was staring at him, and Danny could have sworn that the man read his mind. "Ward was sicker."
Danny glanced against at Bobby, who was now pouring water into one of the girl's mouth using the bottle's plastic cap. There were so many reasons why he should turn and walk away. Every resource used here was one less for someone else. Every minute that they stayed here put them at more risk of discovery.
And every life saved was one less ghost to haunt him at night.
Danny picked up the radio. "I'm going to need Rios and a couple of stretchers."