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I waited to hear the sound of the engine approaching, but it never came. Instead, Molev and two other men came jogging around the corner almost twenty minutes later.
Molev lifted a hand to show everything was okay.
“Was anyone reassured by that?” Roni mumbled. “Because I sure as fuck wasn’t. Why are they running and not driving?”
“It was empty,” one of the men said when they got near. “The reservoir and the fueler. We ran out of gas just before we reached the reservoir. Looks like someone emptied it all.”
Molev held my gaze for a beat.
“We need to get a message to Rick and find out what’s close,” I said. “Maybe there’s an airport or something nearby that we can check.”
I glanced at the aircraft behind me before facing Molev again. “Since we don’t know how long it will take to find the necessary fuel, we need to find somewhere else for everyone to wait. Something easier to defend if we have to spend the night here.”
“We passed some barracks not far from here that should work,” one of the men said.
I watched Molev, waiting for his answer.
Finally, he nodded. “I’ll take Roland, Brandon, and four others with me. Wait here until we return.”
Roni, Steve, Katie, and I watched them leave.
“I don’t miss this,” Katie said.
“What part?” Roni asked. “The nights spent guarding? The shitty food? Cuz I know it’s not the company you have a problem with.”
Katie smiled slightly. “The constantly being on edge.”
“Same,” Steve said. “But I hear Molev’s settlement isn’t like that. I’ll hang in there if you do.”
Sid’s waving from the top of the roof caught my attention.
He gestured to the right, the opposite direction Molev had gone, then held up a single finger.
“We better check it out,” Roni said softly. “Steve, you’re with me. Let the rest know what’s going on.”
While they moved off to the right, I went to the others by the aircraft and gave them a quick update. Roni and Steve were back before I finished and joined me by the others.
“Just one infected. He was moving slow like he was recently turned. Civilian. But get this, he was wearing what looked like a ball cap that had a bullet lodged in the front. I think someone tried a headshot that was stopped by the plating tucked into the cap.”
“Weird,” Katie said. “Why would someone not want to be killed if they were going to turn?”
“Maybe it wasn’t for that,” Steve said. “The guy was wearing a backpack full of food and ammo.”
“A raider,” I said. “It would explain the empty fueler and reservoir.”
“Why would they want all that fuel?” Katie asked.
I shook my head slowly, wondering the same. It didn’t stay good forever, and I hadn’t seen a non-military plane in ages.
“Heat source?” Steve asked.
“If only the dead could talk and tell us,” one of the soldiers said.
“Don’t even say that,” Katie said with a shudder. “It’s bad enough the dead can run now. If they start talking, I’m out.”
Steve and a few of the others chuckled.
My gaze slid over the buildings, searching for infected, but I wasn’t sure we’d see any more. The base had been locked up weeks ago. There were no soldiers to become infected and return to the place they knew. And if the one infected we’d seen had been left for true-dead by a raiding party, the locked front gate would have meant one of two things. They’d either locked a mess of infected inside, or they’d locked it to keep the place clear.
