The Last Outbreak (Book 3): Desperation (21 page)

Emma stood in the hall waiting as Cedric ran through his plan. She’d tucked her phone into her dirty orange backpack and slipped it over her shoulder. Nervously tapping her foot on the navy blue commercial-grade carpeting, she waited as Tom, Veronica, and Patrick joined her outside the door.

Unable to completely focus on what Cedric was saying as he stood in the threshold, Emma’s mind was elsewhere. She was only able to read the first few lines of Ethan’s text before moving out of the suite and now it was all she could think about.

“Okay,” Cedric began, “I’m going down through the south stairwell to the garage. That’s where I’ll let Blake and his men find me.”

Emma’s head was spinning. She’d only been catching every second or third word, but the phase “
I’ll Let Blake and his men find me
” stuck out as odd. Why would they find him? Was he going to be hiding or was there something in Cedric’s previous statement that she’d missed?

“Let them find you?” Emma asked. “Where are you going?”

“We are going to get you back to your car and out of this area, but not just yet. For now, we’re going to hide you.”

“Tom and I?”

“Yes, but let me back up. We don’t have much time, so I’ll get through this quick. You and Tom will go with Patrick to the twelfth floor. We have another suite there that has some supplies, enough for a few days. Leave the door open and stay away from the windows. If you need to use the bathroom, you’ll have to crawl, same thing when you get there, crawl to the back corner and there you’ll remain out of sight. Do not go to any of the other suites or leave the twelfth floor. Veronica or I will come for you in the next day or two.”

“What do we do for the next two days?”

“I don’t care. Sleep, talk, whatever, anything but being seen. Blake will have his men watching for the next few days. Once I feel he’s let up, we’ll come get you.”

Emma felt her heart beginning to race. “And then what?”

“Emma, I know this isn’t ideal or even what you want to hear, but I think you and Tom will be much safer away from this place. Blake is hell-bent on keeping certain things the way they are, and if he truly believes the both of you have left, he’ll go back to simply harassing me about the number of Feeders that are clogging his end of town.”

“So, Tom and I have to be ready to move on in the next two days, maybe sooner?”

“Yes, but you won’t be on your own.” Cedric glanced at his wife. “I’ll help get you to your vehicle. We’ll have to do it at night, and it won’t be pretty, but I promise to do whatever I can to get you out safely.”

“What about you? What if Blake finds out you helped us? I mean it’s not going to be hard to put two and two together. You really think he’ll believe that you didn’t just let us go?”

“No, not if I give him a reason to think I tried to keep you here.”

Tom stepped forward. “What exactly does that mean?”

“I have a plan that may just help the both of us. All you two need to do is stay out of sight for the next two days. We have a fourth radio that Blake doesn’t know about. I’ll give it to you, but you’ll only be able to turn it on at night to keep the battery from draining.”

“We obviously can’t contact you, so what good is it?”

“You’ll be able to listen to any conversations I have with Veronica or Patrick. Anything goes really wrong and I’ll contact you directly.”

Locking eyes with Cedric, Emma said, “Okay, stay low, move to the corner of the suite, and only crawling from the suite to the restroom? Radio goes on at sundown and then off at sunrise. Anything else?”

“Yeah, when we call, be ready to go. Which means make sure your bags are packed at all times.”

“Will do.”

“Alright, Blake will call again, probably within the next few minutes, and when he does, it will be time to go. You and Tom will follow Patrick and Veronica, and I will head toward the garage. Veronica will stop in the stairwell and respond to Blake’s call telling him that I’d taken the both of you to the garage.”

“For what?”

“To hand you over to him. But when he arrives, he’ll see that the two of you had gotten the better of me and are nowhere to be found. He may question it and he may not, but I haven’t given him any reason to believe that I’d help the two of you.”

“You think Blake is going to buy that somehow we overpowered you, or that we—”

“I have a feeling that he will.”

Her thoughts now bouncing between her brother and just how the next few days were going to play out, Emma tried to focus on the instructions Cedric was giving his wife and his son.

“Veronica, when Blake calls again, tell him that I took them down to the garage. He’ll think we’re at the north end as usual. Tell him I left without the radio because I was rushed, but do not tell him anything else. If he keeps asking questions, just tell him that you don’t know anything.”

Veronica turned up the volume on the two-way radio and slipped it into her front pocket. “Okay.”

Turning to his son, he said, “Patrick…”

The lanky sixteen year old, who stood nearly as a tall as his father, tried to look brave. “Yeah dad?”

“Just need you to get them to the suite on the twelfth floor. Stop out in the hall and make sure they crawl in. I don’t want Blake’s men to see them or you.”

Patrick quickly nodded. “Come straight back?”

“Yes, wait for me and your mother here.”

“Okay dad.”

Emma waited for the father and son to finish. She then moved into the doorway and wrapped her arms around Cedric. She hugged him tight and whispered into his ear, “You are a good man, thank you.”

“Emma, thank you as well.”

She began to cry. “Why on earth would you be thanking me?”

“Because you trusted me to help you, and because you’ve made me understand that there are still some good people left in this world.”

Tom also exchanged good-byes with the family of three and then shook Cedric’s hand. “See you in a few days?”

“You will.”

“Good luck with Blake. I hope he buys it.”

“Oh he will, the black eye you’ve given me is going to seal the deal.”

“Black eye?”

Cedric placed his radio on the floor, moved to the center of the threshold, and gripped the door handle. Leaning forward, he closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and pulled back hard. The outer edge of the door struck him vertically across the left eye, causing instant swelling. As he turned back, Veronica and Emma held their hands over their mouths.

“That black eye, it should be nice and ripe by the time I get to the garage.”

They walked the nearly two-mile route back from the reservoir in silence. They hadn’t discussed the ultimatum given to their group by the bearded former mayor. They also hadn’t spoken about the fact that at any minute, the better part of almost a thousand bloodthirsty corpses may come stumbling back through town with only one focus. But reaching the parking lot and having long ago lost track of Mr. Gil Walker, Ethan stopped.

“We can’t stay until sundown. I think we should get on the road now, even if we have to sleep in the truck on the road somewhere.”

Glancing back the way they’d come, Griffin held his hand over his eyes, blocking the early morning sun. “Yeah, maybe. But how much have you slept in the last three days?”

“Enough to know that this place isn’t safe, that every second we wait is another chance for Gil to change his mind, or for those walls to fall. I can’t think of a single reason to stay here another minute.”

“What about Mayor Walker? We just leaving him here? You know what’s going to happen to him if we do, where he’ll end up?”

“He’s not going anywhere, and I have a feeling he’d take offense to us even suggesting that he leave this town. Plus, we’ve already got our hands full.”

Looking back toward the hotel, and their SUV parked up against the front doors, Ethan put his hand on Griffin’s shoulder. “Let’s go tell the others.”

Greeted on the patio, again by Shannon, Ethan waited as Griffin moved through the doors. He took her arm and pulled her into him. Letting his right hand drift to her back, Ethan felt the curves of her petite frame gliding under his palm. Tilting his head to the right, he looked into her eyes and waited for her to do the same.

Closing his eyes, he slowly leaned in and placed his lips against hers. They were warm, soft, and felt as though they’d melt him where he stood. With his left hand, he gently brushed her silky blonde hair away from her face, and kissed her with a passion he never knew he possessed.

Pulling her closer, their bodies fit together like two, perfectly shaped puzzle pieces. She arched her back and Ethan slipped his hand under her grey, long-sleeved t-shirt, caressing the tender skin along her left hip.

Shannon dug her fingers into Ethan’s arms and began to shudder. She kissed him hard, and with an aggression that caught him completely by surprise. He hadn’t felt anything like this in his recent memory, and maybe not ever. He liked it, but didn’t quite understand it. Was it a repressed attraction that had just now decided to show its face, or was this simply an outlet for the overwhelming amount of stress she’d been under? At the moment, he didn’t really care.

Pulling back much too soon, Ethan felt a pair of prying eyes and sensed that Shannon had too. Ten feet away on the other side of the twin glass doors, Griffin stood to the right. He was trying to stay hidden, while also keeping an eye on the rear courtyard. When he’d noticed they’d both seen him, he turned away and moved toward the lobby.

“Shannon,” Ethan said, “I’m sorry.”

“The kiss wasn’t that bad, and there’s definitely no need to apologize for it.” She smiled at him, but quickly noticed he wasn’t necessarily in the mood for her well-placed joke.

“Just let me do this.” Taking a half-step back, he still held her hand. “I still don’t understand why all this is happening and why the seven of us all are still here, but we are and I’m through taking chances. I’m through risking the things that are important just because I want to do what’s right. I now know that I may have to do some things that aren’t going to be easy or even right, but in order for us to survive, I’ll have to do them anyway.”

Shannon only nodded.

“You did the right thing with David. I don’t know that I would have been able to do it at the time, and because you did, I’m still here. So… I’m sorry for not understanding, for not seeing it earlier, and mostly for not kissing you before I did.”

Up onto her toes, Shannon leaned in and kissed Ethan again. “Well then, we have lots to make up for.”

“I guess so.” Ethan looked back toward the building and continued holding her hand. “But I need your help.”

“My help?”

“I’ll fill you in on everything when Griff and I talk to the others, but basically we need to leave.”

Shannon looked confused. “Wasn’t that always the plan?”

“Yes, but our time line just got squeezed a bit.”

Into the hall, Ethan locked the rear doors, and with Shannon, made his way back to the lobby. The others had already begun questioning Griffin and turned at the sound of the pair entering the large room.

With all eyes on him, Ethan moved to the stone fireplace and stood before his six friends. Scanning their tired faces, he finally rested on Carly and Ben, figuring if he was going to get any resistance that the injured man and his personal nurse may be the source. No one in the room had seen what he and Griffin had seen back at the reservoir, and knowing that he didn’t possess the proper adjectives to adequately describe the horrific scene, he just went with the truth.

“We have to leave Green Valley today, right now. This place isn’t safe.”

He was right, the first question came from the Carly.

“Today, why?”

“Griffin and I ran into the bearded man. His name is Gil Walker. He was the mayor of this city when the infection hit. It looks like the town was overrun pretty quickly and very few people survived. The few who did either left town or took their own lives.”

“So what does that have to do with leaving?”

This wasn’t a discussion he’d wanted to have with Carly yet again. He understood her motivation, it was what it had always been—allow the injured time to rest and only move when it’s safe. That was what he wanted as well; however, their lives were now dictated by something other than want.

“I would love nothing more than to stay here and recoup for a few days, but we can’t.”

Ethan’s mother sat forward on the sofa and now held Carly’s hand. “Ethan, these people need a break, your friend Benjamin is still recovering, and you… you also need a break. We can’t keep going like this.”

Nodding, Ethan looked toward the rear doors, and slowly back to Griffin. “I’m sorry, but we really don’t have a choice.” Taking a long breath, he scratched at the thick stubble rising from his chin. “There are close to a thousand Feeders on the other side of town that could run through this area at any minute. They’d tear this building to the ground just to get to us. We wouldn’t have a chance.”

Frank moved out of his chair and stood. “A thousand, what do you mean? That can’t be possible. This town had maybe what… four, five-hundred people?”

“Nine-hundred-fifty-two is what the sign posted at the edge of town read. And as of about an hour ago, the new town reservoir was filled end to end and top to bottom with what looked like a good percentage of that nine-fifty-two.”

“The town’s water supply?”

“No, it hadn’t been filled yet,” Ethan said. “It’s a long story, but they all ended up trapped below the slanted walls. It looks like they’ve been trying to claw their way out and sooner or later, they’ll succeed. My bet is sooner.”

Shannon sat on the arm of the red sofa, taking in the news. “Where will we go?”

Before Carly or any of the others had a chance to jump in, Ethan quickly responded. “I think should shoot for Nevada. If everything Gil said is true, we should be able to pick up Interstate Fifteen in about two hours. From there, we have another three, maybe four hours to Vegas. If all goes well—”

Frank interrupted. “I’m not disagreeing with you—hell, I think it’s probably a good idea to keep moving—but how do we know we aren’t driving straight into more of the same?”

“We don’t,” Ethan said. “We just have to keep our eyes open and stay focused. But the bottom line is, we can’t stay here.”

Ben sat up and for the first time looked interested. He was holding something in his hand and glanced at it momentarily before turning to Ethan. “What about that man, Mayor Gil, does he want us to leave?”

“More or less. I mean he seems like an okay guy, if not a bit eccentric. But he’s still dealing with the loss of every single person that meant anything to him.” Ethan paused briefly. “But he wants to stay, thinks the military is coming back here with a cure.”

The room went quiet, as most had now resigned themselves to the fact that they’d again be moving on, and that the false sense of safety they’d momentarily felt was also quickly slipping away. And one by one, they showed their support for Ethan’s plan, either reluctantly, or with a quick nod and a short word or two of encouragement.

The last to voice his approval was Ben. He looked around the room, ended at Carly, and then turned to Ethan. He slowly pushed away from the sofa, walked across the room, and began raising his injured right arm. Biting through the pain, he handed something to Ethan that was just out of view of the others.

“I trust you, Ethan, and agree it’s time to go.”

Ethan reached out and took what Ben was handing him. “My phone?”

“Yeah, I’ve been watching it for you since we arrived. And it looks like we have a weak signal here. I figured you may want to—”

Ethan powered on the phone and moved to the message icon. Eyeing the first message, he called it up and read the only two words that mattered.

“Message Delivered.”