After the End (25 page)

Ari mixed vodka and a splash of vermouth, stirred not shaken. Since there was no ice and the drinks were room temperature, it hardly mattered. He floated an olive in the martini glass he got from the bar and drank it in a few gulps. The alcohol burned down his throat and set up a nice warm fire in his stomach before spreading through his blood stream. He filled his glass again and guzzled, appreciating the relaxing buzz that soon filled his brain.

Armed with drinks and their meager meal, the five of them sat in a circle on the plush carpet.

Ari found he was ravenous after climbing all those stairs. He'd hardly been aware of the ache of hunger in the pit of his stomach, but one bite of cheese and cracker woke his appetite. He could have easily devoured all the food himself. Instead, he poured another martini. Why the hell not?

Julie raised her glass, her pale blue eyes a little uncertain. "I don't know if this is a time for toasting but I'd like to propose one to all those we lost."

Personally, Ari didn't want to think about them right now. He'd done his best to shove every trace of them from his mind, but he lifted his glass anyway and took another drink.

Pretty soon the haze in his brain fogged his eyesight. He listened to Deb and Julie's low and high voices rising and falling in counterpoint to one another. He looked at Lila, leaning toward Derrick and talking earnestly. Her hair was wind-whipped and wild around her shoulders and falling over her eyes.

Ari thought of how she'd looked last night, lying in bed with her hair spread over the pillow, her face contorted in ecstasy. He wanted to see her like that again. Abruptly he was as hard as stone and aching to hold her. If he grabbed her hand and pulled her from the room, would it be rude? Did he care? He was pretty far past caring what anyone thought about anything and their time together was too short to waste.

Just then, Lila looked over at him. Their gazes locked, silent messages telegraphed like lightning between them, and she smiled, a mischievous grin that made him even harder.

She turned back to Derrick. "Why don't you lie down and get some sleep. That's what you need right now."

The boy drained the last of his drink, and Lila took the empty glass from him. "Another one of these isn't going to help you feel better, I promise. You'll just wake with a headache."

Derrick didn't argue. Maybe he felt like having someone tell him what to do next. When Lila rose and offered her hand, he took it. She pulled him to his feet and led him to the beige leather couch. He took off his shoes and lay down. Lila spread a jacket over him and stroked his hair before leaving him.

She walked toward Ari, gazing at him with a look hot enough to sear his skin. He stood, a little unsteadily after three—or was it four?—drinks, and took her hand. Hers was cool and dry, his a little sweaty.

Julie and Deb looked up simultaneously, brown eyes and blue studying them.

"We're going across the hall," Lila said.

"Cool," Deb replied, smiling. "We'll keep watch."

Ari and Lila left the room, walked a little way down the hallway and entered another fancy office. "So this is where all the bailout money goes," he said, looking around at the décor. His gaze lighted on another comfortable couch and stopped there. "Crap. I don't have any more condoms."

"Want to bet Mr. Corporate Exec has some?" Lila went to the restroom and came back with a box. "Really, do these people do any actual work?"

Ari pulled her hard against him, interrupting her with a kiss, fierce and hot. It wasn't just a matter of want. He needed her right at this moment with the desperation of a man who'd been slogging through the desert and encountered an oasis. He fell into her, arms open and drank her up.

Lila seemed just as eager for him, her hands all over, stripping him bare and rediscovering his skin underneath. Within seconds they were both naked and grappling each other to the floor like wrestlers. He pinned her beneath him, covering her with kisses, throat, chest, breasts and lower. A few minutes down between her legs and she arched up with a shudder and a moan. When Ari glanced at her face, tears tracked from the corners of her eyes down her temples and caught in her hair.

He crawled up to lie beside her, pressing against her, wanting entry, but concerned about the tears. "What?"

She wiped her nose and shook her head. "It's nothing. It's just been a really hard day and I needed this release." She pushed him onto his back and straddled him. "And so do you."

He lost himself in her then, groaning and rising into her heat and wetness, every thrust an affirmation of life. He gripped her waist, anchoring himself to her and closed his eyes as waves of pleasure broke over him.

Far too quickly, it was over. He wished he could promise her other times when they would spend hours building up slowly and making it last. But these might be the only precious moments they could spend together and their urge had been like a speeding train destined to collide.

Lila collapsed on top of him and he wrapped his arms around her heaving body, warm and moist against his.

"You're sure you're okay," he asked. "Today was…"

"Hell." She completed his thought. She had a knack for that. Her voice was muffled against his skin, puffs of breath tickling his neck. "I'm trying to put it out of my head. All of it. But I keep reliving Joe and those things I had to put down. I know they weren't human any longer. I know that. But it's still hard."

"Mm," he murmured, nuzzling the top of her head. He had nothing more useful to offer, no words that could take away from the horror, so he simply kissed her and hugged her hard enough to drive the breath from her body.

"I think," she said after a few silent minutes, "the only way to deal with all this is to stop feeling at all, put up a wall and don't let anything through it."

Ari rubbed her back, considering. "But then you could end up like Marsh or Streeter, so hard and selfish you use other people as human shields. We have to keep some humanity or we're no better than the zombies."

Lila lifted her head, propped her arms on his chest and looked into his eyes. "That's insightful."

"I have my moments. I'm not all about action, you know."

She smiled. "I do know, and that's why I like you so much."

"I like you, too."
A lot more than I ever would have expected.

She slid off him to cuddle next to his side, one arm flung over his stomach and her head resting on his shoulder. More quiet moments passed and Ari felt himself drifting toward sleep.

He roused himself and shook Lila awake. "We should go back with the others. It's safer if we're all together."

She yawned and reached for her clothes. "Besides, Julie and Deb might want some time alone."

Ari hadn't thought of that. He felt sorry for Derrick, the odd man out. The rest of them had someone special to cling to. The boy was all alone now that his sister was gone. Ari promised himself to keep Derrick close throughout this ordeal. He and Lila would be a pseudo family Derrick could count on.

They dressed and returned to the office down the hall. The city spread out below them, a landscape of stark light and shadow. The trek here, the climb and its aftermath had taken most of the day and now evening drew close once more. Ari gazed at the view and imagined how it would have looked at night with lights glowing in hundreds of windows. Instead, when darkness fell, the city would be plunged into blackness once more, like a dark jungle where ravenous beasts roamed.

He was suddenly almost too exhausted to keep his eyes open. But he had to keep alert on watch, even if it meant chewing coffee beans from the blend in the cupboard by the espresso machine. Derrick joined him at the window. "Go ahead and get some sleep. I've had a nap. I'll take first shift."

Ari glanced at the deep shadows under his eyes. "You sure? You still look pretty tired."

The boy nodded. "I couldn't sleep any more. But you look wrecked. You should crash."

"Thanks." He clapped Derrick on the shoulder and went over to where the women were making up pallets for the night. They'd gathered couch cushions from the other offices that occupied the top floor, but there was little to cover up with. Most of their supplies had been abandoned on the ground floor before they began their climb to the roof.

"Go ahead and take the couch," Deb said.

Ari glanced at the furniture then back at the nest on the floor they were creating. He didn't want to lie alone on the couch even if it might be more comfortable. Without a word, he dragged the cushions from the couch and stretched out beside Lila.

Ari stared at the ceiling as the last of the light drained from the room and then closed his eyes against the pervading blackness. He felt Lila's hand curl around his, their fingers entwined, a barrier against hopelessness and fear. At last, he relaxed and slept.

* * * * *

Chapter Seventeen

Streeter hadn't lied. The waterfront was swarming with zombies. The band of survivors had stopped several blocks away from the marina to check out the situation. They were on the second floor of a building, above what appeared to be a family-owned deli, peering out the windows at the 79
^th
Street Boat Basin; close enough to smell the river, hear the cries of the circling gulls and see the undead attacking those who attempted to reach the boats.

Lila watched zombies rove and feed for only a few moments before handing the binoculars back to Ari. Her empty stomach rolled at the thought of running a gauntlet past all those creatures. "How are we going to get through?"

"Very carefully," he said dryly, taking the glasses from her and putting them to his eyes.

"Maybe a distraction," Derrick suggested. "Pick which boat we're heading for then draw them away from it with an explosion or something."

 Ari lowered the binocs and nodded. "That's not bad. It might buy a little time, but whatever boat we go for is going to have to start—probably without keys. Like I said, I've hotwired cars a time or two, but never a boat. I'm not positive it'll work the same."

"I grew up on the water," Julie said. "Our family spent every summer on Christie Lake. I know boats and how to pull-start an engine if the electric starter breaks."

"That's fantastic!" Ari's relief was evident. Lila knew he'd been sweating his ability to get a boat running.

"But pull-starting only works on smaller engines," Julie continued. "You have to take the cover off and disconnect the wiring harness before you can do it. If we go for a bigger boat, it's more like a car and we'd have to hotwire the starter. An older boat would be better. Because newer engines are computerized, they might be trickier."

"How would you do it?" Ari asked.

"Pull off the key switch. The wires are located behind it. You have to be careful to connect the right ones. Every manufacturer has different color codes. Connect the positive and negative and touch to the starter wire."

"Did you boost a boat before, baby?" Deb said. "I didn't know you were so gangsta."

Julie smiled. "My high school boyfriend took me out on his family's boat a lot. Once we got stranded when the engine wouldn't turn over and I watched him jump it that way."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Ari asked.

"You seemed to know what you were doing. I didn't realize you were bluffing."

"Well, look at you. Not so useless after all," Lila commented, carrying on her and Julie's running joke about their relative value to the group. They'd teased each other all the way to the waterfront—every time one of them had evaded or outrun a zombie. The journey had been dangerous but they'd managed to avoid any more hand-to-hand death matches with the creatures. They could move a lot faster and more stealthily with only five of them. But Lila guessed they weren't going to make it to a boat so easily.

Julie shot Lila a look and chalked up an imaginary tally mark in the air before turning her attention to the marina. She took Ari's binoculars and scanned the moored boats. "You see the Bayliner, that one in the slip next to the sleek Monterey Cruiser? That's what we should go for. It looks like an early 90's model so nothing computerized. Won't be too fast, but we don't need speed. We just need something trustworthy we can start."

"All right." Ari paused and closed his eyes for a moment, rubbing his forehead. "So we need a distraction or two. We can make some Molotovs easily enough with bottles from the deli and siphoning gas from the cars. Also we could set a car on fire, put a weight on the accelerator and head it toward the marina."

 Lila wondered if the zombies would be attracted by loud explosions and fire or if they only responded to the smell of blood and the sight of fresh victims.

"Hey," she said, "what if we could draw them with chum, like in
Jaws
. Smells seem to attract the creatures and, of course, running people. We could drench a mannequin in gore and attach it to the front of that moving car." She tossed off the first idea to dart through her mind.

"And put explosives in the car so when they come near it blows up in their goddamn faces," Derrick added excitedly.

It would certainly be a distraction.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm," Ari said, "but we don't have any explosives or a way to detonate long distance. I don't know how to rig a car bomb with the materials we have so I think we should keep it simple."

Lila felt like she'd been downing No Doze with Mountain Dew she was so wired. They were nearly to their goal but the zombies were an impenetrable wall blocking their way. She followed the others down to the deli where they opened and emptied bottles of soda, setting the bottles upside down to dry completely before they put gasoline in them.

Ari showed them how to twist strips of rag to act as a fuse. "These things are dangerous as hell," he warned. "They'll easily go off right in your hand, so when you light one, you'd better be ready to throw it immediately."

While the bottles dried, Ari and Derrick went to siphon gas into five gallon buckets that had once held pickles according to their labels. Deb and Julie were in charge of finding a mannequin to act as bait. They'd discussed tying a human corpse to the front of the car to add to the olfactory factor, but a mannequin would be more erect and manageable and probably look more alive than a boneless corpse. Besides, most bodies that weren't completely decimated were out there walking around.