The Stones of Angkor

CHAPTER 1 WILL

It was dark and dank in the tunnel, and his face was sticky with dirt and sweat, so of course Danny was making with the jokes.

“It’s been ages since Old Man Tom’s gotten laid. His wife isn’t interested in sex anymore, so one day Old Man Tom goes to the barn and starts looking around. He spots a very nice-looking gelding with white spots and a great coat of brown fur—”

“What’s a gelding?” Will asked.

“What?”

“What’s a gelding? Do I need to know what that is in order to get this joke?”

“It’s a horse.”

“Then why didn’t you just say ‘horse’?”

“’Cause it’s a gelding. Now, you want me to finish this joke or not?”

“Wait, are you saying I have that option? Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

Danny said something, but Will couldn’t hear it over the shotgun blast, the ear-splitting noise magnified in the tight confines of the tunnel. For the briefest of seconds, bright red and yellow fire lit up the darkness, revealing the skeletal forms of three ghouls, black-prune skin rippling as they lunged at him — just before the silver buckshot vaporized flesh from bone.

Will racked the shotgun and fired again as three more poured out of the blackness, only to disappear in a shower of buckshot. He racked and waited…but nothing else moved, except for the clumps of flesh splattered against the curved walls.

Smart. They’re attacking three at a time now.

“Sorry about that,” Will said. “You were saying?”

“What happened?” Danny asked.

“A little housecleaning.”

“Still? What the hell are they doing down there?”

“I’ll be sure to ask the next one I run across.”

Will stepped over the bodies sprawled on the wet concrete floor. His boots crunched bone, and thick, oozing liquid clung to the soles. He breathed through his mouth to avoid taking in the acrid stench.

The tunnel was huge, running underneath Beaufont Lake and emerging out of the Power Station on Song Island. At its lowest point, the construction reached thirty meters to the bottom of the lake. The partially round structure was twenty meters in diameter, with a flat bottom big enough for two simultaneous lanes of traffic. Condensation dripped from the high ceiling, and drops of water dangled from broken lights evenly spaced out for maximum coverage. The drip-drip-drip had been a constant ever since they’d stepped inside. Steel pipes and conduits snaked along the sides.

The tunnel extended just over one full kilometer underneath the lake, and it wasn’t until they were three-fourths of the way through that it split up into two paths — one continuing forward and the other diverging left. Except the one that went left ended at a solid concrete wall after about ten meters. They were close enough to the island that Will guessed the unfinished portion — probably designed for the customers — led to the resort hotel, while the workers continued on to the end of the line and the Power Station directly above it.

Blaine moved loudly behind him — which was to say, Blaine moved the way only he knew how. The big man was armed with the same Remington 870 tactical shotgun, the shells loaded with silver buckshot. Silver was the only thing that could kill the ghouls. The only other thing, anyway. The sun was more lethal, but it was hard to walk around with the sun in your holster. The rifles over their backs were backups, because Will never liked to venture far without the M4A1. Lara insisted it was superstition. He called it habit.

“How many does that make?” Blaine asked, his voice echoing slightly in Will’s right ear.

Will wore an earbud that was connected to a comm gear, with a throat mic and a radio Velcroed to his stripped-down assault vest. “Twenty?”

“I thought it was more. Where are we now? Feels like we’ve been down here for a couple of days.”

“We should be underneath the island by now.”

“Like rats scurrying through the darkness,” Danny said in Will’s ear. “Foul-smelling, hairy, no-shower taking rats. I can smell you guys from up here.”

“Really?” Will said.

“No, not really.”

They had been moving steadily through the pitch-black tunnel for the last two hours, navigating by night-vision goggles. It was slow going because there were more ghouls inside than Will had anticipated. Too many, in fact. He wondered what they were still doing down here. Waiting for the door on the island to reopen? That wasn’t going to happen. He and Danny had sealed the entrance with multiple thick layers of concrete months ago. Nothing was getting through that.

And yet here they were, having dug their way through the rubble, only to wait…for what?

Will and Blaine had left a ragged line of dead ghouls in their wake, all the way from the tunnel entrance. Or what was left of it after Danny’s C4 had collapsed it three months earlier. The creatures, undeterred, had begun digging their way back in the very first night after the demolition, moving the makeshift wall of concrete piece by piece until they could slip back inside the dark and damp structure God knew how long ago. A month? Two months ago?

What the hell are they doing down here?

“You hear anything?” Will asked.

“Nothing,” Blaine said. “Maybe that’s all of them.”

Danny chuckled through their earbuds. “Captain Optimism, this guy.”

“Maddie, give me a sitrep,” Will said.

“Hot, sweaty, and oh yeah, hot,” Maddie said in his right ear. “How’s it going down there?”

“Slow.”

“Take your time. I love the heat. No, really.”

“I don’t think she likes the heat,” Danny said. “I could be wrong, but I think that was sarcasm.”

“You think?” Blaine said.

“I’m pretty sure, yeah.”

They moved in the dark for another thirty minutes, anticipating more ghouls to jump out at them with every carefully plotted step. The ground was soft and muddy despite the concrete floor, a product of heavy condensation and dirt that the ghouls had tracked in while they were using the tunnel as their point of entry into the island.

Eventually, the tunnel started to angle upward noticeably.

“We’re close,” Will said.

“You’re right; I can hear you guys from up here,” Danny said.

“Really?”

“No, not really. Man, you’re gullible. What’s that, the third time now?”

“Nice,” Blaine chuckled.

“We’re definitely going up, though,” Will said.

“See you when I see you,” Danny said.

It didn’t take long before the tunnel leveled out again. They continued along a flat surface for another five minutes before reaching a wide, circular room.

Tap.

Will froze.

“What?” Blaine whispered from behind him.

Tap, tap.

Will watched it moving toward him. It was small and painfully thin, even more so than the ones he had been killing on his way here. He wondered how long it had been down here, waiting for something that never came. Flesh hung loosely from deformed bones, and it seemed to be sniffing him. Maybe it knew there was silver in the shotgun, or maybe it was just too smart to make a frontal attack.

For a second, just a second, Will stared back at it through the night-vision goggles, wondering what was going through its mind, what it was seeing, and what (who) else was looking back at him through those dead, black eyes.

“Shit,” Blaine said, stepping forward and shooting the ghoul from a meter away. The creature’s head was severed from its narrow shoulder blades, and it flopped to the floor as if it were a sack of meat.

Blaine racked his shotgun. “What the hell was it doing back here all by itself?”

Good question.

Will continued into the room, stepping over the decapitated ghoul.

The room looked about forty meters in diameter, with concrete floors covered in old, cracking, mud-caked footprints. The place had the feel of a staging area, like a supply warehouse without the supplies. That stark emptiness gave it a cavernous vibe, and Will couldn’t help but wonder how many had been down here that first night they spent on the island.

Hundreds. Maybe thousands…

On the far wall was the empty car of a freight elevator, and from its position, he guessed it led straight up to the generator building on the surface. And next to it, the first of many steps leading up.

Will clicked the Push-to-Talk switch on his radio. “We’re underneath the Power Station. Looks like they never got around to finishing the elevators.”

There were bodies in the room, though not as many as he had expected. Old, wrinkled skin draped over bones that looked bleach-white against the neon green glow of his night vision. He counted a dozen skeletons, give or take, in a jagged line toward the stairs. They had been here for a while.

Blaine moved closer to get a better look. The hulking, six-two Blaine had a good three inches on Will, and looked like some kind of alien insect with the protruding lens of the night-vision goggles.

Blaine craned his head to look up the stairs. “I see a door.”

“That’ll be the shack.”

There was a steel door at the top of the stairs, slathered with dry skin and thick clumps of coagulated liquid. Will went up the steps first, skirting around still-gooey layers of flesh in his path. The stairs were wide, designed to accommodate more than one person at a time, but it got noticeably narrower the higher it went. A door gleamed against his night vision, even underneath the cake of dried blood.

When he finally reached the top, he banged on the door as hard as he could. There were barely any echoes, just the dull thuds of flesh against unyielding steel.

“Can you hear that?” he asked.

“Barely,” Danny said in his ear. “Do it again.”

Will banged his fists against the door a second time.

“Okay,” Danny said. “Now do Camptown Races.”

They climbed out of the makeshift hole — a one-by-two meter-long jagged opening near the top — and slipped and slid their way down the loose pile of rubble. The tunnel entrance, or what remained of it, squatted along the eastern shore of Beaufont Lake and was little more than a wall of destroyed concrete. It would have looked like just another unfinished construction site — gray and uninteresting — if you didn’t know what was on the other side.

He had been seeing the world through the night-vision goggles for so long that the sudden afternoon glare gave him an excruciating headache. The scorching late-September heat didn’t help, a reminder that there wasn’t much of a difference between Texas and Louisiana when it came to climate.

Maddie was waiting for them with a baseball cap to keep the brightness out of her eyes. She seemed even smaller than usual against the expansive, barren landscape behind her. “What were they doing down there?”

“Good question,” Will said.

“It looked like they were waiting,” Blaine said.

“Waiting for what?” Maddie asked.

“I don’t know,” Will said, “they weren’t in a conversational mood. Come on, let’s get this thing sealed back up.”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that,” Maddie sighed.

It took them two hours laboring in the heat until they could replace all the concrete slabs that the ghouls had removed from the rubble to regain entrance into the tunnel. It was heavy work, and they created an assembly line, passing pieces big and small between them, with Blaine tossing them up into the pile until they couldn’t see the opening anymore.

“Will that hold?” Maddie asked later.

“Not in this lifetime,” Will said. “But it’ll slow them down. When they get it open again, we’ll close it back up. Next time, we’ll just seal the fuckers in.”

“The fun never ends,” Blaine said.

“Sorry I couldn’t lend a hand,” Danny said in their ears, “but you know, island duty…and stuff.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Maddie grunted. “Rub it in, surfer boy.”

“It doesn’t look like much, does it?” Blaine said, looking the tunnel over.

He wasn’t wrong. The entrance, before Danny blew it up, was a large, wide open half-circle surrounded by a concrete bunker. There were no doors and it was big enough for a truck to drive through, and when they had first located it three months ago, they saw old tracks and faded footprints leading in and out. The land around it was flat and sun-bleached, with a few shacks scattered among the dead, brown grass. There were signs that a construction crew had once been here, including an abandoned Port-A-Potty lying on its side and a trailer with deflated tires. But there were no vehicles now, as if everyone had simply packed up and went home one day.

Will glanced at his watch: 2:15 p.m.

He clicked the PTT. “Gaby, we’re on our way back. Anything?”

Will looked west, across the lake and at the easily identifiable long structure jutting out of Song Island. The Tower. A combination lighthouse and radio tower, with windows along the second and third floors that offered a perfect view of the island and the surrounding shorelines to the east, north, and south. There was nothing in the west except water.

“Lots of big, fat nothings,” Gaby said. “Well, except for you guys.”

He couldn’t see Gaby, but knew she was on the third floor of the Tower right now, providing overwatch with her M4, probably peering through the ACOG — the Advanced Optical Combat Gunsight — riflescope at him at this very moment. The ACOG gave them long-distance shooting capability, something at which Gaby had proven surprisingly efficient.

From shoo-in high school prom queen to military-trained sniper. I wonder where you put that on the college admissions form.

“All quiet?” he asked.

“Good to go,” Gaby said.

Will looked back at Blaine and Maddie, both still catching their breath, all three of them standing in shirts and pants drenched in sweat.

“We’ll keep an eye on it from the Tower,” Will said. “Until we can get it permanently sealed, this’ll have to do for now.”

They headed back to the Jeep parked nearby. The land around them was flat but impossibly bumpy, with the nearest paved road, Route 27, a good five kilometers away. The Jeep made the trip bearable, if just barely.

They were halfway to the vehicle when Will stopped suddenly.

Blaine almost crashed into him. “What?”

“Listen,” Will said.

It was like the flutter of feathers in the air — a soft, teasing whup-whup-whup. Will knew what it was, because he had heard it often enough in Afghanistan. And he remembered that night on the island while waiting for the collaborators to attack the beach. It had come and gone, never to be seen again…until now.

It was tiny, but that was only because it was still far away. The only reason he could even hear it at all was due to the stillness of the world around him. Sound traveled these days, especially the very odd, foreign noise of helicopter rotor blades whipping across the air.

“Holy shit,” Blaine said. “Is that what I think it is?”

“It is,” Will said.

“Is it the same one from last time?” Maddie asked.

“Maybe,” Will said. “Gaby, what do you see?”

“Helicopter,” Gaby said.

“But what do you see?”

“Looking.” Then a few seconds later, “White.” He could hear frustration in her voice. “That’s all I got, Will, sorry. It’s still too far away.”

“Okay. Keep your finger on the trigger.”

“Will do.”

Will slung the Remington and pulled the M4A1 free. Blaine did the same thing with his M4.

There were no doubts about it; the helicopter was moving in their direction. If it was armed and had hostile intentions, they were pretty much out of luck, even if they could make the Jeep.

The helicopter began to slow down as it neared them, its tail turning slightly as the pilot eased up on the controls. It was close enough now that Will could see it was a civilian chopper. Best of all, there were no signs of a shooter leaning out of the open side door.

“What should we do?” Maddie asked.

“Don’t shoot unless it shoots first,” Will said.

He walked past the Jeep and watched the helicopter hovering for a moment, as if the pilot was trying to gauge the reaction to its presence. Eventually, it started lowering itself to the ground forty meters from him.

“That’s a good sign, right?” Blaine shouted after him.

Hope for the best…

Will covered his eyes at the swirling storm of dust and dirt biting into his exposed face and neck. “Stay here!” he shouted back at Maddie and Blaine.

They took up positions behind the Jeep, shielding their eyes from the debris.

Will waited for the helicopter to fully touch down, its landing pads rocking slightly as they settled on the uneven earth.

A click in Will’s right ear, then Danny’s voice: “Nice ride. You gonna bring it over so we can all go for a spin, too?”

“Looks pretty friendly.”

“I can’t see anything but a white bird. A big-ass white bird.”

“It’s civilian, and no armaments as far as I can see.”

“That’s a good sign.”

“But just in case, stay frosty.”

“I’m so frosty, Gaby’s catching a cold over here.”

“Oh my God,” Gaby said. “I don’t know what Carly sees in you.”

“I go places where other guys don’t dare, or can.”

“I think I just threw up in my mouth,” Gaby said.

Will tuned them out and walked toward the helicopter. He saw only one person inside the cockpit, a ponytail whipping behind her as she pulled off her helmet and climbed out of her seat.

The helicopter had blue stripes and sported a big, round number 3 inside a red circle, along with the letters KTBC. The Bell 407, a popular helicopter brand with news channels, looked weathered from time and the elements.

The woman climbed out wearing khaki cargo pants and a sweat-stained white T-shirt. She moved across the flat land toward him, careful to keep her hands at her sides, just far enough away from a holstered sidearm — and the black pistol inside it — but still close enough to go for it if everything went to shit.

“Don’t shoot,” she called. “I come in peace.”

Now that she was closer, he guessed she was in her early thirties, with an athletic five-eight frame. He slung his rifle and saw her let out a noticeable sigh of relief.

Will met her halfway and stuck out his hand.

“Jen,” she said, shaking his hand.

“Will.” He pointed back at the Jeep. “Blaine and Maddie.”

“They’re not gonna shoot, are they?”

“Hopefully not. You took a risk coming down like this, alone.”

“Yeah, well, end of the world and everything, what’s a little risk, right? Besides, you folks are the first moving things on two feet I’ve seen in days.”

“Can you use that thing?” he asked, nodding at her holstered sidearm.

“Haven’t had any reasons to use it yet.”

“You’ve been lucky, then.”

“Really lucky, yeah.” She looked past Will, across the lake, and at the Tower. “You folks from the island?”

“We are. Why didn’t you go straight there?”

“I didn’t see any safe landing zones when I made my passes three months ago. Overgrown grass, lampposts, and palm trees everywhere. There was a beach, but that’s always risky. Plus, I saw a lot of people with guns outside a house farther down the shoreline. What happened to that house, anyway?”

“I burned it down.”

“Ah.” She waited for him to continue, and when he didn’t, “Got a reason, right?”

“Yes.”

He got something back that looked halfway between an amused smirk and a grin.

“A man of few words; I can dig it,” she said. “By the way, where did you people get palm trees in Louisiana?”

“I have no idea. We found the place like that.”

A click and he heard Lara’s excited voice: “Danny said the helicopter came back?”

Will let Jen know he was keying his radio. She nodded and waited, as he said, “I’m speaking to the pilot now.”

“What does he want?”

“She. And I haven’t asked her what she wants yet.”

“Maybe we can do some kind of a trade,” Jen said. “I don’t have much inside the helicopter, but if you need medicine, or medical equipment, I have a hospital.”

“How much of the hospital?” he asked.

She grinned. “How’d you know?”

“Hospitals are big places. You’d need an army to hold all of it. Do you have an army?”

“No army, and we only have the top floor.”

“Maybe we can work something out. We happen to be running a little low on medical supplies these days.”

“Should I ask why?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Does it have anything to do with that house you burned down?”

Will smiled. “Maybe.”

CHAPTER 2 LARA

Lara watched the helicopter swoop over the island, with Maddie peering out from the cockpit passenger seat, before angling toward a makeshift landing zone Will, Danny, and Blaine had carved out of the hotel grounds. It had taken about an hour to chop down three trees and saw two lampposts within the 100x100 feet square box in front of the two pear-shaped swimming pools.

The kids — Elise, Vera, and Jenny — stood next to Carly and Lara on the raised, open patio outside the front doors of the Kilbrew Hotel and Resorts. She couldn’t blame them for being excited. It wasn’t every day you saw a helicopter at the end of the world. As the helicopter landed, its rotor blades threw around a healthy chunk of grass and dirt, some landing on the roof of the unfinished hotel behind them.

Jen, the pilot, climbed out with Maddie.

“Oh, great,” Carly said. “She’s blonde, hotter, and taller than us, too.”

“Hey, I’m blonde, too,” Lara said.

“But she’s taller.”

“Don’t worry, you’re safe. Danny likes ’em young.”

“Well, I’m good for a few more years, then.”

Danny had gone back to pull overwatch in the Tower, on the eastern side of the island behind the hotel. That left Will and Blaine to greet Jen and walk her over to the patio.

“Time to put on the hostess hat,” Carly said. She adjusted her bright red hair a bit, then jogged over to meet the group.

The girls ran after Carly, passing her by to get a better look at the helicopter. Carly led Jen over, stopping every few seconds to point out something around the island. Jen looked impressed.

Will climbed up the patio and leaned against the railing next to her. “What do you think?”

Lara reached over and flicked at flecks of dirt, grass, and what looked like dried mud and flakes of concrete clinging to his brown hair. “You need a haircut.”

“About Jen.”

She looked back at the pilot. “Given how fast we’ve been going through our medical supplies, it’d be nice to re-stock. That, or we could just stop getting shot and blown up.”

“Now what would be the fun of that?”

“I forgot who I’m talking to. If you could stop getting into trouble, you wouldn’t be, well, you.”

“I’m not sure that was a compliment.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Ah.”

“But I love you anyway. Even if you do smell like rotten cabbage.”

He sniffed himself. “Yeah. It was pretty rank down there.”

She looked toward the shoreline, where she imagined the tunnel entrance was — not that she could see even a little bit of it from here. “Have you figured out why they spent all these months digging their way back in there? Could they have eventually gotten through the shack and onto the island?”

“I don’t think so. The shack’s solid steel with reinforced brick walls. Nothing’s getting through that.”

“So what were they doing down there?”

Will shook his head. “I haven’t a clue. Waiting, maybe.”

“For what?”

“Orders would be my guess. They’re foot soldiers. Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘Hurry up and wait’?”

“Is that a joke?”

He smiled. “Just something soldiers say.”

“You think she’s still out there, don’t you? Kate.”

“I know she’s out there.”

“So why hasn’t she attacked? It’s been three months.”

He looked toward the shore, and she could tell he had been turning the question over in his mind for some time now, too.

Why haven’t they attacked yet?

She remembered those anxious first few days on the island after the fight. Waiting — and fully expecting — every single day for an attack that never came. Everyone was hurt. Danny, Gaby, Maddie, even Will. She was hurt, too. Everyone.

And they waited, and waited…but it never happened. Instead of relief, each passing day without an attack was suffocating, as if they couldn’t breathe because of their own overwhelming anxiety. Or at least, it felt that way to her. Will had kept them afloat, never resting, always moving, doing everything until Danny was back on his feet. Gaby had been instrumental in those first few days and weeks, and Lara couldn’t recall a day where the teenager wasn’t stuck to Will’s hip like a devoted little sister.

“I don’t know,” Will said finally. “This island, us… What are we, in the larger scheme of things? Insignificant would be my guess. What’s a handful of stubborn humans compared to what’s going on out there, in the rest of the country? The world?”

“What is going on out there?”

“I don’t know. That’s what bothers me.”

Lara reached over and took his hand, then leaned against his shoulder.

“I thought I smelled like rotten cabbage?” he smiled.

“You do. But I’m used to it by now.”

“Okay, now I know that wasn’t a compliment.”

She laughed.

Lara watched Jen tear apart a thirteen-inch white bass, gobbling up the meat and sighing with so much pleasure that Lara felt almost guilty about not appreciating the never-ending dishes of fresh fish more than she did.

They were inside the hotel lobby watching Jen indulge her amazing appetite. A flurry of dirt blew across the marble flooring, pushed through the wide-open spaces by a sudden breeze from the open windows. The lobby was aired out against the heat, and she couldn’t imagine how much hotter it would have been without the black marble that covered the mostly finished portions of the hotel. Thank God it would be cold soon, with November and December on the horizon. But then they would have to worry about heating…

“These are insane,” Jen said.

“You have Sarah to thank for that,” Lara said. “If it was just the rest of us, you’d be eating canned fruit, SPAM, or MREs.”

“We have boxes of those disgusting MREs at the hospital. The guys ‘rescued’ them from a nearby surplus shop a few months back. Before then, we were surviving on vending machine chips, sodas, and whatever else the cafeteria had in stock before we lost it.”

“Sounds like us in the beginning,” Carly said.

“How many of you are there?” Will asked.

Jen licked her lips and reached for another fish. “Twenty-six in the beginning, but over time we added two dozen more, so forty in all.”

“That’s a lot of people.”

“It’s a big hospital.”

“But you only have the top floor.”

“Correct. The hospital itself has ten floors.”

“And you’re just doing recon out here?” Will asked. “Like you were three months ago?”

Jen nodded. “We’ve been scavenging the areas around the hospital for food, but it’s becoming scarce.” She paused. “This may sound crazy, but some of us have a theory. We think the creatures have been purposefully sabotaging food near us so we can’t use it.” She looked at them over fish bones to gauge their reaction. “Sounds nuts, right?”

“No,” Will said. He glanced over at Lara, then Carly.

Jen picked up on the look. “What? Wanna share with the new girl in class?”

“What do you know about how they did all this?” Will asked.

“I know as much as anyone, I guess, which isn’t much. Why, you guys know more?”

Will told her about what they had managed to piece together. How the ghouls took over the big cities first during The Purge, using the population to grow their army exponentially. How they then moved into the countryside on the second night, conquering the smaller cities. When he got around to the blood farms, Jen listened intently and stopped eating. He told her about the collaborators, about the blue-eyed ghoul. Lara thought Jen might gag back up everything she had eaten in the last ten minutes.

“Jesus,” Jen said when Will was finished. “We’ve been hunkered down in the hospital for all these months, just trying to keep them at bay. If what you’re saying is true, we’re truly fucked, aren’t we? Are we just delaying the inevitable?”

“Not necessarily,” Lara said. “This island, for instance, is safe. There’s something in the water — the mercury content, maybe — that the ghouls don’t like. So there are three certain ways we know of to fight them. The sun, bodies of water, and silver.”

“What about silver?”

“Silver kills them,” Will said.

He drew his knife, the one that used to be a cross but that Will had sanded down into a double-edged bladed weapon. He handed it handle-first to Jen, and she took it carefully.

“What is this, some kind of cross?” she asked.

“It used to be,” Will said. “The silver on the outer edges is what’s important. Have you tried shooting them?”

“Of course.”

“What happens?”

“Nothing. They just shrug it off.”

“Not with this. They can be killed. You just need to use the right ammunition.”

“Silver,” Jen said.

He nodded. “Silver.”

Will drew his Glock. He pulled out the magazine and thumbed a bullet free.

Jen took it and turned it over between two fingers. “Silver bullets?”

“Hi ho, silver,” Carly said. “It sounds ridiculous, we know, but it works.”

“Ridiculous?” Jen said. “There are undead things crawling around in the darkness of that hospital, and every single night they try to break through to the tenth floor to get at us. Compared to that, silver bullets make perfect sense.”

Lara smiled. That was as good an answer as she had heard. “One question,” she said.

“Shoot,” Jen said, handing the bullet back to Will.

“What took you so long to come back? It’s been three months.”

“I had a list of sites to check out first and not a lot of fuel. And to be honest, after I saw all those guns back at the house, this place didn’t seem all that safe. I know it’s crazy, but I sort of have an unnatural fear of getting shot out of the air.”

“When are you due back at the hospital?” Will asked.

Jen glanced at her watch. “Tonight, actually, but now that I’m already down here, and you folks seem friendly enough — i.e., no one has shot at me yet — I guess I could stay the night. It’d be nice to sleep on a real bed again. You guys have any spare rooms?”

“Um, maybe one or two,” Carly said.

After lunch, Jen was back inside her helicopter’s cockpit, talking on the radio with her hospital. Lara watched her from the lobby window, wondering what it felt like to be able to climb into something that could fly you away whenever you wanted. She could go anywhere, at any time, and not have to worry about the creatures that lurked in the darkness.

I need to learn how to fly one of those things.

She felt a pair of strong arms slip around her waist. Will slid his body against hers and kissed her neck. He had poured water over his face and changed clothes, but he still smelled of sweat and dust. They all did, these days.

She leaned her head to one side to give him better access.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“Isn’t that my line?” she smiled.

He chuckled.

I wish I could fly, she thought, but said, “That we could really use supplies from that hospital. We’re running dangerously low on everything.”

“I agree. That’s why I’m going back with her, to work out a deal with this Mike guy that runs the place.”

“I should go, too.”

“One of us has to stay here.”

“So you stay.”

“Right, that’s going to happen.”

“You don’t know what we need.”

“You can make me a list.”

“It’s not the same thing.”

“I’ll go back with her first, see if it’s safe over there. Maybe I can help them get some of the other floors back. Jen’s telling Mike about silver right now.”

“You sound as if you’re planning on being gone for a while.”

“We’ve been out here by ourselves for too long. We need allies, babe. That kind of relationship takes time. And that helicopter will come in handy one of these days.”

“Starch?”

“Yeah. We left a lot back there. That helicopter would make the trip easier, faster, and safer.”

She watched his face closely. Will always had a look about him when he was thinking ahead. “Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” was a motto he and Danny had lived — and survived — by since The Purge. It had gotten them this far, and this island.

“So how are we going to convince Mike we’re his new best friends?” she asked.

“You know what every soldier likes during wartime?”

“Sex?”

“Besides that.”

“More sex?”

“Bullets. The only thing soldiers like more than bullets? Even more bullets.”

“I’ll pretend that actually makes sense.”

“Think about it.”

“I’d rather not. Anyway, so who else is going with you and Danny, if not me?”

“Danny’s not going. I need him here. So it’s either Gaby or Blaine.”

“Gaby’s just a kid, Will.”

“She’s eighteen going on thirty. In a few years, she could be in charge of the island’s security.”

“You can’t be serious. Take Blaine.”

“Why Blaine?”

“He’s bigger.”

“Is he supposed to be my bodyguard?”

“Something like that.”

“I’d feel better if Blaine was here with you. Danny’s very good at what he does, but he’s only one man. That leaves Gaby.”

“What about Maddie?”

“Gaby’s better.”

“Better than both Blaine and Maddie?” she said doubtfully.

“Yes,” he said matter-of-factly.

“How is that possible? You’ve been training both Blaine and Maddie, too.”

“Gaby’s a natural,” Will said. “Some people were just born to be shooters.”

After she got Jen settled into one of the many available rooms in the hotel, Lara showered, spending her full five minutes. That was their daily limit: five minutes in the morning and another five at night if they needed it. She always needed it. After all those months on the road, every shower counted.

Afterward, she stood nude in front of the sink and dried her hair, while Will leaned against the open bathroom door and watched her. She didn’t acknowledge him for a while, and he seemed content to just stare at her with that smile on his face that all men got when a woman took her clothes off in front of them.

Finally, she said, “My hips are fuller, have you noticed? Must be the steady diet of seafood.”

“Your hips? I haven’t really noticed your hips.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re such a charmer, Will.”

“Is that why you love me?”

“Uh huh. Your ability to shoot things in the face was a close second.”

“Good to know, good to know.”

He walked over and picked her up. She yelped and turned around in his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and kissing him.

Will carried her to the bed and laid her down, then sat back and watched her for a moment.

She stretched her arms and legs lazily in front of him. “Like what you see?”

“Very much.”

“So do something about it.”

“I should let you know. I expect my good-bye sex to be spectacular.”

“You’ve had a lot of experience, have you?”

He shrugged. “Ladies like a man in uniform.”

“You’re not wearing a uniform.”

“I could put one on.”

“You have it with you?”

“For the purpose of this conversation? Yes. Yes, I do.”

“Lame-o,” she said, and pulled him down to her.

Afterward, she lay in his arms, their bodies sticky and tangled, glistening from either the heat or the sex, she wasn’t entirely sure. It should have been uncomfortable, but it wasn’t. Maybe she was just used to it. She had learned to get used to a lot of things these days, but this was one of the more pleasant ones.

She stared at the darkening patio window across the room, secured in the knowledge that they were safe here — in this hotel, on this island. It hadn’t been easy after that first night, when they uncovered the island’s true purpose. But day after day, week after week, it got easier, until she stopped looking at every coming nightfall with mounting dread. It still happened every now and then when she least expected it, but they were rare these days.

“You’re awake,” he said softly.

“Uh huh.”

“You okay?”

“I’m fine. Better than fine.”

“Good.”

“When was the last time we were apart for longer than a day?”

“Before Starch.”

“Not since?”

“I don’t think so. Why? Are you tired of me already?”

“Yes, but that’s not the point.”

“What is the point?”

“I was just wondering…”

“The good kind of wondering, or the ‘I think we should see other people’ type of wondering?”

“Really? And what other people would I be seeing at the end of the world? Blaine? Danny? Maddie?”

“Maddie?”

“What, you think I should limit myself to just the boys?”

“Then why not include Carly?”

“Gross. She’s like my little sister.”

“I’m just saying, if we’re already going there…”

“That’s disgusting, Will. Don’t ever talk about me and Carly like that again.”

“A guy can dream, can’t he?”

“Only if he’s Danny.”

“Gotcha.”

“Anyway, I was wondering…about this thing we have. You and me.”

“What about it?”

“It’s been good. This thing.”

She saw a ghost of a smile creasing his lips in the semidarkness. “You’re not trying to get me to buy you a ring and make this official, are you?” he asked.

“Perish the thought. Besides, where would we find a minister?”

“Whew, escaped the noose by the skin of my nose.”

“Oh, that’s funny.”

She punched him as hard as she could in the chest. He laughed it off, grabbed her by the shoulders, and reversed their positions until she was lying on the bed underneath him. He kissed her, then pulled back a bit to trace the length of her breasts with his fingers as if they had all the time in the world.

She loved these moments. The quiet and solitude of the island, especially in the evenings, was a gift she was determined not to waste. To have someone to share it with, someone who had been through everything she had, made it all the more special.

Please, God, don’t take this away from us.

Lara watched his face, letting herself become lost in his soft-brown eyes. They didn’t speak for a while. It used to drive her crazy, the way he could be silent for so long. Will could do that. He was so unlike Danny in that respect. Unless someone was shooting at them — and even then — Danny always felt a need to fill the void. Will, on the other hand, could look at her in the darkness for hours without saying a word.

“By the way,” she said, “you still owe me one.”

“I do?”

“Oh, right, you forgot. Give me a break. You didn’t forget when you reminded me it was your turn last time.”

He laughed. “I’m going to take your word for it.”

“Trust me, you definitely owe me one.”

“I was hoping you’d let me get away with it. After all, I am leaving the island for who knows how long.”

“Nice try. Now get down there.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He kissed her on the lips, then moved down to her breasts. By the time he was at her belly, the last remaining light in the room had begun to fade and she was only aware of Will, existing in this space with her, at this moment.

His touch against her skin, the warmth of his breath against her belly…

As he continued moving southbound, she sighed into the darkness, closed her eyes tightly, and found his shoulders somewhere around her waist. She held on and tried to make the night last as long as possible.

CHAPTER 3 GABY

She was happy. The last time she was this happy was when she finally hit something with the M4. After that first hit, it was all uphill. It was like sex that way — once you got it over with the first time, the second — and third, and fourth, and fifth — times came naturally.

Training on the M4 and the Glock with Will and Danny were some of the best times of her life. For the first month, it was almost exclusively Will, with Danny still recuperating from his wounds. Will didn’t so much as teach her to become a soldier as he taught her how to become more. More than she had ever thought she was capable of, or realized she had the potential to become.

“Muscle memory,” he had told her. “When you can do it without thinking about it, that’s when you can stop.”

By the end of the second month, Will had enough faith in her abilities to give her overwatch duty when either he or Danny were occupied elsewhere. She became, essentially, the third most valuable shooter on the island, and Gaby didn’t take the job lightly. Their trust in her put her on a high that she still hadn’t come down from yet.

So when Will came to her room last night and asked how she would feel about coming with him to the hospital with Jen, it was all she could do not to blurt out, “Hell yeah.”

She was packing for the trip the next morning when Danny showed up. He had a palm full of blueberries, one of the island’s more abundant fruits, and his mouth and hands were already stained with blue and purple juices. From a distance, Danny could have passed for an old teenager and not a thirty-year-old ex-Army Ranger.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Almost.” She stuffed only the bare essentials into the field pack she was bringing with her — a pair of shirts, pants, underwear, and socks — before filling the rest of the space with spare magazines for the Glock and M4 that she couldn’t fit into the pouches around her waist.

“Your first field work.”

“Got any advice?”

“Stay close to Will and do what he says.”

“That’s it?”

“What were you expecting? Something more Mr. Miyagi-like?”

“Who?”

“Mr. Miyagi.”

“I don’t know who that is.”

He grunted. “Never mind.”

“What else?”

“Always use a condom.”

“My mother could have told me that.”

“Don’t go into the barn.”

“The barn?”

“It’s tough getting hay out of ass cracks.”

“Good to know.”

“And finally, always follow the Army Ranger creed: It’s not your job to die for your country, it’s your job to make the other guy die for his.”

“That’s the Army Ranger creed?”

“Of course. Would I lie to you?”

“Yes.”

“I’m hurt.” Danny touched his chest, then went the extra mile and slid down the wall and let his hands flop away, the berries spilling onto the floor.

“Finally, he shuts up,” Gaby said. She slung her pack, grabbed her M4 off the bed, and stepped over Danny on her way out into the hall. “You’re cleaning up my carpet before you go.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said after her.

She found Lara on the patio outside the hotel, watching Will, Blaine, and Maddie loading three heavy green ammo cans into Jen’s helicopter.

Lara smiled at her. “Excited, afraid, a little bit of both?”

“A little bit of both, but mostly excited.”

“You’ll do great.”

“Thanks.”

Of all the people on the island, it was easiest for her to bond with Lara. The fact that they could have passed for sisters didn’t hurt. Gaby was a few inches taller, but they had almost the exact same blonde hair, except Gaby kept hers tied in a ponytail so it wouldn’t interfere with her aim.

“Do me a favor?” Lara said. “Blonde to blonde?”

Gaby smiled. “Sure.”

“I really love him. If you could bring him back in one piece, I would really appreciate it.”

“Okay, but if he accidentally puts his hand on my thigh, can I accidentally shove my tongue down his throat?”

“Only if he puts his hand on your right thigh.”

“Not the left?”

“No. The left means he’s only mildly interested. The right is the serious thigh.”

“Deal.”

Lara turned around and hugged her, and Gaby felt a sudden flood of emotions she wasn’t prepared for. It almost got the best of her, but she managed to push it down so she wouldn’t start crying like a girl.

Girls cry. Soldiers don’t. You’re not a girl anymore.

“Take care of yourself, Gaby,” Lara whispered. “And him too, if you have the time.”

“I will. He and Danny are like the brothers I always hated.”

Lara laughed. “You’ve been spending too much time with Danny.”

“You think?”

“Just a tad.”

“That would explain the strange desire to punch myself in the face for absolutely no reason.”

They heard the helicopter’s rotor blades starting up behind them, the whup-whup-whup getting faster and faster, pushing the wind all the way over to the patio.

She looked over, saw Will waving at them.

“That’s my signal,” Gaby said.

“See you soon,” Lara said.

Gaby hurried off, jogging down the steps and running across the lawn, afraid that if she hesitated for even a second, she might change her mind and convince herself that she wasn’t ready for this.

She passed Blaine and Maddie, bracing against the onslaught of swirling wind. The whine of the helicopter’s turbine engine was already deafening even before she got close. Will opened the back door for her and she slipped inside. He slammed the door shut, then climbed into the cockpit’s passenger seat.

Will held up an aqua and black headset and motioned for her to put hers on. She grabbed a pair off the seat next to her. Will’s voice came through loud and clear. “We good?”

She nodded back. “We’re good.”

Will turned to Jen. “How far to Lafayette by air?”

“Eighty miles, so call it an hour, give or take,” Jen said. “I like to take the scenic route whenever I can, in case I run across survivors below.”

“How many survivors have you found over the last year?”

“Exactly thirteen.”

“Lucky thirteen.”

“Lucky for them, I showed up.”

The helicopter lifted into the air, gaining speed and altitude with each passing second. Gaby looked out her window, saw Carly outside the front patio with Lara and the kids leaning against the railing around them. It wasn’t until she saw the girls waving good-bye that the realization she was leaving the island for the first time since arriving here with Josh and the others three months ago finally struck her.

“How are you for fuel?” Will was asking Jen up front.

“There’s enough to get us to Lafayette and back, if necessary. Don’t sweat it.”

“Sweating things is what I do.”

“Is that how you landed the hot doctor?”

“That, and my charming personality.”

“Is that what she told you?”

Will chuckled.

Gaby became slowly aware of an insistent clicking noise. It took a few seconds to track it down to the ammo cans on the floor next to her, shaking from the vibrations that coursed through every inch of the helicopter. The rectangular boxes were dull green with handles on top, and the bullets inside were trembling against the sides, the metallic click-click-click sounding disconcertingly like a bomb’s timer.

Jen pointed the helicopter northeast, and Gaby watched Song Island slowly fade behind them.

Somewhere between Beaufont Lake and Lafayette, Gaby drifted off to sleep. When she opened her eyes, the first thing that flickered across her mind was—

Josh.

How long had it been since she thought of him?

Too long…

Josh is dead. Move on, girl.

She pushed him out of her mind and sat up in the backseat. In front of her, Will and Jen were talking, their voices coming through the headset that had slipped down to her neck while she slept. She pulled it back up over her ears.

“The city’s almost completely empty,” Jen was saying. “I flew this chopper over every inch of it before I started expanding out into the countryside. I was sure there would be survivors at Lake Charles. If anyone can survive the end of the world, it’s got to be gamblers, right?”

“Where do you land this thing in the city?” Will asked.

“I’ve been landing and taking off from the hospital rooftop. Every time I leave it up there overnight, I’m always dead certain the next morning I’ll find it in a hundred pieces, that they — the ghouls — would sabotage it. But they never did. I don’t know why.”

“It’s a good question.”

“You don’t have any theories?”

“Not really. They used a car against us once. They lifted it up and crashed it into a brick wall.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah.”

Gaby had heard that story before. Will and Lara had lost a couple of people they were traveling with that night.

We’ve all lost people.

She thought about everyone she had lost over the last year. Her parents, her friends, her neighbors…

Josh…

“What was he in the Army?” Will was asking in the cockpit.

“Mike was a lieutenant,” Jen said. “You?”

“Corporal.”

She grinned over at him. “So what was it, a general lack of ambition? You don’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d be happy pulling down a corporal paycheck for the rest of his life.”

“I didn’t see the point. I left the Army after my enlistment was up, joined the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Danny and I were working SWAT when all of this happened.”

“Damn, Will, I didn’t know I was flying a badass soldier-slash-ex-SWAT commando around. I’m practically trembling with excitement.”

Will smiled. “You want an autograph?”

“Will you sign my breasts?”

“Are they big enough?”

“Wouldn’t you like to find out.”

Lafayette, Louisiana, according to Jen, was a city of 112,000 people. Dull, gray concrete highways had replaced open prairie below the swiftly moving helicopter, and she glimpsed large buildings and skyscrapers in the distance. Marble and glass curtain walls, something she hadn’t seen in a while, glinted underneath the sun’s glare.

Jen reached forward and hit some switches along her helicopter’s dashboard — they all looked the same to Gaby — before speaking into her headset. “Mercy Hospital, this is Jen, I’m on approach. Anyone manning the radio over there? Over.”

There was static through Gaby’s headset for a few seconds, before a male voice answered: “We hear you loud and clear, Jen. Welcome back. We thought you’d abandoned us for good this time. Over.”

“No such luck, Mercy Hospital. I’m ten minutes out. Over.”

“Roger that. ETA ten minutes. Over.”

“Inform Mike I’m rolling in with two new people. They’re armed but not dangerous, so no one get ants in their pants. Over.”

“Will do,” the man said. “Mercy Hospital over and out.”

“You guys have problems with other survivors before?” Will asked.

“Here and there, but nothing we couldn’t handle,” Jen said. “We’ve never had to fight off a whole army of collaborators, though. Mike’s done a hell of a job keeping us going, but…” She paused.

“But?”

“I don’t know. We’re not soldiers, you know? There are a couple of soldiers at the hospital. Mike and a couple of his guys, but the rest of us are just civilians. If there was a fight like the kind you guys had to deal with…” She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Sounds like you’ve been lucky so far.”

“So far, yeah,” Jen nodded.

As they neared their destination, Jen veered the helicopter away from the I-10 Highway and angled south, until they came up on a large group of buildings — a baseball field, a football stadium, and the roof of a large, domed structure. A dozen parking lots, with only sprinkles of cars, filled the rest of the open space. It looked as if they were flying over a college town.

On the other side of the sports facilities was Mercy Hospital, a ten-story brown and black building that looked as if it were molded from clay. Gaby wasn’t sure if the architect purposefully designed it to represent a cross when viewed from the air, but that was what Mercy Hospital looked like to her as they glided toward its rooftop. Four separate towers joined at the center, forming a squatting cross. It also looked a bit like a giant Tetris piece, waiting to be inserted into a larger puzzle.

“Welcome to Mercy Hospital,” Jen said. “People check in, but they don’t check out. Unless they have a helicopter. Which, happily, I do.”

Two figures appeared out of a building along one of the towers and jogged over to the center of the rooftop. Jen hovered above them for a moment before starting the helicopter’s descent.

“How many times have you landed on this roof?” Will asked.

“Too many times to count,” Jen said. “Easy as pie.”

“Are all rooftop landings easy as pie?”

“Just like driving a tank. You wanna learn? I bet a smart soldier like you could probably pick it up in no time.”

“Maybe on the next trip.”

There was a slight bump and rocking motion as the helicopter touched down.

Jen flicked at switches along the dashboard. “You’re welcome to keep your weapons. Just do us all a favor and try not to point them at anyone, okay?”

“As long as no one points their weapons at us first,” Will said.

“Fair enough. Oh, and one more thing.”

“What’s that?”

Jen looked back at Gaby. “There are a lot of guys down there. Teenagers, early twenties, mostly. Don’t be offended if they stare. They’re only human.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Gaby said.

“Don’t sweat it. Girl power, and all that.”

Gaby grinned back at her, then unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out. She was wearing combat boots, and loose but hard gravel crunched under the soles. The helicopter was winding down behind her, its engine the only sound for miles.

Jen waved the two guys over. They were both young, and their eyes went from Will to Gaby, where they stayed for much longer than necessary. She guessed they were in their early twenties, though neither one had shaved in a while, so it was hard to know for sure. One had a shotgun, while the other was cradling an AR-15 that looked brand new.

Jen snapped her fingers in front of them to get their attention. “Hey, boys, stop staring at our guest and grab the boxes from the helicopter.” Jen motioned to Will and Gaby. “Come on, I’ll take you to see Mike.”

They followed Jen to the access building on the north tower rooftop. The steel door was fortified on the other side with a second sheet of repurposed metal, possibly a tabletop with its legs sawed off.

“How often do they attack the door?” Will asked.

“They used to do it more often in the beginning,” Jen said, “but not so much these days.”

“But they’re still around. They know you’re here.”

“Oh, they know,” Jen said, and something about the way she said it made Gaby slightly nervous.

They stepped into the stairwell, their path illuminated by a single LED portable lamp hanging from a makeshift hook. Gaby leaned over the railing to get a look at the nine floors below them, but only saw a big slab of concrete instead.

“There’s only one rooftop access on the north tower,” Jen said. “And that’s only accessible from the tenth floor. The nine floors below that share a common stairwell, but you need to use a separate door to get up to the rooftop.”

“So you didn’t have to barricade the entire stairwell in order to keep using the rooftop,” Will said.

“Uh huh.”

Jen pushed open a second door, this one with no extra fortification. Two people standing guard on the other side glanced over as they emerged out of the stairwell. There was another door directly to their right, reinforced with thick slabs of wood.

“Guys, this is Will and Gaby,” Jen said. She indicated the redhead. “That’s Claire—” and pointed at the man, who was staring at Gaby “—and this slack-jawed idiot is Miles.”

Miles looked offended, but Claire chuckled and said, “Welcome to Mercy Hospital.”

“Benny and Tom are bringing some heavy stuff down,” Jen said. “You might want to leave the door open for them. And Miles, make yourself useful and give them a hand when they get down here.”

Claire nodded, while Miles looked sheepishly away.

Jen continued on, leading them through the hospital’s tenth floor.

Gaby noticed the smell right away. She recognized it from all those days and months living inside other people’s basements before she joined Will’s group. It was the suffocating smell of forty people living, sleeping, and surviving on a single barricaded floor with very little (if any) ventilation. After three months on the island breathing in the fresh air, the sudden attack of enclosed space came as a major shock to her system.

The dirty floor under her squeaked, and portable LED lamps strategically placed along the ceilings lit their path. There was barely any natural light, with the windows along the hallways boarded up with doors and furniture, which explained why some of the empty rooms they walked past no longer had doors.

Jen seemed to know where she was going, though Gaby thought they were just walking from one hallway to another. There was a mazelike quality to all the turns, but maybe that was just her mind trying to orient itself to the layout after having the wide open spaces of the island as her backyard for so long.

Every now and then, people came out of their rooms to watch them. Most didn’t bother to wave or say hi. They all had long and pale faces, weary eyes, and gaunt cheeks. They didn’t look sickly or malnourished, but she imagined the lack of light and physical activity had something to do with their unhealthy appearances.

She glimpsed more doors plastered over windows inside the rooms, and stray spills of sunlight here and there. Some of the windows had what looked like steel rebars soldered over them, like some kind of prison.

Must have run out of doors…

“How many rooms?” Will was asking Jen.

“Over 200,” Jen said.

“That’s a lot of access points.”

“We removed every door from the rooms that weren’t being used so we could cover the windows, and we even raided a construction site next door for supplies.”

“The rebars.”

“Yeah.”

“That must have taken a while.”

“It took forever. Luckily, we have people who had done construction before. They taught the rest, and we got them up eventually.”

“So the floor is safe.”

“We haven’t had an incident in months.”

“Don’t jinx it,” a voice said behind them.

They stopped and looked back at an attractive Asian woman in her late twenties coming out of a room behind them. Like everyone they had met so far, she wore cargo pants and a sweat-stained T-shirt.

“Welcome back,” the woman said to Jen. “I thought you were gone for good this time.”

“You wish,” Jen said. “Will and Gaby, this is Amy Park, our resident doctor. Amy, this is Will. He used to be a corporal.”

“I guess that means I outrank you,” Amy said, walking over and shaking Will’s hand. “I was a lieutenant.”

“Only if the United States government is still in operation,” Will said. “Do you know something I don’t?”

“About the U.S. government? Not a thing. Lucky for you, or I’d insist you call me ‘sir.’”

“I was taking them to Mike,” Jen said. “You know where he’s keeping himself?”

“He’s in the central hub,” Amy said, before giving Will an unconvinced look. “So, what’s this I hear about silver?”

Gaby wasn’t sure what she had expected when they finally saw Mike, a twenty-something who, like most of the guys she had met so far, hadn’t shaved in quite some time. He was reasonably handsome underneath sleep-deprived eyes, but a tired face didn’t do him any favors.

“Welcome to Mercy Hospital,” Mike said, walking over and shaking their hands. “It’s not much, but it’s kept us alive and you can’t ask for more than that.”

“Been busy, I see,” Will said.

“Almost done. We’ve been using what you’ve told us about the silver. Unfortunately, there wasn’t nearly as much of the stuff on the floor as we thought, but some of us brought personal items, like crosses. I had no idea so many people were holding on to those.”

There were a dozen or so men and women gathered inside what Amy called the “central hub,” a large, circular lounge that connected the hospital’s four towers. A wide, dark cherry desk sat in the center, the glass tabletop featuring a map of the building. At the moment, Mike’s people were using it to hold makeshift weapons. Silver gleamed underneath the LED lights and what little sunlight managed to pierce through the barricaded windows around them.

The weapons had once been crosses and everyday items such as candle holders, but had since been sharpened, sanded down, and forged into bladed weapons. There had to be a good fifty, maybe sixty, dangerous-looking items piled on the tabletop. More than enough for all forty people in Mike’s group.

Will pulled out his cross-knife and showed it to Mike. “Brilliant minds think alike.”

Mike turned the cross-knife over. “And it works?”

“I’ve probably killed over a hundred with just that thing. More with silver buckshot and bullets. It works.”

“You don’t know how glad I am to hear that. I’m tired of shooting these things with a whole magazine just to watch them keep coming. It’ll be nice to see them stay down for a change. Speaking of which, Jen says you brought some goodwill gifts.”

“The boys are bringing them over now,” Jen said.

“And you need medicine?” Mike asked.

“If you can spare it,” Will nodded.

“We can. But I was hoping we could expand our relationship beyond that.”

“I’m listening.”

He gestured around him. “I have forty people here who would rather be someplace else. Jen tells me you have an island. And the creatures can’t get to it. Is that right?”

“We’ve been there for three months, and they haven’t tried to cross the water once.”

“And they know you’re there?” Amy asked.

“We see them on the shores every night,” Gaby said.

She spent most of her time in the Tower’s third floor keeping overwatch and switching shifts with Danny, Blaine, and Maddie. During her night shifts, she could see the ghouls on land, moving around like little black ink dots through her night-vision binoculars. The sight of them used to disturb her, but she had learned to tune them out.

“I was there last night,” Jen said. “Not a single creature. It’s safe, Mike.”

“Is it the water they don’t like?” Mike asked.

“We think it might have something to do with the mercury content,” Will said. “Probably.”

“But you don’t know for sure?”

“I don’t know anything for sure. Just that some things worked, and others, not so much.”

“What about ultraviolet? Jen says you’ve killed a few with those, too.”

“More than a few. The facility we stayed at before the island had industrial ultraviolet lamps they were using to grow plants. Those things killed the creatures on the spot, but we haven’t been able to duplicate that kind of success on our own.”

“Some flashlights and portable lamps have ultraviolet. The LED ones.”

“So do the solar-powered lamps on the island. But the creatures just run through them without any effect.”

“Wrong wavelength, maybe?”

“Or maybe just not enough of the right kind of UV. The guy who built the facility wasn’t exactly a stickler for building codes. Those lamps could have been more than just ultraviolet despite what they told us.” Will shrugged. “I’m just a grunt, Mike. I’ll leave the science fair experiments to the officers.”

Mike handed the cross-knife back to Will. “Still, it might be worth going back to that facility to find out for sure. That kind of weapon would be invaluable.”

“I wouldn’t mind heading back there myself. We left a lot of supplies behind.” He looked over at Jen. “How about you? Texas is pretty nice to look at this time of the year.”

Jen snorted. “Oh, I see. You were after my Bell all along, weren’t you? And here I thought it was my winning personality.”

“That, too.”

There were loud shuffling movements and grunting behind them as Tom, Benny, and Miles each lugged a heavy ammo can over. Sheets of sweat covered their contorted faces. Gaby guessed they hadn’t seen this much physical activity in a while, probably not since the barricades went up.

“Where do you want these?” Benny asked between grunts.

“Over there,” Mike pointed.

The men (boys) brought the green cans, each eleven-by-five-by-eleven inches over, but only Tom managed to stare at her long enough to get caught at it.

People gathered around them, peering curiously over each other’s shoulders at the ammo cans.

Mike opened one of the green, rectangular boxes and took out a 9mm silver bullet. He held it up to the light. “How many?”

“A thousand 5.56x45mm rounds and another thousand 9mm,” Will said. “Add another 500 shotgun shells to that.”

“A.50 cal can should be able to carry over 1,200 rounds.”

“Who’s counting?”

Mike grinned back at him. “You guys actually pounded out over a thousand silver bullets on that island of yours? That’s a hell of a feat.”

“We had a lot of time on our hands.”

“And a lot of ammo, I see.”

“We drove through Texas. There was no shortage of ammo along the way. And we found some more on the island.”

“God bless Texas,” Mike said. “Hell, I guess it can’t be any worse than what we’ve tried.” The former lieutenant stood up and turned to his people. “Everyone start swapping out your regular ammo with silver. If you’re not using 9mm or 5.56mm, it’s time to change now.”

“Free bullet buffet, kids, all-you-can-eat,” Jen said, flicking open the other two ammo cans.

Mike turned back to Will. “Now. Let’s talk about what it’ll take to get my people over to that island of yours…”

CHAPTER 4 LARA

The island always looked so different when viewed from the Tower’s windows. The structure stood almost 150 feet high, and gave them a complete view of the island and the surrounding shorelines. In the back of her mind, she always remembered how Karen’s people had sneaked onto the island three months ago. It had almost cost them their lives.

She climbed the spiral cast iron staircase, pushing up on the thick wooden door to access the third floor, and stuck her head up. Because of the Tower’s conical shape, the third floor was smaller than the second, which was smaller than the first.

Danny was over on the east window looking through binoculars. “What’s up, doc?”

“Is that still funny?”

He grinned. “Only if it annoys you.”

“Then I guess it’s never going to stop being funny.”

“Ha!”

She glanced up at the ceiling for a moment. There used to be a big gaping hole up there, the result of a grenade launcher finding its mark. The new roof had a skylight that looked out into a cloudless sky, with the middle of the floor bathed in bright, rectangular pools of warm sunlight. It was easy to tell which part of the third floor was rebuilt after the attack. The top half of the walls were noticeably brighter — almost white — against the dark and weathered gray of the old construction.

“How’s everyone adjusting to life without Will and Gaby?” Lara asked.

“Maddie’ll take over Gaby’s spot and we’ll cycle through the nightshift so everyone gets daylight duty every other day.”

“Why, Danny, are you actually being responsible for once?”

“Yes, but don’t tell anyone.”

“And the arm?”

Danny moved his right arm around in a circular motion, like a baseball pitcher winding up for a pitch. “It only hurts when I do this.”

“So don’t do that.”

He grunted. “Set you up pretty good for that one, huh?”

She smiled. “And I appreciate it.”

“Did I ever tell you the joke about the priest and the clown?”

“I don’t wanna hear it.”

“Ah, come on, without Willie here, you’re the next best thing.”

“There’s Blaine.”

“Too scary.”

“Maddie.”

“Too short.”

“Sarah?”

“Too always-cooking-something.”

“I guess you’re out of luck, then.”

Lara grabbed one of the binoculars hanging along the wall. She peered south and saw Blaine and Maddie working on the boat shack on the beach in front of the piers. Elise and Vera were building castles, while Jenny struggled with a fishing pole, screaming excitedly at the other girls.

“Jenny caught another fish,” Lara said.

“Fishing pole?”

“What else would she use?”

“I threw a rock into the lake this morning. Two fish floated to the top.”

Danny was exaggerating, but not by much. Beaufont Lake was teeming with fish. Without fishermen to thin the herd, there was enough sea life in the water to feed them for a long time. Lara found that both reassuring and oddly a little depressing.

Still better than cans of SPAM, I guess.

“Anything from Will?” she asked.

Danny glanced at his watch. “He’s only been gone for two hours, Lara. Relax. It usually takes Big Willie at least three hours to pick up a girl from the bar. The forever love that knows no bounds you two crazy kids share is still safe for at least another hour.”

“I knew I could count on you to cheer me up, Danny.”

He chuckled. “That’s what I’m here for. But just in case you’d like to remind him you have something better to offer back home, I wrote down the hospital radio’s frequency, along with the one for Jen’s helicopter.”

Lara hung the binoculars and walked over to a table on the other side of the room. There was a ham radio on the tabletop and a sheet of paper duct taped next to it. An antenna extended outside the Tower gave the radio excellent range, not that they had made use of it in the last few months. Surviving, waiting constantly for Kate to attack, had taken precedence over broadcasting out into the world. Besides, without the computer that once ran Karen’s automated FEMA signal, the idea of manually calling out seemed like too much of a crapshoot — and too much work.

“Give it half a year,” Will had said. “If we’re still around then, we’ll see if anyone’s still out there. Right now, we need to help ourselves first.”

The radio was one of the things they had found in the Tower’s basement, one of the few places on the island she dreaded visiting. Every time she did wander down there — and usually only when she absolutely had to — she couldn’t help but feel a great sense of loss and tragedy. The equipment, the supplies, and the clothes stacked in piles were reminders of the poor souls that had come here seeking hope, only to find tragedy. It never failed to depress her.

She sat down in a swivel chair and turned the ham radio on, then manipulated the frequency dial for a moment until she found the correct one.

She pressed the transmit lever and spoke into the microphone. “Hello, this is Song Island to Mercy Hospital. Can you hear me?”

“Say ‘over,’” Danny said behind her.

“What?”

“You have to say ‘over’ when you’re done talking. It’s a radio thing.”

“I used to talk on the radio all the time when I was a kid, and I never said ‘over.’”

“Well, you’re all grown up now. Different rules.”

She turned back to the mic. “This is Song Island to Mercy Hospital. Are you receiving this? Um, over.”

She waited, listening to static on the other end.

“Say it with more conviction,” Danny said.

She pressed the lever again: “This is Song Island to Mercy Hospital. Can anyone hear me over there? Over.”

She waited again, but there was still no reply.

“Are you sure this is the right frequency?” she asked Danny.

A male voice answered through the radio before Danny could respond: “This is Mercy Hospital. We read you loud and clear, Song Island. Over.”

“Told ya,” Danny said.

“Shut up,” she said. Then into the radio: “Roger that, Mercy Hospital. I’m looking for one of ours. He should have arrived by now. His name is Will. Over.”

“He’s here, Song Island. I’ll go fetch him for you. Over.”

“Thanks. Uh, over.”

“Ask him if there are any hot girls over there,” Danny said.

“What do you care? You already have a hot girl here.”

“Hey, I like to keep my options open.”

“I’ll tell Carly you said that.”

“Go ahead. She’s keeping her options open, too.”

Before Lara could reply, a familiar voice spoke through the radio: “Hey there, beautiful, you were looking for me?”

She smiled at the sound of Will’s voice.

“What’s he talking about?” Danny said behind her. “I wasn’t looking for him.”

Lara ignored him, and said into the microphone, “How was the ride?”

“Slightly bumpy,” Will said, “and the flight movie kinda sucked. How are things over there?”

“It’s only been two hours, but we’ve managed to get by without you. Although it’s been tough. You are, after all, indispensable.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

“How’s the situation over there?”

“What Jen said. They’ve sealed the entire floor off from the ghouls, but that still leaves nine infested floors below them.”

Lara felt the hairs along her arms and neck prickle at the thought. “Great. Fresh nightmares for tonight. Thanks, Will.”

He laughed. “Sorry.”

“Sounds like they’ve gotten by so far.”

“So far, yeah. Anyways, I was talking to Mike, and he wants to make other arrangements.”

“What kind of ‘arrangements’?”

“He wants to bring his people over to the island.”

“You think that’s a good idea?”

“I’ll tell you tomorrow. Right now, it’s just an idea. But we have to be open to it, or something like it.” He paused, then continued, “So, tell me how much you’ve missed me already…”

She felt refreshed after talking with Will, and walked down to the beach along the cobblestone pathway that serpentined around the island like the many heads of a hydra. The short walk through the woods between the beach and the hotel grounds always allowed her to pretend there was nothing wrong with the world. It was quiet and cool, the trees supplying plenty of shade against the September sun.

When she stepped onto the beach, Lara stayed on the path and watched the girls darting in and out of the lake, splashing each other with water. The fish that Jenny had caught was nowhere to be found, and she guessed they had released it. With so many fish already in the freezer back at the hotel kitchen, it was overkill to do more than just catch and release these days.

Another luxury we didn’t have three months ago. Please, God, let us never run out of luxuries.

She smiled to herself. What would her mother say if she knew her little girl had begun praying to an unseen, unknown, and unnamed God? Her father would probably have chuckled in amusement, but her mother…

Sorry, Mom, try not to be too disappointed.

Maddie was on top of the boat shack, a long, rectangular brick building that squatted in front of the piers. She sat in a lawn chair with her M4 rifle across her lap, binoculars hanging from her neck, and a bottle of sunscreen nearby. She looked like a teenager sitting in cutoff jean shorts and a T-shirt.

“I hope you remembered to put that sunscreen on,” Lara called up to her.

Maddie, in dark shades, sat up a little and smiled down. “Always, doc.”

“See anything up there?”

“Does the sun count?”

“Just make sure it doesn’t try anything funny.”

“That’s what the rifle’s for,” Maddie said, and went back to reclining.

Will wanted to build a guard tower on top of the boat shack, to give the beach the same kind of coverage that the Tower provided. It was another item on a to-do list that was getting longer every week. Not that she minded. If you didn’t work or enjoy running around the beach every day, there wasn’t much else to do on the island.

“Where’s Blaine?” Lara asked.

“He went to the hotel for a bite,” Maddie said. “He’ll be back to relieve me in a few hours.”

“Keep an eye on the girls for me.”

“You got it, doc.”

Lara headed back up the path. She liked Maddie. The country girl had come to them with Blaine and a young man named Bobby. Bobby was gone, killed during the attack on the island. It had been a bad night for all of them, but to look at the island now, she couldn’t even see signs that there had been a bloodbath on the beach just three months ago. The bodies were buried in the field behind the marina, and the blood had been washed away by the tide.

She heard laughter from the kitchen, and inside she found Blaine leaning against one of the counters, picking at a plate of baked fish wrapped in aluminum foil, while Sarah ate from her own plate with a fork. Sarah’s cheeks looked flustered, her long blonde hair — the longest on the island by far — in a ponytail that went all the way down to her waist.

Blaine was licking his fingers when she came into the kitchen. “Hey, want some fish?”

“Smells good,” Lara said.

“It would be nice if we had some vegetables to go with it,” Sarah said. “Cilantro or basil would be wonderful.”

“Zucchini or green olives, too?”

“See, I knew there was a cook in there somewhere.”

“She must be very well hidden, then.”

There was suddenly awkward silence, and Lara got the sense she had interrupted something.

She quickly turned to go. “I’m going to go do something…that isn’t here. Carry on.”

She caught Sarah blushing a bit as she left, but Blaine was already out of her peripheral vision so she couldn’t tell his reaction.

Blaine and Sarah? Was it possible?

She reminded herself what Blaine had lost just to get to the island. For the first few days after the fight, they weren’t even sure he was going to stay. At one point, she remembered Will telling her not to be surprised if Blaine disappeared into the western section of the island, into the woods, and never came back. Blaine was looking noticeably less haggard in recent weeks, and whether it was the island weather finally doing its job, or the (Sarah’s) company, he seemed to have more life in his eyes now than in all the time she had known him.

She was happy for him, for Sarah. Or maybe she was reading too much into what was really just a simple, innocent moment? She hoped it was true. The two of them had been through a lot. They all had. To find a little slice of peace, maybe even happiness, was more than any of them could have asked for when so many people had lost their lives.

She thought of Will again and couldn’t help but smile to herself as she walked through the hotel. Sometimes she forgot she was on an island, that just beyond those waters were creatures that shouldn’t exist, but did. But here, now, in this place that was designed for rich people but had never been finished, none of the world’s problems mattered.

This is our home now. God help those who try to take it from us.

Lara found Carly in the laundry room, near the back of Hallway A — the main hallway that connected the completed sections of the hotel — past the ballroom and squeezed in between some employee lounges and large storage rooms. It wasn’t quite the bowels of the hotel, but it was close.

Carly was folding bedsheets and humming some pop song Lara vaguely recalled being popular on the radio. Lara tapped her on the shoulder.

A month ago, Carly would have jumped, but this afternoon she just glanced over and pulled free one iPod earbud. “Hey. How you holding up during this separation from your lover?”

Lara groaned. “Please, dear God, don’t ever say ‘lover’ again.”

Carly laughed. “Agreed. I died a little as soon as I said it.”

Lara grabbed some dry sheets and clothes out of the industrial-size machines that lined one wall and dumped them onto an island counter. Washers took up space on the other side of the room, with a large pantry stuffed with detergent and drying sheets, along with spare baskets and miscellaneous inventory. Washing what they used was a good way to cut down on unnecessary supply runs for clean clothes, and allowed them to focus on more valuable items like silver, medical supplies, and ammo. There was no such thing as “too much” ammo.

She began folding what looked like the girls’ clothes. Elise’s or Vera’s, or possibly Jenny’s. Not that it mattered. Everyone needed clean clothes.

“How’s your neck?” she asked.

Carly self-consciously touched the bullet scar along the left side of her neck. It was tiny, but visible if you peeked. “Vera thinks it makes me look like a badass.”

“And you don’t have any trouble breathing? Or swallowing?”

“Danny hasn’t complained.”

Lara made a face. “Oh, gross.”

“Come on, we’re both adults here. A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do to keep her man happy, am I right?”

“I don’t know if I’d go that far. As Gaby would say, TMI, Carly. Way too much information.”

Carly laughed again, and Lara joined her.

When they finally calmed down, Carly said, “Speaking of which, I’m not a big fan of Gaby going with Will. She’s just a kid.”

“She’s just two years younger than you.”

“Oh, right, bring facts into this.”

Lara smiled. “Anyway, I told him the same thing, but he disagrees. He says…” She paused.

“What?”

“He says she’s the best shooter by far after him and Danny.”

“That’s what Danny says, too.”

“Is that…good?”

Carly shrugged. “I don’t know. They seem to think it is.”

“What do you think?”

“If none of this had happened, Gaby would be getting ready for the prom and college, not learning to shoot and fight. I bet she never thought she’d be doing that a year ago.”

“I don’t think any of us thought we’d be doing this a year ago.”

“Yeah, laundry was never in any of my plans,” Carly said.

“Well, you’re really good at it.”

“Shut up, that’s not funny. How long did Will say he’ll be gone, anyway?”

“He should know by tonight. Right now, he’s talking to Mike — the guy leading the group over there.”

“Their version of Will.”

“Uh huh. He says—”

She didn’t get to finish because the radio clipped to her hip squawked, and they heard Danny’s voice: “Heads up, we have vehicles on approach.”

Lara unclipped her radio. “How many, Danny?”

“Four. Three trucks and one van.” He paused, then added, “They’re pulling into the marina.”

“I’m on the way.”

Carly abandoned the laundry and jogged out of the room with Lara, who headed for the closest side exit.

“I thought we shut down the FEMA broadcast?” Carly said.

“We did,” Lara said. “Even before it got blown up. Whoever these people are, if they’re here because of Karen’s broadcast, they’re three months late.”

Lara reached the Tower and found Danny at the south window on the third floor, looking out with binoculars. Carly had separated from her outside the hotel, making a beeline for the beach to gather up the kids and bring them back to the hotel. It was a system Will had put in place, and everyone knew their roles.

Lara snatched the spare binoculars off a hook and peered out across the lake at the marina.

Or what was left of it. Will had burned it down, along with a storage garage. He had also set ablaze the two-story house across a small inlet from the marina at the same time, leaving only old trampled hurricane fencing behind. There were exactly eleven vehicles in the marina parking lot at the moment. A few hours ago, there had only been seven.

She saw tiny black dots climbing out of the newly arrived vehicles, the figures gathering near the water’s edge. She could tell they had spotted the Tower and Song Island by the glint of binocular lenses staring back in their direction.

“How many do you count, Danny?”

“Seven from the trucks, four out of the van,” Danny said.

Lara swung the binoculars toward the beach, at Maddie on the roof of the boat shack.

On cue, her radio squawked, and she heard Maddie’s voice: “What are we looking at?”

“Eleven people so far,” Lara said into the radio.

“Any ideas what they want?” Carly asked from somewhere else on the island, likely the hotel where she, Blaine, and Sarah were guarding the girls.

“Not yet,” Danny said. He glanced over at Lara. “What do you think?”

“Why are you asking me?” she said, meeting his gaze.

“Well, Will’s not here, so that kind of leaves you in charge.”

She stared speechlessly back at him.

Her face must have also looked stunned, because he grinned and said, “Oh come on, that’s surprising to you? Look, I don’t say this a lot, but Willie boy’s really good at this sort of stuff. Me, I’m just a lover and a fighter. Got a farmer’s daughter you want seduced? I’m your man. Need a way out of an Afghanistan mountainside covered in Taliban? Uh, ask Will. Failing that, ask Lara.”

It took her a moment to answer, but when she finally found her voice, the only thing that came out was an almost disbelieving, “Since when?”

“Since Will left four hours ago.”

Lara peered through the binoculars again, if just to hide her sudden — but quickly growing — anxiety. The idea of being in charge in Will’s absence terrified her. She was a third-year medical student, for God’s sake. They taught her how to sew up wounds and take care of colds, not to make decisions that could, potentially, lead to other people’s deaths.

“What do you think?” she asked uncertainly.

“We should at least find out what they want,” Danny said.

“I think we know what they want.”

“They’re a little late for that.”

“Which sort of makes it unlikely this could be a trap.”

“You think?”

“Think about it. If they’re collaborators, and this is some elaborate scheme to get back on the island, this is kind of…dumb, don’t you think? Show up three months after the last radio broadcast?”

“That’s a good point.”

“Or I could be overthinking it,” she added quickly. “I don’t know what I’m talking about, Danny. Maybe we should radio Will back and ask him.”

“Nah, I think you’re on to something.”

He said it with such absolute certainty she almost believed him. Almost.

“I’ll take a boat over with Maddie and suss them out,” Danny continued. “Can’t very well just ignore them, can we?” He glanced at his watch. “Seven hours till sunset, give or take.”

Lara nodded reluctantly. “Be careful.”

“Don’t sweat it, doc. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“They end up being ghoul collaborators and kill everyone on the island as soon as they set foot on the beach.”

“Sure, there’s that,” Danny said.

CHAPTER 5 GABY

She thought she would have gotten used to the smell after a few hours, but four hours later Gaby was still unable to fully breathe through her nose without feeling overwhelmed. It wasn’t just the presence of forty bodies crammed onto one floor, because the tenth floor was certainly massive enough to accommodate ten times that number. There was something else about the place, about the whole hospital. Something in the air she hadn’t felt in a long time, and it took her a while to remember what it was.

Desperation.

She didn’t like how these people lived. Even before she found Will and Lara, Gaby had had a better existence than this. Sure, going from town to town, hiding in basements, didn’t sound like such a great time, but when you compared it to hiding (stuck) on the tenth floor of a hospital, with ghouls waiting in the nine floors below, it was a hell of a better alternative.

This isn’t a sanctuary. It’s a prison.

To escape it, she went up to the rooftop. There were a couple of guys outside smoking cigarettes. One of them was Benny, who had learned his lesson and hardly stared when she came outside. Instead, he offered her a cigarette.

“I don’t smoke,” she said. “It’s a filthy habit.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“So why don’t you quit?”

“I guess I’m weak.” He gave her a shy smile. “I’m Benny, by the way.”

“Gaby,” she said, shaking his hand.

She had thought he was in his twenties when she first met him earlier, but up close she realized he was just a nice-looking eighteen-year-old kid. He sported amusing facial hair that did more harm than good, and he had pleasant enough light-blue eyes. The other boy, Mack, gave her a brief nod and turned away.

Gaby walked to the edge of the north tower rooftop, while Mack and Benny stayed behind near the access building. She wasn’t sure what their jobs were, exactly. Who was going to invade the building from the rooftop? The only danger came at night…

She looked off at the city around her. The domed building — some kind of basketball arena, probably — was visible across the street, along with the baseball and football stadiums to either sides of it. They were definitely in some kind of college town.

College.

She used to have plans for college. She’d had everything worked out, too. Good grades, after school programs, extra credits, stacks of college preparation books, and admissions forms from every school around the country.

What was that old saying? “The plans of mice and men…” Or something like that.

“There you are,” a voice said behind her.

Gaby looked back at Amy, who walked over with two cans of diet soda.

Gaby took one. “Thanks.”

She opened her can. There was no fizz, of course, and the taste was sludgy and warm, and she suddenly missed the freezer back at the hotel. She did her best to hide her disappointment and hoped Amy hadn’t caught it.

“Jen says you guys have a freezer on the island,” Amy said. “That would be nice right about now.”

“Refrigerators in our rooms, too.”

“So, ice and cold drinks?”

“Uh huh.”

“I’ve forgotten what that’s like.” She took a sip from her soda and made a face. “Yeah, I could really go for a little ice right about now.”

“Where’s Jen?”

“Asleep in her room. She always crashes after every trip. I personally think she does it on purpose — keeps going out there to tire herself out, because it’s so hard to sleep day after day in here. There’s not a lot to do, and you know hospitals…”

Gaby replayed the faces of the people on the tenth floor in her mind. Droopy, sleep-deprived, and pale. It was a depressing thought, and she pushed it away.

“What’s out there?” she asked instead.

“The University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Go Ragin’ Cajuns.”

“I’ve never seen a Ragin’ Cajun before.”

“They’re like your average Cajun. Only ragin’.”

“Ah.”

They shared an awkward smile.

Amy took another sip from her flat soda and made another face. “Ugh. This thing tastes terrible. You swear you guys have ice over there?”

“Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Good enough for me.”

“Are you going?”

“To Song Island?” She seemed to think about it. “If everyone’s going, I guess there’s no reason for me to stay behind.”

“Jen doesn’t seem to care either way.”

“It’s ‘have helicopter, will fly’ with her. I don’t think she cares about anything else, to be perfectly honest.”

“Was she in the Army, too?”

“She was the news chopper pilot for one of the local stations around here. You should have seen her at the beginning of all this. Ferrying people to the hospital like some kind of aerial avenger. It was beautiful.”

Gaby took another sip from the soda, thought about spitting it out, but didn’t want to hurt Amy’s feelings, so she forced herself to swallow it instead.

“Can you hear it?” Amy asked.

“What’s that?”

“The city.”

Gaby thought that was a strange question. She tried to listen to the city, but she only heard the whistling of the wind, the occasional flap-flap-flap of trash moving around the street and the parking lot below them.

“I don’t hear anything,” Gaby said.

“Yeah,” Amy said. “We heard them in the first few months. Dogs and cats. But we haven’t heard a single one of them for months now. The only animals that are safe are the birds.”

Gaby watched a flock of birds glide gracefully across the skyline in front of them, far from the reaches of the streets below…

She found Will in his room, next to hers along the north tower. There weren’t nearly enough people for the tenth floor’s 200 rooms, so they had their pick. She guessed Will had chosen two rooms within twenty yards of the stairs for the quick rooftop access.

“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst” was his and Danny’s motto. They did almost everything with it in mind, something she had slowly begun to adopt. It was a new way of not just thinking, but living, and it took more effort than she had expected, mostly because Will and Danny made it look so effortless.

He stood next to his window, staring out through rusted rebars. Every room on the floor had the same long, rectangle windows that stretched almost the entire width of the back wall. Will had dumped his pack on an uncomfortable-looking pull-out sofa, and his beaten up M4A1 rifle lay across the patient bed behind him. The good thing about staying in a hospital was that every room had its own bed and bathroom. Unfortunately, the bathroom didn’t have running water or working plumbing, but the bed was clean enough, if not entirely comfortable.

Will glanced over. “Settled in?”

“Lumpy bed, window you can’t open, and the smell of desperation in the air. What’s not to like?”

He chuckled. “What’s up?”

“About Mike’s people…”

“Close the door first.”

She nodded and closed the door after her. “Are we taking them back with us?”

“Some. Maybe ten at first. See how that works out, then act accordingly.”

“We could definitely use more guns.”

He nodded. “You can never go wrong with more guns, as long as you can trust the finger pulling the trigger.”

She stood next to him and looked out the window at the quiet, empty city below. It looked more dead from behind bars than it had from the rooftop. They didn’t speak for a long time, something Gaby had become used to with Will.

“Thanks again for bringing me with you,” she said after a while.

“I wouldn’t have if I didn’t think you could hack it.”

A sudden flush of pride raced through her, and she did her best to not let it show on her face.

Instead, she reached through the bars, rasped her knuckles against the glass window, and got back a dull thudding sound. “Can they get through this?”

“Doubtful. Hospital windows are made to be permanently closed and nearly impossible to break.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“It’s to keep the patients from deciding to end it all when times get tough.”

“That’s a pleasant thought.”

He glanced back at the door briefly, as if to make sure it was still closed. “They’ve been really lucky here so far. I think Mike knows it, too. That’s why he’s so desperate to get them to the island.”

“There are a lot of long faces in those hallways.”

“They look like good people, so there’s that.”

“Pretty decent, yeah.”

“It won’t hurt to bring them over. Mike would be a valuable asset…with some sleep.”

“And the others?”

“Danny and I have experience sanding down kids and turning them into decent soldiers.”

She smiled. “Did Mike say what they’re planning to do with the silver bullets we brought over?”

“There’s an Archers Sports and Outdoors a few streets down with supplies he’s been itching to get at. The last time he tried to take them was about three months ago, and they lost a couple of guys.”

“So we’ll be here for at least tonight.”

“Homesick already?”

“Nah,” she said. “Just missing that kitchen freezer, that’s all.” Then she added, “And the cold drinks. And the ice. And the showers. But mostly the showers.”

There wasn’t a lot to do until tomorrow, so after washing her face with warm bottled water in the bathroom, Gaby sat on the bed, stripped down her M4, and cleaned it piece by piece while she still had some light from the window. She took out a small pouch with cleaning solvents, an old toothbrush, lint-free cloth, and a bore brush for the job. It was the most basic cleaning kit they could put together using equipment available at the hotel.

She looked up when there was a knock on her door. “Come in.”

A pair of familiar blue eyes and bad stubble peeked in at her through the open door. Benny shot a curious look at the pieces of the rifle spread out on the white bedsheet in front of her.

“You busy?” he asked.

“No. What’s up?”

“We’re about to have dinner. They wanted me to call you. Well, I volunteered.”

“Where?”

“Huh?”

“Where do you guys eat?”

“Oh. At the central hub.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“I’ll be over when I’m done.”

“Oh. Okay. I’ll…” She thought he was going to stammer his way to something else, but he apparently decided to just leave instead.

Gaby picked up the bore brush and went back to cleaning the M4. The old Gaby wouldn’t have had the patience for something so tedious, but that girl was gone. If the new her had learned anything from three months with Will and Danny, it was that no one was going to depend more on her gear than her.

Out here, the difference between life and death was a weapon that worked the way it was supposed to.

If she thought the sight of the hospital’s survivors was depressing, the dinner wasn’t much of an improvement. Gaby spent the thirty minutes in the central hub listening to Will, Mike, and Amy talking, while people came and went in a never-ending stream. Although Benny told her it was dinner, it was really eat-when-you-feel-like-it time. Food consisted of canned meat, MREs, and bags of noodles washed down with warm soft drinks and water. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single can of fruit dripped in syrup to be found.

Even with the bright LED lights, the room looked and felt uninviting.

“There are others out there,” Will was saying. “In other states. I’m not sure if it’s anything resembling an organized resistance, but they’re out there. We’re not alone by any means.”

“That’s good to know,” Mike said. “One of the disadvantages of locking ourselves in here is the lack of information. Even Jen hasn’t really brought anything back about what’s happening out there.”

“Has she left Louisiana yet?”

“Not yet,” Amy said.

“What are your immediate priorities?” Will asked Mike.

“Those supplies in the Archers, first.”

“What are you running low on?”

“Everything. That’s one of the reasons why I want to start shuttling people to Song Island. Starting with the women and children.”

“I’ll agree to that. What I don’t want is for you to load everyone into a van and drive down there. We’re not ready for that kind of influx.”

“And you’re right to be wary of that,” Mike nodded. “We’ve been here for eleven months. Another month won’t kill us.”

“In terms of medical supplies,” Amy said, “what are you looking for?”

Will took out a piece of folded paper and handed it to her. “A lot of supplies for everyday use and the occasional emergencies.”

Amy scanned the sheet of paper, then nodded at Mike. “I can fill everything on here.”

“So that’s settled,” Mike said. “When do you head back?”

“I’m not in any hurry,” Will said. “If you want, I can help out with the Archers tomorrow.”

“I’d be an idiot to turn down an Army Ranger’s offer.”

The two men shook hands.

After dinner, Gaby walked back to her room. She saw a boy watching her from a partially open door. He had a pale face and hollow eyes, and for a brief instant she thought she was looking at a ghoul child.

The boy closed the door as she walked past.

She finally made it back to her room, feeling less than full after dinner. She hadn’t wanted to say anything, because Mike and the others went out of their way to welcome them. The food wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t island food.

There was still enough light outside, so she decided to strip down her Glock and clean it, too, and was slightly annoyed when there was another knock on her door.

“Come in.”

It was Will this time. He closed the door softly behind him.

“Thank God,” she said. “I thought it was that Benny kid again.”

“He likes you.”

“He’s a teenager, Will. He likes anything with tits and ass.”

That got an amused grin from him.

“What’s up?” she asked.

Will had a small bundle wrapped in red felt and tied with brown twine in his hand. He tossed it to her. “Happy early birthday.”

“It’s not—” She stopped herself.

Oh my God.

“I forgot,” she said quietly. “I can’t believe I forgot my own birthday.”

“Lara didn’t. Eighteen, right?”

“Nineteen.”

“Right. Nineteen.”

“Can I…?”

“Knock yourself out, birthday girl.”

“It won’t be official until tomorrow.”

“Close enough.”

Gaby pulled at the twine and it slipped effortlessly free. She realized she was trembling slightly when she peeled the felt wrapping to reveal a can of Dole Pineapple Chunks.

“It’s the last can on the island,” Will said. “Lara saved it two weeks ago to give it to you. She’s been hiding it in the freezer without telling anyone, so…” Will put a finger to his lips. “Mum’s the word.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“I told her we should have gotten you something else. Like jewelry. Teenage girls love jewelry, right?”

Gaby gave him a wry look before beaming. “This is great, Will. Thank you.”

“Yeah?”

She smiled and nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah. I mean it. You guys are awesome.”

“Glad to hear it.” He fished a plastic spork out of his pocket and tossed it to her. “Go crazy, kid.”

Gaby anxiously pulled the tab off the can.

Will headed for the door, singing badly off-key, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.”

Gaby was too busy fishing out a chunk of pineapple dripping with heavy, artificially-flavored syrup to reply. She plopped it into her mouth and sighed with bliss.

Amy warned her to keep her blinds closed at night, and she did. Even so, once darkness fell, Gaby heard them almost immediately.

She knew the ghouls could climb, and there were enough handholds along the sides of the hospital for them to use. Even so, she was stunned by the speed with which they appeared once the sun set. It had been so long since she was this close to a ghoul, she almost cringed at the realization that they were outside her window at this very moment.

She sat on the floor, back against the side of the bed, and listened to them moving. The M4 lay across her lap, the magazine in it, like the ones around her waist, loaded with silver bullets. They had stopped carrying regular ammo a long time ago. Silver killed a human being just as well as a ghoul.

The window blinds were made of thick, hypoallergenic fabric that did a tremendous job of reflecting sunlight in the daytime, and was just as effective at night against moonlight. She could barely make out the lone, thin figure clinging to the windowsill on the other side. She didn’t have to see it to know what it was, though. There was nothing human about the way it moved, the thin, almost skeletal shadow it cast against the moonlight in the background.

How many were out there now, climbing the sides of the hospital? A hundred? A thousand?

Gaby swore she could hear them moving in the floors under her, too, scurrying about like cockroaches. She hadn’t heard them earlier today, even though she knew they were down there the whole time. It was the night, she thought. They lived — they thrived—at night.

The ghoul outside seemed to be tapping its fists lightly against the window. She could barely make out the noise through the thick glass.

Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap…

She wasn’t nearly as terrified as she thought she would be. Maybe it was her training, maybe it was all the days and weeks working with the M4 and the Glock that infused her with a surprising amount of courage.

The creature stopped its odd activity when it was suddenly joined by a second skeletal figure. This one looked even thinner than the first, with what looked like shadowed bones sticking out of its skin.

Gaby wasn’t sure when she made the decision, but she was only vaguely aware of standing up and walking forward and reaching for the blinds’ drawstring. She jerked it with one smooth motion, and the hypoallergenic blinds opened up in a loud rush.

The first ghoul had wandered off, leaving behind the new arrival to cling perilously to the windowsill. Hollowed eye sockets and something that might have been eyeballs peered back curiously at her from the other side. Moonlight reflected off its hairless, pruned skin, and its slightly upturned, almost impish nose flared at her presence.

She wondered if the creature could smell her, too. Probably not…

The creature opened its mouth, revealing devastated teeth jutting out from gums that were pink and black and oozing thick fluids. It might have been drooling, or maybe it was just bleeding. The bones of its left leg below the kneecap were sticking out from punctured flesh, matching bones protruding out of its ribcage. When the creature moved, it did so awkwardly, in a way that made her think it was in great pain — if they even felt pain at all.

Gaby leaned toward the window, ignoring the black eyes staring back at her, and looked down. She thought she was ready for what she would see, but she was wrong. The sight took her breath away.

They were everywhere, crawling up the side of the building. She imagined they must have looked like spiders scaling the brick structure, scurrying wildly from handhold to handhold like adrenaline junkies.

She looked to her left and right, and saw more of them.

Hundreds. Definitely hundreds.

Gaby walked back to the bed and sat down. She laid the M4 and Glock on both sides of her and stared back at the ghoul outside the window. There was movement, and a second ghoul appeared and joined the first.

A moment later, two became three, then four, crowding around the window, so many that one was knocked loose and fell, plummeting out of view. Not that it stopped the others. They kept coming, squirming into the small rectangular area, leaving sticky puddles on the glass.

They stared in at her as if they were deformed mimes incapable of speech, their nostrils flaring from time to time. She wondered what was going through their minds at the moment. Did they even still think? Or was it all instincts now?

“Dead, not stupid” was how Will described them.

Gaby picked up the can of Dole Pineapple Chunks off the floor next to her. She used the spork to fish out one of the half dozen or so remaining pieces and tossed it into her mouth. She chewed slowly, savoring the sweet syrup.

She watched the creatures watching her.

For the life of her, Gaby didn’t know why she wasn’t afraid. Not even a little bit.

CHAPTER 6 LARA

She should call Will. That was the smart thing to do. Will would know how to handle this.

So why hadn’t she called him yet?

It was the way Danny had asked her about what they should do. They were friends, but there was more to the look he had given her. He actually trusted her. She didn’t know what she could have done in the past to merit such commitment from him.

But it was too late to reconsider, and she was left to watch Danny approaching the marina in the pontoon through binoculars. Maddie stood behind him, steering the boat. They were a good 300 yards from the mouth of the inlet when the people at the marina saw them coming and pointed. She couldn’t tell their reaction from this distance. Excitement? Suspicion? Alarm? That uncertainty sent a sudden pang of apprehension through her.

Call Will. He’ll know what to do.

She looked back at the ham radio on the desk. It would be easy. It had only been an hour ago since she last talked to him.

Call Will. You are not ready for this.

The radio on her hip squawked, and she heard Danny’s voice: “Five men and six women. Three children. Two boys and a girl.”

“Weapons?” she asked.

“Armed to the teeth, but that’s the fashion these days. Don’t leave home without your AK.”

“Be careful, Danny.”

“Careful’s my middle name. But don’t tell Carly that. I told her it was Ronald.”

“The boss lady means it, Danny,” Carly said through the radio. She was at the beach with Blaine, standing on top of the boat shack. “You get shot and fall overboard, I’m not swimming over to get you. You know how much I suck at swimming.”

“Yes, dear,” Danny said.

Lara had grimaced a bit when Carly called her “boss lady.”

Not her, too. Who do these people think I am?

She keyed the radio, meaning to say something profound to Danny — something Will would say — but she only managed, “Don’t take any unnecessary risks, Danny. You too, Maddie. The first sign of trouble, get out of there.”

Okay, not too bad.

“Will do,” Danny said. “But it looks like we might not have too much of an issue.”

“Why?”

“They’re putting their weapons on the ground and stepping away from them.”

She breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “That’s a good sign, Danny.”

“Or a trap,” Carly said. “This whole thing smells like an ambush. Something an asshole collaborator would come up with.”

“What’s an ambush smell like, my dearest?” Danny asked.

“Pungent and acrid,” Carly said without missing a beat.

She was describing the ghouls. Once you got a whiff of the undead creatures, it was difficult to forget. The memory was burned into your soul.

Lara looked over at the ham radio again.

Call Will. You’re not ready for this. What are you waiting for?

She looked through the binoculars at the marina instead. Danny’s pontoon was still moving up the inlet.

“Give me an update, Danny,” she said into the radio.

“They’re not shooting at me, which is a good sign,” Danny said. “They also have an old woman with them. That’s another good sign.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s the end of the world. No one lugs around an old broad unless they’re really nice.”

Good point.

Danny and Maddie were pulling the pontoon up alongside the marina as two men approached them with hands raised. Danny stood at the front of the boat (What was that, the port? Starboard? Will would know…) and was chatting them up. It seemed as if the conversation was going well, and soon Danny stepped off the boat and onto solid ground.

Her radio squawked, and she heard his voice: “They’re willing to hand over their weapons. And they promise they don’t have Derringers hidden in inappropriate places.”

“What’s a Derringer?” she asked.

“Uh, you know, those small handguns? Never mind.”

Danny was wearing his old special forces comm gear, with the throat mic and earbud, so she knew she was safe to ask her next question: “Can we trust them?”

“I don’t see why not.” Danny had walked away from the others so they couldn’t hear him. “Of the five hombres, only three are really worth being concerned over. One looks too friendly to have shot anyone, and the other two — well, I can keep an eye on them. Then there’s a teenager and a kid who looks about ten.”

“Will they let us frisk them?”

“That’s a no-brainer.”

“Okay, Danny. If you think we can trust them…”

“I don’t think we can trust them,” Danny said. “But I think we can manage them. The old woman and the girls look innocent enough. Tired and hungry. And like I said — there are only two guys I would have to keep an eye on.”

“Can we leave those two behind?” Carly asked.

“That’s not going to happen,” Danny said. “They’ve survived together for a while. They won’t abandon each other now.”

“Just like we wouldn’t abandon Danny, despite his god-awful jokes,” Lara said.

“Oh, that’s funny,” Danny said.

Lara smiled. “It’s your call, Danny.”

“They won’t be left behind, but maybe they’re willing to part ways temporarily.”

“You think they’ll go for that?”

“Wouldn’t hurt to ask.”

“Okay. Do it.”

She watched Danny walk back to the group. She could only imagine what he was saying to them: “Good news and bad news! The good news is, we’re going to let you guys on the island. The bad news is, we’re going to have to give you a cavity search first.”

Knowing Danny, she was probably close.

Lara waited for Blaine to show up before she headed down the Tower, because someone always had to be on the third floor at all times. More standard operating procedure that Will had drilled into their heads.

When the big man finally arrived, Lara hurried over to the beach to join Carly, who was waiting on the roof of the boat shack with her Benelli shotgun slung over her back. Lara had her own Remington 870 with her. Like Carly, she was trained on the rifles, but being trained on them wasn’t the same as actually hitting something with them. The shotguns, on the other hand, were harder to miss with.

Carly glanced down at her. “Hey, boss lady.”

“Stop calling me that, please.”

“What? You don’t like it?”

“No.”

“Oh, come on. With Will gone, you’re our new fearless leader. Accept it.”

Lara frowned. “When did you and Danny come to that conclusion?”

“Last night. We were hoping Will’s leadership abilities had seeped into you by osmosis. You know, on account of how you guys have hot sex every night.”

Lara smiled. “Is that what you think Will and I do every night? Have hot sex?”

“Just a little bit?”

“Maybe a tad.”

She climbed up to the roof using a ladder in the back. The shack was a smooth concrete block, completely unappealing to the eyes, and used purely to store supplies and fuel. Even a hurricane probably wouldn’t be able to lift the ugly thing, which was the size of a four-car garage.

Carly handed her the binoculars. “They’re on their way back. I can’t believe they agreed to bringing just the women and children first.”

“They’re desperate,” Lara said. “You remember what it was like for us out there. I just hope we didn’t make a really big mistake.”

“I trust you.”

Why? I don’t even trust myself.

Lara walked up the middle pier to meet the pontoon boat as it slowed, then drifted toward her. Danny stood at the front with his M4A1 rifle slung over his back. The carbine had been damaged during the attack on the island, but Danny had gutted parts from a couple of M4 rifles Tom had stored under the Tower to fix it.

Maddie was in the center of the pontoon, looking even smaller behind the big steering wheel. The boat was not built for speed, but it had plenty of space for the eight people crammed into it at the moment.

The fact that half of them were children, and the adults looked thin, helped to calm her nerves. Besides backpacks, the newcomers carried only luggage with them. Lara wondered if she had looked that way — somewhere between hopeful and very afraid it might all be too good to be true — when they first arrived on Song Island.

And did I ever look that thin?

Danny tossed a rope over to her, and Lara tied it around a metal anchor while Danny pulled the pontoon in by hand, stopping only when they were alongside. He quickly hopped out and wrapped the rest of the rope’s length around the anchor before cinching it.

“Ladies and gentleman,” Danny announced, “welcome to Song Island. Pictures are five dollars apiece and can be purchased at that delightful little concrete block at the end of the pier.”

The newcomers consisted of four women, one elderly woman, and three children — two girls in their early teens and a boy. They stared at the island and its white beaches with a mixture of awe and barely-contained joy. The women looked on the verge of tears.

Please God, let this be the right decision.

One of the women was striking and tall, with auburn hair that looked red under the sun. She helped the older woman out of the boat. “Easy, Mae, don’t rush it.”

Mae looked to be in her sixties, brushing frizzled gray hair out of her face as she reached up and took the attractive woman’s hand to be pulled up. Danny and another woman, a short blonde in her twenties wearing a slightly dirty sweater and cargo pants, also lent a hand. Lara was afraid the older woman might break under the three people pulling at her slim figure all at once, but she somehow got onto the pier in one piece.

“Just luggage?” Lara asked.

“The rest are back with the men,” the tall woman said. She smiled and held out her hand. “I’m Bonnie.” She pointed at the others. “This is Mae. That’s Gwen and Jo, and the kids are Lucy, Kylie, and Logan. Thank you for letting us come here. We’ve been…looking for it for a long time.”

Lara managed a smile back. “You guys must be hungry.”

“Starving,” a young woman with ash blonde hair, Gwen, said. She was short and barely went up to Bonnie’s chest, but she made up for that with breasts that were twice the size of Bonnie’s.

“Come on, we have some food at the hotel,” Lara said.

“You have a hotel?” the younger brunette, Jo, said. Lara guessed Jo and Bonnie were related. They had similar prominent cheekbones and hazel eyes. Jo looked barely out of her teens but was already taller than Lara.

The women and the boy exchanged excited looks at the mention of “hotel.”

She had to smile at that. “When was the last time you guys had cold water? Or ice in your soft drinks?”

“I…” Bonnie began to say, but couldn’t get it out.

Jo laughed. “I think what Bonnie’s trying to say is, it’s been so long, we can’t remember.”

Lara and Danny watched the women and the boy feast on plates of fried, boiled, and baked fish in the big dining room next to the lobby. The unfinished room was massive, with a large marble table that seated twenty. The new arrivals didn’t seemed to notice the lack of proper flooring or walls — or ceiling, for that matter — when the food was served.

Sarah and Carly brought out the dishes and the newcomers devoured everything put in front of them, probably a combination of real hunger and having to eat out of cans and bags for the last eleven months.

Ah, the good ol’ days.

Danny tapped her on the shoulder and nodded toward the door. She followed him back into the lobby, then over to the front doors.

“So how’d I do, boss?” Danny asked.

“You did good, kid,” she said, playing along. “I have a cookie here somewhere.”

“Yum.”

She put on her serious face. “What about the men?”

Danny looked back at the open dining room door, at the women inside. “It’s still early. I’ll let them stew in the sun for another couple of hours.”

“That seems kind of mean.”

“I want to see how they react.”

“Meaning?”

“When I go back, I want to see their reaction. Are they agitated? Annoyed? Ready to shoot me between the eyes?”

“Sounds kind of dangerous.”

“Will and I would never have let some guys we didn’t know from Adam take you and Carly to an island while they left us behind. The fact that these guys did means they’re willing to bend over backward to get here. You have to wonder why. And like I said, there are two guys back there that I don’t really trust.”

“You’ve said that before. What about them bothers you so much?”

“They have squirrelly eyes.”

She smiled. “Squirrelly eyes, Danny?”

“Will and I had a CO back in the Stan. Guy had squirrelly eyes. One day, we were on assignment in the mountains and we walk right into an ambush. They knew we were coming, don’t ask me how. Anyway, long story short, first thing our CO does is he bails. Just like that. Drops his rifle and takes off for cover, while his men are in the middle of the road with bullets flying everywhere.” Danny smirked. “Moral of this lesson? You can’t trust guys with squirrelly eyes.”

“Okay, so guys with squirrelly eyes are bad.”

“I’m not saying they’re bad. I’m saying they’re untrustworthy.”

“Untrustworthy, then. But what if you’re wrong?”

What if I’m wrong for even letting any of them on the island?

I should have called Will…

Danny looked back at the women. “That’s been known to happen once or twice, sure. After all, I’m making assumptions based on a couple of minutes with them. But I bet those women know them more than we do. You can learn a lot about someone after spending months on the road with them.”

“You think we should ask them?”

“Not ‘we,’ you.”

“Why me?”

“You guys share similar sensibilities. By which I mean, you both have boobies.”

“Nice of you to notice.”

“I got eyes.”

“Even if I did ask, how could I trust their answers? What if those two can’t be trusted, but they feel a sense of loyalty to lie about them anyway? Like you said, they’ve been on the road together for months now. That kind of experience builds bonds, Danny.”

“Call it a hunch, but when I saw them together, the women — especially the big redhead — seemed overly protective of the others.”

“From you?”

Danny shook his head. “No. From the other two. The ones with squirrelly eyes. I got the sense she was happy to leave them behind back there at the marina. You gotta wonder why, after all this time on the road together.”

Lara looked back inside the dining room at Bonnie. “You think we can trust her?”

“She’s one of your species,” Danny said. “You tell me.”

“How would I even approach the topic?”

“Let her know she’s safe now, that whatever happens, she and the others aren’t going anywhere. That might get her to open up.”

She smiled back at him. “For a guy who doesn’t know anything about women, you sure know a lot.”

“It’s my secret weapon,” Danny grinned. “How do you think I convinced Carly to do all the creative—”

“Enough,” she said, pressing her palm against his mouth. “She’s my little sister. I don’t need to hear all the vile things you’ve been doing to her in bed.”

Lara expected the two men Danny described as “squirrelly” to look, well, squirrelly. But apparently her definition of “squirrelly” wasn’t quite the same as his, because the two men looked like cowboys, complete with jeans and Levi’s shirts and empty gun belts, as if they had just returned from the range…in the mid-1800s.

One of the men introduced himself as Brody. He was in his early thirties, with one of those ridiculous jawlines she used to think only existed in movies starring action heroes from the ’80s. He was well over six feet tall, and the only thing missing on him was a big Stetson hat. Instead, he wore a bandana around his neck to help soak up the sweat.

“Thank you for letting us on this island,” Brody said, his thick (exaggerated?) Texas drawl coming through. He shook her proffered hand lightly, as if he were afraid he might break her. “You don’t know what this means to us. It’s dangerous out there.”

Don’t get ahead of yourself, buddy.

Brody’s friend was named West. Like Brody, West looked as if he had just stepped out of an old-fashioned Western about righteous Texas cowboys who worked hard and played harder. When he leaned over to shake her hand, he towered over her like a giant. His hand felt rough, and the bright sun glinted off a gold watch around his wrist.

“I second what Brody said,” West said. “You won’t regret your decision.”

“We’ll see how it goes,” Lara said. “Nice watch.”

“Thanks,” he smiled. “My dad gave it to me.”

“Miss,” a voice said.

Lara looked between the two cowboys at a third man. Compared to Brody and West, he was tiny, but he was actually about Will’s height. He was wearing a sweat-stained white dress shirt and black slacks, as if he had just come from work in an office. She found that oddly amusing.

He leaned between Brody and West to shake her hand. “I’m Roy. Thank you for letting us on the island. I know it’s not easy trusting complete strangers these days. This is Derek—” He pointed at a teenager standing awkwardly behind them, in jeans and a hoodie. It wasn’t nearly cool enough for a hoodie, so she found that a bit strange.

“Hey,” Derek said, lifting a half-wave.

“Hi, Derek,” Lara said.

She hadn’t failed to notice that Danny had strategically placed himself on the other side of the pier, behind the newcomers. He was holding a thick leather bag stuffed with weapons.

“Are you guys hungry?” Lara asked the men.

“Starving,” Brody said.

“Whatever you can spare,” West added.

She gave them her best hostess smile. “Follow me to the hotel. The women are already getting settled in.”

“Wait, you have a hotel?” Roy said. “I was just hoping for a soft patch of ground to sleep on where I don’t have to worry about bloodsuckers.”

“We have a hotel,” Danny said, “but only basic cable, so it’s sort of like sleeping on dirt if you really think about it.”

Roy glanced back at Danny, not sure how to take that.

“He’s kidding,” Maddie said, following them from the back. “He does that a lot. He’s got an unlimited supply of jokes. Very, very bad jokes.”

“You know you love it,” Danny said.

“When do we get our guns back?” Brody asked Lara.

“Why? Do you need them back?” she asked.

He smiled widely. “We’ve depended on them for so long, we feel naked walking around with an empty holster. I’m sure you guys know what that’s like.”

“Like Roy said, trust is hard to come by these days. This is our house, so if you want to stay, you’ll have to play by our rules. And right now, our rule is no guns until we decide we can trust you to have them back.”

“That sounds fine with me,” West said. “You, Brody?”

Brody shrugged. “Makes sense.”

“So we’re good, then,” he said, smiling at her.

“It’s not like we need them, right?” Roy said, sounding overly anxious. “The creatures, they can’t cross the water. Is that right?”

“That’s right,” Lara nodded.

“Then we don’t need our weapons,” Roy said, and she thought that last statement was directed more at Brody and West than her.

Roy moved ahead of the others until he was walking beside her. He was carrying a backpack, as were the other three. She assumed Danny had checked their bags before letting them on the pontoon.

“Thanks again for letting us on the island,” Roy said as they walked down the pier. “You don’t know what this means.”

“Like I said, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ll see how it goes.”

“Absolutely, I understand.”

“Danny says you guys came all the way from Oklahoma.”

“Most of us, except for Brody and West. We started out from Tulsa.”

“I’ve never been up that far.”

“It’s a city of about 400,000 people, about two hours from Oklahoma City, give or take. Home of the Tulsa Hurricane.”

“You get a lot of hurricanes there?”

He grinned. “No, the Golden Hurricane is the mascot of the University of Tulsa. I’m an alumnus.”

“Oh. What did you major in?”

“Computer science. Basically, the most useless degree you can think of these days, and I have it.”

“So you know how to fix computers?” Danny asked from behind them.

“Sure, I was an IT manager in my old job,” Roy said, sensing the sudden interest. “Why? You guys have a working computer on the island you need fixing?”

“Not on the island, no,” Lara said. “Though we do have a couple of laptops.”

“Working laptops?”

“Well, we have power…”

“But no Internet, sorry, kid,” Danny said. “You’ll have to get your porn elsewhere.”

Lara exchanged a brief look with Danny and smiled. She was pretty sure they were thinking the exact same thing at that moment: Harold Campbell’s facility back in Starch, Texas, was still waiting for them to reclaim it. They had left so much behind, from the supplies to those ultraviolet lamps inside the Green Room that had saved their lives. If they only had the time and the right personnel to fix what was broken, the facility would make for an invaluable backup plan. Jen’s helicopter was the key, though. Without it, braving the highways again was simply too risky.

“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst,” as Will would say.

Danny stayed behind with the men as they took their turn in the dining room. Sarah and Carly had whipped up a new batch of fish and cold drinks. The men attacked the cold drinks even more ferociously than the food, which wasn’t that surprising. Ice was the new currency in today’s world.

While the men ate, Lara went to check on the women. As expected, they had grabbed rooms next to each other near the middle of Hallway A. It was instinct. When she, Will, and the others had arrived at the hotel, they had done the exact same thing.

So when Lara found Jo’s room, she didn’t have to go far to find Jo’s sister, Bonnie, in the room next door. Bonnie’s door wasn’t closed, and when Lara leaned in, the older woman was pulling clothes out of her backpack. She had washed her face and hair, and she looked more stunning than when Lara had seen her earlier in the day. An open luggage stuffed with undergarments and personal hygiene products sat on the bed.

Lara saw a portable sonic toothbrush and toothpaste among Bonnie’s things. “You too, huh?”

Bonnie looked over. “Which one?”

“Toothbrush.”

“Oh God, I would end it all now if I couldn’t brush my teeth at least once a day.” She pulled out a fresh batch of batteries still in shrink wrap. “That’s all these are for, you know. The toothbrush. The trick is finding enough toothpaste.”

“You’re in luck. We have boxes of the stuff in storage.”

“You don’t know how happy I am to hear that.” She held up an almost empty tube of toothpaste. “I’m not kidding.”

“I’ll show you guys where to grab everything you’ll need later.”

“Thanks.”

“You and Jo are sisters, right?”

“How did you know?”

“There’s a resemblance.”

“She’s my little sister, yeah.”

Lara closed the door behind her.

Bonnie stopped what she was doing and looked over. She must have seen the seriousness on Lara’s face. “You have questions.”

“I do.”

“About the men.”

Lara nodded.

Bonnie pursed her lips.

She knows what I’m about to ask. She’s been waiting for it.

No, that’s not true. She’s been dreading it.

“Can I trust them?” Lara asked.

Bonnie sat down on the bed. She seemed to be thinking about her answer. Or maybe she was trying to decide how much to say.

Lara didn’t push her, letting her take her time. There was a reason she had decided to trust Bonnie. She had seen how the other woman acted around Mae, and how she made sure Lucy and Kylie and the boy Logan ate while they were in the dining room. Once, Bonnie gave the last piece of a fish to Logan, and sat for ten minutes waiting for the next round of food to show up. All the while, she hadn’t complained, hadn’t made a scene, and simply kept the conversation going, laughing all the while, even though Lara could tell she was still hungry.

She’s a good woman, Lara remembered thinking.

After a while, Bonnie met her gaze. “Roy’s a good guy.”

“What about the other two?”

“It was just Roy, me, and the girls in the beginning,” Bonnie said.

Lara didn’t interrupt. She understood; Bonnie was telling her this because she thought Lara needed to know the background, the context of what she would say next. So Lara stood against the wall and listened.

“It was hard,” Bonnie said. “Roy’s a really good guy, but you can tell by the way he dresses, this isn’t his thing.” She gave Lara a small but endearing smile. “It’s not our thing either, but it’s really not Roy’s thing. He worked in an office fixing computers, you know. But we got by. Barely. We were skin and bones when we ran across Brody and West. Those two guys could have survived in the pioneer days. Me, Jo, and Roy, and the others? I don’t know how long we would have lasted.”

“Brody and West saved you.”

“They did, yes. In the very real sense that we wouldn’t be here without them. Roy pitched in whenever he could, but it was mostly Brody and West. They went out for supplies, came back with food, kept us basically alive.”

“How did you guys meet?”

“They were heading up north when we crossed paths with them in southern Oklahoma. We were on our way down here after we picked up the radio broadcast. We convinced them to come down with us because we needed them in the worst way.” Bonnie paused. She looked down at her hands. “From the very first week, we made an arrangement. It was between me and Gwen, and Brody and West. They agreed not to touch Jo or the kids. And they didn’t.”

Lara didn’t have to ask what kind of “arrangement” Bonnie was talking about. “You did what you had to do,” she said.

Bonnie nodded. “I know. And I don’t regret doing it. I’m not going to be writing about it in my journal or anything, but it’s a different world out there. You have to do things you might not otherwise have done before in order to survive.”

“You don’t need them anymore, Bonnie. You’re not going anywhere. Neither are the girls, or the kids. But I need to know — can I trust them? Can I trust Brody and West to stay here on the island and not cause trouble?”

Bonnie didn’t answer right away. She met Lara’s eyes and held them.

“I don’t think you should, no,” Bonnie said finally.

“Are they dangerous?”

“They can be.”

“Were they ever violent with you and Gwen?”

“Sometimes.”

“I might have to eventually give them back their weapons.”

“I wouldn’t, if I were you. At least, not while they’re still on the island.”

“Why?”

“We weren’t always alone on the road. The eleven of us. We met other survivors.”

“What happened?”

“They had things West and Brody wanted. Supplies.” She paused. “One day, those supplies just showed up in the house we were staying in. I asked West where they got them, but he told me they found them.”

“How do you know he lied?”

“When you met him earlier, did you see the watch West had on?”

“The gold one?”

“Yeah. It used to belong to one of the survivors we ran across.”

“Did you ask him about it?”

“He said he traded for it.”

“Could he have?”

“No.” She shook her head. “When we first met the others, West asked about the watch, but the man who had it — he was young, in his twenties — said it was his father’s. West kept pestering him to trade for it, but the guy wouldn’t budge. Then one day we have extra supplies and West is wearing the watch.”

“He killed a man for a watch?”

“I don’t know for sure,” Bonnie said. “Maybe the guy changed his mind.” She shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, Lara, you know?”

“How many people were in the other group?”

“Four. Two men and two women. One of them was just a girl.”

They didn’t say anything else for a while.

“Thank you, Bonnie,” Lara said finally, and she turned to go.

“Lara.” Bonnie was standing when Lara looked back. “Is Danny good with those weapons?”

“Danny was an Army Ranger. After that, he was a SWAT commando. Yeah, Bonnie, he’s really good with those weapons.”

“Then he should think about using them.”

“What do you mean?”

“If Brody and West think they’ll never get their guns back, that you’ll never trust them enough to let them stay on the island, they might do something drastic. Something you won’t like.”

“What do you think they’ll do?”

“I don’t know,” Bonnie said, the fear clearly visible on her face. “That’s the problem. I don’t know what they’ll do if you push them into a corner. I just know that they’re capable of anything in order to get what they want. After seeing what the island has to offer, I don’t think they’re going to want to leave. Would you?”

No. No, I wouldn’t…

CHAPTER 7 WILL

“You sound beautiful.”

“Oh, you can hear that through the radio, can you?” Lara asked playfully.

“Only because it’s you,” Will said.

He was alone inside a small administrative office in the east tower of Mercy Hospital’s tenth floor. It was almost dark outside, with maybe thirty minutes of sunlight left. Will could sense the falling darkness, draping over the city of Lafayette inch by inch.

“Tell me about the new people,” Will said.

“Six women and five men, including two cowboys.”

“Cowboys?”

“Bona fide Texas cowboys. You know how, when everyone thinks of Texas, they picture us all wearing giant belt buckles, ten-gallon Stetson hats, and boots?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, they haven’t called me ‘ma’am’ or ‘darlin’’ yet, but that’s basically them. And minus the hats.”

“So your biggest knock against them is that they look too much like cowboys?”

“That, and Danny says they have squirrelly eyes.”

“Hunh.”

“That mean something to you, too?”

“We had a CO in Afghanistan with squirrelly eyes.”

“So Danny tells me.”

She went quiet.

“What is it?” he asked.

“I asked one of the women about them. About the cowboys.”

“I’m guessing she didn’t have very good things to say.”

“She told me we should only trust them as far as we can throw them. Like into the lake. She thinks we should walk them at gunpoint to the beach and just shoot them in the back of their heads.”

“She said that?”

“Not in so many words. I inferred.”

“Hunh.”

“‘Hunh’? Is that all you have to say?”

“Did you tell Danny what the woman said?”

“I discussed everything with him, Carly, Blaine, and Maddie afterward.”

“What about Sarah?”

“She was busy in the kitchen.”

“A woman’s work is never done.”

“Tell me about it.”

He paused to think about what she had said. Then, “What did Danny say?”

“That we need to watch them closely.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Just ‘okay’? That’s it? I was hoping for something more profound. Or at least, more than ‘okay.’ What does that mean, exactly?”

“It means if they so much as look cross-eyed at you or Carly, or anyone else on the island, Danny will put a bullet in their heads.”

Lara went quiet on the other end.

“Lara?”

“I’m still here,” she said. “Would he really do that?”

“Yes.”

“Because of what Bonnie told me?”

“That, but mostly because Danny will do what he has to do in order to keep you and the others safe. Just follow his lead when it comes to the gunplay.”

“What about everything else?”

“Lara,” he said.

“Hmm?”

“Just follow Danny’s lead on the two cowboys.”

“Okay.”

He could hear something else in her voice, a slight hesitation. “What is it?”

“I miss you.”

He smiled. “I miss you, too.”

“Are there any hot women over there?”

“They’re not much to look at over here.”

“Meaning?”

“They’ve been hiding inside a hospital floor for the last eleven months. Think about it.”

“That bad?”

“The kids are straight out of Village of the Damned.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a movie. About this town where the kids are damned.”

“Oh.”

“You’ve never seen it?”

“No.”

“When we get back, I’ll bring over a Blu-ray and we’ll pop it into the TV and watch together.”

“You have a Blu-ray copy of a movie about creepy children in a village that’s damned?” He could hear the amusement in her voice.

“What, you don’t?”

She laughed. “I can safely say, no.”

“You’ll love it.”

“I’m sure I won’t.”

“Lara,” he said.

“What?” she asked.

“I love you.”

“You sound so serious.”

“That’s because I am.”

“You’re alone over there, aren’t you?”

“Of course not. There are a dozen guys just sitting around listening to me profess my undying love for you.”

“Good. Because for a moment there I thought you were only doing the lovey dovey stuff because you were alone.”

“What kind of guy do you think I am?”

“I know exactly what kind of guy you are. And I still love you, too.”

“That took a while.”

She laughed again. “I had to think about it.”

“Damn, lady, you really know how to hurt a guy’s feelings.”

“I’m just messing with you. I didn’t have to think about it for one second.”

“Better.”

“Okay, maybe half a second.”

“Hunh.”

“By the way, one of the newcomers is a computer guy. Danny and I were discussing how he might come in handy.”

“The hydro turbine back at Harold Campbell’s facility?”

“Exactly. Of course, we’ll need Jen’s helicopter. How’s it coming, anyway? Is your charm offensive going as planned?”

“I’m working on it.”

“Work harder. We need that helicopter.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

They spent another thirty minutes talking. By then, Greg, the guy whose job it was to monitor the radio, had returned from dinner, and he sat back behind a desk and picked up an old, heavily dog-eared novel he had been reading when Will first arrived.

“Be careful,” Lara said, when he told her about helping Mike with the Archers raid tomorrow. “I hate the idea of you doing that, Will.”

“It’s a goodwill gesture.”

“Like some macho male bonding?”

“Something like that.”

He imagined her rolling her eyes on the other end.

“Just don’t get dead,” she said. “Isn’t that what Danny would say?”

“Probably something like that. But then he would spell it out, and instead of saying d-e-a-d, he would spell it d-e-d.”

“And that makes it funny?”

“It’s Danny, Lara,” Will said. “Jokes don’t have to be funny when he’s telling them.”

Tap-tap-tap.

Tap-tap-tap…

It had been so long since he saw one up close, that watching it peering back at him from the darkness elicited a curious reaction from Will. He didn’t know whether to draw his Glock and shoot it, or engage the thing in a kind of macabre staring contest.

He wasn’t worried the glass window would give. Mike’s people had been here for eleven months, and the ghouls hadn’t gotten in yet. The fact that the creatures hadn’t even attempted to do anything beyond patiently tap-tap-tapping the glass told him they were aware of its unyielding strength.

The one staring back at him now looked as if it had once been a woman. There were small bumps on its chest where breasts would have been. It was impossible to tell its age, and it had turned so long ago its skin, pruned and hairless, looked like plastic surgery gone wrong. Its eyes were dark and hollow, like two black voids staring back at him against the moonlight. Its upturned nose sniffed the glass pane.

There was a knock on his door.

“Come in.”

Mike entered, a pool of dimmed LED light from the hallway splashing across the window. The ghoul turned its head toward the door, regarding Mike with similar muted curiosity.

“Don’t let them get to you,” Mike said.

“You’re used to this? Seeing them out here every night?”

“Eventually, yeah. Come on,” Mike said. “I got just the cure for insomnia.”

Back in Mike’s room, the former lieutenant opened a cabinet and took out a full bottle of Wild Turkey. He grabbed two plastic cups and pointed to an empty chair near the rebar-reinforced window. An LED lamp turned on low in one corner lit the room up just enough to navigate by.

Will sat down and watched Mike open the bottle and pour out a generous amount into both cups. Mike looked somehow even more weary than this afternoon, which was quite a feat.

“I had four of these the first week we came here,” Mike said. “I’ve been steadily draining them for the last year. Finished the third bottle last night. I thought, hell, I’ll save the final bottle for something special. I guess this is as good a time as any.”

“Cheers,” Will said, and touched plastic cups with the former officer. He took a sip of the bourbon and grimaced as the bitterness washed down his throat. It had been a while.

Mike smiled knowingly. “Not a bourbon man, I take it.”

“Hard to afford them on an enlisted man’s salary.”

“Amy said you were a corporal. Where did you serve?”

“Afghanistan.”

“I never made it in-country, even though I was supposed to go. After OCS, they gave me a second lieutenant commission and I spent most of my time waiting to pack my bags. Never happened, for some reason. After a while, my CO got pissed that I kept pestering him about it.” He smirked. “Turns out, I didn’t have to go overseas to see action.”

“How’d it go down that night?”

“I was at the Lafayette army base doing field training exercises. At first we thought it was some kind of pandemic. No one knew what was happening. I tried getting orders from the higher-ups, but they didn’t have a clue. No one did. I don’t know how, but we managed to organize enough people at the base to make a stand, but by morning…” He shook his head. “All those people, jammed in there at night, gone. Just gone. Like that, it was a ghost town.”

“How many men did you bring with you?”

“A couple, including Park. The rest scattered, went looking for their families in the city or out of town. Can’t blame them. If I had family, I would have done the same thing. They might still be alive out there somewhere. Who knows? There were some good, very capable men in the bunch.”

Mike looked out the window, as if expecting a ghoul to be there. There wasn’t, though Will could still here the soft tap-tap-tap from other parts of the hospital.

They’re probing for weaknesses. Relentless. Night after night.

Dead, not stupid…

“How active are they?” Will asked.

“They’re erratic. Sometimes there are waves of them, so many you can’t see the city in the background. Other times, it’s like this — they show up, look around, and then disappear just as quickly.”

“They’re smart.”

Mike nodded. “They would have to be, wouldn’t they? To pull off what they did?” Mike refilled their cups. “Down the hatch,” he said, and drained his in one swallow.

Will winced for him, then sipped his. “Are you sure you want to hit that Archers tomorrow?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“You said you were running out of supplies. Can you last another month without replenishing?”

Mike thought about it. “Maybe. But why should I do that? You said it yourself, I can’t just put everyone into our cars tomorrow and drive down to Beaufont Lake. I need supplies until that happens.” He grinned at Will. “Unless you’re telling me you’ve changed your mind?”

“Not yet. Sorry.”

“I understand.” He leaned back. “Look, you have a good thing going there. Forty extra bodies is a lot. If I was in your position, I’d do the same thing.”

“How are you handling who goes and who stays?”

“I was thinking about sending the kids and women first. We have a couple of fifty-somethings that would probably benefit from the fresh air. And they’ll be able to contribute right away. One’s an engineer, another’s an electrician. Of course, you’ll have to take their families, too. The electrician, Darren, has a fourteen-year-old girl, and the engineer, John, has a wife. I think she was a real estate agent, in case you were thinking about selling the island.”

He chuckled. “Probably not.”

“Well, I tried.”

Mike took another emptying swig of the plastic cup, then quickly refilled it.

The next morning, Will learned how Mike and his people left the hospital for supply runs when they couldn’t access any of the lower floors. Mike led him and Gaby up to the roof at an hour past sunup, and if Will thought Mike looked terrible last night, the man could have passed for a scarecrow in the morning light.

A few of Mike’s people followed them up to the rooftop carrying large nylon bags, two of them wearing hard plastic shell helmets. Will heard clinking noises as the men tossed the bags down near the edge of the north tower and began pulling out rappelling equipment.

“Where’d you get these?” Will asked.

“Jen,” Mike said. “When we realized we were essentially trapped on the tenth floor, we used her helicopter to make trips down to the streets for supplies. That wasn’t going to work forever, though. Too much fuel and time. So we raided a surplus store and grabbed these. It’s a pain in the ass, but it has an added benefit.”

“What’s that?”

“It keeps people from wandering outside the building.”

Mike picked up a harness and stepped into it with practiced ease. Two men Will recognized from last night as Paul and Johnson were already doing the same thing. They slipped heavy-duty nylon webbing harnesses between their legs, then around their waists. There was nothing comfortable about the rigs, but they would hold.

Mike’s people had drilled a half dozen anchor points along the rooftop about two meters from the edge, each one attached with a carabiner. The system had a three anchor point redundancy in case one of the anchors gave way. Not a bad idea. Will had seen plenty of rappelling falls, and they were never a pretty sight. Mike’s people had also set up a pulley system where the group that rappelled down could later be pulled back up. He guessed that explained the presence of two muscular guys standing behind them, watching the show. The designated pullers.

“Strap in,” Mike said. “You’ll need to take off your belt.”

Will unslung the M4A1 and took off his gun belt. He handed his rifle to Gaby and his belt to another one of Mike’s men, who put it into a duffel bag already stuffed with supplies.

Gaby picked up one of the harnesses and offered it to him. “You sure you wanna be doing this, boss? Looks like a pretty steep drop.”

“It’s not too bad,” Mike said. “Thirty-six meters, give or take.”

“How much is that in feet?” she asked.

“Each floor is about twelve feet,” Will said. “So ten floors is…”

“One hundred and twenty feet,” Gaby finished. “That’s a long way down. I would totally still respect you in the morning if you change your mind.”

“I’ve rappelled from higher.”

“Off the side of a hospital?”

“Once or twice.” Will slipped on his harness and took a proffered shell helmet from one of the pullers. “How many supply runs do you do in a month?” he asked Mike.

“Two, three times, depending on what we need,” Mike said. “We try to limit it. The creatures aren’t the only problems out there, but you already know that.”

“And you’ve never run across collaborators before?”

“Not yet, just your standard marauders. As far as I know, there are two, maybe three, other groups out there in the city, trying to take the same things we are. I lost a couple of men to them over the months, but I took a couple of theirs, too.”

“We saw plenty of those kinds of people,” Gaby said.

“It’s inevitable,” Mike said. “There will always be people trying to take advantage of a desperate situation.”

Gaby handed Will his rifle, then a pair of leather gloves which he slipped on. “If you fall and break your neck, can I tell Lara I at least tried to stop you?”

He smiled. “Permission granted.”

Will slung his rifle, made sure the gloves were tight, then joined the others taking their positions along four of the anchor points. Mike stepped off the edge first and Will followed, then Paul and Johnson dropped down after them.

It had been a while since he rappelled. Most of it was from his Army Ranger days, but there hadn’t been nearly as much rappelling during his tour with Harris County SWAT. Still, as he went down the tenth floor, passing by a rectangular window, it all came rushing back. Controlling his descent was the hardest part, but muscle memory kicked in around the seventh floor, and the rest was easy.

He landed back on earth between some bushes and overgrown grass. They were at the front of the hospital, with the parking lot on one side and the lobby behind them. Will instantly detached himself from his rig and unslung his M4A1.

Mike did the same thing, unslinging a Mossberg 590 tactical shotgun. Will wished he had brought his Remington from the island. The spreading power of a shotgun always made clearing buildings so much easier.

Paul and Johnson came down on Will’s right. Paul was a big man, and he landed with a loud whump, as if he were out of breath. Johnson was lighter on his feet, probably helped by the fact he was carrying fifty less pounds than Paul. They both unslung AR-15 rifles.

When they were sure there was no one to greet them but dead cars in the parking lot and empty streets to the left and right, Mike looked up and whistled. The men above lowered their weapons bag, tied to a rope.

Out of curiosity, Will moved toward the lobby’s dirt-smeared glass windows and peered into the darkness on the other side. He couldn’t detect very much, but there was the unmistakable hint of movement. The ghouls were creatures of habit, and though they were rarely active in the day, they could be easily awakened to movement.

“Can you see them?” Mike asked from behind him.

“I see some movement.”

“There must be hundreds, maybe thousands, of them in there. It’s a big building. Nine floors’ worth of space.”

“If they ever get onto the tenth floor…” Johnson said, but let his voice trail off.

“Enough chatter,” Mike said. “Gear up. I want to be back here by noon.”

Paul opened the duffel bag and pulled out their gun belts. Will slipped his on after prying himself from the harness. He always carried the cross-knife, and Mike and his people had their own recently made silver-bladed weapons in makeshift sheaths around their waists.

Will tossed his harness back to Paul, who stuffed it into the same bag. When they had all the rappelling equipment inside, Paul stood up and whistled, and the bag was pulled back up to the rooftop by a half-hidden figure high above them.

Mike unzipped his backpack, pulled out four empty gym bags, and handed them out. “For supplies.”

A shadow fell over Will and he glanced up, saw Gaby looking back down at him over the edge. “Don’t get dead!” she shouted down.

He gave her a brief salute.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Mike said, and began moving out.

Will followed. “How far is the Archers?”

“Two blocks. The last time we tried it, there were less than a hundred undead things inside. If these silver bullets of yours actually work, we shouldn’t have any problems clearing the place out.”

“Sounds like you have it all figured out.”

Mike grinned. “That’s the trick, isn’t it? Making the plan work without everyone getting killed.”

Will was intimately familiar with Archers Sports and Outdoors, a warehouse store that sold everything from fishing supplies to hunting gear and everything in-between. It was at an Archers in Houston where he and Danny spent the night after The Purge, making the very first batch of silver bullets. It brought back memories, along with the phantom smell of explosives, courtesy of Danny’s C4.

“They’re in the back,” Mike said. “Away from the sunlight during the day. The last time we tried this, we got halfway inside before it became too dangerous. We did our best to stick to the light, grab what we could off the racks, but all the good stuff’s in the back.”

Will nodded. Mike was talking about the guns, ammo, and hunting supplies. The majority of the store’s middle sections were reserved for clothes. With the windows mostly cleared of obstruction, sunlight filtered in across the long rows of cash registers and clothing racks visible from the sidewalk.

Mike moved toward the front door, shotgun in hand. “I’ll go first. Will follows me, and the two of you watch our six.”

Mike pulled the unlocked door open and slipped inside, shotgun moving quickly up to chest level. Will kept pace with him, allowing enough of a distance that Mike could turn a full 360 degrees if he needed to. He heard Johnson’s footsteps behind him, followed by the loud, laborious squeaks of Paul’s boots.

I’m going into a ghoul’s nest with Paul Bunyan.

They turned right immediately after entering the store, and moved along the aisle with the cash registers to their right and clothing racks to their left. Someone had actually taken the time to empty a couple of the registers for God knew what reason.

The store, like all Archers, had smooth, tiled floors. There were old patches of faded blood, the color of dull brown scattered about them. The store’s racks were still mostly intact, with surprisingly very few signs of having been plundered over the last eleven months. Up ahead would be the hardware aisles, with fishing supplies in the right corner and hunting gear to the left, farther up the store. They stuck to the pathway, away from racks with too much darkness underneath and shelves that were just a bit too high.

Soon, they turned left, and after a few more meters, Mike stopped.

There was only darkness in front of them, sunlight from the windows unable to penetrate this far into the building.

Mike gave Will a nervous grin. “Silver bullets, right?”

Will nodded. “Silver bullets.”

Mike gave him an “Okay, here goes” expression and turned back around. He flicked on the flashlight taped underneath his Mossberg and—

Two ghouls, hiding in the darkness, were instantly illuminated by the bright light. They hissed and lunged at Mike, who fired instinctively, and the two ghouls were eviscerated in front of him. What was left of one creature flopped forward into the sunlight, its flesh vaporized into fine white mists on contact.

Mike took a quick step back, and so did Paul and Johnson behind Will.

The former army officer, breathing just a little too loudly, stared down at the white bones of the dead ghoul, the still-intact half of the creature lying in the shadows. Or mostly intact. The buckshot had torn its head clean off, leaving a decapitated body. The other one lay perfectly still in the shadows a few meters away.

Paul and Johnson leaned forward to look at the damage.

“Silver bullets,” Mike said breathlessly.

“Silver bullets,” Will nodded.

Mike gave him the strangest grin, then racked a fresh shell into the shotgun. “Let’s go shopping.”

CHAPTER 8 LARA

She sat at the table on the third floor of the Tower, staring at the radio. Will had signed off more than thirty minutes ago, but Lara hadn’t been able to get up and leave yet. Maddie moved quietly behind her, shifting from one window to the next with night-vision binoculars. An LED lamp hung from the ceiling above them, keeping the darkness outside at bay.

“Are you going to stay here all night?” Maddie finally asked.

Lara sighed. “I don’t know. If it keeps me from making a decision, I might.”

“I’m sure you’ll make the right one.”

She looked back at Maddie. “Really? Because I’m not. Will wouldn’t have a problem with this. He makes these decisions by morning.”

“If it makes you feel any better, Danny, Carly, and everyone else won’t second-guess you.”

“Thanks. I think.” She got up and stretched. “I’m going for a walk, try to clear my head. You good?”

“I’m good.”

Lara left the Tower.

Nightfall brought surprising coolness to the island, and it made her shiver slightly underneath her T-shirt as she walked across the grounds. The solar-powered LED lampposts that traveled across the island with the cobblestone pathways had lit up a few minutes ago. There were lights on inside the hotel lobby and bright floodlights along the sides of the building’s exterior.

“We’re lit up like a Christmas tree” was an expression Will liked to use to describe how the island looked from land.

Instead of entering the hotel from the back, which would have been quicker, she circled it, using the time to convince herself that she knew what she was doing, that she was capable of this, even if every ounce of her screamed that she was deluding herself.

I’m a third-year medical student. What am I doing deciding who goes and who stays?

This is crazy. I’m not ready for this responsibility. I might never be ready.

Do I even want to ever be ready?

She spotted a lone figure on the front patio, and Lara recognized Mae leaning against the railing, looking off at nothing. No, not nothing. Back toward the shore. Mae had looked noticeably stronger throughout the evening, as if she were gaining strength with every minute on the island.

The older woman looked over at the sound of Lara’s footsteps. “I never thought it would happen.”

“What’s that?”

“That I’d be able to stand out here, at night, and not fear for my life with every breath I take.” She smiled and breathed in the cool air. “Thank you, Lara. Thank you for this island.”

Lara felt slightly embarrassed and proud at the same time. “You’re welcome, Mae. How are you settling in?”

“It’s wonderful. This place is wonderful. It’s more than we ever hoped for.”

Lara climbed the steps and stood beside Mae. She thought she needed some alone time to think, but maybe what she really needed was someone to talk to. Someone who hadn’t already put all their faith in her like Maddie, or Danny, or Carly had.

God knows why they think I’m capable of this.

“Are they out there?” Mae asked.

“They’re out there,” she nodded. “You can see them moving around on land, along the shores. It’s impossible not to see the island, since we’re the only artificial light for miles around.”

Mae gave her a grateful smile. “I never thought we’d make it here. It was Bonnie’s idea, you know. God bless her. She pushed us to come down here. There were so many times when we wanted to give up, but that girl…she kept pushing and pushing. Even when everyone wanted to quit, especially after we couldn’t hear the radio broadcast anymore, she wouldn’t let us. She was so determined. We argued about it. Over and over.”

“Is that why it took so long for you guys to get down here?”

“Yes. Whenever we’d find a good spot — a safe place — West and Brody didn’t want to leave. But she always managed to convince them. I don’t know how she did it, but we always kept moving.”

“She’s a tough woman.”

“She is. Especially considering what she did before all of this. She was a model, you know.”

“I’m not surprised. She’s very pretty.”

“She’s gorgeous, dear,” Mae said. “Not that you’re chopped liver.”

Lara surprised herself by blushing a bit, and hoped Mae couldn’t see under the floodlights. “Thanks.”

“I bet all the boys turn their heads when you walk into a room.”

“There’s only one boy I care about these days.”

“The mysterious Will. Oft-heard, but not yet seen.”

“He’ll be back soon. You’ll like him.”

“If he’s anything like Danny, then I’m sure I’ll like him. It’s very easy to be fond of your Danny. All the girls are smitten, and they’re heartbroken he’s already taken.”

“Carly will be happy to hear that,” Lara smiled.

“It’s fun, isn’t it?” Mae said, sounding giddy.

“What’s that?”

“To be able to talk about inconsequential things like this.”

Lara nodded. “It is, isn’t it?”

“What is?” a deep male voice said behind them.

They both looked back at West, coming out of the lobby. He had showered, slicked his hair back, and changed into a new pair of jeans and a long-sleeve shirt.

He smiled at them. “Am I interrupting something, ladies?”

“Girl talk,” Lara said.

“What about?”

She shook her head. “Nothing important.”

He walked to the railing and breathed in the air. “It’s a hell of a place you guys have here, Lara. When I heard the creatures — what do you guys call them, ghouls? — couldn’t get to it, I was skeptical. But it’s true. Look at us, standing out here in the dark, in the open, talking like we’re on someone’s porch. It’s amazing.”

“It certainly is,” Mae said. “I was just telling Lara that.”

“Aren’t you tired, Mae?” West said, looking over at the older woman. “You look tired. You should probably go get some rest.” Then to Lara, as if to explain, “We had to push it this afternoon to get down here. We were so close the ladies couldn’t wait. Heck, I think we almost ran out of gas. That right, Mae?”

Mae nodded. “That’s right, West.”

“You should go get some rest,” West said again.

Mae looked at Lara almost apologetically. “I should go get some rest. Thank you again, Lara. This island…it’s everything we dreamt it would be, and more.”

“You’re welcome, Mae. I’ll see you tomorrow for breakfast.”

Lara hugged her and was surprised by the strength in Mae’s embrace.

“God bless you, dear,” the older woman said, before pulling away and disappearing back into the lobby.

“I have to tell you,” West said, looking after Mae, “there were times when we didn’t think she’d make it. She’s not exactly a spring chicken anymore.”

“She looks pretty strong to me.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, they’re a tough bunch. Brody and me didn’t think some of them would make it during the trip down here, to be honest with you. You know, we almost turned back after we couldn’t get your radio broadcast anymore.”

It wasn’t our radio broadcast, she thought, but said instead, “Mae says Bonnie wouldn’t let you guys give up.”

“Bonnie can be pretty persuasive.” He smiled to himself, like he was reliving a private joke. “She’s a tough one. But then, I guess you’d have to be to survive these days, right?”

“It doesn’t hurt.”

He looked around at the bright hotel grounds. “How many lights are on this island? I stopped counting after about twenty.”

“There’s a lot.”

“And they’re all solar-powered?”

“Yup,” she said.

He must have sensed the lack of enthusiasm in her voice. “I think we might have gotten off on the wrong foot,” he said, looking at her. He was so much taller, with broad shoulders, that she felt like a child staring back at him.

“What makes you say that?”

“I don’t know, it’s just a feeling that I got. Maybe I’m wrong.”

“What’s on your mind, West?”

“Brody and me, we’re not bad guys. We’ll earn our keep around here.”

“I don’t doubt that.”

“I can’t promise the same thing about the company we came with. But you’re not going to have to worry about us. We’re not afraid of hard work. Never were, and never will be.”

“I believe you.”

“So in case you have any doubts, don’t. I get it, we need to earn your trust. And we will. You just have to give us a chance, that’s all.”

“We’ll see,” she said.

Lara gave him a smile that she hoped (prayed) was at least semi-convincing.

She headed for Danny and Carly’s room, next to the one Vera shared with Elise. The conversation with West continued to gnaw at her, ten minutes after leaving him behind on the patio by himself. It wasn’t just what he had said, but what he didn’t say. There was a tone in his voice that she couldn’t quite figure out.

Was he warning me? Or maybe threatening me?

She knocked on Carly and Danny’s door. “You guys decent?”

“No, but come on in anyway,” Danny called from inside.

Lara entered. Carly was folding freshly laundered clothes on the bed, while Danny was brushing his teeth in the open bathroom door, with only a towel around his waist.

He winked at her. “Hey, Lara, like what you see?”

“Oh, gross, babe, go finish your shower,” Carly said.

“Shout if you want a piece of this,” Danny said, flexing his biceps before disappearing into the bathroom. She heard the shower turn on a few moments later.

Carly looked over at her. “The love of my life, Lara. Can you believe how charming he is?”

“Mae says all the new girls are swooning over him.”

“Of course they are. It’s the blue eyes and California good looks. Why did you think I jumped his bones in the first place?”

“Oh, so the secret’s out now.”

“Was it ever in?” Carly picked up a stack of shirts and walked to a dresser. “You’re worried about them.”

It wasn’t a question, and she didn’t even have to elaborate on who “them” was.

Lara sat down on the bed. “Yeah.”

“Did you decide what to do?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you guys about.”

“I think it’s the right decision.”

“I didn’t tell you what I’ve decided.”

“You don’t think I can read you like an open book after all we’ve been through?”

“So you agree?”

“It’s the only decision. The other girls are terrified of them, especially the younger ones.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Bonnie told you she’s been able to keep the two of them away from the other girls and her sister Jo, right?”

“She did, but she didn’t say anything about the others.”

“She didn’t have to. It’s inferred, Lara.” She cocked her head. “Is ‘inferred’ the right word?”

Lara smiled. “Close enough. Tell me what you mean.”

“If you read between the lines, it means Brody and West have tried to do things with the other girls before. One of them is what, thirteen?”

Lara nodded. Lucy was fourteen, and Kylie thirteen. They were both pretty girls, and she saw how Bonnie, Jo, and Gwen protectively watched over them. She imagined it must have been the same with her and Carly, and the girls.

The shower turned off and a few seconds later Danny reappeared in the doorway, wearing the same towel around his waist, wet hair dripping onto the carpet underneath him.

“Lara and I were talking about that thing,” Carly said.

Danny grinned. “I get to be in the middle.”

“Don’t be an idiot, babe. The cowboys.”

“But we can still discuss the other thing, right?”

“Maybe later,” Lara said. “What do you think, Danny?”

He shrugged. “Just call it Brokeback Island.”

“What does that even mean?” Carly said.

“You know, that movie? Brokeback Mountain?”

Carly and Lara exchanged a confused look.

“You know what he’s talking about?” Carly asked.

“Not a clue,” Lara said.

“Christ, how old are you two?” Danny grunted.

She barely slept all night. The queen-size mattress felt too big without Will, and she kept turning over on her side to look across the bed, expecting him to be there. His presence was always such a soothing reminder that everything was fine, that if Will was sleeping soundly, it had to be safe for her to do the same.

She couldn’t count on that tonight.

Instead, she lay awake, staring at the patio window. There was a nightlight in one corner, but most of the room was dark and she only had her conflicted thoughts to keep her company. It was cool outside, and she pulled the blankets up to her chest.

Will they fight?

Yes, they would fight. Brody and West were fighters. She knew that the second she laid eyes on them. The same trait that made them so valuable out there was what would make them a problem on the island. They were aggressive, daring, and most of all, willing to cross lines in order to get what they wanted.

Even so, she couldn’t completely fight back the feeling of guilt about what she was about to do to them when the sun came up. Brody and West had saved the others. Bonnie admitted as much, regardless of what they may or may not have done to other survivors…

I can’t risk it. If they did kill those other people…

I just can’t risk it. Not with Elise and Vera, and the others…

She turned over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. Dark patches of shadow danced above her, mocking her.

I can’t risk it…

There was no decision here. There was only the one choice in front of her. It was obvious.

Wasn’t it?

She told herself her experiences with the Sunday brothers had nothing to do with this. No, she wasn’t punishing West and Brody because of what the Sundays had done to her all those months ago…

When her mind slipped — and it did, every now and then — she found herself reliving the days inside that cabin hidden in the woods. The Sundays. Life with the Sundays. They had kept her chained to the floor, and she could still smell the desperation, along with the filthy dress they forced her to wear because she wasn’t deserving of decent clothing. She could still feel the cold, merciless bite of the metal collar around her ankle…

May you forever burn in hell, John Sunday. You and your brothers.

The gunshot woke her up. It split the calm, serene night air like lightning, shooting across the island and through every room and hallway of the hotel.

Lara was on her feet before the gunshot even finished its echo. She snatched up her Glock from the nightstand and scanned the room to make sure there was no one inside. She calmed her breathing, put the gun back down, and grabbed her pants and shirt and pulled them on, then spent more precious seconds struggling to shove her feet into socks and sneakers.

Footsteps raced across her door, then Danny’s voice: “Lara!”

“I’m coming!” she shouted back.

The footsteps faded as Danny raced up the hallway. She listened to the direction he was heading.

North.

That meant the back of the building, which meant—

The Tower.

Then two more gunshots, this time coming in quick succession.

Shotguns.

Lara glanced at her alarm clock: 2:14 a.m.

Blaine.

Maddie had the night shift in the Tower, but Blaine would have already relieved her at midnight. He would be there now.

Lara threw her gun belt around her waist, slipped the Glock into the holster, then snatched up the Benelli M4 shotgun from the corner and ran for the door.

Carly was in the hallway in pajamas and a cotton T-shirt, standing just outside the girls’ room with a Glock in her right hand. “Danny just went.”

“Stay with the girls!” she shouted, and ran up Hallway A, following in Danny’s footsteps.

She burst out of the hotel’s back door, the cool air sending a thrill through her body. Or maybe it was just the adrenaline.

She ran as fast as she could, making a straight line for the Tower.

She was halfway there when she saw the door into the lighthouse had been thrown open, bright lights spilling out across the grass. She caught movement from the corner of her eye and looked up at the windows on the second and third floor, glimpsed movement along the second floor, just before Danny appeared in one of the openings.

He was scanning the hotel grounds when he spotted her. “Lara! Get down!”

“What?” she got out, just before a shot shattered the night air around her. She felt something fast zip past her head.

She threw herself to the ground so awkwardly that she lost the shotgun halfway down. It landed in the grass a few feet from her. Lara scrambled forward, snatching it back up and turning toward where she thought the shot had come from.

She heard two shots coming from behind her and looked back at Danny, who was firing from the second-floor window with his M4A1. She tried to follow where he was shooting, but even with the bright LED lights all around them, there were still too many patches of darkness where anyone could be hiding.

Lara scrambled to her feet and raced toward the Tower, even as Danny fired two more shots. The hidden shooter answered Danny’s shots with two of his own, and chunks of the Tower’s second-floor window — where Danny was standing — filled the air.

Danny stepped back a bit, but undeterred, kept returning fire.

When she was almost at the Tower, she stopped short at the sight of blood on the grass outside the door. There was more blood inside, a jagged line running along the floor and continued up the spiral staircase. She darted inside then hurried up the steps, listening to Danny shooting from above her.

She stuck her head carefully through the second-floor opening. Danny was still at the window, peering out with his rifle. “Danny, what’s happening?”

“Third floor, Lara,” Danny said. “Blaine’s hurt.”

She climbed up onto the floor, then hurried over to the second set of cast iron staircases.

“Watch for the blood,” Danny added, just as a shot dislodged a section of the window frame above his head. Danny took another step backward, before returning fire.

“Whose blood?” Lara asked.

“I don’t know, a lot of bleeding going on up there.” Danny fired again. “I have him pinned down behind one of the palm trees.”

“Who’s out there?”

“One of the cowboys. West. I think.”

“You think?”

“Hard to tell who’s up there with Blaine.”

“Danny, what—”

“Upstairs, Lara,” he said, cutting her off. “Blaine’s kinda bleeding to death.”

Lara hurried up the staircase, almost slipping on the fresh blood that covered the steps. She grabbed on to the railing to keep her balance, and pushed on toward the opening.

When she stepped up onto the third floor, she was greeted by another thick pool of blood right away. It was coming from a body. Brody. Or what was left of Brody. A shotgun blast had taken his head almost clean off, spraying chunks of it against the wall. A knife lay nearby, very close to his open hand. It looked like one of the knives from the hotel’s kitchen.

Blaine sat on the floor across from Brody’s lifeless body. There was another knife sticking out of Blaine’s left side, and he was pressing his hand over the wound, his Remington shotgun resting in his lap. Three spent shotgun shells formed a kind of semicircle around him.

“Hey, doc,” Blaine said. His face was covered in sweat despite the chilly night air. “Sorry about this. You must be sick and tired of keeping me from bleeding to death by now.”

Lara made an effort to smile. She stepped over what was left of Brody’s body, moving toward Blaine. “What happened?”

“They showed up and tried to get the drop on me. I managed to get one of them, but the other one split with the M4. Sorry, boss.”

Two more shots rang out from below them.

Lara crouched next to Blaine and put down her shotgun. She eased his hand away from the knife to get a better look. “I’m going to have to cut off a piece of your shirt to see how bad it is.”

“Go for it,” Blaine said. He drew a big combat knife from a sheath along his hip and handed it to her hilt first.

She took the knife and started cutting. “Tell me what happened.”

“One of them showed up and made small talk. Then the second one comes up from behind and I saw the knife in his hand and I shot him. But the first one tries to stab me. Well, not try. He actually did stab me. Then he grabbed the M4 and took off. I tried picking him off when he was running down, but I missed. I’m a lousy shot. Always have been, even with a shotgun.”

She looked back at Brody’s mostly decapitated body. “Brody would beg to differ.”

“Lucky shot. He was close, and when he saw me catch him coming up the staircase, he sort of froze. I got real lucky tonight, doc.”

“Why didn’t West shoot you if he had the M4?”

“He was backing up when he tried, but I guess he was fumbling with the weapon, forgot all about the safety. What an amateur, as Will would probably say.”

She smiled at that. Will would definitely have said that.

“Then he took off,” Blaine continued. “I guess he thought he’d figure it out later.”

They heard two more gunshots, this time coming from outside the Tower.

“I guess he’s since figured it out,” Blaine said. “Is it bad, doc?”

“Compared to when I first saw you? This is a cakewalk.”

“Glad to hear it,” he said, closing his eyes and leaning back. “I’m gonna go to sleep for a while, doc. Wake me up when it’s over, will ya?”

Blaine wasn’t entirely a bad shot. Besides blowing Brody’s head off, one of his other two shots had hit West, who bled all the way down to the first floor, and then kept on bleeding on his way out of the Tower. He had gotten halfway to the beach when Lara and Danny came out of the hotel. The M4 West had in his possession was equipped with the ACOG, which gave him an advantage over Danny during their back and forth exchange.

Danny, wearing night-vision goggles, had tracked West away from the hotel. “He’s headed into the woods on the west side,” Danny said over the radio. “Bleeding like a stuck pig, from the looks of it.”

“Be careful, babe,” Carly said through the radio.

“Careful’s my middle name,” Danny said.

“Since when?”

“Since I ran across this spunky redhead. She’s got me all kinds of messed up these days.”

“I love you, too,” Carly said.

Until they could find West, Lara ordered the hotel sealed. The doors were closed and windows locked. She gave Bonnie and Roy gun belts with Glocks and told them to stay inside until it was over. She considered confining everyone to their rooms but thought better of it. Instead, she put them all in the lobby for the night with Carly so they would know where everyone was at all times.

Maddie had gone back to the Tower to keep overwatch. Will had drilled the importance of having constant overwatch in the Tower for so long, Lara wasn’t surprised how effortlessly everyone responded to taking turns up there.

With the help of Bonnie and Roy, Lara carried Blaine back to the hotel manager’s office behind the kitchen, where she had converted the room into a makeshift infirmary a few months back. It was just big enough for a couple of beds they had liberated from some of the unused rooms, and she had added a cabinet to hold extra medical supplies. Afterward, Roy wandered back out into the lobby to be with the others.

Bonnie didn’t leave right away, but stood by quietly as Lara stitched Blaine’s wound. The big man was asleep, snoring lightly under general anesthesia. He bled profusely when she had pulled out the knife, but thankfully the blade had missed his left kidney by half an inch.

When she was finished, Lara tossed the surgical latex gloves into a bin and washed her hands in the sink.

“I’m sorry,” Bonnie said behind her.

Bonnie had been so quiet that Lara was actually surprised she was even still there. “For what?”

“This is my fault, isn’t it?”

“I asked, and you told me the truth, Bonnie. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

“Maybe I should have waited…”

“It wouldn’t have mattered. Danny had doubts about them from the very beginning. It’s a dangerous world out there, Bonnie. There are a lot of dangerous people. I—we’ve—encountered plenty of them since all of this began.”

The Sundays…

May you all burn in hell.

Bonnie nodded. Lara couldn’t tell if she was convinced. She hadn’t known the woman long enough and there was an inherent sadness about Bonnie, despite the perfect everything, that told Lara the other woman had been through more than she was willing to share.

Bonnie finally looked down at the Glock holstered on her right hip. “Can I tell you something?”

“You’ve never used a gun before?”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Kind of. Will and Danny can teach you, if you want.”

“I’d like that. Thank you. Roy wouldn’t mind a lesson or two, either.”

“I’ll ask them—”

Two gunshots, in quick succession, interrupted her. It sounded far away, from the other side of the island.

Lara snatched up the radio from the counter. “Danny, what’s happening?”

“Found him,” Danny said through the radio. “I’m pursuing him through the woods now.”

“Be careful.”

“Will do.”

Lara said to Bonnie, “Can you do me a favor?”

“Anything,” Bonnie said.

“Stay here with Blaine in case he wakes up and needs something. He should be sleeping for most of the day, but he’s stubborn, so you never know. After this is over, we’ll issue you and Roy radios. Until then, Carly will be outside in the lobby the entire time.” Lara picked up her Benelli and headed for the door, but stopped and looked back at Bonnie. “Hey.”

Bonnie looked over.

Lara gave her a pursed smile. “Don’t blame yourself. For any of it. You did what you had to in order to get here. What West and Brody did to Blaine wasn’t your fault. They made their own choices. Okay?”

Bonnie nodded back. “Okay.”

Lara hurried outside. “Danny,” she said into the radio.

“Yeah,” Danny said. She thought he might be whispering.

“I’m coming to you. Where are you exactly?”

“About thirty meters directly behind the power station.”

“How many is that in feet?”

“Ninety-eight, give or take.”

“Can you wait for me?”

“Sure, why not,” Danny said. “The more the merrier. Bring pajamas. We’ll have a sleepover.”

CHAPTER 9 GABY

Seeing the world through a small red dot mounted on top of an assault rifle wasn’t what Gaby expected to be doing a year after what was supposed to be her senior year in high school. Then again, she hadn’t expected the world to end, either, so it wasn’t as if she had control of anything anymore.

The sight on top of her M4 was a squat black tube, about five and three-quarters inches long. It allowed her to acquire and fire on a target without too much preparation. It was only capable of two-times magnification, so she wasn’t going to hit anything long distance. She wasn’t nearly good enough to do that, even with the ACOG in the Tower, but she was getting there.

One of these days…

She lowered the carbine and looked down at the sprawling parking lot on the north side of the hospital. So many cars. Sometimes she found herself wondering what had happened to their owners.

The two muscle-bound guys that came up to the rooftop with her this morning had wandered back downstairs to eat something. Benny and Tom had taken their place, and she could hear them moving around behind her, chatting about something pointless, when the sound of a gunshot from up the street exploded across the dead city.

Benny and Tom quickly rushed over.

“There they go,” Benny said. “I hope those silver bullets work.”

“They work,” Gaby said.

The three of them stood at the edge of the rooftop and listened as the first gunshot faded. Moments later, shotguns and the cracking of a rifle rolled across the distance, one after another. The shooting went on for a while. Five minutes. Then ten… It was continuous, and for a time felt like it would never end.

Until, that is, it did stop.

As the last shot disappeared across the city, Benny said, “Sounds like they’re done.”

Gaby looked down at her watch. Will and the others had been gone for less than an hour.

“What’s it like?” Tom asked her. “The island.”

“There’s a beach on the south side,” she said. “It’s long, with white sands. It was hot when we arrived, but it’s cooled down with the weather.”

“And you guys have a hotel?” Benny asked. “How many rooms?”

“Fifty completed rooms. Fully furnished. But there’s plenty of space to build more.”

“That’s more than enough for everyone here,” Tom said.

“And a lot of fish, right?” Benny said eagerly.

“A lot of fish,” she nodded.

“I’ve always liked fish. My mom used to bake fish fillet with melted margarine, lemon juice, and paprika. You didn’t think a simple dish like that could taste so good…”

“Did she ever bake fish sandwiches?” Tom asked.

“Nah,” Benny said. “Good?”

“You put it between some crusty French loaf and add mustard, lettuce, and tomatoes, and it’s probably the best thing you’ll ever eat. My dad used to make them with chives, but I can’t stand those. Cucumbers, now, that’s another story.”

“Yeah, not a big fan of chives, either.”

“You guys have mustard over there?” Tom asked her.

“As long as you don’t mind frozen packages from the freezer,” she said.

“Better than nothing,” Benny said.

“Definitely better than spoiled ketchup,” Tom agreed.

The two of them went on like that, talking about fish and what condiments went better with which type of dishes. Gaby sneaked a couple of looks over at Benny, not that he noticed. He reminded her a little bit of Josh. They didn’t look anything alike, but they were about the same age, and they both had that innocent, almost earnest quality about them.

She still remembered that night with Josh. Their only night, as it had turned out.

But Josh was dead, along with Matt and her parents. Her friends were probably long gone, too. People kept dying around her. Even Will might not make it back from the Archers raid. He was good, but he wasn’t invincible. None of them were. They had the island, but how long would that last? It wasn’t impossible that they could lose it tomorrow, or the next day, or the next month. The word “impossible” had ceased to have any meaning. Maybe it did, once, but not anymore.

She had gone to sleep last night as an eighteen-year-old and woken up a nineteen-year-old. What were the chances she would see her twentieth birthday? Maybe it was the state of the hospital, the poor souls on the tenth floor under her, but Gaby had never felt so depressed and mortal in her life.

She sneaked another look at Benny. He really was cute…

“So, really?” Benny said.

“Yeah, why not?” Gaby said.

“I don’t know. It’s just kind of fast.”

“We might die today. Or tonight. Or the next day. Look around you, Benny. All we have is today, right now.” She shrugged. “Or I could go back up to the rooftop and bring Tom down here instead—”

“Fuck Tom,” Benny said.

She almost laughed when he started taking off his clothes at a frenzied pace. She laid her M4 against the wall next to the bed inside her room and watched him struggling with his pants, before he realized removing his gun belt first was the way to go.

She actually smiled that time.

“What?” he said.

“Nothing. You’re very cute.”

He grinned. “That’s good, right?”

“Better than the alternative.”

He finally got his pants off, revealing brown boxers with Peanuts characters on them.

He saw where she was looking and blushed. “It was the only pair I had left that was still, you know, wearable.”

“You guys don’t do laundry around here?”

“Kinda hard without power.”

“You could always hang them on the roof.”

“Not a lot of water to spare, either.”

“No wonder everyone stinks. When was the last time you showered?”

“I poured some water on myself last night. Does that count?”

“Not really, no.”

He didn’t really smell any better than when she had sniffed him yesterday, but she didn’t feel like crushing that desperate-to-please look on his face at the moment. Gaby stepped out of her cargo pants and moved toward him in red silk panties. He stood perfectly still and stared at her. It was cute and charming, and she hoped he didn’t have a stroke when she took off her shirt.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He swallowed. “You’re so beautiful.”

“Thanks. Now come here.”

He walked toward her. She put her arms around his waist and stood slightly on her tiptoes to kiss him. Benny put his arms around her waist and pulled her greedily against his mouth. He wasn’t exactly the world’s best kisser, but she had been attacked by worse.

She moaned against his mouth, and Benny, being a smart boy, rightfully took that as approval and cupped her breasts with both hands.

They stayed in her room long after, but since the bed was designed for only one person, she was forced to lay on top of Benny. What she really wanted was the bed all to herself, but kicking Benny out so she could catch up on some of the sleep she hadn’t managed to get last night was probably too rude. Not that she didn’t actually think about it really hard.

There was very little ventilation on the entire floor, and none in her room, so she wasn’t sure if she was sweating from that or the sex. Maybe a little of both.

“That was awesome,” Benny said after a while.

Gaby smiled. Men said the least creative things after sex. “How long has it been?”

“A while. Most of the girls here are already spoken for. It’s mostly just jacking off, but even that loses its charm once you’ve done it a few hundred times.”

“I didn’t know that was possible with guys.”

“Oh, trust me, it’s possible. But anyway, you smelled really nice. Even down there.”

Okay, that’s a new one.

“You’re not even wearing any perfume, right?” Benny asked.

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“What’s that smell, then?”

“Soap, Benny.”

He laughed. “No kidding? It smells really nice. You’re easily the best smelling boy or girl in this entire building.”

No kidding.

“Thanks,” she said, not sure what else to say.

“You guys have your own rooms and everything, huh? Back on the island?”

“Uh huh.”

“Air conditioning, too?”

“We do, but we don’t turn it on to conserve power. We might turn the heat on if it gets really cold down here, though.”

“It doesn’t get too cold, though.”

“Then we probably won’t turn the heat on.”

“And you guys have a freezer.”

“Yup.”

“That means ice.”

“Uh huh.”

“Man, I haven’t had ice in ages. I’d love to have some in a glass with some Coke.” He licked his lips. “I’m drooling just thinking about it.”

“When you get there, the first glass of ice Coke is on me.”

“Sweet.” He was quiet for a moment, then said, “You don’t have a boyfriend back on the island, do you?”

I did, but he’s dead.

“No,” she said.

“I know this is too early and everything, and I don’t want to freak you out, but would you consider me?”

He said it with such earnestness that she couldn’t help but lift her head. He met her gaze and she thought he had the most puppy dog look she had ever seen. She almost laughed, but realizing that might hurt his feelings, she nodded instead.

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll give you a spin.”

He laughed again. “Gee, thanks.”

She sat up, and no surprise, his eyes went straight to her breasts. “Will and the others are gonna be back soon, but I can spare ten more minutes. What do you think?”

“Fuck yeah,” he said without hesitation.

Jen looked refreshed when she knocked on Gaby’s door, then barged inside without warning. She caught Benny struggling to pull on his shirt next to the bed, while Gaby had already dressed.

“Oops,” Jen said. Then she grinned at Gaby. “Fitting right in, I see.”

“There’s not a lot to do around here,” Gaby said. She was surprised she didn’t sound more embarrassed.

“I hear ya, sister. Come on, Amy’s got those medical supplies Lara wanted.”

Jen left, and Gaby looked over at Benny, who was stuffing his shirt into his pants.

He smiled at her. “You’ll be around after today?”

“That’s up to Will,” she said, slipping the M4 over her shoulder.

“Will’s going to let me go there, right? To the island?”

“Maybe.”

He frowned. “Any ideas on how I can increase my odds?”

“Easy. Don’t be a dumbass. He hates that.”

“Oh, that’s it?”

She smiled and he returned it. It was a nice moment, and she quickly hurried out of the room before he had the chance to ruin it, like by trying to kiss her.

Jen’s long strides had already carried her down the hallway, and Gaby had to run to catch up. “You in a hurry?” Gaby called after her.

“Just trying to keep you on your toes, kid.”

Kid. Right.

They turned a corner, where Gaby saw a five-year-old with a button nose and a face that probably hadn’t seen water in a few days peering out at them from a slightly ajar door. Gaby smiled at the boy, who responded by running off to hide, leaving the door open behind him.

“How you like the hospital so far?” Jen asked.

“It’s okay.”

“Bullshit. It’s depressing as hell. This is the kind of place that makes you think about your mortality and how shitty everything is. Hospitals already do that, but this place, at this time? This is fifty times worse.”

Gaby didn’t argue. How could she? Jen was right about everything.

“Why do you think I’m always flying around out there?” Jen asked.

“Do you ever think about not coming back?”

“Every time.”

“But you do.”

She shrugged. “God help me, I guess I’ve become fond of these people. Speaking of which…”

“Are we really going to talk about that?” Gaby said.

The older woman grinned. “Don’t sweat it, kid. I’ve pretty much screwed every available guy in this place. If I didn’t, I’d probably go nuts or try to kill myself. It’s all so fucking depressing.”

“Thanks for sharing.”

Jen laughed. “Benny’s a good kid, though.”

“He’s all right,” Gaby said.

Amy was in the east tower, packing medical equipment into bundles, with plenty of foam for protection against damage, before wrapping them up in thick coatings of shrink wrap. She had filled three gym bags when Jen led Gaby inside what looked like a large inventory room.

“Did Mike come back yet?” Amy asked.

“Not yet,” Jen said.

“They should be back soon,” Gaby said. “Will’s got a scheduled call back to Song Island at ten. He wouldn’t miss that.”

“Well, until then,” Amy said. She picked up a large bundle of gauze tape and shoved it into a gym bag, then zipped it up and held it out to Gaby. “I’ve filled about eighty percent of the list Will gave me. Gauze, IV drips, syringes, anesthesia, and pain killers. Since we’re going to be partners for hopefully a long time, I included some of the good ones for goodwill. Vicodin, Percocet, and I even threw in some OxyContin, so you’re welcome. I take it you guys have had past troubles? A lot of this stuff is shit-happens type of supplies.”

“We’ve had our share of problems.”

If you only knew half of it.

“What about the other twenty percent?” Gaby asked.

“Depends on how many’s going back with you guys,” Amy said. “It’s mostly about rationing. Any ideas when you plan on heading back?”

“If I had to guess, it might be later today. Will wants to get this stuff back to the island as soon as possible.”

“Do you guys have sick people?” Amy asked. There was a note of concern in her voice.

“He just likes being prepared. It’s a Ranger thing.”

“I guess we’ll let the men hash it out,” Jen said. “Us little women aren’t smart enough for all that negotiatin’ talk.”

“It would be nice to sit on a beach sipping Mai Tais,” Amy said with a smile.

“What’s that?” Gaby asked.

“Mai Tais? Rum, pineapple, and lime in a highball glass.”

“I don’t know what any of that is. The closest I ever got to alcohol was a Budweiser.”

“How old are you, kid?” Jen asked.

“I turned nineteen today.”

“Holy crap. You look older.”

“Thanks,” Gaby said. “I guess.”

Jen laughed.

“Happy birthday,” Amy said. She picked up another gym bag and handed it to Gaby. “Some rolls of gauze tape and IV bags. Don’t say I never gave you anything.”

“Oh, I think she already got something this afternoon,” Jen said with a wink.

Gaby shook her head. “Nice. Real mature, Jen.”

“Benny,” Amy said knowingly.

“How’d you know?” Jen asked.

“Are you kidding? That poor kid’s on the verge of quivering into bowls of jelly every time he’s around her.”

“Okay, okay,” Gaby said. “Enough with the talking about my sex life like I’m not even here. It’s becoming annoying.”

“Only if you promise to tell us all the gory details,” Jen said.

“Whatever,” Gaby said, and headed for the door.

The two women grabbed a gym bag each and followed her.

“Did he take a trip down south?” Jen asked.

Gaby groaned. “Give it a rest.”

They were almost at the door when a scream, followed quickly by a gunshot, ripped across the tenth floor. The gunshot was followed by a series of gunfire — the pop-pop-pop of a three-round burst — and Gaby knew right away that more than one person was shooting in different parts of the building at the same time.

They dropped the gym bags and rushed to the door, Gaby already unslinging her M4. Jen, with her longer stride, beat her to the door, and as the pilot threw it open, Gaby lunged outside and slid to a stop in the hallway, her boots battling against the slick vinyl.

She saw a man in a dull white tactical hazmat suit and gas mask moving away from her, stepping over a body lying prone on the floor. The suit was thin, one of those Level B hazmat suits. The man was wearing boots, and as he stepped over the dead man, she could see blood on his soles. She recognized an M4, identical to her own, in the man’s hands. As soon as the shooter heard the sound of the inventory room door opening behind him, he stopped and turned around.

Gaby glimpsed dark black eyes behind the gas mask’s single face covering, a stunted one-piece air purifier jutting out from underneath.

The man started to lift his rifle, but he hadn’t gotten it halfway up before Gaby shot him in the chest. She fired without thinking—“muscle memory” Will would have said — and was momentarily stunned by the sight of the man collapsing in front of her. The bullet had drilled into the thin fabric of his suit, and it didn’t look as if there were any blood at all. But of course, she knew better. The suit kept the blood inside, leaving behind a small hole in its wake.

Just like that man in Beaumont, Texas…

Jen and Amy stumbled out of the room behind her. It didn’t occur to Gaby how vulnerable the two women were. They were both unarmed, and they gasped at the sight of the dead man in the hazmat suit lying near one of their own.

“Oh my God, Dan!” Amy said, rushing forward.

She hadn’t gotten more than a few yards when gunfire ripped over her head and shredded a large painting hanging on the wall beside her. Amy instinctively fell to the floor headfirst, sliding comically along the smooth tiles with her hands thrown over her head, as if that would somehow protect her from bullets.

Gaby turned to her right, looking down the hall as another man in a hazmat suit moved toward them, also armed with an M4. The man was taking aim at Amy’s scrambling form when Gaby fired at him. Her first shot missed, but her second shot hit the man in the leg and he stumbled, then turned and hobbled desperately behind a corner.

She heard gunfire from other parts of the hospital, and Gaby desperately longed for a radio. Will insisted everyone on the island carried one, but Mike didn’t have that kind of system in place.

God, they’re so unprepared. How did they survive for so long?

She stopped thinking when the same gas-masked face peered out from behind the corner down the hallway. She snapped a quick shot in his direction, and the man jerked his head back behind the wall as her bullet tore a big chunk off the corner.

Gaby kept her rifle on semi-automatic. She wasn’t worried about ammo. She had two magazines for the rifle around her waist and two more for the Glock in her pouches. She had even more in her pack…back in her room.

She risked a quick look behind her, and saw Jen helping Amy up from the floor, shouting, “Come on, we can’t do anything for him now!” Then she looked back at Gaby. “We have to go!”

“Go where?” Gaby shouted back. “They’re all over the floor! Listen!”

The two women stopped their frantic movements and listened. Gaby saw their faces go from pale and confused to horrified.

The screaming, the gunshots — it was coming from all around them, as if they had just stumbled into the middle of a war zone.

And this day started off so well, too…

CHAPTER 10 LARA

She didn’t know how Will wore his communications rig all day. It was cumbersome and unwieldy, and she thought the plastic mic around her throat was going to choke the life out of her with every step she took. The thing was supposed to work on bone vibrations, or something like that. The earbud didn’t look like it would stay in her ear, though when she purposefully moved around like a spastic, it refused to dislodge.

She was wearing the assault vest Will had designed specifically for her a month ago. She remembered almost swooning. How many girls got custom-made assault vests? It was a slimmed-down version of the kind he and Danny wore, with pouches for equipment, such as the radio connected to the throat mic and earbud. It was a lot more convenient than holding the radio with one hand, especially when she was moving.

An hour after kneeling on the wet ground inside the woods in the western half of the island, the Benelli shotgun had begun to feel almost weightless leaning against her knee. The first signs of sunup appeared in the distance, casting the kind of glow across the sky that still took her breath away many mornings later.

Danny was somewhere to her left, hidden among the foliage. The woods were brightening around her, slivers of the clear sky coming through where it was pitch dark moments before. Every now and then she heard movement that prompted her to tighten up, get ready to spring into action. The paranoia was justified, because he was out here somewhere.

West.

He and Brody had done exactly what Bonnie had predicted they would do. She chastised herself for not seeing it sooner. Thank God they had padlocked the Tower basement, where all the weapons were stored. She didn’t want to think about what would have happened had both West and Brody gotten to their rifles while the rest of them slept, with only Blaine on the third floor to stand in their way.

This wouldn’t have happened if Will was here.

The thought popped into her head every few minutes, twisting her into knots, and confirming what she already knew: She wasn’t ready for this. Not even close. So why did the others think she was? Whatever possessed them to put so much faith in her judgment? She wasn’t ready—

She was startled by a clicking sound in her right ear, before Danny’s voice came through a second later to soothe her nerves: “Look how pretty the sky is. Makes you appreciate all the finer things in life, doesn’t it?”

“Like what?” she whispered.

She had learned a few hours ago that even when she barely whispered, Danny could hear her just fine.

No wonder Will loves these things.

“Girls,” Danny said. “Fresh air. Girls. Walking around the woods at night. Girls.”

“You forgot girls.”

“Oh, right, girls.”

She smiled despite herself. “Where are you now? I can’t see you.”

“Your eleven o’clock.”

“I don’t know what that is, Danny.”

“Imagine the hands on a clock.”

“Okay…”

“Now imagine where eleven o’clock is.”

“So, to my left?”

“Close. Northwest of you.”

“Couldn’t you have just said that in the first place?”

“Sure, but it’s cooler this way.”

Snap!

She shot up to her feet and spun around, the shotgun rising, her forefinger slipping into the trigger guard—

“Don’t shoot!” Roy shouted.

He stood twenty yards behind her, hands trembling in the air.

“What are you doing here?” she hissed.

He hesitated, as if trying to decide if he should turn back around or proceed forward. She took pity on him and motioned for him to join her. He rushed over, making so much noise that she now understood what it was like for Will and Danny whenever they had to deal with her and the others.

You have the patience of a saint, Will.

Roy crouched next to her and looked forward. She glanced over and was surprised how young he looked. Maybe it was the water and shower, wiping the grime from his face; she’d had him pegged as being in his late twenties when they first met, but that couldn’t have been right.

“How old are you, Roy?” she whispered.

“What?” he said, straining to hear her.

“How old are you?” she said, raising her voice just a little bit.

“Twenty-eight. Why?”

“Are you sure?”

He gave her an amused look. “Pretty sure, yeah.”

“You look younger.”

“I have one of those faces. My friends used to make fun of me. When I was an infant, I looked like an egg, they said.”

She smiled.

He saw it and looked pleased. “You’re pretty when you smile.”

Uh oh.

“I’m taken, Roy.”

“I know. I just had to say it.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Of course, it didn’t last, just as she knew it wouldn’t.

“So, this Will guy…” he started.

“What are you doing here, Roy?” she said, cutting him off. “You should be back at the hotel with the others.”

“I didn’t feel right letting you chase West out here alone.”

“Danny’s doing most of the chasing. I’m just backing him up.”

“I know, but what happened to Blaine was our fault. I keep wondering if I could have warned you sooner that Brody and West were dangerous. I should have told you about the watch…”

“The gold watch that West wore?”

“You know about that?”

“Bonnie told me. She said she wasn’t sure, but she thought that maybe West killed the guy who owned it.”

“He did,” Roy said.

She looked over at him. “What are you saying, Roy?”

“I wasn’t there when they did it or anything, but they told me about it afterward. Brody was gloating about how they got the drop on them. Jesus, one of them was just a kid…”

“It’s okay, Roy. Bonnie warned us. She warned me. It’s my fault for not acting on it earlier. I should have—”

“Ahem,” Danny said in her right ear. “I don’t mean to cut in on your little chat with Geek Wonder over there, but I can hear you all the way across the island.”

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“For what?” Roy said.

She started to answer, but shook her head and put a forefinger to her lips instead. He nodded, understanding.

Another click, and Danny said, “Lara and Roy, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.”

She sighed. This was going to be a long morning.

Roy was getting antsy next to her, shifting back and forth, going from one knee to both knees, then back again. The last two times she had ordered him back to the hotel, he’d insisted on staying with her. His version of gallantry, she supposed. Not that she needed him. He was more of a burden at the moment, but she couldn’t help but feel slightly impressed with his stick-to-itiveness.

Salvation finally came in the form of a click in her right ear, and Danny’s voice: “He’s moving. Push ahead and cut him off. Fire three shots into the air.”

“Stay here!” Lara said sharply to Roy, lunging up to her feet and racing away before he could respond.

She fired one shot into the air, heard the echo, then fired a second and a third time.

She was still moving when she heard gunshots in front of her. Not too far away, but far enough that she didn’t have to dive for cover. She heard footsteps, threw a quick look over her shoulder, and saw Roy giving chase. He was surprisingly fast for a former tech geek.

She heard two more shots in front of her, then nothing.

Lara slid to a stop, and Roy almost crashed into her. He was breathing hard, out of breath. She had to wonder how Roy had managed to survive so long when he was so clearly out of shape.

Click. “Forty meters,” Danny said. “Your twelve o’clock.”

“Danny,” she said.

“Sorry. Directly ahead.”

She looked over at Roy and nodded, and they both climbed back to their feet and began jogging forward through the brush. Roy was already huffing and puffing again by the time they reached a clearing.

Danny was sitting on a boulder, facing West, who sat slumped against a tree trunk. There were bullet holes in the tree over West’s head, though at the moment those were the least of his worries. West was holding on to his right side, where he had been shot. His right thigh, where he had caught some of Blaine’s buckshot from last night, was covered in mud and pieces of his shirt that he had been using as a tourniquet. The stolen M4 with the ACOG scope lay a few yards beyond his reach.

Danny was chewing on a twig. “West decided he’d like to give up.”

“Is he armed?” she asked.

“Not anymore.”

Lara turned to Roy and handed him her shotgun. He took it hesitantly. She also drew her Glock and handed it to him as well.

“I need to take a look at that wound,” she said, walking toward West and crouching in front of him.

He looked tired, his face a mess of mud and blood and dirt. He had been running around the woods all night, trying to stay one step ahead of Danny. It showed in his hollowed eyes and all over his slackened, beaten body. He was barely breathing; whether from his tired condition or a lack of desire, she didn’t know and didn’t particularly care at the moment.

Lara took a handkerchief out of her pocket. “I’m going to remove your hand. Don’t fight me.”

He didn’t say anything. Instead, he continued to watch her curiously.

She ignored his stare and pulled his hand away from his side. Blood oozed out, and she quickly pushed the handkerchief against it. The orange fabric turned dark red and West flinched a bit, though he was clearly trying not to show it.

Tough guy, huh? Not tough enough.

“I need to get you back to the hotel and sew this up, or you’re going to die,” she said.

West’s eyebrows furrowed. “I thought that was the plan. Letting me die.”

“It was never my intention to kill you or Brody.”

“Sending us back out there is the same thing.”

“Not to me. You have no future on this island, but you have a chance out there.”

He snorted. “I don’t have a shit ounce of chance out there. Especially not now, without Brody watching my back.”

She met his eyes with her own harsh glare. “You should have thought about that before you tried to murder Blaine last night.”

He looked away, but Lara didn’t feel the flush of triumph she had expected. If anything, there was just overwhelming sadness. For him…and for herself.

She looked back at Roy. “Give the weapons to Danny, then I need you to help me get him back to the hotel.” While looking straight at West, she added, “Danny, if he tries anything, you have my permission to end his miserable life.”

There were no holding cells in the hotel, but there were two extra beds in the makeshift infirmary. She had Danny zip tie West’s hands and legs down on one of the beds while she kept him from bleeding to death. Blaine was snoring lightly on the next bed over, oblivious to West’s presence. Just to make sure West behaved, Danny, eating breakfast, stood watch as she worked.

West was already developing an infection along his thigh thanks to the buckshot Blaine had put into him back in the Tower, something he further inflamed by spending the night in the woods rolling around in dirt and mud. The wound on his right side, courtesy of Danny’s rifle, was fresh, and it only required cleaning and dressing.

West didn’t say a word as she worked on him, and she couldn’t summon the strength to care.

She sent Roy, Bonnie, and the girls down to one of the supply rooms in the back of the hotel, past the laundry room, to clear it out. They didn’t leave until the room was just concrete walls and a floor. Then Roy came back, and with Danny, they carried West — still strapped down to his bed — over to the same supply room and laid him in the center.

As Danny cut his zip ties, West looked at her from across the room. “So how is this going to work? You can’t keep me in here forever.”

“I’ll let you know when I figure it out,” she said.

West sat up gingerly and rubbed his wrists and ankles. “You haven’t thought this through, have you?”

“Like I said, I’ll let you know when I figure it out. Until then, sit tight.”

She waited for Danny to come out, then closed the door and locked it, putting the key into her pocket.

Danny was leaning against the wall ten feet up the hallway, watching her.

“Go ahead, say it,” she said as she walked past him.

He fell in beside her. “Say what?”

“That I’m weak. That I’m not cut out for this whole leadership thing. That Will would have put a bullet in him back in the woods. Or last night. Or when he saw them at the marina. Say it, Danny.”

“I wasn’t thinking any of those things.”

“Then what were you thinking?”

“Handcuffs.”

“Handcuffs?”

“Yeah. The old-fashioned kind. With a key, that we can reuse over and over.”

She gave him a wry look. “You really think we’ll have that many prisoners, we’ll start needing reusable handcuffs?”

“Who says they’re for holding prisoners?” Danny said. “Do you have any idea what kind of kinky stuff Carly’s into?”

It was ten in the morning, and she sat in front of the ham radio and waited, but didn’t hear Will’s voice from the other end. For the fifth time in as many minutes, she made sure the dial was set to the correct frequency.

Lara passed the time by looking down at the floor. They had wiped the floorboards clean of Brody’s blood and scraped his brains off the wall. Mostly. There was still plenty of evidence, but she had gotten used to the sight of dried blood.

She glanced down at her watch again. Five minutes after ten.

She wasn’t the only one who had noticed the silence. Maddie was standing overwatch at the south window. “What time is Will supposed to call in?” she asked.

“Ten,” Lara said.

“What time is it now?”

“Five after ten.”

“Maybe he forgot?”

“Maybe…”

“Did you get any sleep last night?”

“A little bit. Why?”

“You look tired.”

“I do?”

“You could definitely use a little more shut-eye.”

“We all could.”

“We all could, yeah, but you more than most,” Maddie said. “You should go take a nap.”

“Maybe later.”

“Well, if you’re not going to go to bed, then try the radio again. All this waiting is getting on my nerves.”

Lara gladly picked up the microphone and clicked the transmit lever. She took a breath, then leaned toward it: “Mercy Hospital, come in, this is Song Island. Over.”

She waited, but there was no response.

“Mercy Hospital, this is Song Island. Can you hear me? Over.”

Again, there was no response.

“That’s not good,” Maddie said.

“No,” she said softly.

That’s not good at all…

Lara checked the piece of paper with the list of frequencies taped to the tabletop next to the radio. She spun the dial over to the one for Jen’s helicopter, then pressed the transmit lever.

“Jen, this is Lara from Song Island. Can you hear me? Over.”

She released the lever and waited, but there was no response.

“Jen, this is Lara from Song Island. Tell me you’re receiving this. Over.”

Nothing. Not a damn thing.

Please, someone, answer…

She was about to press the transmit lever again when the radio squawked and she heard a male voice — thick, guttural, deep, and definitely not Jen: “Who is this?”

Lara leaned into the mic: “Who is this?”

“I asked you first,” the man said.

Lara glanced back at Maddie, just to be sure she wasn’t the only one who had heard the voice. Maddie was watching with concern. There was something about the voice that bothered her, and Maddie too, from the look on the other woman’s face. It was too cavalier, like this was all a big joke, like the man was enjoying himself.

“I’m looking for someone at Mercy Hospital,” she said into the microphone.

“You’re a little late,” the man said.

“Why’s that?”

“I’m afraid no one at Mercy Hospital is currently available to take your call right now. They’re too busy being dead.”

She couldn’t speak immediately, as a variety of scenarios — good and bad and terrifying — whipped across her mind with dizzying speed. It was all she could do to hold on to the mic, her other hand clutching the edge of the table without realizing it.

“Who is this?” she said into the radio.

“I’m the guy who just took over Mercy Hospital,” the man said. “That’s who the fuck I am.”

CHAPTER 11 WILL

It took them almost an hour to clear the entire Archers. Once Mike, Paul, and Johnson realized the silver worked as promised, Will could feel their unrestrained enthusiasm as they went through the store aisle by aisle, like wild men on a blood hunt long denied them. He almost felt sorry for the creatures that got in their way.

Will was more than willing to let them do the bulk of the work. By the time they were done, the tiled floor was slick with sticky congealed ghoul blood, splattered flesh, and shattered bone. He walked in black ooze, the clump-clump-clump under his boots not nearly as disturbing as the smell. He thought he would have gotten used to the stench of dead ghouls by now, but he was very much wrong.

While Mike and his men filled up on what they came for, Will wandered over to the shoe aisle. He maneuvered by flashlight and located the women’s section. Locating the right shoes in the right size took another few minutes. He grabbed two pairs, one in white and one in black, and stuffed them into his gym bag. Her birthday was coming up, and she had been wearing the same pair for the last few months.

I’m shopping for Lara now. Danny would definitely have a field day with this.

He went looking for Mike, finding the former lieutenant behind the gun display on the other side of the store, the glass counter dripping with thick black blood. Mike had turned on an LED lamp to see with and was tossing boxes of 9mm, 5x56mm, and shotgun shells into his already overstuffed bag.

“You might need another one,” Will said.

Mike grinned and produced a second bag from his back pocket. “The good thing about an Archers? Plenty of bags to go around. Where did you wander off to?”

“Shoe aisle.”

“What’s over there?”

“Shoes.”

“Boots?”

“No, just tennis shoes.”

Mike gave him a curious look.

“It’s for Lara,” Will said.

“The girlfriend?”

“She’s more than that.”

“Say no more. What’s it like over there? The island?”

“What do you wanna know?”

“Jen made it sound like paradise.” He gave Will a skeptical look. “Is it paradise? Between the two of us. Man to man. Grunt to grunt.”

Will grinned. “That’s the first time an officer’s ever referred to himself as a grunt in front of me. But yeah, it’s pretty damn close to paradise.”

“How’s the fishing?”

“You fish?”

“Every now and then.”

“You know how when you go fishing, sometimes you catch something and sometimes you don’t?”

“I know that feeling too well. Mostly the latter.”

“You won’t have that problem on the island. You could dip a bucket into the lake and you’d scoop up enough fish to eat for a week.”

“You’re not fucking with me, are you?”

“Not even a little bit.”

“Damn. I could get used to that.” He held up a box of bullets. “You need some for that rifle?”

“Nah, I stocked up before I left the island.”

“What’s that, M4A1? That thing looks like it’s been through the wringer.”

“It’s been with me since Afghanistan.”

“No kidding. How’d you get Uncle Sam to let you keep it?”

“I know a guy who knows a guy, who made it happen.”

Mike chuckled. “Say no more.” He finished up and walked out from behind the counter. The soles of his boots squeaked, leaving bloodied prints in his wake. He sniffed himself. “Jesus, they smell. I had no idea they smelled worse when they’re dead.”

They could hear Paul and Johnson farther back in the store, making a ruckus, and what sounded like something falling down from a high place on a shelf and crashing.

Like going shopping with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

“I wish we could lock this place up,” Mike said.

“Your private stash?”

“Something like that.” He shook his head. “It’s not just the ghouls we have to worry about coming back here tomorrow night. Those marauders I told you about. I wouldn’t be surprised if they heard all the shooting. With the city this dead, you’d probably be able to hear a fart from a mile away.”

“Good to know,” Will said. He glanced at his watch. “It’s early. You can come back for more later. Bring more people.”

“I might have to seriously consider that.”

Johnson appeared in the aisle behind them, flashlight bouncing wildly. He was carrying two gym bags.

“We good?” Mike called over.

“We good,” Johnson called back.

“Where’s Paul?”

“He’s on his way.”

They headed toward the front of the store, Paul appearing out of nowhere and falling in behind them along the way. He was hauling two bags too, though they looked like toys against his huge frame.

“I want to be back at the hospital by nine,” Mike said. He looked over at Will. “When’s your next scheduled call with Song Island?”

“Ten,” Will said.

“Must be nice to have a woman waiting for you on an island. That sounds like the plot of a bad romance book.”

Will smiled. “There’s nothing bad about it.”

They hadn’t gone more than half a block when they heard the first series of gunshots. The sound exploded across the city like a flash of lightning, one after another.

Instantly, Will knew they had come from the hospital.

Before Mike could say a word, Will was racing up the sidewalk, easily outpacing Mike’s people. He was one and a half blocks away from the hospital, listening to the low, rumbling booms of gunshots as if they were coming from right across the street. He knew it was just the stillness of the city. Sound traveled these days, and the hard, violent cracks of gunfire moved with startling intensity.

Will didn’t slow down until he was half a block from the hospital. He spotted movement along the rooftops. There had to be at least half a dozen figures, and there was something very wrong about their shapes…

He was jogging at a much slower pace as he approached the parking lot. He could hear Mike coming up behind him, gasping for breath. Will looked back, saw that Mike had dropped one of his gym bags. Even just hauling one bag, Mike still look badly winded. Will looked past Mike at Paul and Johnson, a good fifty meters behind them. They were also just clinging to one bag apiece now, and looked even more out of shape than Mike.

“How are you not breathing hard?” Mike gasped at him.

“I haven’t spent eleven months inside a hospital,” Will said.

They reached the end of the parking lot, keeping an eye on the cars in front of them and the rooftops of the hospital’s visible three towers on the other side. The figures he had spotted earlier seemed to have disappeared, and that set off alarm bells inside Will’s head.

But he couldn’t stop. Not now. Not with gunfire still echoing from inside the building.

Gaby…

Mercy Hospital was only ten floors, but it looked much bigger from ground level, though it could just be the building’s odd four-sided tower construction playing tricks with his eyes.

“Marauders?” Will asked.

“Maybe,” Mike said between breaths. “If it is, then it’ll be the first time. They’ve never been this bold before. Even if they waited for us to leave, they would have to know I’ve got more men up there.”

“But how did they get up there?”

“I haven’t a fucking clue,” Mike said.

They reached the edge of the parking lot and were slowing down even further, the ringing inside Will’s head increasing in volume.

The figures on the rooftop. Where did they go? Where—

He hadn’t finished his thought when he saw a head pop up from the north tower rooftop.

“Sniper!” Will shouted.

Mike darted left and Will darted right as a man, wearing a white Level B hazmat suit, stood up and opened fire down on them. Will slid behind a parked white Ford as the vehicle’s dust-covered windows shattered, the ping-ping-ping of bullets punching into doors. He kept low, taking into consideration the sniper’s high angle that gave the man maximum coverage of the area.

No, not sniper. Snipers.

There were more than one. He could tell that just from the torrent of bullets raining down on him and Mike. From the sounds of it, they were shooting on three-round bursts, which accounted for the continuous ping-ping-ping! all around him.

Will glanced over at Mike, who had his back against a black Mercedes, the vehicle’s windows shattered, glass fragments scattered on the parking lot around his boots. Mike’s eyes were locked on something in front of him, back toward the street.

Will followed Mike’s gaze over to Paul and Johnson, lying in the street, blood pooling around them. Johnson had fallen over his gym bag, while Paul was crumpled up like a marionette. Will couldn’t tell how they had been shot. Not that it mattered. Dead was dead.

Gaby…

“Mike!” Will shouted over the gunfire. “We can’t stay here!”

Mike looked back and nodded.

“Start running on three!” Will shouted. “One, two—three!”

Will spun around, slid the M4A1’s barrel over the hood of the Ford, and fired three quick rounds up at the roof. In the split second that he fired, he spotted five figures on the rooftop, all wearing Level B hazmat suits with gas masks clipped to their waists. Three of the collaborators scurried away from the rooftop edge on instinct, but the remaining two turned toward him and opened up.

Will fired off five more rounds, not expecting to hit anything, before turning and running.

Bullets zip-zip-zip! past his head and played havoc against the concrete around him. One came dangerously close to taking off his right ear.

Mike had stopped in the middle of the street and was firing up at the roof with his Sig Sauer 9mm. Will almost laughed, but of course he knew why Mike was using his handgun. It was either the Sig Sauer or the shotgun, and at this range, he might as well be throwing salt at the snipers. Not that the Sig Sauer came even remotely close. But of course, the idea wasn’t to hit anything on the rooftop, it was just to draw their fire away from Will.

“Go!” Will said just as he reached Mike.

Mike turned and ran, while Will stopped, spun around, and fired up at the rooftop again. He took a couple of chunks off the side of the north tower and sent another sniper scurrying for cover. The last man refused to budge, though, and continued firing down at him.

Ping-ping-ping! as bullets scraped the street dangerously close to his feet.

Will turned and ran, making a beeline for Mike, who was already hidden behind the side of a Starbucks across the street.

A bullet screamed as it tore through the gym bag slung over Will’s back. He waited to feel the pain, but there was none.

So he kept running, jogging across the street with his head kept low.

He slid behind the Starbucks, adrenaline pouring through him. He unslung the gym bag and saw a hole in one side and out the other. He opened it and took out one of the shoes he had picked up for Lara. The bullet had gone clean through it.

Mike was reloading his Sig Sauer next to him. “You think we got any of them?”

“No.”

“Figures.”

Gunfire and a half dozen rounds pelted the Starbucks, obliterating the front windows. A couple of bullets fell short and dug divots in the concrete sidewalk.

“Sorry about Paul and Johnson,” Will said.

Mike looked at the two bodies lying up the street. “Yeah. They were good men.”

Will looked past the parking lot and up at the hospital rooftop. The hazmat-clad figures were standing and one of them was peering through a riflescope down in his direction, but the man didn’t fire for some reason.

“Who the hell are those guys?” Mike asked. “What the hell were they wearing? Those looked like hazmat suits.”

“Level B hazmat suits, yeah.”

“Why the hell are they wearing those?”

“Remember those ghoul collaborators I told you about? That’s them.”

“Shit. How the fuck did they get up to the roof without my guys seeing them?”

“It’s your hospital, you tell me.” Will glanced at his watch. “And there’s no other way into the building?”

Mike shook his head. Will could see he was fighting back emotions, trying desperately to process the loss of Johnson and Paul, and the very real possibility of losing Mercy Hospital.

“If I knew of one, do you really think we’d be rappelling up and down the rooftop?” Mike said.

A rifle shot took a big slab out of the Starbucks wall in front of them.

Will peeked out from behind the building and saw figures emerging out of the hospital lobby. “We gotta go.”

Mike looked out and saw the same thing. “Where?”

“This is your city, you tell me.”

Mike thought about it. “Come on,” he said, and hurried toward the back of the Starbucks.

Will glanced out from behind the wall one last time and saw white-suited men, gas masks tapping against their waists, moving across the parking lot toward them.

He pulled his head back and followed Mike.

Hold on, Gaby. Hold on…

There were four of them, moving from building to building, employing something that could, from a distance, be mistaken for tactics. They advanced up the street with two up front and two bringing up the rear.

The gunfire from Mercy Hospital had stopped a while ago. That was the bad news. Silence meant the battle was over and that the hospital had fallen. However the attack had gone down, it was obvious now that the collaborators had taken the place by surprise and with overwhelming force. If they could afford to leave that many on the rooftop, there were probably more inside the tenth floor itself.

Will lifted the M4A1 a couple of inches as he heard the sounds of boots scraping against hot asphalt. They were surprisingly quiet for a bunch of a civilians. Of course, in the stillness of the city, even breathing was too loud.

The closest man was twenty meters away when Mike finally made his move. As planned, he popped up from behind a dumpster next to a McDonald’s and opened fire with the Sig Sauer. Will heard those same boots scrambling for cover, M4s firing back, and the clink-clink-clink of empty casings raining down on the street.

Will slipped out from behind the parked minivan and scanned the road. A figure in a hazmat suit made the mistake of running toward him for cover. Will came out from behind the vehicle, saw the man’s eyes go wide as he started to lift his rifle.

Will shot him in the right eye.

Even as the man was dropping, Will was already turning slightly to his right, aiming down the street.

The remaining three were too busy firing back at Mike to notice him. Which was the idea. One of the men was hiding in an alleyway between a Barnes & Noble bookstore and a Mexican restaurant, his white hazmat suit like a beacon against the darkened mouth of the alley. The other two were using a parked police car as cover, popping up one at a time to return fire. The dumpster up the street was pockmarked with bullets, but Mike had ducked behind the squat object to reload.

Will shot the man in the alleyway in the abdomen. The man seemed to grope for the bullet hole, stumbling out onto the sidewalk before falling on his stomach.

Will was already moving as the two remaining collaborators turned in his direction and returned fire. He darted back behind the minivan, heard windows breaking around him, the ping-ping-ping of bullets tearing into the parked vehicle on the other side. There was a loud popping noise next to him as the right rear tire was punctured.

Then Mike was shooting again, and immediately the gunfire directed at the minivan stopped as the men turned their attention back up the street.

Will laid down against the hot sidewalk and peered underneath the vehicle at the two men, thirty meters away, crouched behind the back bumper of the police car. One was reloading while the other was firing off one three-round burst after another.

Will took two quick steps backward and slid the M4A1 underneath the minivan. It was a tight fit, so he had to aim with the rifle lying on its side. Tricky.

His first shot hit the side of the squad car two meters from the head of the closest man. The man flinched, then scrambled to reload faster when he figured out where the bullet had come from.

Will moved the rifle a bit to the right and shot again, this time hitting the man in the chest. The man in the hazmat suit seemed surprised for the brief half-second he was still alive. Then he crumpled forward and lay still.

The last man got up and scrambled down the street. Will hurried back up to his feet and stepped forward, took aim at the running figure, and shot the man once in the thigh and watched him twist slightly, as if he had tripped on something, and fall to the street in a ball of tangled legs and arms.

Mike was already running toward them, never breaking stride even as he snatched up one of the fallen rifles from a dead body. The man in hazmat suit had managed to pull himself up to his feet and was dragging himself desperately down the street. Mike easily caught up to him and smashed the stock of the rifle into his back.

Will jogged over to the first man he had shot and picked up his rifle. He collected two spare magazines and a radio, then salvaged another carbine from another dead body before joining Mike, who stood over the last surviving collaborator.

The man lay bleeding and hyperventilating, eyes looking desperately up at an unsympathetic Mike. “Don’t kill me. Please, God, don’t kill me. I don’t want to die. I didn’t want to do this. I swear to God, they made me do this.”

Then the man threw up.

One of the dead men was named Toby. It was the first name the voice on the other end of the radio Will had picked up said when he called over:

“Toby, give me a sitrep. Are they dead? What’s going on over there? Someone answer me, goddammit.”

“Who was that?” Will asked.

The collaborator wiped at strings of what looked like eggs and bread with the sleeve of his hazmat suit. The lower half of his face was covered with dry vomit. It smelled, and Will alternated between breathing through his nose and mouth. And he thought the dead ghouls were tough on the smell factories…

“Please, can I have some water?” the man asked. He looked on the verge of tears.

Mike shoved the barrel of his shotgun into the back of the man’s neck. “Answer the question.”

“Kellerson,” the man said. “His name’s Kellerson.”

“He’s in charge?” Will asked.

“Yeah.”

“How many of you are there?”

The man didn’t answer right away. He seemed to be counting. “Sixteen,” he said finally.

“Counting you and the other three on the streets?”

“Yeah.”

“So there are twelve left at the hospital,” Mike said.

“Yeah,” the man said.

“What’s your name?” Will asked.

“Jones,” the man said.

They were a block away from the ambush site, inside a Subway sandwich shop. The building was tiny and easy to miss, but it gave them a perfect view of the streets while staying out of sight. Jones sat in a booth, hands on the tabletop. Mike kept vigil behind the nervous man, while Will stood slightly to his right, so he could see the street at the same time.

“How did you get into the hospital?” Mike asked.

“We climbed up,” Jones said.

“How?”

“Through the ventilation shaft.”

“Bullshit. We checked. The shafts are too small for anything to climb through. Even those bloodsuckers.”

“No, not the main ventilation system,” Jones said. “There’s an older one that’s been out of service that Kellerson found on a blueprint of the place. It goes straight up along the north side, then loops around the roof. It comes out of a sealed grate in the rooftop stairwell. The guys who went up there had to remove the grate, but since there was no one inside the stairwell, I guess it wasn’t too hard. From there, they were supposed to open the other stairwell door and let the others in.”

Mike’s face had grown paler. The idea that he had missed something so vital, that had now come back to take the lives of his people, was playing havoc with his mind. Will felt sorry for the guy. Eleven months, and they hadn’t realized there wasn’t one, but two ventilation systems. Mike was the leader. What had just happened at the hospital, ultimately, was on him.

“What’s the plan?” Will asked Jones. “For the floor. Are they going to kill everyone?”

Jones didn’t look anxious to answer.

Mike shoved his shotgun against Jones’s neck again. “Answer the man.”

“Just the adults,” Jones said. “They want the kids.”

“‘They’?” Mike asked, though Will thought the former officer already knew the answer before Jones even replied.

“Yeah, them,” Jones said. “Them.”

“Why do they want the kids?” Will asked.

“I don’t know.”

“For the blood?”

“Maybe. I don’t know.”

“What else would they want the kids for if not for their blood?”

Jones looked hesitant. “I heard stories…”

“Go on.”

“The creatures, they have a plan. It involves the kids. I don’t know any more than that. Just that they’re concentrating on the kids now, for some reason.”

“What about the adults?” Will asked.

“They’re too hard to control. The kids are…easier.”

Will glanced briefly at Mike, expecting him to pick up the interrogation, but Mike’s mind wasn’t there at the moment. It was up the street, back at the hospital.

“Where were you taking the kids?” Will asked Jones.

“I don’t know. That’s Kellerson’s job. He knows all the details.” Then he added, quickly, “I’m just a grunt, okay?”

“Are they on the tenth floor now? The bloodsuckers?”

“No, it’s still too bright. They don’t like to risk the sunlight, and the guys don’t like having them run around. It’s…creepy. They won’t flood the floor until nightfall. We were supposed to be gone by then.”

Mike glanced reflexively down at his watch. Will didn’t have to. It was noon outside. He had been fleeing the dark long enough that he could tell the hour from the feel of the warmth against his skin.

“What do you mean by ‘adults’?” Will asked.

“What?” Jones said, not comprehending.

“How old.”

“Over sixteen, I guess. Basically, anyone with a gun. They don’t want anyone who resists. They just want the kids.”

Gaby turned nineteen today. And she’s certainly as hell going to resist.

“Is it over?” Will asked. “Did you kill all the adults? I don’t hear anymore shooting.”

“Last time I checked, there were a couple unaccounted for. They’re still looking for them.”

Gaby?

“Why are you doing this?” Mike asked. He had been so quiet for so long that his sudden voice made Jones jump a bit.

“What do you mean?” Jones asked, turning to look back at Mike.

“Why are you betraying your own kind?”

“I…” Jones’s mind seemed to be working overtime, probably trying to come up with an answer that would keep him alive. “To survive,” he said finally. “Isn’t that what we’re all just trying to do here? I’m just trying to survive like everyone else.”

“That’s it?”

“I’m not proud of it, but I don’t have a choice.”

“You had a choice,” Mike said. “You just chose the wrong one.”

Jones opened his mouth to answer, but thought better of it.

Mike looked at Will. “You wanna ask him anything else?”

“How many did you kill on the tenth floor?” Will asked Jones.

Jones shook his head. “Wasn’t my assignment. Me and the other three guys that chased you had the lobby. I didn’t even kill anyone.”

“Not for lack of trying.”

“I’m just following orders,” Jones said defensively.

“Now where have I heard that before?”

Jones didn’t answer. He looked away instead.

“Anything else?” Mike said.

Will shook his head. “I’m done.”

“Good,” Mike said, and blew Jones’s head off with the Mossberg from less than a foot away.

CHAPTER 12 GABY

I just turned nineteen, and I’ve already killed three men.

Happy birthday to me.

Eleven months ago, she was trying to decide who to let take her to the senior prom. After a lot of debate and conversations with friends, her choices had come down to two likely candidates — Trevor and Scott. They were both cute boys, and she knew Scott from tenth grade when they dated for half a year before calling it quits. Trevor was new in town, but he had the bluest eyes, and she had always been a sucker for blue eyes.

She wondered where Trevor was now. Maybe hiding in a basement. Or inside a building with friends. If he was lucky, he would have found some people to travel with. That was the only way to survive these days. You couldn’t do it on your own. She remembered those months when she stayed behind in whatever basement they had found while Josh and Matt went out to search for supplies.

Had she been scared back then? No, not really. Thinking back, she was never really scared. She just deferred to the boys because they were boys, and she was a girl. She didn’t know any better.

She felt like laughing as she thought about the Gaby from a few months ago.

She might have actually laughed, or made a noise, because Jen glanced over. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” she whispered back. “Just thinking of an old joke.”

“Really? Now?”

They were squeezed inside a small, six-by-seven room in the back of the nurses’ lounge. It would have been pitch black if not for a few slivers of sunlight poking through the edges of the closed door. The lounge had a north side-facing window with raised blinds that looked out at the parking lot.

The room had once been a bathroom, judging by the big toilet in the back and a porcelain sink somewhere on her left, poking into her rib cage at the moment. The nurses had pushed a refrigerator over one side of the door and covered up the other half with a big poster boasting Mercy Hospital as one of the Top 50 Best Reviewed Hospitals in America. Mike’s people had discovered the room a while back, but never did anything with it. There wasn’t any point with so many rooms to choose from, and she guessed they never expected to need an emergency hideout.

Will would have put it to use ‘just in case.’

She wasn’t alone in the room. Besides Jen, there was Amy, who was the one who had remembered the room and led them here. It was only a couple of turns from where they had been when the attack began. Along the way they had run across Benny, running with the button-nosed boy Gaby had seen earlier, both of their eyes wide with fear.

Benny sat directly behind her now. Amy was in the back with the boy in her lap. The kid was strangely quiet, though he was clearly terrified, the large whites of his eyes staring back at her in the semidarkness. All four looked stunned and bewildered by what had happened. She didn’t blame them. The attack had been swift and brutal. The four of them were probably thinking of all the friends they had just lost. She knew how that felt, too.

The five of them packed into the small bathroom was tight enough, but they also had to battle the bags of medical supplies for the limited space. Amy and Jen had wanted to leave them behind, but Gaby wouldn’t let them. She and Will had come all the way here for them, and she’d be damned if she was going to abandon them now. She liked to think Will would have done the same thing in her position.

“What now?” Benny whispered, leaning forward until the cold barrel of his AR-15 poked into Gaby’s back, causing her to wince a bit. “Sorry.”

For the longest time, they heard gunfire and screaming. When it was finally over, they heard sniffling and crying, and she knew without actually seeing that the men outside were taking the children. Amy told her there were eleven kids in the hospital, not counting the one with the button nose.

What are they doing with the children?

They weren’t shooting them; she was certain of that. They shot everyone else, though. The adults and some of the teenagers. She remembered the sight of Tom, Benny’s friend, lying around a corner with a bullet hole in his forehead. The men in hazmat suits hadn’t shown any mercy.

She saw and heard them entering the lounge twice in the last hour. They had looked around before moving on. The sight of the gas masks reminded her of Beaumont, but she did her best to push those memories into the past where they belonged and focused instead on the moment, the here and now, on trying to stay alive today.

One of the collaborators had actually walked over and opened the fridge, looked in at the bottles of warm water and Gatorade inside, before slamming it shut and leaving. He may or may not have taken a bottle with him. She had a limited view of the lounge through the small slivers in the uncovered parts of the doorframe.

Sometime between the start of the attack and when she heard the last gunshot, Gaby swore she could hear gunfire from above her, on the rooftop. It seemed to go on for a while, and she immediately thought, Will and Mike are back. They’re firing on Will and Mike.

The fact that the gunfire went on for some time told her it hadn’t been a massacre, so that was a good sign.

Hopefully.

Then it was quiet. Very quiet.

Now, Gaby looked down at the glowing hands of her watch: 12:13 p.m.

“We can’t stay here forever,” she whispered.

Jen nodded. “I know.”

“Why not?” Amy whispered behind them. “Why can’t we just wait them out? They have to leave eventually.”

“Not before they open the doors to the ghouls,” Gaby said. “By nightfall, this entire floor will be filled with them. You think they’re just going to lock everything back up when they go? That’s not how this works.”

Amy didn’t answer, and Benny seemed to be breathing a little harder than before.

“So what now?” Jen asked.

For some reason, the pilot’s eyes were focused on Gaby’s when she asked the question.

Seriously? I’m nineteen years old. Why are you looking at me?

But she knew why. Mike had let them down. Jen, Amy, Benny, and the kid. He hadn’t prepared them for this. It was only Amy’s quick thinking that had saved their lives. The hazmat suits were everywhere, in every hallway, and moving through all four towers of the hospital, looking for targets. Neither Jen nor Amy had any idea how they had gotten in.

They’re so unprepared. Will would never have let us be such easy prey.

“We have to get out of here,” Gaby said.

“How?” Benny whispered.

“The helicopter,” Gaby said. She looked at Jen. “You have the keys with you, right?”

“Keys?” Jen said.

“To the helicopter.”

Jen looked a bit confused. “It’s a Bell 407 model. It doesn’t have keys.”

“So how do you keep people from stealing it?”

“What, the helicopter?”

“Yeah.”

“Gaby, who would steal a helicopter? It’s not like stealing a car. You actually do need to know more than where the gas pedal is to fly one.”

“So if we get to the rooftop, you could just hop in and fly us out of here?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“How are you for fuel?”

“I’m down to eleven gallons.”

“Could you get more?”

“There’s a private airport about ten miles from here. It’s my primary refueling depot.”

Gaby nodded. “So we just need to get up to the roof.”

“Gee, that’s it?” Benny said.

She gave him an annoyed look, and Benny turned away. The nineteen-year-old girl in her felt bad for her quick-tempered reaction, but the survivor part of her, who had struggled to survive Will and Danny’s crucible on the island over the last three months, was glad he was embarrassed.

“All I know is we can’t stay in here forever,” Gaby said. She looked down at her watch again. “If we’re still here when it gets dark, we’re never leaving. Not as ourselves, anyway. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather eat a bullet than become one of those things.”

She looked back at their faces. Even the kid with the button nose seemed to grasp the gravity of what she was telling them. Or maybe not. For all she knew, he probably didn’t speak English.

“What’s your plan?” Jen finally asked.

“I think Will’s out there,” Gaby said. “Maybe with Mike and the others. The shooting we heard earlier, I think that was them.”

“We could wait for them,” Benny said. “Mike wouldn’t leave us.”

“No, he wouldn’t,” Amy nodded certainly.

“And Will wouldn’t leave me, either,” Gaby said. “But they would be on a timetable just like we are. Will especially would know it’ll be too late if they don’t do something by nightfall. We have to let them know there are still people in here to help.”

“How do we do that?” Jen asked.

Good question…

She waited until one in the afternoon before acting. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing, but spending the next six hours stuck in the bathroom, waiting for the inevitable nightfall, didn’t strike her as a very good plan. The old Gaby might not have been so assertive, but she hadn’t been her old self in a while, thank God.

Jen argued briefly, and Benny gave her a horrified look when she told them her plans. He spent the next twenty minutes trying to talk her out of it. She wasn’t sure if he was afraid she would get them caught, or if there was something more. The truth was probably somewhere in-between.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Just wait for my signal.”

“What kind of signal?” Jen asked.

“I don’t know yet.”

“That’s comforting.”

“Hey, you got any bright ideas?”

“No…”

“So okay, then. Wait for my signal.”

Using the slivers in the doorframe, she looked into the nurses’ lounge and saw no one. She listened, and heard nothing. The men in hazmat suits were all wearing combat boots, and they weren’t shy about stomping back and forth. She could usually feel the ground vibrating slightly whenever they approached or walked past the lounge.

The bathroom door opened inward, so she had to move back a bit, bumping into Benny in the process. He struggled to give her space, and she swung the door open, revealing the dust-covered poster that had saved their lives. Gaby pushed the lower half of the glossy sheet forward, gently, and was thankful the top half was held in place by thumbtacks. It fluttered a bit as she slipped outside, and she heard the door instantly closing back up behind her.

She pushed the poster back into place, rubbing down the bottom edges as best she could until it stopped moving. She unslung her M4 and moved toward the open door, then leaned against the wall next to it.

She heard voices in the hallway and the loud crunch of footsteps moving around. There hadn’t been any additional gunfire since around noon, which meant the attackers had completely taken over the hospital. She tried not to think about how many people were already dead out there. She had seen four on the way to the lounge, and the look frozen on their faces said it all — they never saw it coming.

Gaby tried to picture the hospital’s layout in her head. They were in the north tower, and the rooftop access was to her right, around a couple of turns, then at the very end. There had to be men on the rooftop, so even if she could make her way up there, she had to expect an additional fight.

What the hell am I doing? Is this what Will would do?

She glanced back at the long window behind her, the parking lot visible below. She looked for a bit, but couldn’t detect any signs of movements. There had been a gun battle out there not all that long ago. Will and Mike, she was sure of it. Definitely Will. Sound traveled, and he would have heard the attack all the way at the Archers a couple of blocks away.

If only Mike had been smart enough to issue radios to his people…

Gaby turned back toward the door for a moment. From her angle, she only had a limited view of the hallway. The sounds of footsteps from earlier were gone, along with the voices. How many of them were still out there? It wouldn’t have taken very many to secure the floor. Mike’s people were shockingly unprepared, and most of them were women and children. As for the men, she only saw about a dozen that could have really put up a fight.

She moved to the window and put a palm on it. Thick glass, like in the patient rooms. Knocking on it produced a dull, thudding sound. No wonder the ghouls couldn’t get inside. It would have taken an entire magazine just to make a dent in it.

She peered out at the parking lot below, then along the streets, trying to catch sight of something she could use. Would Will be out there now? He had to be. If he knew the hospital was under attack, he would try to get back in, find out if she was still alive. She knew him. You didn’t eat and sleep on the same patch of dirt with someone in the woods for two weeks without a shower and not know how he would respond in a crisis.

Will wouldn’t leave me.

So where the hell is he…?

Unless he thought she was dead. Will might head back to the island if he believed that. Will wasn’t cold-blooded, but he was extremely practical. Maybe—

Gaby froze.

There!

She saw it near an alleyway to the left of the parking lot, across the street and between a couple of orange buildings. It looked like a reflection.

Sunlight glinting off metal?

No, not metal. Glass.

Gaby focused on the glinting object.

She was sure of it now. It wasn’t something natural, because the reflection wasn’t constant. It was there one second and gone the next. Then it was there for a good five seconds, then disappeared for two more, before flickering again. Like it was trying to get her attention.

Will?

A single gunshot echoed directly above her, from the rooftop. The reflection vanished as small pieces of the orange building flicked into the air.

I guess I wasn’t the only one who saw that.

The loud sounds of heavy footsteps in the hallway snapped her back to the lounge.

Gaby hurried to the door and pushed against the wall. She glimpsed two figures in hazmat suits walking awkwardly across the open door. One of them was carrying a crate of canned food, while the other was lugging a familiar green ammo can.

That’s ours, asshole.

They passed by without bothering to look into the lounge.

She heard another man coming down the hallway trailing the first two, already fading as they got farther away. Her mind’s eye flashed back to the man in Beaumont and how he had worn his gas mask. She remembered only his eyes and the bridge of his nose, but no real details about his face because it was hard to see what he really looked like under the gas mask.

That’s it. That’s the way out of here.

Just as the third man reached the lounge, Gaby picked up a ceramic black mug — World’s Best Nurse was written on the side — from a nearby table and tossed it to the floor. The mug cracked, revealing stained black insides.

The man stopped in the hallway and stepped into the lounge, his rifle in front of him. Gaby watched him walk past her and noticed he was about her height. He moved carefully inside, before stopping when he saw the broken pieces of the mug on the floor.

He might have sensed her, but before he could turn, Gaby jammed the barrel of her M4 into the back of his neck. “Put the rifle on the floor.”

Her voice was amazingly steady.

Why aren’t I afraid? I should be afraid, right?

The man did as she ordered, bending slowly at the knees. He might even have been shaking a bit inside the suit. Gaby reached back with one hand and closed the door behind them.

“Benny,” she called. “Get out here.”

She heard the bathroom door opening, then the poster fluttered as Benny hurried out. “This is your plan?”

“This is it.”

“So now what?”

“Put your gun on him.”

Benny aimed his rifle at the man in the hazmat suit while Gaby freed his sidearm from a holster, then unsnapped the gas mask from his belt.

The man looked to be in his mid-thirties, with the kind of face that made her think he might have been an accountant in a past life. She knew the type. Her father was a taxman, and he’d had the same pudgy and pale complexion from working in an office for most of his life.

“I need your suit,” Gaby said.

This is stupid.

I’m an idiot.

This will never work.

I’m going to get killed.

God help me, I’m going to get killed.

Those were some of the thoughts that raced through her head as Gaby walked down the hallway in the hazmat suit. She was at least comforted by the fact that the suit’s original wearer wasn’t fat despite his slightly pudgy face, and the suit wasn’t too big for her. With the gun belt strapped around her waist and the M4 in her hands, she could almost pull it off.

Hopefully.

Benny gave her an ‘okay’ nod when she asked him how she looked, but she could tell by his eyes that he was scared. Not for himself, but for her. Which was both sweet and worrisome. Was he scared because he liked her and didn’t want her to get hurt? Or frightened because she didn’t look convincing in the suit?

She couldn’t tell how she looked, and frankly, she didn’t want to. She concentrated instead on how she felt, which was surprisingly calm. With the combat boots on, she wouldn’t necessarily look out of place. And the gas mask hid most of her face, if not the blonde ponytail.

They’re going to see the ponytail…

But not if she kept in front of them. It was hard enough to see the eyes of someone wearing a gas mask; maybe they wouldn’t notice what was behind her, either.

This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.

I am so going to die.

She kept walking, because if she stopped for even a second she might change her mind and run back to the lounge. And then what? Hide in the old bathroom? Sure, that might work for a while…until nightfall. Then the ghouls would be all over the tenth floor, and the idea of being surrounded by those things, with just a fridge, a poster, and a flimsy door as protection made her skin crawl.

She made it halfway to her destination without meeting another person on the floor, though she saw plenty of bodies. Some of Mike’s soldiers, but a lot of the civilians, too. Men and women, some still in their teens. Blood smeared the walls and open doors, and the entire floor had the thick aura of abandonment and death.

She turned another corner and slowed down.

The rooftop access door was at the end of the hallway, and there was a man in a hazmat suit standing in front of it, eating from a can of beans, his gas mask hanging off his web belt. But it wasn’t the man that startled her. It was the door to the man’s right, the one that accessed the other nine floors of the hospital. The lumber that had been nailed across the door, keeping it barricaded, had been pried loose and was piled nearby on the floor.

The door was open.

She could see blackness inside the stairwell door, and it was…moving.

Quickly, she checked the windows along the hallway. The blinds were pulled up and sunlight filtered in, illuminating large swaths of the tiled floor. That was why the ghouls hadn’t come out of the stairwell yet. Still too much sunlight. She wondered if the men in hazmat suits had left the windows uncovered intentionally.

Maybe they’re still human, after all.

She was halfway to the man when he finally looked up. He licked at brown stains around his lips, before saying, “What are you still doing up here?”

“Are we leaving already?” she asked.

My God, how is my voice so calm?

“You didn’t get the signal?” the man asked. “That’s what the radio’s for, genius.”

Gaby looked down at the radio clipped to her hip. “I think mine’s dead. Where is everyone?”

“Downstairs, loading up the Humvees.” He glanced down at his watch. “We got five hours to bag all the supplies before this place goes dark. I don’t know about you, but I don’t wanna be here when that happens.”

Gaby was thirty yards away now. She moved her head around to purposefully avoid looking him in the eyes because she could see him trying to get a better look at her. He had also subtly let his right hand drift toward his holstered handgun. His rifle, another M4 (Where did they get all the M4s?), rested on the wall behind him.

“That’s you, right, Janice?” the man said, peering at her. “I thought you were on the roof.”

“I was,” Gaby said. “I came down for some food.”

Keep walking. Don’t stop.

Keep walking…

“You’re supposed to be on the roof,” the man said. Then a flicker of alarm crossed his face. “Bullshit. You’re not Janice.”

The man reached for his handgun, dropping the can of beans at the same instant.

Gaby had been walking with her rifle in her arms the entire time, and all she had to do was lift it and shoot the man in the chest. She was so close — less than fifteen yards away — that it wasn’t much of a shot and she barely had to aim or use the red dot sight.

It was the sound of the gunshot that startled her. It was too loud.

The man slumped against the wall and slid down to the floor. He sat awkwardly with his head hanging against his chest, as if he were asleep. A small, thin trail of blood dripped out of the white hazmat suit.

Gaby looked back down the hallway, hoping Jen and the others had heard that. Of course they had heard that. Everyone must have heard that shot.

She moved toward the dead man, saw the darkness shifting in the open stairwell door to her left, just barely visible out of the corner of her eye. She could feel the intensity growing, the sudden squirming of bodies jammed inside, the almost palpable vibe of growing excitement.

Ignore them. They can’t come out.

Ignore them!

She looked away as the radio clipped to her hip squawked, and a man’s deep voice came through: “What the fuck was that? Where did that shot come from?”

A female voice answered, “That’s from the tenth floor.”

“Gary,” the man said. “Come in, Gary.” When no one answered, the man said, “Mark, are you there? Where the fuck are you guys?”

Mark and Gary. Probably the man with the pudgy face whose suit she was wearing, and the dead man in front of her. Not that it mattered.

She ripped the gas mask off and tossed it, then glanced back down the hallway, expecting to see Jen and the others charging toward her at any second.

But there was no one back there except an empty hallway.

Come on, guys.

She waited.

Seconds felt like hours, and her heart beat erratically against her chest.

Come on, dammit.

What if Jen didn’t think the gunshot was the signal? She couldn’t really blame them. She didn’t even know what the signal would be. What if they were still back there, hiding inside the bathroom? What if—

She heard feet pounding down the hallway and spun around, lifting her rifle.

Jen, taking the corner, slid to a stop, the pudgy man’s rifle gripped tightly in her hands and the big medical supply bag jutting out from behind her back. “It’s just us!” she shouted.

Benny, shouldering the other medical bag, turned the corner so recklessly he almost crashed into Jen. Amy was behind him, holding the kid, whose arms were wrapped tightly around the former Army medic’s neck, his face buried in her shoulder.

Gaby waved them over. “What happened to the other guy?”

“I hit him with my rifle,” Benny said. “I think he’s unconscious. Or dead. I’m not sure.”

“Good enough.”

A loud burst of gunfire tore through the air outside the building, making all five of them — including the kid — jump. The pop-pop-pop of automatic rifle fire seemed to fill every inch and space of the world around her. They were coming from below and behind and above them all at the same time.

The radio on the floor squawked, and she heard the same man with the deep voice, this time the unmistakable quiver of fear coming through in every word he shouted:

“We’re under attack! I repeat, we’re under attack!”

CHAPTER 13 WILL

Nine.

That was how many times he thought Gaby would tell him she was through, that she was done with the training, the scars, the bruises, and the waking up with every inch of her body aching, where even breathing hurt.

Nine times.

The first week was the hardest, because it had to be. It would get easier if she stuck with it, but he had to know what kind of fortitude she had, what kind of quit she had in her, if any. His version of Basic Training was quick and painful and soul-crushing. It was difficult, but nothing compared to what he and Danny had gone through. They squeezed in Basic along with Ranger discipline, with half of her days spent on building up her stamina and the other half on weapons training.

And she stuck with it.

They told her she could quit any day. Every day. They told her when they started at the beginning of the day, and later when she was done at night. They pushed her. She complained often and loudly, but she never quit.

After a while, she even stopped complaining.

And she was a natural shooter. He hadn’t expected that. Under Danny’s tutelage, she flourished, and he gave her more time in the Tower with the ACOG to get her used to the riflescope. In time, he had no doubt she would surpass him, and maybe even Danny.

He remembered his conversations with Lara about Gaby. Lara’s problem was that she still thought of Gaby as a kid, a little sister, and wasn’t convinced turning her into a soldier was the right path. Not that she could have stopped the teenager. They weren’t the girl’s parents, and she was eighteen. In post-Purge years, that was plenty old enough.

“What if she gets hurt?” Lara had asked. “People get hurt during Basic Training all the time, don’t they?”

“Of course they do,” he had answered. “That’s why you’re here.”

“I’m just a third-year medical student, Will.”

“So hopefully she’ll only have a third-year medical-student-type accident.”

“Not funny.”

“She’ll be fine.”

“She’s just a kid.”

“She’s eighteen going on thirty.”

That led to Lara’s theory that Gaby was throwing herself into training so she wouldn’t have to think about Josh, the kid who had died under Will’s watch. Maybe. Probably. It wasn’t his job to dig under Gaby’s motivations. He only cared that she had motivations.

It didn’t really hit him just how young she really was until they spent two weeks together in the woods. The exercise was simple — live and survive off the land, eating only what they killed, and using only what they could scavenge. Roots, plants, bugs, and animals.

Over a campfire one night, he saw her smiling to herself.

“What’s so funny?” he had asked.

“I was just thinking how funny all of this is,” she had said. “I’m camping in the woods, eating plants and bugs. This isn’t exactly my thing, Will. I’m not sure if my friends would be horrified or impressed if they saw me today.”

“You’re surprisingly good at this.”

“That’s a compliment, right?”

“Lara wasn’t sure Danny and I should be pushing you this hard.”

“Lara’s sweet. She’s the big sister I never had.”

“I told her you could handle it.”

“Thanks.”

“Nine times, you know.”

“Nine times what?”

“That’s how many times I thought you would come and tell me you were quitting. All of it in the first month.”

She had laughed. “Nine sounds a little low. I was thinking more around thirtyish.”

“But you didn’t quit.”

“No…”

“Why not?”

“I’m good at this. God knows I had no idea I would be. But I am. Go figure, right?”

“This is just the beginning.”

“What, it gets harder?”

“A lot harder.”

“Oh.” She had picked up a stick and was poking at the fire. “But you and Danny will be there, right?”

“We’re not going anywhere.”

“Good.” Then she had smiled across the fire at him. “Then bring it.”

Gaby.

He smiled when he saw her in his binoculars, looking out from one of the windows along the north face of Mercy Hospital. She was scanning for something among the cars in the parking lot below her.

Will leaned farther out from behind a big orange building across the street and to the left of the parking lot. In a bit of a twist, he had a better view of the snipers on the rooftop than they did of him. They had the better vantage point from high up, sure, but it was easy to avoid them if you chose the right angles.

He lowered the binoculars and glanced back at Mike, crouched behind him. “It’s Gaby. She’s alive.”

“The teenager?”

“Looks like she found a place to hide during the attack. Maybe she managed to save some of your people, too.”

Mike fished out a pair of binoculars from his pack and leaned out from behind the building and looked through them.

“Four windows from the left,” Will said.

“That’s the nurses’ lounge,” Mike said. “There’s an old, unused bathroom in the back.” Mike lowered his binoculars. “You’re right, she’s probably not alone. Most of my people know about that bathroom, so someone must have taken her there.”

Mike moved back behind cover, stuffing the binoculars into his pack. They had returned to the Archers after interrogating Jones, exchanging the bulky gym bags for tactical packs made of heavy-duty nylon. They had brought back with them only what they needed for the assault on the hospital, to make sure there were no survivors left to save. Neither one of them was willing to leave until they had made absolutely damn sure.

Will searched inside his pack and pulled out a small mirror housed inside a pouch. It was a part of a baton kit, but right now he only needed the mirror. He leaned back out, made sure Gaby was still visible in the window, then stuck the mirror into the open and flicked it back and forth to catch the light.

“What are you doing?” Mike asked behind him.

“Trying to get her attention.”

“Morse code?”

“I don’t think she knows Morse code. At least, I never taught her. It’s just to let her know she’s not alone up there.”

“And then?”

“She’s a resourceful kid. If she knows she has help down here, she’ll act accordingly.”

“Jen’s helicopter is still on the roof,” Mike said. “If Jen’s still alive, they could use it to escape. But that’ll mean taking out the snipers on the rooftop first.”

“One thing at a time,” Will said.

He heard the gunshot a split second before the piece of brick a few centimeters from his face cracked and showered the air with a fine orange clay cloud. He pulled his head back as a second shot broke another brick in half.

“You hit?” Mike asked.

Will brushed flecks of powder out of his hair. “I’m fine. You ready?”

Mike unslung one of the M4s he had taken from one of the dead collaborators. He had a second one for backup, and had ditched his shotgun. If this was going to work, they couldn’t be seen. They were already outnumbered, so they needed every advantage they could get.

Will made do with his M4A1, but he had loaded on extra magazines. He nodded at Mike. “Stick to the plan.”

“I have a choice?”

“Not really, no.”

He grinned. “You know, I outrank you. I should be the one giving the orders.”

“Yeah, but I’ve been at this longer than you.”

“Can’t argue with that. I’ll see you when I see you, then.”

Mike jogged off, keeping low and behind the other orange building. He was safe, unless the snipers on the rooftop could see through brick walls.

Will watched him go for a moment, then stuck his head back out of the building to look at the rooftop. He pulled it back just before a gunshot sent another flurry of orange into the air around him.

There were four military Humvees in desert camo parked in a line in front of the hospital’s front lobby outside the north tower. They hadn’t been there this morning. All four vehicles looked well-worn, their tires covered in mud, and flying insect carcasses splattered across the back windows facing him.

Men in hazmat suits and gas masks were leading a couple of kids toward one of the Humvees. There were already other children inside two of the vehicles. The other hazmat suits stood guard with M4s. Will counted four, not including the two in the process of shoving the kids into a Humvee. He was too far to hear anything, but some of kids were crying, their tear-streaked faces glancing around in terror, clear as day through his binoculars.

He remembered what Jones had said: “They don’t want anyone who resists. They just want the kids.”

He hadn’t heard a single thing through the radio clipped to his hip. He was surprised by that. Whoever was in charge — maybe this Kellerson that Jones had mentioned — wasn’t stupid after all. They knew Will and Mike had probably procured radios from the four men they had killed earlier, so it was possible the collaborators had switched to a different frequency. That level of tactical thinking already made them more dangerous than the ones he had run across in Dansby, Texas.

Even their human minions are getting smarter.

Will skirted the parking lot, easily avoiding the rooftop sentries. He moved as quickly as he could up the empty street, until he was safely pressed up against the side of a brown low-to-the-ground building on the outskirts of the parking lot. It was some kind of auxiliary building, with a small flight of stairs leading to a side door.

He leaned around the corner and did the numbers in his head.

Four Humvees. Six men outside the lobby. Two more on the rooftop that he could see, probably more that he couldn’t. He and Mike had already killed four, and Jones said there were sixteen in all. That left four unaccounted for. Maybe one of the men standing around the Humvees was Kellerson himself. Will would have loved to take out Kellerson first.

Cut the head off the snake and the body falls.

He pulled back and waited. The building’s wooden wall felt flimsy behind his back. It wasn’t going to provide him with a lot of protection when the bullets started flying, but at least they couldn’t see him from either the front driveway or the rooftop.

Any time now, Mike.

The former lieutenant had been careful to make his way down the street before looping back toward the hospital so that he couldn’t be seen. He was now perched on a big billboard fifty meters from the end of the parking lot. The sign featured a man in a suit and tie smiling brightly, holding a wad of cash, with the caption “The Lafayette Hammer.”

Will didn’t have to wait too long before a gunshot split the calm afternoon.

Mike’s bullet may or may not have hit anyone. Will couldn’t see and didn’t care to look. Mike was firing on semi-auto, spacing out his ammo and trying to distract the guards on the ground and on the rooftop in equal measure. Almost instantly, there was return fire. Will didn’t worry about those, either. The distance was too vast, and unless someone up there had a long-distance riflescope, Will didn’t think they had a snowball’s chance in hell of actually hitting Mike, and vice versa.

He slipped out from behind the building and took another look at the men gathered outside the hospital lobby. The ones at the Humvees had moved into defensive positions behind the heavy vehicles, while the children inside smartly made themselves small. The men in hazmat suits weren’t shooting back yet, probably because they couldn’t locate Mike’s position.

Will took aim, raising the rifle slightly over the roofs of cars in his way, and shot the first man in the left hip. The man jerked, stunned, and turned around, presenting his entire body. Will shot him again in the chest.

He immediately swiveled his rifle, picking up another man in a hazmat suit, this one standing farther away from the Humvee than the others. The man saw his comrade go down and turned frantically in Will’s direction. Will shot him in the face, shattering one of the gas mask’s lenses. The man’s head jerked back and he crumpled to the driveway.

The others reacted as Will slipped back behind the side of the building. They opened fire in his direction and predictably, the wall didn’t stand a chance. Chunks of cheap wood chipped and came undone as Will began moving away from the corner. Then one of the snipers on the rooftop joined in, his bullets punching through the wall and digging into the concrete walkway.

Two down. Ten to go.

When the building he was moving across began chipping at a faster rate, Will picked up his speed toward the other end before slipping around to the back. He leaned out to gauge what was ahead of him.

There was nothing between him and the main hospital building except for sixty meters of open driveway and some trees. A few trees. So few, it was pointless to even spend a second counting them. As far as he could tell, there was absolutely nothing to keep him from being seen and shot at.

This is gonna suck.

He unclipped the radio from his hip. “Mike.”

“You ready?” Mike said through the radio.

“No, but count it down anyway.”

“Good luck,” Mike said. “On the count of three. One, two—three.”

There was a hellacious spurt of gunfire as Mike switched his rifle from semi-auto to full-auto and unleashed on the building. Will counted to two, then began darting across the open ground, praying Mike’s fusillade would do what it was supposed to — keep the rooftop snipers from looking down at him.

Will had gotten ten meters into the open when he risked a glance up and saw the closest man on the rooftop crouching, firing back in Mike’s direction. Mike’s bullets were speckling the north tower and falling short.

By the time Will was halfway to the west tower, the men gathered outside the lobby had spotted him and turned their guns on him. Bullets slashed through the air around him, tore chunks off the concrete driveway, and shredded the branches of a tree over his head. Will kept as low as possible, zig-zagging, making himself into an erratic target. A couple of bullets came dangerously close, but he was getting by.

That is, until he felt a sharp pain in his left arm, just above the elbow, as a round finally found its mark.

He had left a bloody trail behind him by the time he reached the west tower, sliding against the rough brick wall and moving away from the edge just as it was obliterated by gunfire.

He was separated from the north tower by only thirty meters, and the bullets were coming fast and furious as everyone on the ground concentrated their fire on him now. They must have also realized Mike had no chance of hitting them from his location. Soon, they were going to come charging, taking advantage of their number. They had to know it was just him by now against — how many were left?

Still too many.

He grabbed a black handkerchief out of his pack and wrapped it tightly around his arm over the squirting hole. Blood seeped out as he tightened the fabric and winced. Good enough for now.

He had been listening, but hadn’t heard any sounds of approaching footsteps, even though Mike had stopped firing by now, either to reload or switch weapons. At least, Will hoped that was what Mike was doing at the moment. The lack of noise coming from Mike, either through the radio or from his rifles, made Will slightly nervous.

Don’t die on me yet, Mike. I still need your diversion.

A sudden and eerie silence fell over the city as everyone seemed to stop shooting at almost the exact same time. It was so quiet Will didn’t have any trouble picking up the unmistakable noise of a Humvee’s engine roaring to life, followed by thirty-seven-inch military-grade tires spinning against concrete.

Oh, hell.

He leaned out from behind the corner and saw what he expected to see — one of the Humvees coming right at him, two of the hazmat suits racing behind it, while a third man was emerging out of the rooftop opening, where a gun turret was supposed to go. Now that he was looking at the Humvee from the front, Will saw that it had two thick sheets of metal soldered onto the grill, like the wedge on a snow plow.

The third man hanging out of the Humvee’s rooftop saw him and opened fire with an M4.

Will pulled his head back as a section of the corner shattered near his head. He took off along the length of the west tower, wondering how pissed off Lara was going to be when she found out he got killed going up against a Humvee.

Because he was fucked. He was truly and royally fucked.

Whose bright idea was this again? Oh, right, yours.

To add insult to injury, Mike was probably dead. Or dying. Or wounded. Either way, he was on his own.

Will was still ten meters from the other side of the tower — and elusive safety — when the Humvee appeared behind him, its tires sliding to a stop with a loud, menacing crunch. Will spun, lifting his rifle. He hadn’t turned all the way around when he heard two quick shots and — turning fully — saw the man in the turret opening disappear back into the Humvee. Will didn’t know what had happened, or why the two men in the back of the vehicle were shooting, except not at him. They were shooting up at the rooftop.

He pushed aside the questions and fired at the front windshield of the Humvee, aiming over the metal wedge and at the figure behind the steering wheel. It took nearly half of his magazine on full-auto before his bullets punched through the spiderwebbed glass and reached the driver, who seemed to flinch in his seat before slumping forward violently. The man must have also stepped on the gas in death, because the vehicle lurched right at Will.

He dived out of the way, flattening his back against the tower wall as the Humvee blasted past him, stopping only after it had rammed into a Toyota Camry parked along the curb, the metal wedge eviscerating the smaller car’s side like it was a plastic toy.

Will expected to see the two men running behind the Humvee take their shots at him, but they were nowhere to be found. He hurried away from the wall, glanced up at the rooftop, and saw a solitary figure looking back down at him, waving.

Gaby.

He waved back, though he swore she was wearing one of the hazmat suits. Or was he seeing things?

A moment later, Gaby disappeared back behind the edge of the rooftop, and Will jogged to the corner, reloading as he went. He looked out and glimpsed the backsides of the two hazmat suits racing back to the north tower and the remaining Humvees.

He shot the closest one in the back, but before he could take down the second one, the man darted behind a supporting column.

Two of the remaining three military vehicles had come to life and were already moving slowly down the driveway, picking up speed with every second. The man who had hidden behind the support column rushed forward and threw open one of the doors, diving inside. Will saw children in the backseats of the Humvees, flailing against the window, screaming silently back at him.

He watched helplessly, feeling about two feet tall, as the fleeing vehicles circled the driveway, turning into the street, and disappearing like ghosts.

Suddenly he was alone on the hotel grounds, surrounded by empty cars and bodies.

Will unclipped the radio. “Mike, come in.”

He waited, but there was no response.

“Mike, come in.”

Nothing.

“Mike, talk to me, man. You still there?”

Shit.

The man he had shot moments ago hadn’t moved from the spot, gas masked face turned on its side. Will searched his pouches and collected spare magazines, before moving toward the front lobby, watching for signs of movement from the left-behind Humvee. When he was sure there was no one there, he turned his attention to the hospital doors.

The front driveway curved slightly to the right and toward the front doors before curving back left again. Will stepped over the bodies and spent a few seconds looking in at the remaining Humvee, then at the tire tracks of the two that had fled. Fresh motor oil stains on the driveway and the familiar scent of spilled diesel remained in the air.

He wasted another second staring into the lobby, at the creatures he knew were inside, even if he couldn’t see them. They were watching him back, waiting, because that was what they did best.

And why not? They had all the time in the world.

Will turned and kicked something on the ground. He looked down at a dirty, ragged pink Hello Kitty plush doll. Will picked it up and stuffed it into his pack without thinking.

Above him, the familiar whine of a turbine engine started up. Jen’s helicopter.

Will glanced back across the parking lot in the direction the Humvees had gone.

“The creatures, they have a plan,” Jones had said. “It involves the kids. I don’t know any more than that. Just that they’re concentrating on the kids now…”

CHAPTER 14 GABY

It sounded like a war was raging outside the building. Not that Gaby had time to process what was happening beyond the hallway of the tenth floor. There were more pressing matters, such as the heavy footsteps approaching the other side of the rooftop stairwell door.

Gaby didn’t have to wait for very long before the doorknob began turning.

She strafed the door from left to right on full-auto, then just for good measure, from top to bottom. She didn’t stop firing until she had emptied the entire magazine. She heard the sound of falling bodies on the other side of the door, the clattering of weapons against solid concrete.

She took two steps away from the door, moving sideways in case someone fired back, then calmly ejected the magazine and slapped in a new one without thinking about it.

Shoot, reload, and repeat.

Then she waited for a reply of some kind. Bullets. Gunfire. Screams.

There was nothing.

Behind her, the others shuffled nervously. They were farther down the hallway, but they might as well have been standing an inch behind her because they were making so much noise. Or maybe that was just her imagination. Her senses were heightened beyond belief.

She couldn’t make out anything through the two dozen or so holes she had put into the door, only the dull, gray wall in the background. So that was a good sign. If anyone were still alive, she would have seen movement flitting across the holes.

The radio clipped to the dead man in front of her squawked again, and she heard the same deep male voice: “What the hell was that? Where did that come from? Gary? Janice? Someone answer me!”

Muffled gunshots, like firecrackers, echoed from the other side of the radio.

Then Benny was suddenly crouched next to her, breathing too hard. “Now what?”

“I need you to open the door.”

He gave her a terrified look.

“Just throw it open and step out of the way,” she said.

Benny summoned his courage, slung his rifle, and moved toward the door, stepping over the dead body from earlier. Gaby glanced back at Amy, Jen, and the kid with the button nose, keeping low to the ground twenty yards behind her. They were watching her closely, waiting.

She looked back at Benny and gave him the go-ahead nod.

He began counting down to himself, then grabbed the doorknob and pulled in one quick motion.

Gaby’s finger tightened against the trigger, but she didn’t have to press it. There were two bodies in hazmat suits crumpled on the stairwell landing before her, blood dripping from holes in the fronts of their uniforms. She had put almost as many bullets into the two bodies as she had the brick wall behind them, and there was a fine white concrete cloud hovering inside the LED-illuminated room.

Gaby stood up and looked back at Jen. “We have to go up.”

Jen grinned back at her. “After you, G.I. Jane.”

“G.I. what?”

“G.I. Jane. That movie with Demi Moore?”

“Who’s Demi Moore?”

Jen shook her head. “Never mind. Let’s go.”

Gaby looked at Benny. “You okay?”

He nodded. “Rooftop?”

“Yeah. While they’re still busy with whoever is out there. Maybe Will. Maybe Mike. Or both.”

“Let’s do it, then,” he said.

She could almost believe there was some bravado in there somewhere, if she didn’t know for certain he was scared out of his mind. She didn’t blame him. To Benny, Jen, and Amy, this was probably the first time they had actually seen combat, before or since The Purge. It hadn’t been quite as uneventful for her.

“Stay behind me, okay?” she said.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” he nodded back.

Gaby stepped into the stairwell, rifle at the ready in case someone poked their head down from the top of the stairs. There was no one, so she continued toward the first step and went up. Benny’s labored breathing followed closely behind. She wished he wasn’t moving so close to her. If she turned around now, she would crack his skull with the rifle. Didn’t he realize that? Probably not.

Amy and Jen entered behind them with the kid.

She made it all the way up to the door without encountering resistance, probably because whoever was up there was too busy shooting at someone else. How many were on the rooftop right now? Definitely more than one, because the shooting never stopped. The only way that could be possible was if someone else was firing while another person reloaded.

She looked back at Benny, still standing too close behind her. “I need you to open the door for me again.”

He nodded, then moved forward and gripped the door handle. The door opened outward, so he would have to push out. It was hot in the stairwell, and Benny’s face was already slick with sweat. She could feel her own perspiration running down the sides of her face.

“Try to stay to the side,” Gaby said. “Don’t move into my line of fire. Whenever you’re ready…”

Benny turned back to the door and began counting to himself. Then, taking a deep breath, he opened the door, rammed his entire body into it, and stumbled outside, losing his footing on the loose, graveled rooftop along the way. He was still carrying the medical supply bag, and its weight probably hadn’t done him any favors.

Gaby rushed past Benny. She saw wide open skies, but no one in front of her. The door had opened up into the center of the rooftop, and the first thing she saw was Jen’s helicopter, sitting where she had last seen it.

Loud, booming gunfire erupted from behind her on the other side of the stairwell access building.

She turned to her left and navigated as fast as she could around the building. A woman standing at the edge of the rooftop wearing a white hazmat suit turned in response to the sound of Gaby’s boots.

Janice, I presume.

The woman hesitated, just as Gaby assumed she would. Even without wearing the gas mask, the fact that she was still wearing a hazmat suit caused the woman to waste precious seconds processing the information. While she was doing that, Gaby shot her once in the chest, and because she couldn’t be sure, shot the woman a second time even as she was going down.

She heard gravel shuffling loudly and swiveled to her left, seeing a man in a hazmat suit standing on the other side pointing his M4 at her. She stared into the barrel of the man’s rifle, while her own was still in the process of coming up, knowing, but unable to accept, that she was too late, she was dead—

She flinched at the loud sound of gunfire and waited for the pain. Except there was none. Instead, Gaby watched the man crumple in front of her as two bloody dots spread across his chest like bright red watercolor.

Gaby looked over and found Benny standing on the other side of the rooftop access building, numbly lowering his AR-15. He looked almost stunned by what had just happened, his eyes glued to the dead body in front of him.

There was a loud roar from below them and Gaby snapped out of it first, hurrying to the edge of the rooftop and looking down. There were four military Humvees parked in front of the lobby, and one of them had made a wide U-turn and was picking up speed. There was a man poking his head out from a circular hole in the roof while two others jogged behind the vehicle, using it like some kind of moving shield. They were making a beeline toward the west tower.

She ran back, passing Benny, who still looked stunned, then Jen and Amy farther back. Jen shouted something at her, but Gaby was too busy concentrating on the Humvee below, tracing its progress by sound. She turned right and ran down the length of the west tower rooftop, just in time to see the Humvee taking the corner below her.

And there, a figure moving away from the charging Humvee. She couldn’t tell if it was Will or Mike, or someone else, because she could only see the man’s head. But the people in the Humvee were collaborators, and that was all she needed to know.

The man standing out of the hole in the Humvee’s roof was taking aim at the running figure when Gaby fired down at him. Her first shot missed, hitting the desert camo rooftop instead, but it startled the man enough that he abandoned his target and looked up at her. Her second shot hit him just above the right eye, and his lifeless body slipped back through the hole.

The two men running behind the Humvee opened up on her. Gaby dived backward, falling to the gravel floor as bullets tore at the rooftop edge, sprinkling her with chunks of loosed brick. She didn’t know how long the gunfire went; it might have just been a few seconds. Her heart was pounding in her chest, making telling time difficult.

Then the shooting stopped, and she heard what sounded like a car crash in the distance.

She pulled herself back up and moved slowly back toward the edge. It was so suddenly quiet that she couldn’t help but feel as if she was being lured into the open. She cautiously peered down one more time and saw the man she had saved, looking back up at her.

Will.

She waved down at him, and he waved back.

Gaby backtracked and hurried over to another section of the rooftop. She glimpsed the two men in hazmat suits fleeing back toward the front driveway. She lifted her rifle, but they were moving too fast and she was at the wrong angle. She heard a gunshot and one of the men stumbled and fell, but the second one managed to slip behind a support column and take cover.

A moment later, two of the Humvees roared to life and took off. She watched them go, winding around the driveway, picking up speed as they drove through the parking lot. She was glad to see them retreating, glad it was over, until she saw the small faces pressed up against the back windshields.

No. No…

Then they turned into the street and were gone, the loud sounds of their heavy engines fading up the road. She didn’t know how long she stood there and listened, but it seemed like hours. Or maybe that was just her mind reliving the sight of the small faces in the back of the Humvees.

The children. Where are they taking the children?

It took Jen a while to find a safe place to land the helicopter. She hovered over the parking lot, then tried the side streets, but there were always too many cables, cars, or trees in the way. Finally, she found a mostly empty parking lot in a strip mall half a block away and touched down.

Will was moving under them the entire time. Gaby, sitting in the cockpit’s passenger seat, spotted him climbing up, then down, a billboard between where they eventually landed and the hospital parking lot.

Gaby hopped out of the helicopter before the rotors stopped spinning and jogged over to meet Will halfway. He had a black military-type backpack slung over his back.

“Where’s Mike?” she asked.

Will shook his head.

Gaby looked back at Jen, Benny, and Amy as they climbed down the helicopter. The kid stayed behind, looking out the back window, button nose pressed against the glass.

“Where’s Mike?” Jen asked as soon as she reached them.

Will pointed back at the billboard he had climbed earlier. “He was covering me from there. One of them must have gotten in a lucky shot.”

“Are you sure?” Amy asked.

“He’s still up there.”

The three of them hurried past him and toward the billboard.

Gaby stayed where she was. “The other two guys?”

“Snipers on the roof took them out when we were coming back,” Will said. “What about everyone inside?”

She shook her head. “There’s no one left. They killed everyone.”

“Not everyone. They took the children.”

“I saw them in the Humvees. Why did they take the children, Will? For the ghouls?”

“Mike and I captured one of the collaborators. He told us the ghouls had some kind of plan for them. Their orders were to kill the adults and anyone who fought back.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Don’t they need every ounce of blood they can get? There’s not exactly a lot of us still running around.”

“Apparently not anymore.”

He looked back at the billboard, at Jen and Amy as they climbed up to the scaffolding while Benny waited at the bottom.

“Your arm,” she said, noticing the bloody handkerchief around his left arm.

“It’s fine. Just a scratch.”

“I grabbed the medical supplies Amy put together for us. They’re in the helicopter.”

“Good. At least we won’t be going back empty-handed.”

“Are we going back to the island?”

“I don’t know yet.” Will looked down at his watch. “Those Humvees…”

“Tell me we’re going after them,” she said, surprised by the conviction in her voice. “We can’t just let them take the kids, Will.”

“It’s not entirely up to us.”

Jen, Amy, and Benny were already walking back toward them. Amy had an M4 rifle slung over her shoulder, and Benny was carrying a pack similar to Will’s. They look sullen, like relatives at a funeral. Which, she guessed, wasn’t too far from the truth.

“Should we bury him?” Jen asked, when she finally reached them.

“We can,” Will said. “Or we can go after the Humvees. They left with the kids inside, and they have a thirty-minute head start on us.”

“What are we going to do?” Benny asked.

“It’s your call,” Will said. “The three of you. It’s your friends up there in the hospital. If you want to chase them and get the kids back, Gaby and I will come with you. Or you can cut your losses and come back to the island with us.”

The three of them exchanged a look, and Gaby was happy to see the strong resolve in Amy’s and Jen’s faces, though Benny didn’t look completely sold on the idea. He looked even younger than his eighteen years at that moment, bad facial hair and all.

“We can’t just let them get away with it,” Jen said.

“Those were our friends,” Amy said. “Those kids…we knew their parents. They’re our families, too.”

“What about you?” Will asked Benny.

“How would we even find them?” Benny said.

“Look around you,” Jen said. There was a look of determination on her face, maybe even anger. “This city’s dead. If they’re on the road, we’ll find them, because they’ll be the only things moving for miles.”

“Comm’s down,” Jen said when she saw Will putting on his headset.

“What happened?” Will asked.

“See for yourself.”

She had discovered it back on the rooftop — someone had put a bullet through the box that controlled the helicopter’s communications system. The damage had been limited, and according to Jen, everything she needed to fly was still intact.

Will put down the headset and glanced back at her. “You didn’t grab the ham radio too, did you?”

“It didn’t occur to me, sorry,” Gaby said. “Should we go back for it?”

“No, it’ll take too much time, and the attackers already have too big a lead on us. We can always come back for it later.”

Gaby nodded, even though the idea of returning to Mercy Hospital made her squeamish. After the gunfight on the rooftop, she had raced back downstairs for her pack, in her room, which thankfully the collaborators hadn’t bothered to raid. That had meant running through the bloodied hallways, and she didn’t feel like doing it all over again.

“Let’s go, Jen,” Will said. “We’re burning daylight.”

Jen lifted them back into the air and angled the helicopter north. Benny, sitting next to Gaby, was staring out the window, looking back at the hospital. She could only imagine all the emotions going through him at the moment. Tom was back there, along with all of his other friends. Dead now, all of them.

Nothing lasts forever out here. I learned that with Matt and Josh.

“Will, your arm,” Amy said, leaning forward in her seat, her movements constrained by the kid in her lap. “Let me look at it.”

“It’s fine, just a scratch,” Will said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Will picked up his pack from the floor and put it on his lap, then took out a bottle of water. He unwound the bloodied handkerchief from around his arm and poured water over the wound, then wiped it down with a new, clean handkerchief.

Gaby leaned forward. “Will, I have the medical supplies back here.”

“We might need them later.”

He disinfected the wound, then wrapped gauze tape tightly around it, before shoving everything back into the pack. It didn’t look like much of a dressing at all, but Will didn’t seem bothered by its lack of aesthetics.

They didn’t know where the Humvees were going, but using their last known direction, Jen guessed they were heading toward Interstate 10 about two miles north. The highway was still the fastest route in and out of the city, but the Humvees weren’t exactly made to travel in heavy, unmoving traffic. Gaby wondered how they expected to maneuver through the car-strewn roads.

They found out when they saw cars along the thicker parts of the highway stacked up along the sides, where they had been pushed to clear a path for a Humvee-sized vehicle to move through freely. The attackers were heading east on I-10.

“Humvees can do that?” Gaby asked.

“No, but the ones I saw had thick sheets of metal soldered onto the front grills,” Will said, “like you’d see on snow plows. It looked like they’ve been using that method for a while.”

“So they’re literally just pushing cars out of their path.”

“Looks like it.”

“Makes it easy to track them,” Jen said.

“In the city, yes,” Will said, “but once they reach the countryside, they wouldn’t need to push cars around anymore.”

“I guess we better catch them before then.”

Gaby sat in the back with Amy, Benny, and the button-nose kid. The Bell 407 helicopter was designed for two in the cockpit and three in the back. The two gym bags filled with medical supplies, along with her backpack, were on the floor around their feet, further limiting their ability to move around. Benny was in the middle between her and Amy, his rifle between his legs.

She leaned against her window to get a better look at the highway stretched out below them, straining to see what lay ahead. The wall of vehicles pushed to the sides went on endlessly, and she wondered how far they could have gotten in the forty-minute head start they had on the helicopter.

“Any ideas where they might have gone?” Will was asking Jen.

“I-10 joins up with I-49 in about a mile,” Jen said. “If they keep straight after that, it’s sixty miles to Baton Rouge, the closest big city.”

“What if they turn off I-49?”

“Alexandria is the first big city, about ninety miles up the Interstate, and lots of smaller cities in between. There’s also Sandwhite Wildlife State Park.”

“What’s there?”

“About 15,000 acres of state-run woods, give or take.”

“So they’re probably not going there.”

“Who the hell knows. I didn’t even know these people existed until two days ago.”

Gaby looked over at Benny. He was staring straight ahead, trying to concentrate on something outside the cockpit window. Maybe the bugs hitting the glass. He looked so young and unprepared for all of this, but she had to remind herself that he had saved her life on the rooftop.

He’s full of surprises.

She put her hand over his. He flinched at the surprise contact, then softened when she gave him her most comforting smile. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. When she pulled back, he was blushing.

“You’ll love the island,” she said.

“Does this mean you’re taking me there?” he asked, grinning awkwardly back at her.

“One hundred percent.” Gaby looked across Benny at Amy. “Does he have a name?” she asked, nodding at the boy.

“Freddie,” Amy said.

“Hey, Freddie,” Gaby said to the boy.

He looked over at her for a moment, seemed to think about responding, but decided against it and looked back out the window instead.

“I’ve tried all day,” Amy said. “Nothing.”

“What about his parents?”

Amy shook her head. She didn’t have to elaborate, because they both knew what that meant.

“The loop’s up ahead,” Jen announced.

They were coming up to the intersection of I-10 and I-49, which, according to a big sign, met at a large loop called the Marabond Throughway. They saw right away that the trail of vehicles pushed to the sides didn’t continue along I-10, but instead moved toward the curving ramp that joined up with I-49. Because the off-ramp was a tight squeeze, some of the cars had been pushed off the highway completely and were now scattered along the ground below.

“I-49,” Will said. “They’re heading north.”

“Looks like it,” Jen nodded.

“The closest big city is Alexandria?”

“Yeah.”

“How many people?”

“Two hundred thousand, give or take.”

“A lot of people means a lot of ghouls,” Will said. Then, “How are you for fuel?”

Jen checked her gauges. “If we catch them before Alexandria, I should be fine.” Then Jen saw something else outside the cockpit window: “Do you see that? Is that one of the Humvees we’ve been chasing?”

Will leaned forward to get a better view.

“How many did you see take off?” Jen asked.

“Two.”

“Could that be one of them?”

“It’s possible.”

Gaby leaned against her window, trying to spot the Humvee among the cars. Instead, she caught a glint of something metallic — and a man leaning out the open side hatch of a parked van on the highway below them. He was wearing some kind of camouflage uniform and had something that looked like a long, green tube resting on his right shoulder. He was pointing it up at the sky—right at them.

“Will!” Gaby shouted. “Down there!”

Will glanced back at her, saw where she was pointing, and looked down and immediately saw the man. “Rocket launcher!” he shouted. “Jen, evasive maneuvers!”

Jen jerked reflexively on the control stick and the helicopter banked left just as Gaby saw a rocket slash across the sky, trailing white smoke behind it. She looked over and saw Benny staring back at her, eyes wide with terror. On the other side of Benny, Amy was clutching the boy.

The helicopter kept turning, and though Gaby had no idea what a helicopter could and couldn’t do, she had a feeling this wasn’t something it was supposed to do.

“Hold on!” Will shouted from the cockpit. “Everyone hold on to something!”

Gaby grabbed Benny and he reciprocated, clutching on to her so tightly she almost couldn’t breathe. Then her world shook as something violently slammed into the helicopter and there was a loud, strange scream — not human, but more like metal cutting metal.

In the part of her mind where logical thought was still possible, she guessed that the rocket hadn’t landed a direct hit, because she was still alive and not incinerated. But it was close enough that the helicopter was spinning out of control and was clearly falling out of the sky. She had the strangest feeling of being weightless.

The helicopter was now emitting a loud, screeching noise around her. Or maybe that was Amy screaming. Benny’s grip on her was so tight, almost cutting off her oxygen, that she wasn’t entirely certain if everything she was hearing was coming from outside or inside her head.

She looked over her shoulder and back at the window just in time to see the rotor blades — still spinning at impossible speeds — plummeting out of the sky alongside them. It had come completely detached from the helicopter and was engulfed in flames…