A/N: Been a while. Thanks for the reviews and follows. I may rewrite a couple of chapters based on some comments and PMs. Good ideas are hard to pass up.
Chapter 15Plague
Bomber was standing behind the registration desk trying to log on to the internet when he felt someone behind him. He'd left his pistol on the counter and if the person behind him had a weapon, he'd never grab his pistol in time.
Winkle had walked through the resort office and wondered why it was so small when it looked so large from outside. 'Maybe it's the log walls that make it look so big from outside?' Then she wondered why there was an entire glass front on the upper portion of the A-frame but a fairly normal ceiling all through the lobby.
'A second story? Storage? Just a front to make it look nice?'
She stood behind Bomber and watched as he tried to log onto the internet. He was getting careless about his own safety and that was unacceptable. He needed a lesson.
She stuck her pistol in the small of his back and he stiffened but the smirked when he saw her reflection in the monitor's surface.
"I don't know who you are but I'm willing to have wild and loud sex with you if you allow me to live…please?" He put a whimper into his voice and saw her jaw go slack in surprise and he whirled and slapped the pistol away, hoping it was on safe.
"And now, little girl, you're going to pay the price for sneaking up on me…" They'd only had sex once but he wanted to kiss her in the daylight and see the look on her face. He leaned in and pressed his lips against her slightly open ones and let his tongue slip between them and caress hers.
She sighed and melted against him, deepening the kiss and fencing with his invading tongue.
"We shouldn't be doing this, Bomber, until we've cleared the building and made sure we're secure. Once that's done, however…" She made a move to grab his crotch but he danced away from her, laughing.
"Too slow, Les. Gotta be faster than that to catch me – " He broke of his smart-assed retort and grabbed his pistol from the counter and pointed it over her shoulder.
"Put down that scatter gun, Miss. We're not here to do any harm, just looking for a place to lay low and recover our strength. I'm Hideki Tanaka, USAF, and this is Dr. Leslie Winkle. We're – "
The object of his attention was a young girl, probably not more than 18, and filthy. The sweater she was wearing was filthy. She dropped the shotgun and took a faltering step towards Leslie but her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and she fainted.
"Good morning, sleepy head," were the first words Deborah heard when she awoke from what she hoped was just a nightmare. She opened her eyes and saw two women sitting beside the bed she was in.
"I'm Penny Ford and she's Dr. Leslie Winkle but you can just call us Penny and Leslie. I'll bet you're hungry? We've got soup made, sweetie, if you'd like some."
"Where am I? Where have you taken me?" She looked down at herself under the blankets. "And where the hell are my clothes?" She was afraid of strangers and had been told to hide whenever anyone came around. They might have the disease, or worse, they might take her away.
"Your clothes are in the washing machine. How long has it been since you…bathed?" It was a delicate question but the girl had been filthy.
"What are you going to do to me?" Her dark eyes were full of fear but the thought of soup after not eating for days...
"First, we're going to feed you and then we'll let you take a shower. Feel free to use my shampoo and conditioner. And my brush. You have such beautiful long hair…"
"And after that?" she asked, batting Penny's hand away from her hair. It was filthy and she hadn't bathed in…she didn't know just how long…days? A week? How long had it been since her parents made her run into the woods and hide?
"You can borrow some sweats. We've got loads of 'em. You're so tiny that you'll be swimming in them. And then when your own clothes are dry, you can change, or not." Penny was trying hard to put the girl at ease but Sheldon had given them a list of questions they needed answered.
"What's your name, sweetie?" Penny kept her tone light and sat back against the dark walnut paneling of the coach wall while Leslie went to find something for her to wear.
"Deborah. Deborah Still Waters. Where am I? What is this place?"
"This is our bus. My boyfriend did some customizing and now it's our refuge. We're from Pasadena. That's in Cali – "
"I know where it is. I'm not stupid. Are any of you sick? Coughing?" She knew of the symptoms from television before the broadcasts stopped. She knew about the rages first hand.
"No, we're all healthy except for the man you saw me with. He's Bomber, an ex-Air Force pilot. He has diabetes and one of the reasons we stopped here is to try and find him more insulin. Are you from around here? We really need to find a pharmacy and get some if there's any left."
The girl started laughing and it wasn't a pleasant laugh at all. She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at Leslie. "The only pharmacy for miles around is in Douglas if they haven't burned it like every other town they pass through. Maybe being so small – they won't know it's there. Maybe…but I doubt it."
"Who are 'they'?" asked Leslie. She didn't like the way this conversation was headed. 'Organized looters? Were they headed this way?'
"They call themselves the 'Select' or maybe it's 'Elect', I don't really know. I heard my folks talking about it right before they hit our place. We live – lived – about 12 miles northeast of Douglas in Cienna. Just a wide spot in the road for cattle and horse ranches. It's gone now."
Deborah ate two bowls of soup and then while she showered, the four friends talked about what she'd told them. Bomber wanted to leave immediately and head for Denver. Leslie was adamant about checking out the pharmacy in Douglas and then heading east towards Denver.
Penny was uncertain, wanting more information about these 'Select' creeps, and had her say. "We can't go waltzing in to a town we know nothing about, just the four of us, without additional information on what we might face. Sure, we got guns but so will they. I can't imagine farmers or ranchers just letting people burn their homes. It's too dangerous. I'm sorry, Bomber, but it's too damned dangerous."
Sheldon had been very quiet during the discussion, sipping occasionally at a bottle of water, listening intently to both women. He smiled behind his water bottle. His initial belief that these two would each bring complementary talents to the 'survival' table had been right.
Penny was strong-willed but had a streak of common sense that tempered her impulsiveness with regards to almost anything except shoes and liquor. He loved her free spiritedness but respected how, when the chips were down, she was frequently the voice of reason.
Leslie was dogmatic, a planner, but suddenly her heart was in the equation and she was no longer the hard-bitten woman who'd dispatched the injured thugs in the parking lot without a second thought. She had feelings for Bomber and that colored her judgment and made her argument suspect.
"Sheldon?" He jerked himself back into the present, chagrined at having been caught daydreaming or so it appeared to the three others around the small galley table.
"What do you think we should do based on this new information?" Leslie stared at Sheldon, willing him to agree with her. Bomber would soon need fresh or less weakened insulin and it was imperative that he have it.
"I think…Bomber and I will take the fuel truck and drive into Douglas tonight under cover of darkness and find the pharmacy and loot it bare if it already hasn't been. We'll need to unload the fuel drums first and then, Leslie, I'd appreciate it if you could 'kit' us out for a night foray. We'll use the NVGs and the thermal goggles so we'll be able to drive 'blacked out' and the thermals will let us see any unnatural heat sources well before they see us. Weapons, I leave up to you as you're the 'expert'."
"NO! I absolutely forbid it, Sheldon! I'll go with Bomber. It makes – "
"Penny," he leaned back while his hand snaked into her lap and grabbed her fisted one, "I am the logical choice. Bomber can drive, I can't. Leslie is too emotionally involved and you and Leslie can both drive the bus. I can't. As I told you in Pasadena – "
She jerked her hand away from his and glared at him.
"You do not get to play the 'I'm expendable' card with me, Sheldon. I may not have an IQ of 187 or a fancy schmancy degree in physics and God knows what else but I'm smart enough to see through this."
Penny started to get up, unsure of where she was going but unable to just sit there while he listed all his 'shortcomings' but he put a large palm on her shoulder and forced her to remain. He wasn't done.
Sheldon stared into Penny's green eyes and then smiled, as if they were the only two people in the bus and certainly not sitting across from Leslie and Bomber, and leaned in and kissed her. Once he had her attention, he continued.
"As I told you in Pasadena, I am a follower while you and Leslie are alpha female pack leaders. Bomber's not in this equation, Penny, because his is the overriding need and his judgment is therefore questionable."
He held up a hand to stop her from interrupting again. He hated being interrupted. It was rude and a sign of lack of respect although he knew Penny's reasons were not grounded in derision.
"I am the logical choice as is Bomber to go on this foraging expedition. He needs insulin and a wingman. He's a leader, I, a follower. I shall return, don't you fret. We both will," he said, looking at Winkle.
Penny was still pissed but his damned logic overrode her emotional need to keep him safe with her, not out gallivanting around the countryside on some fool's errand. That thought shamed her. Bomber needed insulin.
"Okay, but ya better not take four years like Macarthur did, Moon Pie."
Deborah looked at the crude map of Douglas and pointed out the landmarks she'd drawn.
"This is the sheriff's station. There's no deputy except when they do their rounds once a week or so. This is the Food Mart and the pharmacy is across the street. It's not a big city grocery store so don't be surprised at the stock. The pharmacy is also the post office so it's got bars on the windows and stuff like that."
It took most of the afternoon for Sheldon and Bomber to move the fuel drums from the truck to concrete pad behind the bar's rear door. Penny, Leslie and Deborah explored the resort's office and Leslie found a doorway leading to stairs that went to the upper level. It was cleverly made to look like part of the wall behind the registration desk.
"I don't want to go up there…I'll wait down here. There's no heat up there. Feel the draft?" The cold air chilled the three but Winkle was a scientist and this was a mystery. First, the concealed door, and now this. Deborah's reluctance was easily handled.
"I'm going up. Penny, why don't you see if there's anything we can use in the store room. Take Deborah with you, just in case."
"Nope. We stick together. Sweetie, there's nothing to be afraid of. Big Sis is here…y'know, Gunz Winkle, Scourge of the Paintball Games." She was poking fun at Winkle and Leslie went along with it, poking back.
"Well, you could have played too but then…your ass made too tempting a target." She was referring to an episode where Howard had shot Penny in the butt after becoming 'target fixated'. She'd retaliated, leaving him writhing in the dirt with a bright yellow crotch.
Deborah snorted a laugh and then followed Leslie upstairs, with Penny bringing up the rear.
"Holy crap on a cracker! What the hell kind of people lived here?" Penny was shocked at what she saw but Winkle just clapped her hands with glee.
Deborah walked over to close the windows but let out a girly scream. There was a large winged back chair sitting in front of the open window and the naked corpse of middle aged woman was curled up in it like she'd fallen asleep. An empty bottle of sleeping pills was clutched in one hand.
"Eeewwww…well, at least the open window kept it from stinking. I'll go down and find something to wrap it up in. I'll be right – " started Penny but Winkle moved past her.
Winkle grabbed the corpse by the blanket it was wrapped in and muscled it out the window. Rigor mortis and the cold made it a clumsy burden but she still managed to push it out. The corpse bounced off a small overhang and the dropped out of sight.
"There. We'll close the windows and open the heating vents," she said, pointing to a ventilator grill that had paper taped over it, "and then we'll inventory our find and see if Bomber can figure out how these radios work."
Two walls were covered with modern assault weapons 'on display', and there were military boxes of ammunition against the walls, each labeled clearly with caliber and quantity.
There was a table in one corner and a rack of radio equipment above it. There were numerous postcards from around the world on display. The owner had been a ham radio enthusiast. And a voyeur. There were CCTV monitors labeled 'Women's shower' and other locations throughout the campgrounds.
There was a single bed against the remaining wall and it was neatly made up and covered with girly plush pillows. There were screen shots of various men and women, some together, obviously taken somehow from the CCTV feeds on the wall. This was the lair of a pervert, a woman, but still, a pervert.
Sheldon was insistent that the scrounging mission go as scheduled and so the three women watched as the empty fuel truck headed down the snowy driveway and out onto the country road headed toward Douglas.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," muttered Penny.
Next: Playing Hide & See in the New World