Resurrection: A Zombie Novel (22 page)

She sat on the deck again with her bare feet dangling over the side and looked longingly at the hotel. It was empty. That was clear, so that was where she’d sleep. They shouldn’t take over anyone’s house. The owners might come back at some point. She didn’t think the hotel owners would mind if they checked in without paying. What else were they supposed to do? Money was worthless now anyway.

Her toes were less than a foot above the water and she could see only a foot or so into the water. Anything could be down there, but she refused to pull her feet up. The cool air felt too good on her toes. She wished she could extend them into the water.

Hughes stood next to her with his rifle ready.

“How long should we wait before getting off?” she said.

“A couple more hours at least,” he said.

“
Hours
?”

“Hours.”

She heard footsteps behind them.

“I don’t know, Hughes.” It was Kyle. “If there was anything threatening in there, we’d know it by now.”

“Maybe nothing threatening in there,” he said and gestured toward the town with the stock of his rifle, “but you have no idea what is out there.”

Just about every visible inch of the island was covered with trees.

“I’m with Hughes,” Parker said. “We stay on the boat.”

Annie sighed a little. She understood why the others were nervous, but she wasn’t feeling it. Eastsound was the safest place she’d seen by far since the outbreak began.

She wondered what Kyle would say when she told him she wanted to leave.

*   *   *

Thick forest surrounded the town. If you headed in the right direction, you could walk through the trees in a straight line for hours before hitting water. And you could walk
up
. A mountain rose to the east. Kyle remembered driving to the top and seeing Canada’s Vancouver Island to the west, skyscraping Vancouver city far to the north; Bellingham, Washington, to the east; and the magnificent San Juan archipelago far below to the south. It must have taken an hour to drive up there from Eastsound. Walking would take a whole day.

So a horde of those things wouldn’t be up there. It took far too much time and effort to walk to the top, and there was nothing but fir cones to eat up there.

Theoretically another part of the island could be infected, perhaps the villages of Orcas or Deer Harbor, but Kyle was certain they’d be just as empty as Eastsound. If the infection had hit those towns, the residents would have fled to Eastsound. And there was no one in Eastsound.

Hughes was just being paranoid. Prudent, but paranoid.

“Let’s just give it another hour,” Kyle said.

“We give it four more at least,” Hughes said.

Kyle flinched.
Four
? Paradise was in view right in front of them, and Hughes wanted to stay on the boat another four hours? They had already been sitting there for at least two.

“I’m not even going in four,” Parker said. “I’m sleeping on the boat tonight.”

Kyle rolled his eyes. Parker wasn’t being prudent or paranoid. He was a drama queen with a beard and a belly who couldn’t admit that Kyle had saved his ass. Parker wouldn’t even be there if Kyle hadn’t practically forced him. He owed Kyle everything. Everyone on that boat owed Kyle everything.

If Parker wanted to sleep there, fine. The rest of them would spend the night in the hotel. And if Eastsound’s residents didn’t return after a week, they could move into one of the houses. Maybe they’d wait a month just to be decent, but that was it. Those houses would deteriorate if they weren’t maintained and lived in. If the owners come back in, say, a year, they’d be glad to discover someone had taken care of the property for them.

He wondered if there was any food left in the town grocery store. That would depend on how long the residents stayed after the plague struck. What if the shelves were empty? What if everyone’s cupboards were empty? If they weren’t empty already, they would be eventually.

Eastsound was luxurious, but their new lives would still be a challenge. They’d have to fish and farm and trap and hunt. They’d have to chop wood. They’d live like pioneers and homesteaders, though without hostile Indians and with better sofas and beds. By next year, enough of those things would likely starve to death on the mainland that Kyle and the others could pry solar panels off houses in Vancouver and Bellingham and install them in Eastsound. They would not live like royalty, but they’d have enough to be comfortable and enough adversity and hardship to make them appreciate those comforts far more than they did before the outbreak.

It was going to be great. Kyle could never have designed such a perfect life for himself in the old world.

And what about Annie? How much time would have to pass before they moved in together? He knew it would happen eventually, and he was pretty sure she knew it too. She wouldn’t live out her days by herself. Not at her age. She wasn’t going to shack up with Frank. The very idea was ludicrous. Parker? Not a chance. And Hughes? Hughes was a bodyguard, not a man to bare your soul to and cuddle up with in bed.

No, Annie would eventually move in with Kyle. Even if they did not fall in love—though love was a distinct possibility—they were an obvious pair.

He’d take his time and go slowly, for they had all the time in the world.

*   *   *

Hours passed in languid silence and Hughes began to think Kyle was right. No one was going to stumble out of a house and wave hello if they sat on the boat another hour, nor would one of those things only now finally notice their presence.

The smart plan would be to sail around the island while making a whole lotta racket to see if anything moved in the trees, but more than three hours had passed since he fired his rifle and nothing had happened. Eastsound looked empty, sounded empty, and just as important, it felt empty. The town and its immediate environs were clear. And that hotel was sure looking comfortable. They could recon the island tomorrow. Nothing would bother them in the meantime.

“Let’s move ashore,” he said.

“You sure you’re okay with that?” Kyle said. Hughes could tell Kyle wasn’t actually interested if Hughes was okay with it. He was just being polite.

“I’m still not going,” Parker said.

Kyle huffed and said, “Christ, you’re impossible.”

“Parker,” Hughes said. “My man. I’m as cautious as you are.”

“No, you’re not,” Parker said.

“I’m as cautious as you are,” Hughes said again. “But now you’re just being stubborn. Come on. We’ll hole up in that hotel over there and be quiet.”

“You want my advice?” Parker said.

“Not really, no,” Kyle said.

Annie placed her hand on his arm.

“What’s your advice?” Hughes said.

“We stay on this boat for three days,” Parker said, “and make as much goddamn noise as we can. Then we get off if everything’s clear.”

Hughes understood where Parker was coming from. That would, indeed, be the safest possible way to proceed, especially if they sailed around the island once or twice just to be sure. But there is a point where caution becomes excessive, where fear turns into phobia, and Parker had crossed it.

“I’ve seen you act with incredible bravery,” Hughes said to Parker. “Just two days ago you chased an armed man down in the street, killed dozens of those things single-handedly, and set your own house on fire. Stepping onto the beach after all that is nothing.”

“I had to do those things,” Parker said. “But I don’t have to rush off this boat. We have comfortable beds and enough food for days. But I hear what you’re saying, so I’ll join you tomorrow if you’re all still okay.”

So, Hughes thought, the island is Parker’s coal mine and the rest of us are his canaries. But, hey, whatever. Let him isolate himself if that’s what he wants. Better that than dragging him ashore if he’s going to be a pain in everyone’s ass. Hughes doubted he was the only one who could use a break. Maybe the man would finally settle down after sitting on the boat all alone for a while.

“I’m not the boss of you,” Hughes said. “None of us are the boss of you. None of us are the bosses of anyone. So stay here then if that’s what you want. We’ll be a couple hundred feet away in that hotel over there, and we’ll take beachfront rooms. We’ll hear if you yell, and vice versa.”

Parker’s face softened. Hughes stuck out his open palm for a handshake. Parker took it and shook it. “Okay,” Parker said. “Good luck. Come back here the minute you see or hear something creepy.”

Hughes smiled. Those two might get along fine if the island worked out as advertised.

But he wasn’t counting on it. Something was bound to go wrong. There was a damn good reason that town was empty. He didn’t know how and he didn’t know why, but checking out the island in person was the only way to find out.

*   *   *

They anchored the boat 200 feet out and swam in. The water was so cold that Kyle’s lungs briefly seized up, but Hughes insisted it was far better to be cold and wet for a spell than bring the boat onto the beach where it would not be secure.

They left the handguns, but Hughes brought the M4 rifle and held it over his head and swam with one hand to keep it dry. Kyle and Annie brought crowbars. Frank brought his hammer. And that was it. They weren’t relocating to the island just yet. This was a recon mission.

Kyle shivered and dripped on the shore and tried to hug himself warm. He had forgotten how rocky the beach was. Soft sand is created by pounding ocean waves, but the water around the San Juans behaved more like a lake, aside from the tides. The silence of the sea made them safer since crashing waves would conceal threatening noises.

“I need to go inside,” Annie said through chattering teeth. Her waterlogged clothes sagged off her shivering body. “The hotel will have towels.”

Kyle shivered too. Frank shivered. Even Hughes, with all his insulating bulk, shivered a little.

“Agreed,” Kyle said. “Our clothes will still be wet, but we can dry off and warm up before we have to put them back on.”

“We’ll get dry clothes in some of the houses,” Hughes said.

“We leave the houses alone,” Kyle said. “They belong to someone. We should at least wait until we’re certain they aren’t coming back. There should be a clothing store on the next street.”

They crossed Main Street and followed a handpainted wooden sign in front of the hotel that said “Office.” The office was dark, and Kyle had to cup his hands over the glass to see inside, but it did not look abandoned. It just looked like it was closed for the day.

He pushed and pulled the door handle. It was locked, so he knocked. He knew no one would answer, but it felt like the right thing to do.

“Hello!” he said. “Anyone in there?”

“Just break the glass,” Hughes said.

Kyle hadn’t felt averse to breaking and entering for more than a month. The very concept of breaking and entering meant nothing anymore on the mainland, but Eastsound was different. It still looked respectable.

He felt like a criminal, but he whacked the glass with his crowbar. The shattering was extraordinary. It gave him one jolt of adrenaline and another of fear. Surely that sound could be heard from a mile away.

“You guys okay?” Parker called from the boat. He was hundreds of feet away, but with no wind, no rain, no surf, and no traffic, his voice carried like he was standing right there.

“Just bustin’ into the office,” Frank said. He didn’t yell it, he just said it, and of course Parker could hear him. For a second Kyle was surprised that Parker showed concern for their well-being, but only for a second. Parker was concerned about his own ass. Anything that threatened them threatened him even if it threatened him less.

Kyle reached through the broken glass, unlocked the door, and stepped into the office. It was just as cold inside as out. The heat had been off for a long time. He could see well enough in the gloom to step behind the counter and grab four room keys.

“Just grab one,” Hughes said. “We should stick to one room,” Hughes said.

“I need to take off my clothes,” Annie said, still shivering.

Kyle handed her a key, kept one for himself, and returned two to the desk. “You take 17. We’ll be next door in 18.”

“We should get ourselves a raft,” Frank said, “so we don’t have to freeze our asses off like this every time we go to and from the boat.”

“The hell are we going to find a raft?” Hughes said.

“I’ll make one out of shoestrings and twigs,” Annie said, “if I don’t have to do this again.”

“There’s a dock down the shore a ways,” Kyle said. “We can tie the boat there when we know for sure the island is safe.”

“It’s not safe,” Hughes said.

Annie stopped shivering for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“This place looks perfect, right?” Hughes said.

Like heaven, Kyle thought. A city on a hill at the end of the world.

“But it’s empty,” Hughes said. “Why would a place this nice be empty? People here ran away from something.”

“From what?” Kyle said. “There’s nothing here.”

“I don’t know,” Hughes said. “But Annie girl, you’re coming into room 18 with us. You can dry off and warm up in the bathroom. Nobody should be alone on this island.”

*   *   *

Annie locked herself in the bathroom, hung her wet clothes in the shower, wrapped herself in a towel, and sat on the floor. The room had no window so she couldn’t see anything, but she didn’t care. She felt warm and safe and comfortable. The floor was cold, but the towel kept the chill out of her shoulders and core. It also covered the bite mark on the back of her shoulder. She’d need to make
damn
sure nobody saw that. The three men on the other side of the door might only keep her safe as long as they didn’t know her little dark secret.

But safe from what? She had a hard time believing the islanders ran away from disaster. What disaster? There had to be a benign explanation. Of if they did run from something, whatever it was had moved on.

“The light’s weird here, isn’t it?” Frank said on the other side of the door. She couldn’t see him—she couldn’t see anything—but she could hear him just fine.