After the End (16 page)

"Busy night," Ari commented.

"I think it's going to get wilder before all this is through," Doug said, then bid Ari goodnight and went to lie down.

Ari walked across the stage, past the lunch tables of "Atomic High" according to the sign on the backdrop. He went through the dark theater, past the rows of empty seats and imagined the ghostly applause of theater-goers from years past. The chances of this little theater ever seeing another audience was slim.

He turned off his flashlight before entering the theater lobby. They'd agreed on no lights so as not to draw attention. The lobby was ghostly with only moonlight spearing through the windows. There was a faint smell of chocolate in the air from the candy counter—a welcome relief after the odor of sweaty feet and Fabreze that lingered in the actors' dressing room.

Ari peered out the window and saw the glow in the distance Doug had mentioned. With no one to fight fires, how many blocks might be demolished before a fire burned out on its own? There were other dangers besides zombies in this besieged city. So far they hadn't come across any violent people, but Ari had no doubt they were out there. The longer this went on and people had to scavenge for increasingly scarce food and supplies, the more certain types would use force to keep the best for themselves. Man was an animal at heart; the strong survived and the weak were eaten.

The door behind him opened and Ari looked toward it. Lila, wearing a man's trench coat that ended nearly at her ankles, padded across the floor on bare feet. "Hi. I couldn't sleep any more either so I thought I'd join you."

"Cool."

There were low, backless benches around the lobby for patrons to sit during intermission. Ari sat on one near the window, scooting over far enough so Lila could sit beside him. As she sank down, he studied her profile, the slender bridge of her nose, her firm chin and the curve of those lips he'd almost gotten a chance to taste earlier. She was cute with her hair tousled from sleep and looked like a little girl in that oversized coat with her bare feet poking out from beneath it.

"Aren't your feet cold?"

She glanced down and wiggled her toes. "Naw. I'm always hot."

Ari grinned. He didn't fire back a teasing comment, instead, letting the double entendre breathe and watching Lila blush. In the dim light he couldn't see her cheeks blushing, but had no doubt they were from the way she shifted on the seat.

"That didn't come out quite right," she said.

"I think it came out just right," he replied, low and sexy and moved a little closer to her.

She laughed nervously. "Have you always been such a flirt?"

"When there's someone worth flirting with."

Running out of words, she leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees. Her shoulder length hair fell forward curtaining her face and hiding it from him. "So, tell me some more about Ari Brenner," she said. "What were you like as a kid?"

"Trouble, I told you. My mom worked a couple of jobs so I was on my own a lot, but even when I was young enough to have a babysitter, I'd sneak out and get into shit. My mom always liked to believe it was the kids I hung around with dragging me down. But the truth was I was kind of the ringleader."

"I can see that." She tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced over at him. "Mean little punks like you used to give brown-nosing, straight-A girls like me a hard time."

"I bet you gave them a hard time right back." He leaned forward, too, so he could see her eyes better.

"No. I just told on them. I was kind of a snitch. A real by-the-book type. I hated when things weren't fair or when someone weak got hurt."

"I wasn't a bully," Ari said abruptly, suddenly anxious for her to know he hadn't been a complete tool. "I never beat up littler kids. But me and my boys did steal things and wreck stuff just for the hell of it. By the time we were in high school, we were stealing more expensive things and wrecking other peoples' cars, which is how I ended up spending time in juvie."

"Was it bad there?" she asked. "You always read how juvenile detention only makes moderately messed up kids even worse."

He shrugged. "I have to say I was lucky. In my case it was the best thing that could've happened to me. There was a great guy there, a real mentor. And I was in a different frame of mind by the time I'd served my time. I finished high school, which was in serious doubt before that, and after bumming around for a while, I joined the army."

"Mm." Lila frowned. "Do you really think this is a good time to join that team with all the pies the U.S. has its finger in?"

"It's the perfect time. There's work to do. I want to do it. And the pay and benefits are excellent." He was annoyed but not surprised at her liberal reaction. He'd figured Lila's politics veered to the left. Not that he was some right wing zealot. He agreed with some aspects of both parties but generally believed all politicians were self-involved assholes. The army was a job, as good or bad as any, and it kind of pissed him off to hear her question his choice.

Lila must've caught his tone, because she instantly backed off. "Sorry. I tend to get worked up about foreign policy. But I guess none of that matters now. We're in a new world. I wonder if this has spread overseas."

"Maybe not, if the drug wasn't shipped out of the country. Although I suppose an infected person could be treated, recover, travel someplace by jet, die there and then reanimate. Guess it all depends on how long patients live before they relapse and how long it takes the corpses to reanimate."

Lila exhaled a long breath. "Let's not talk about this tonight. Moratorium on the subject of zombies."

She was right. Zombies weren't conducive to romance and he was much more interested in getting closer than in discussing the future right at the moment. In fact, he eased himself a little closer physically and put his arm behind Lila's back, resting his hand on the bench behind her. Next move, an arm around her waist. Usually he wasn't this slow to move on a girl who was obviously interested in him, too. But Lila was outside his usual zone and he didn't just want to grab at her.

"Now you've heard my sordid childhood story. Tell me about yourself. An A-student, Girl Scout, and 4-H, too, I'm guessing. Isn't that what kids do in Ohio, raise pigs or horses or something?"

"Now who's stereotyping? We didn't live on a farm. I've never ridden a horse. I've rarely been to a county fair for that matter. So no 4-H here."

"But I bet you joined clubs and volunteered for committees in school. You seem like the useful kind of girl who knows how to get things done. Class president maybe?"

"Vice president. And yes, I was in a few clubs."

He smiled, taking that "few" to mean "many". He would've liked to have seen what Lila looked like back then, all pigtails, braces and earnest face. She was right. He would've either ignored or teased a girl like her when he was younger. Now he admired her idealism and caring nature. She was good at keeping things calm in their little group, whether by distracting and entertaining Ronnie or by defusing tension. In a crisis, a man wanted to rely on a woman who knew how to get things done. Suddenly that was a far sexier quality than a nice rack or long legs.

"Well joining's a good thing," he said lamely, trying to express his admiration without saying it bluntly. "Maybe if I'd played more sports or been in some clubs, I would've gotten into less trouble back then. But live and learn."

"I've changed a lot since high school." Lila straightened her back and a shaft of moonlight etched her face in white and black. "Not so much of a joiner these days. I think a lot of it was tied up with trying to please my parents, or to be some kind of model citizen rather than figuring out what I believed in myself. Maybe that's why I'm so interested in philosophy and comparative religion courses. They've opened my mind to bigger thoughts than I ever dared to entertain back then."

And that, in a nutshell, was why Lila was unlike any girl he'd been with before and why he was a little nervous around her. She was damn deep. She considered things beyond the day to day, and was concerned with more than how she looked, what she owned or wanted to own. It made him realize he'd been wading in a very shallow dating pool up until now.

"I've never met anyone like you before." The words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop them, the truth although it sounded like an unoriginal pick-up line.

She could've come back with some smart ass comment, and they could've kept up the banter for the next couple of hours while the black of night turned to gray, but instead Lila turned toward him and leaned in. She cupped the side of his face and pressed her lips to his. It was only a small kiss, nothing heavy or deep, but somehow it rocked him to his core. His stomach clenched and his lips burned as if he'd never been kissed before. And his cock went stiff as a board.

Ari recovered fast and went into make-out mode, slipping a hand around her waist and curving the other at the back of her neck, feeling her warmth against both palms. He kissed her harder, deeper, pulled her body against his. By the time he let her go, they were both gasping for breath. He rested his forehead against hers and just breathed for a moment, his heart thumping against his breastbone. "Whew, that was…"

"I know."

"But I'm supposed to be keeping watch." He knew if they went on like this, pretty soon they'd be throwing down on the lobby floor with neither of them paying any attention to the world outside at all. "I should, uh, do that."

"You're right. Absolutely," she panted.

Reluctantly he released her body. Lila took her warm hand from his cheek, leaving it cold. She sat back on her side of the bench, leaving a little space between them, and looked out the window. "This probably isn't a good idea anyway. We're in the midst of a crisis. Who needs the distraction?"

"Mm-hm," he agreed, even as he imagined lunging at her again, dragging her off the narrow bench onto the floor and doing so much more than kissing. He rose and went to the window, turning his mind away from Lila and back to the task at hand. Nothing moved on the street and the orange glow of fire in the west seemed to have faded a little.

"Do you want anything to drink?" she asked. "I could go make you a cup of coffee or something. You didn't eat much dinner either."

"No, I'm fine. Thanks." A movement in one of the upstairs windows across the street caught his attention and his gaze shot up there. "Did you see that?"

"What?"

"Up there. Something moving."

"I thought I saw the curtain move when I was watching earlier in the day." She rose to join him by the window. "Think someone's over there?"

Before he could answer, a head and shoulders crashed through the window they were staring at before the body was dragged inside the building. Shattered glass rained down on the sidewalk below. A scream shattered the silence and then dead quiet followed.

Both of them stepped quickly back from their own window.

"Jesus!" Ari breathed. "What the hell?" But he knew what had happened. A survivor in that building had been attacked and run toward the window. He pictured a zombie or two springing on them, the person falling through the glass before being hauled away. The message hit home hard. The revenants were everywhere out there, roaming the city, infiltrating the buildings in search of more food. None of Ari's group was safe and they had a long way to go to reach the river. His raging hormones were doused like someone had turned an ice cold fire hose on him. He had to be more diligent. This was no time to be fucking around, literally or figuratively, with a girl.

"I think I'd like that coffee now," he said.

* * * * *

Chapter Eleven

The next day was bad from the beginning. For one thing, Ari had a headache and his nerves were jittery from drinking way too many cups of coffee during his watch. The Pattons' baby kept crying and he was afraid the noise would draw zombies. Everyone seemed to be in a foul mood, picking at and arguing with each other about minor things. He felt too irritable himself to soothe any egos and was glad when Lila stepped in between Derrick and Carl to mediate and escalating argument.

"Listen, guys. There'll be plenty of time later to figure out why patching in the hard drive isn't working. It's no one's fault. No one's questioning anyone's abilities. We know the data is on there and getting it someplace safe is what's important. So let's pack up and get on our way."

"Ari." Sondra was right by his elbow, looking up at him with pleading eyes. "Did you think about what I said yesterday? I don't think I'm being unreasonable. Humboldts is on the way to where we're going so we might as well stop there as anywhere else—get the baby some diapers and things."

He resisted the urge to shove her away. "We'll stop wherever's convenient and safe. Drop it." He couldn't believe how whacked Sondra was to be at all concerned about choosing a particular department store. Had she not noticed the zombies around her? Or was this her crazy means of coping? Focus on a stupid detail and pretend everything is normal like an ostrich with its head in the sand.

The day went from bad to worse when Doug Patton got the runs from something he'd eaten and spent nearly an hour in the restroom, delaying their start.

At last they got underway, walked a few blocks without incident, and then Ian decided to get fussy. Gloria did her best to calm the baby, but his crying escalated. Perhaps the kid could sense the tension in the air or maybe he was just being a normal baby. No amount of shushing would quiet him and Ari was terrified his piercing yells would attract zombies like ringing a dinner bell.

Since they were near Humboldt's, Sondra got her way. The building was locked so Ari broke into the store. A marauding horde of zombies charged up the street as he ushered the last of the group inside the building. He slipped through the door himself and watched for a moment to make certain they hadn't been spotted, but the creatures raged past. How many more near misses before they got caught and at last, and could they even fight with people like Mrs. Patton and the children along? At some point he might have to make a hard decision and cut the weak ones loose in order to keep the rest of them safe. Getting Carl to freedom was his main mission. The sacrifice of a few for the good of the entire world was never a pleasant thing to consider but sometimes it was necessary.