After the End (22 page)

He laced his shoe then rose and looked at Lila, zipping her jeans. Newcomers brought all sorts of changes. These might be their last few moments alone together. Who knew what the next day would bring. He went over to her and drew her close, cupping her cheek in one hand and giving her a kiss that might be for goodbye. When he pulled away, he said, "I'm glad we..."

"Me, too. Very glad." Her hand was cool and soft on the side of his face for a second and then he had to step away.

"I'm going to get going. Don't feel like you have to hurry." Ari took a deep breath before opening the door.

Derrick waited for him in the hall. He jerked his thumb toward the lobby. "They're waiting with Joe. Two guys. They saw light in here and came to check it out."

So much for being careful. But it only took one small, moving light, maybe no bigger than the tip of one of Deb's cigarettes, and a single pair of eyes to see it to signal there were living people in the motel.

"Why're you up? I thought it was Joe's watch?" he said.

Derrick shrugged. "It's almost morning anyway, and I couldn't sleep any more. I'm too hungry." He nodded toward the door Ari had closed behind him. "So, Lila. Did you tap that?"

"Shut up, you little perv. None of your business." He strode ahead of Derrick to the lobby where Joe stood talking to the two men, who looked to be in their late twenties or early thirties. They were fit and athletic, the kind of guys Ari needed to help strengthen his group. He wouldn't mind traveling with them, unless they had an agenda of their own.

They looked up as he approached. Joe's habitually gloomy face was more cheerful than Ari had ever seen it. "Ari, this is Walter Marsh and Taishawn Streeter."

"Hi." Marsh was a stocky, boulder of a man, who looked like he could bench press Gloria Patton and then some. "Saw your lights. Thought we'd come over and say 'howdy'. You should really tell your people to keep blackout at night. Even a little light can be dangerous."

Ari's hackles rose at the man's condescending tone, but he didn't bother to explain he'd already given that order. Instead, he nodded and shook Marsh's hand and then Streeter's. "I'm Ari Brenner."

"Taishawn. How you doin'?" If Marsh looked like a weight lifter or wrestler, his buddy had the appearance of a long distance runner. Streeter was a tall, long-limbed black man with hair shaved even closer than Ari's. "Your man Joe here says you got a whole party you're trying to move all the way to the river."

Ari nodded. "Ten of us altogether."

"Eleven counting the baby," Derrick added helpfully.

"Shit. That's a big group. Lucky you made it this many days."

"We lost a few on the way," Ari said, thinking of Ann's quivering white tennis shoe and Mrs. Scheider's last painful breath. "But we're doing okay."

"That's tough," Marsh folded his arms and nodded. "We had a bigger group when we started out, too. We were at Colossus, working out when things started happening."

"Did you guys already know each other?" Joe asked.

"Not really. Just casual acquaintance at the gym."

"You buddy up fast when shit like this hits," Streeter said. "Marsh here's got a plan. He can fly helicopters. We're on our way to the Sanilac building. They've got a corporate helipad on the roof. You could come with us."

"That's a great idea!" Derrick said.

"I think we're closer to the marina," Ari pointed out. He knew the office building the men were talking about and tried to calculate the number of blocks there, as well as the difficulty of climbing all the way to the top. It was hard to know whether the marina or the office building posed more dangers.

The two strangers looked past Ari so he knew Lila had come to join them before he heard her greeting them and introducing herself.

"Nice to meet you." Marsh held out his hand to shake Lila's.

For a brief moment, Ari wanted to pull her away from him. He didn't want to share his people or information with these strangers. He didn't want to fall in with their plan and have things change. But that was crazy. They offered a viable solution, just a different course from the one he'd been on.

"A helicopter," Lila said after Marsh explained his plan. "Would it be big enough to hold all of us?"

He nodded. "Sure. I've seen the copter come and go from the Sanilac building. It's a Bell 222. It'll carry ten including the pilot."

"Uh, we already have ten people. With the two of you that makes twelve," Ari said.

"It's more about weight than numbers. You said you had a couple of kids? They can sit on someone's lap. We'll make it work." Marsh paused. "That is, if you want to go along."

Before Ari could answer, they were interrupted by more early risers drawn by the sound of their voices. Sleep-rumpled and yawning, Deb and Julie wandered out to the lobby.

"Shall I wake the rest of them so they can be a part of this discussion?" Lila asked Ari.

He'd just as soon make the decision without Carl, Gloria or Sondra's input, but they were a part of this. Besides, there was no point in wasting time, repeating everything for their benefit after they finally rose. "Sure. Go get 'em."

While they waited, they gathered in the sitting area in the lobby. Deb and Julie introduced themselves and Julie went to get refreshments for their guests.

"We've been running on fumes," Marsh said. "But I'm sure you've had an even harder time feeding this many people. Snack foods only take the edge off. I'd give anything for a hot, cooked meal."

"Why haven't you guys left town by now?" Joe asked. "It's been days since this started."

"We were trapped for a while," Streeter said. "Near the hospital there were hordes of the damn things coming in waves. Then the army comes in, ground troops and helicopters shooting the shit out of anything that moved. We couldn't go anywhere. Just had to hole up and wait for the worse of it to be over."

"Where'd you hide?" Deb leaned against the check-in counter, arms folded. Ari felt her mistrust as if it was a reflection of his own. It made him see his own doubt for what it was, an alpha personality threatened by another alpha entering his territory. He should be grateful these guys were willing to take them along, happy to pass some of the burden to other strong leaders.

"After we escaped from the gym, we ended up at a school near the hospital. But with things they way they were outside, we were stranded there for a while," Marsh said. "I remembered seeing a chopper land on the Sanilac the day the shit hit. We decided to head there."

"What about the children?" Julie returned with sodas for the men.

Streeter shook his head, his gaze downcast. "They didn't make it."

"None of them? You couldn't take any of them with you?"

"It was an elementary school. These were little kids. They couldn't outrun the zombies. It was safer for them to stay there. There was school faculty with them."

Julie dropped the subject. There was enough blame to go around. They'd all left people behind.

Ari checked the street outside, where early morning gray illuminated a car with its fender crumpled against a light pole, and the windshield ruptured by the driver's body. A crow picked at the woman's face. Ari scanned the block as far as he could see in either direction. It was deserted.

As he turned away from the window, he came to a decision. They needed the extra protection Marsh and Streeter could offer and the idea of flying with a trained pilot was better than his half-assed plan to hotwire a boat. Of course, the rest of the group would air their opinions, but he knew which side he'd weigh in on.

Lila returned with the others. Sondra, dressed for bed in an oversized T-shirt with nothing on her bare legs, turned on all her charm around the two new men. She really was a shameless flirt, the kind of girl who didn't know how to dial it down no matter what the circumstances. Gloria stayed only long enough to be introduced and then returned to her room to take care of Ian. Lila hadn't wakened Ronnie.

"This is Carl," Ari introduced the scientist, who shook hands with Marsh and Streeter.

"Pleased to meet you. Lila says you got a plan to get out."

Marsh explained for the third time about the helipad and his ability to pilot a copter.

"That seems like the way to go," Carl said as he took a seat on the couch beside Sondra and Taishawn. "And it looks like you're well armed." He indicated the rifles the two men had set aside.

"You know you can't just shoot 'em though, right? You have to cut their heads off to kill them," Derrick said. "I was the one who figured that out."

"We've taken down a few," Streeter assured him, "haven't we, man?"

"A few." Marsh leaned back in the armchair across from the couch, looking as relaxed as if this was his own living room. "What was Joe saying about you having some kind of cure?"

"Not yet." Carl leaned forward, eager to share. "But I have an idea, a modification of the formula that could alter the effects of the original antidote." He launched into an explanation of the cure for A7 and why he thought it had caused this drastic result. "But the solution wasn't totally flawed. I think with slight changes I could create not only a real cure for the A7 virus, but also counteract the effects of the current antidote."

He would've gone on to explain in more detail than any of them could hope to grasp the specifics of what he intended, but Derrick interrupted. "The information is on a hard drive I got from Carl's computer at Quantus. We were attacked while we were there and I killed one of the zombies."

Ari rolled his eyes. Derrick seemed intent on impressing the newcomers with his accomplishments as if they were Daddy come home.

Marsh gave a low whistle. "It sounds like you hold the key to saving the world," he said to Carl. "We've got to get you off this island and some place safe."

No shit. What do you think I've been trying to do?
Ari couldn't help his irritation at Marsh's manner, as if they'd been doing nothing but cooling their heels by the hotel pool until he came along to take charge of things. But once again he suppressed his emotions. This was no time to let personal feelings color his judgment. So his ego was a little bruised. The damn world was at stake here.

"We have a choice," he addressed the group, cutting across the chatter. "Continue on our way to the marina or try to fly out of here with these guys. The Sanilac building is about the same distance as the river, but in the opposite direction. Once we get there we'll have to climb all the way to the roof and there's no guarantee the helicopter will even be there."

"You don't sound convinced." Streeter stared at him. "Well, you haven't seen the waterfront yet. It's crawling with flesh-eaters, picking off anyone who tries to get to a boat."

"I'm only trying to present all possibilities," Ari said. "Everyone should have a complete picture of both options before they decide."

"I want to fly," Derrick said. "So does Ronnie."

"I'm in." Sondra leaned close to Streeter. "These guys seem to know what they're doing."

One by one, the others agreed, some more enthusiastically than others. But even Lila, after pausing to glance at Ari, was on board with the new plan. Even as Ari cast his vote in favor, too, he felt ridiculously abandoned.

Marsh looked outside where the light had turned from gray to pink. "We should get started. With luck, we can be flying out of this shit storm by noon."

Maybe to face another shit storm on the mainland. They'd gone days without hearing from the outside world, and Ari dreaded what they would find there.

As Marsh started giving orders, Ari felt his own authority slipping away. And even though this was what he'd longed for since the beginning, someone else to step up and take control, his sense of desertion grew as people addressed their questions to Marsh or even Streeter instead of him. Damn, he really was pathetic.

As he gathered things from his room, Lila came to get hers, too. She closed the door behind her and went to him, knocking his backpack from his hands and putting them on her hips instead. She slid hers around the back of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss.

Minutes later when they finally drew apart, she murmured, "How are you doing? What do you really think about these guys? Dicks, right?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. They haven't done or said anything wrong. I just don't… mesh well with either of them."

"I know. But do you think we can trust them?"

Ari paused to consider. "They haven't tried to take anything from us. They're inviting us to travel with them when they could move faster alone. I can't see any reason not to trust them, although Marsh might be wrong about that chopper and we could go a long way out of our way for nothing."

Lila nodded. "That's what I thought, but I still feel like we have to give it a try. A helicopter would give us so much more flexibility. We could land anywhere it seems safe. With a boat there's a chance of not finding a harbor that isn't overrun with zombies. But I still don't like Marsh much. He seems really arrogant."

He felt the same way, but if they were going to follow Marsh now, they had to wholeheartedly recognize him as the leader. Ari turned and stooped to pick up his bag. "Well, whether he's a dick or not, Marsh is the man in charge now so all we can do is follow his lead."

* * * * *

Chapter Fifteen

"Shut that kid up or I swear I'll gag him," Streeter glared at Gloria over his shoulder.

"We need to stop for a while," the plump woman replied, breathless from trotting along at the long-legged pace Taishawn set. "Ian needs to be fed and changed."

"We can't stop every two minutes. We gotta keep moving."

"Hey," Lila interrupted. "You guys aren't traveling alone now. You had to know a group with children in it might slow you down." She really didn't like these guys and with every step regretted her choice to join them more.

"We'll call a halt in another few blocks," Marsh declared. "Meanwhile, muffle the baby and keep walking."

"Here, Gloria, let me try." Julie took the little one in her arms and his wails amped up. She jiggled him and crooned softly but couldn't get him to quiet down.